Success stories in our community highlight that it indeed is possible to fly around the world on miles and points for little-to-none and see so much beauty along the way because after all, our world is beyond gorgeous. Today, I wanted to highlight my personal success story about my recent trip to Australia and a bunch of Pacific Islands – having stopovers on some of these Pacific Islands made the trip so much more fun!
Initial Planning of Flights to Australia
There are many ways to fly to Australia from North America – finding Economy Class award seats isn’t so hard but finding Business Class or First Class seats on these nonstop, 15 hour flights can be quite a challenge. As I was flying over peak times and needed to depart after a certain date, I was unable to find any nonstop North America – Australia flight in Business Class using miles at a reasonable cost.
Possible nonstop routes from North America to Australia include:
- Vancouver to Sydney/Brisbane
- Air Canada
- San Francisco to Sydney/Melbourne/Brisbane
- Qantas
- United
- Los Angeles to Sydney/Melbourne/Brisbane
- American
- Delta
- Qantas
- United
- Houston to Sydney
- United
- Dallas to Sydney/Melbourne
- Qantas
I wasn’t going to fly Economy on a 15 hour flight and since none of the routes above had Business Class for under 120k miles available, I was going to look for other options.
consider a stop in Hawaii when flying to Australia
Breaking Up Flying via the Pacific
I tend to get carried away with flight planning – a nonstop from New York to London can become a two week trip via Iceland, Scandinavia, France, Spain, Ireland, etc. I always want to find the best deal and also have some fun with a trip… and sometimes that involves multiple flights and lots of detours.
After looking at the map, I started with the closest group of islands to North America – Hawaii. There was availability from Honolulu to Sydney on Hawaiian Airlines for 65k American Airlines miles in Business Class – that’s not bad considering I could fly to Honolulu for either $130 on United or by redeeming 13k BA Avios on Alaska Airlines.
I liked the first part – getting to Hawaii, so I booked Seattle to Honolulu via San Francisco for $130 in Economy since that was a better deal and I need to re-qualify for Star Alliance Gold each year anyway. However, I wasn’t crazy about redeeming 65k AA miles for Hawaiian Airlines’ Business Class… yes, it is decent, but AA miles are hard to earn.
Then I had a look at where I could fly from Honolulu to the South Pacific islands:
- Tahiti
- Hawaiian
- Cook Islands
- Hawaiian
- Pago Pago
- Hawaiian
- Apia
- Fiji Airways
- Nadi
- Fiji Airways
Isn’t that such a cool list of places you could go to?! I checked availability and found out that Hawaiian Airlines only flies to Tahiti and the Cook Islands once a week and while there was Economy Class availability, the dates did not work out since I didn’t want to spend 5 days in Hawaii. Pago Pago was also available, but there weren’t any good onward connections from American Samoa.
Luckily, Fiji Airways had 1 seat left on their nonstop flight from Honolulu to Apia which continues on to Nadi, Fiji. This is roughly a 5 hour flight and it is bookable using American Airlines, Alaska Airlines, British Airways, Cathay Pacific, etc. miles/points. I wasn’t sure which of those to use so I kept planning the rest of the journey.
From Hawaii to New Zealand via Samoa and Fiji
After researching Samoa a bit more, I decided to spend some time there and continue later to Fiji (where I’ve been to before so I didn’t care if I spent time there or not). After flying from Honolulu to Apia, Samoa, I needed to continue the journey. Fiji Airways had a few flights available between Apia, Samoa and Nadi, Fiji which seemed like the right fit for this trip.
Then from Nadi, Fiji I could fly to Australia or New Zealand directly (Fiji Airways flies to most major cities in these two countries). Why not continue the fun and fly to New Zealand first? There was award availability from Nadi to Auckland again on Fiji Airways – since all 3 of my flights were on Fiji Airways all the way from Honolulu to Auckland, I could easily book these with Alaska Airlines miles:
- Honolulu to Apia, Samoa
- Apia, Samoa to Nadi, Fiji
- Nadi, Fiji to Auckland, New Zealand
The total cost for these flights in Economy was 27.5k miles + ~$70. I had a few days’ stopover in Samoa and just an overnight in Fiji – this worked because Alaska allows you to have a free stopover, even on a one-way booking. I didn’t mind that I was in Economy since these flights weren’t that long.
The Final Leg to Australia
There are many ways to get between Auckland and Sydney – whether that is on Air New Zealand or Qantas or some other airline, I had a look at award availability and while there was availability, the cash rates seemed decent so I booked an Air New Zealand flight for ~$150 through the Chase Travel Portal which means that if you have the Chase Sapphire Reserve this flight would cost 10,000 Chase Ultimate Rewards points.
I could have redeemed any Star Alliance miles for the Air New Zealand flights or any oneworld miles for the Qantas flights, but since I need more elite miles for this year, I did end up booking a revenue flight with Chase UR points through the travel portal.
fly to Australia in 15 hours or take a week to explore the world?
All in All
I could have flown in Economy from San Francisco to Sydney on a 15 hour flight and be in Australia much quicker – instead I decided to take the scenic route and break up the trip with a few stopovers along the way. It did take a few days to plan all of these flights and research what airlines fly between which Pacific Islands and who partners with who, but in the end it was definitely worth it as I got to see a few new places along the way.
I understand not everyone is able to have as much travel time as I do, but if you work remotely and don’t mind extending your trip and having some fun along the way, I highly recommend it – it is so much more fun than flying nonstop!