I rarely make New Year’s Resolutions, but this year I’ve decided to. No, I didn’t make a resolution to workout more or eat less. Instead, this year, my resolution is to burn my American Airlines AAdvantage miles. It’s been a while since American devalued their award chat so I want to burn miles before certain awards get more expensive. Additionally, I’d really like to burn miles to review one or two OneWorld Carrier’s first class products.
On top of my New Year’s Resolution I would really like to go to Australia this year. With those two goals in mind I’ve began looking at award flights to and from Sydney. After doing a bit of research and looking for award flights I’ve decided that I want to fly Qantas’ A380 from Sydney to the US in First Class. I want to fly Qantas First from Sydney because I find the pre-flight ground experience is better at an international airlines’ hub.
Searching For Qantas First Class Award Space
In an attempt to burn AAdvantage miles and visit Australia this year I began by searching award space from Chicago to Sydney. Astonishingly my search came up with incredible results. Nearly every single day there was available sAAver level first class award space between the United States and Australia. Sadly though when I selected specific dates I quickly realized the award space wasn’t real. Instead, the flight on Qantas between Sydney and the US booked into “X” or Economy class. The remaining domestic flights booked into domestic first class. There was no way I was going to burn 110,000 miles to fly in economy class between the US and Australia!
After a few days most of the phantom space disappeared and the award calendar began reflecting actual availability. Then, earlier today, things changed again. When I began searching for award space I started finding more sAAver level award space again.
As I searched for sAAver level award space I found two dates with space available in June. When I checked the first date, June 6th, I found the following.
As you can see the important portion of the trip from Sydney to the United States books into Economy! What the heck. Luckily on the second date, June 14th, first class space was actually available.
On June 14th you are actually able to book a guaranteed first class seat on Qantas! Now I just need to decide if it’s worth it.
Final Thoughts
This is something that’s been frustrating me for some time now since I’ve been focusing my award searches on Australia. When you pull up the large monthly award calendar it shows a ton of sAAver award space between the US and Australia. However, when you actually drill down to a specific day it shows the Qantas flights (15 hours) actually only book into Economy. It’s extremely frustrating when you find a date that potentially works for your schedule only to realize it isn’t actually a first class award.
The only good news here is that there actually is Qantas First Class award space out there. Considering this flight currently costs $9,595 spending just 110,000 AAdvantage miles represents exceptional value! Actually, I’m quite tempted to book this itinerary myself.
