Booking New Zealand & Australia using Alaska Airlines Miles

by Palo · August 31, 2019

Flying to New Zealand & Australia from the US is a long haul so using miles/points to fly in Business Class makes a huge difference. There are sweet spots in various airline award charts and I was able to take advantage of 1 of them for an upcoming trip.

Alaska Airlines offers Qantas awards from the US to New Zealand and/or Australia for 55,000 miles in Business each way. Alaska is very generous with their stopover rules which allows for 1 stopover on a one-way ticket. I needed to fly from the US to New Zealand, but why not add Sydney as the final destination and Auckland as a stopover at no extra cost. I was able to book a flight from SFO (San Francisco) to AKL (Auckland) via MEL (Melbourne). I’ll travel around New Zealand then fly to SYD (Sydney). Two flights in Business and 1 in Coach for the price of 1 award ticket.

SFO-MEL-AKL(long stopover)-SYD in Business Class for 55,000 Alaska Miles & $87.70 in taxes/fees. This is an excellent value given the paid price is $5,441 therefore a value of $0.097 per mile 🙂

It will be my first time flying Qantas on a long haul flight. Flying in their newest Business Class seat on their 787 Dreamliner should be an excellent way to get to Australia.