BDU: Flying to Sydney
BDU: Park Hyatt Sydney
BDU: Sydney Activities
BDU: Sydney Opera House
BDU: Flying to Uluru and Back
BDU: Uluru and Kata Tjuta
BDU: Park Hyatt Melbourne
BDU: Melbourne Activities
BDU: Flying to Fiji
BDU: Hilton Fiji
BDU: Snorkeling Trip
BDU: Flying to Los Angeles
BDU: Hyatt Regency DFW
(And you thought BDU = Battle Dress Uniform!)
Back in early 2013 I was listening to a travel podcast that mentioned a blogger who specialized in helping people earn and burn airline miles and hotel points. I went to this blogger's website which lead me to a few other bloggers who did the same thing. I learned that through strategically applying for credit cards and using the right credit card for specific purchases, it's possible to generate tens of thousands (if not hundreds of thousands) of points and miles each year. After a few months of digging into what these bloggers were saying, I came to realize I could apply a great many of their methods and earn myself not only some free airfare but entire trips that were memorable both for their locations and the level of comfort in which I'd be able to both fly and stay. With a "round" birthday looming in a couple of years (you know, a birthday that ends with a zero), I set a goal of going back Down Under with my travel buddies C & D and to do as much as possible using points and miles to reduce the costs.
C & D had some miles of their own. C is a bit more receptive to opening new credit cards on a strategic basis and thus has a bigger pile of miles and points. D thinks it's a lot of trouble but was willing to open one new card to go along with her existing stash of miles. I had a fairly large balance of points and miles but as a birthday present my dad was willing to fund my flights from his mileage balance (Thanks, Dad!). As it turned out I did use some of my own for one flight but the the rest came from him.
If you're interested in the details of how we used points and miles and how you might be able to do something similar, let me know and I'll be happy to work with you to reduce the cost of your flights. Nothing's ever totally free but it sure cost a lot less than it could have!
Flying between the US and Australia
After I'd confirmed with C & D that they'd be able to take off for 2 weeks to go to Australia, I learned that the US-AUS route is one of the most difficult in which to find premium cabin award space. Great, my trip was off to a rip-roaring start before it'd even begun! But armed with that knowledge I realized we'd have to look for that space the day Qantas opened its schedule.
I'm not including a lot of detail here on all the trip planning but here's how it worked out in the end:
Memphis-Dallas/Fort Worth - US domestic First Class - 25K AA miles + $5.60 taxes
Dallas/Fort Worth-Sydney - Qantas First Class - 150K BA Avios + ~$450 in fuel surcharges, taxes and fees*
Sydney-Ayers Rock - Qantas Domestic Business Class** - 30K AA miles + ~$11
Ayers Rock-Melbourne - Qantas Domestic Business Class** - 30K AA miles + $11
Melbourne-Nadi - Fiji Air Economy - 20K AA miles + ~$150 in taxes, fees and visa
Nadi-Los Angeles-Dallas/Fort Worth-Memphis - Fiji Air Business Class to LAX and AA US Domestic First Class - 62.5K AA miles + (some small amount of cash - $50?)
* - British Airways has the unfortunate policy of passing along fuel surcharges on international award tickets. But when the choice was to use BA miles to secure the seat and pay $450 vs. hoping no one would grab that seat before I could using AA miles, it was a no-brainer. Grab the seat! If I was really brave I'd have waited until AA's calendar opened, canceled the BA award and hoped the seat went back into award inventory where I could pick it up with AA miles and no fuel surcharges. But I'm not that brave.
** - on two-cabin flights Qantas properly classifies the one up front as Business Class, unlike US airlines that insist on calling it First Class. Fortunately for me, since Qantas does classify it this way, it meant 12,500 fewer miles were required in each direction.
Adding those dollar figures together comes to $677.60. Not an insignificant amount of money but considering what I would have paid out of pocket, it's a fantastic value. The DFW-SYD flight alone is $10,000 one-way in First Class!
So how did my friends fare? They were both able to find award seats out of LAX. C used AA miles on a Business Class award seat that opened up on the LAX to Brisbane route on Qantas, with connecting service to Sydney. She happily took the 1-stop route in exchange for 14 hours in a lie-flat seat! The day she booked the flight to Brisbane there was no available space on any of the non-stops between Chicago and Los Angeles. She could have booked another routing and later changed it at no charge but she decided to wait for a fare sale and ended up booking a very cheap flight, which helped her replenish some of the miles she'd be spending on this trip.
As for D, the credit card I had her open was the Chase Sapphire Preferred. Once she met the minimum spend requirement, she had the sign-up bonus of 40,000 Ultimate Rewards points (URs) plus the number she earned for meeting the minimum spend. One of UR's transfer partners is Virgin Atlantic and they, in turn, are partners with Virgin Australia. D was able to transfer her URs to Virgin Atlantic and then use those Virgin Atlantic points to book an economy seat on the LAX-SYD flight on Virgin Australia. She said she didn't mind economy and she ended up sleeping for most of the flight anyway, so it worked out. Not a bad deal for a $95 annual fee and spending she'd have made anyway!
Here's how our trip looked on the map. Pretty amazing!
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| My flights in red, C's in blue, D's in pink. Map made at gcmap.com |
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