Stephen is an established voice in the credit card space, with over 70 to his name. His work has been in publications like The Washington Post, and his Au Points and Awards Consulting Services is used...
Edited by: Keri Stooksbury
With years of experience in corporate marketing and as the Executive Director of the American Chamber of Commerce in Qatar, Keri is now Editor-in-Chief at UP, overseeing daily content operations and r...
12 comments
First Class Traveller
July 04, 2019
I spotted a bunch of first class availability on Qanta’s own website for late March/early April from LAX-SYD but they are not appearing on Alaska, AA, or BA’s websites. Any thoughts?
Stephen Au
July 07, 2019
Hi First Class Traveler, the availability on Qantas is different than on their partners. Understandably, they release much more availability to members of its own frequent flyer program than their partners. The only way you can book this is by using Qantas points, which is not a good idea due to the exorbitant prices. Thanks for reading.
John
July 11, 2019
Stephen, I would like to ask for some advice. I have a Chase UR points, Amex MR, and Capital One Miles. I wanted to take advantage of Cathay’s free stopover to visit Hong Kong on our way to Bali. Or any other airline that may serve that purpose. What would you recommend doing to make the most out of rewards? Can I transfer points to Cathay to book on OneWorld? How can I become a OneWorld member? Is it necessary to take advantage of Cathay’s free stopover? Thank you for your help. Great articles, very informative!!!
Stephen Au
July 16, 2019
One of the best ways to take advantage of the stopover policy is using Alaska miles. Unfortunately, they’re not transfer partners with any currency except Marriott. One other way is to use Cathay Pacific Asia Miles. For this, you can simply transfer your Amex points to Cathay Pacific and book online. Thanks for reading.
Kevin Cuenca
October 31, 2019
Hello Stephen, thanks for the wonderful article. Was a lot of help when I booked my CP RTW award a few months ago! I’m running into a problem now, where I see an AA flight available on Qantas and on AA, but not with Asia Miles or Avios. Any idea why?
Stephen Au
October 31, 2019
Hi Kevin,
Thanks for reading. AA and Qantas have a joint venture agreement. They’re perhaps the closest partners in the entire alliance, which is why extra space for AA flights is available on both AA and Qantas.
Maria R.
October 04, 2022
It appears Qantas has started charging for even a basic frequent flyer membership does this seem correct? I’ve tried using the British Airways method about 20 times but it shows no availability for any types of flights outside British Airways flights no matter what I do.
Jarrod West
November 09, 2022
Hi Maria,
Yes, it does appear that Qantas does now charge one-time fee to join its membership program. The American Airlines website is also good for locating Oneworld award flights.
Jennifer
February 15, 2023
Is it even possible to find domestic American Airlines award flights with BA avios anymore? I seem to always come up against a brick wall. BA site never seems to show any. Is there a good way to find these?
Thanks!
Chris Hassan
February 15, 2023
Yes, your best bet is to find a MileSAAver award flight on AA.com first, and then try to find that same flight on BA using the same dates.
Sharon Z
July 13, 2023
Is it true that Cathay Pacific award flights from NYC are extremely hard to find these days?
Jarrod West
July 13, 2023
Hi Sharon,
Yes, those seats tend to get booked very quickly, so it is best to be as flexible as possible. We recommend using a tool like Seats.aero to locate award space.
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