My boyfriend and I wanted to book a trip to Australia this year because we have a friend who is living there for work. We are somewhat flexible in our travel dates, but knew that we needed to visit in November and/or December due to other commitments, but also that we wanted to be home with our families for Christmas. Here’s how I went about planning our trip to Australia and what it is costing us for our flights.
As I already mentioned, we are pretty flexible with our dates (we both work online, so that helps). Our main two constraints are a friend’s wedding in New York at the end of October and Christmas. Since we have flexibility from working online, we wanted to travel as much of November and December as possible and spend a good chunk of that time in Australia.
Image source: https://www.dreamstime.com/stock-illustration-sleeping-face-koala-continent-australia-cute-snout-peek-up-australian-image78520349
Denver to Honolulu – $350
The outbound of the trip started accidentally, with a great fare home from Europe. I needed a return flight to make it to my friend’s wedding, and it just so happened that it only cost about $50 more to fly to Hawaii instead with a stopover of enough time for the wedding! The entire one-way fare cost about $1,000, but it was only $50 extra to continue to Hawaii, for me. Since my boyfriend isn’t traveling with me on that flight, we booked him a separate flight to Hawaii for around $250. Stopping for about four days in Hawaii is a great way to break up a long trip, since we have the time, and adding yet another stop in Fiji helps break it up even more while giving us the chance to explore another amazing destination!
Honolulu to Sydney via Nadi, Fiji – 55,000 Alaska Airlines Miles + $300
I booked our fight from Honolulu to Sydney via Nadi, Fiji for only 27,500 Alaska Airlines miles + $150 per person in economy. We’ll have four days in Fiji to relax and break up those economy class flights. Fun fact – the flight from Honolulu to Nadi is only eight hours, so that’s totally manageable in economy (for us).
Melbourne to Detroit – 180,000 United Miles + $160
We intend to do some traveling around Australia while we’re there, considering that we will be there for almost six weeks, but not everything is set in stone just yet. We think we’re going to go to Ayres Rock, Cairns, and definitely Melbourne. I was able to find some killer business class award space back to the U.S. from Melbourne on Dec. 18. Yes, you heard that right! We will be flying Thai to Bangkok and on to Beijing, and then Air Canada to Toronto and finally to Detroit. It’s not a short itinerary, but at least it’s in business class!
Total Cost – 235,000 Miles + $810
Our total flight costs (minus any internal Australia flights that we decide to take) is 235,000 Miles + $810 for two people. For this price, we will visit Hawaii, Fiji, and Australia, and we will even be flying a long itinerary home in business class! Without miles, we wouldn’t have even been able to get one round-trip ticket between the US and Australia for only $810! The total cash price of this trip would have been well over $4,000 per person, which easily gives us a value of 3 cents per mile redeemed. What’s your favorite way to get to Australia on points and miles?
Great Circle Mapper routing. http://www.gcmap.com/mapui?P=den-hnl-nan-syd-mel-bkk-pek-yyz-dtw
Great ideas here. My wife hates long flights so we booked SMF-HNL (stop) HNL-SYD (stop) SYD-NAN (stop) NAN-LAX-SMF for June using a combination of AS and HA miles in biz/first. We’re slaves to the school year so we’re hoping Sydney in winter is enjoyable.
Sydney is great in their winter time, just not nice beach weather.
Hopefully it will be beach weather by the time we get there!
Awesome! It sounds like you have a lot of the same stops as us — and you even are doing it in biz/first the whole way! Let me know what you think of NAN after your trip if you remember!
Was just in Cairns visiting the Great Barrier Reef .. absolutely incredible experience
Glad you enjoyed! I was in Cairns for a very short time in 2013 and can’t wait to be there for longer!
My wife and I went to Australia and Fiji almost 5 years ago (when redeeming DL for VA flights was a much better deal and allowed both an open-jaw and a stop-over). We really enjoyed our time around Uluru (Ayer’s Rock) – it was really nice to fly directly there instead of flying into Alice Springs and adding a long drive. I detailed our trip planning, itinerary, and activities here https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/trip-reports/1506607-australia-fiji-photos-29k-miles-5-carriers-wn-y-va-j-qf-y-j-fj-j-ke-j.html – hopefully it helps as you continue to plan your trip.
Thank you! I will definitely check that out :)