Heading to Oz and NZ using miles

One of the techniques I use in booking international award travel is to "think outside your country"; that is, if you can't find award availability flying US to international, try flying international to international.

Case in point, I would like to go Australia and New Zealand next January. To get to these countries from the US, it would cost 135k miles for a "saver" award ticket in business class, or 160k miles in first class. The problem: I'm wanting to go during high season, and finding premium class award availability for these times is usually next to impossible.

My solution: Book an award ticket departing from Asia where it not only requires fewer miles (just 90k for business class), but also award availability is comparatively ample.

I did exactly this last night, when I found ample award availability to Australia and New Zealand departing from Singapore. I now have a ticket that has me flying Singapore to Sydney on January 5, with an eight day stopover before heading to Auckland on January 13, and finally from AKL to SIN via Sydney on January 19. The ticket is a mixed Singapore Airlines/Air New Zealand itinerary, with both SQ231 and 232 in their new business class, so I'm looking forward to it.

Obviously I would have to purchase a ticket to Singapore in January, but past experience has shown that SWU-upgradeable fares to SIN are fairly reasonably priced in winter. Ultimately, I'd have to determine if the cost of a ticket to SIN (and the miles I'll receive for flying it) is worth the 45K miles savings of booking a ticket from Asia vs. from the US.

Until I buy that ticket to Singapore, I can still look for award seats departing from the US; I still have about 135K miles in my account, and if award availability opens up for SFO/LAX-SYD or LAX-AKL in business class, I will pounce on it. One of the huge perks as a 1K is the ability to change award itineraries without penalty, so I know that I could change or cancel my original award ticket (and reclaim the 90K miles) at any time.

But I'm not holding my breath. And the way I see it, in the "worst case scenario" in which I do buy a ticket to Singapore, I get to visit a third country, I'll get a 20K miles head start towards requalifying for 1K status in 2011, and a extra 40K redeemable miles for even more award travel in the future. It's not a horrible trade-off by any means.