Best ways to get to Australia, New Zealand, and the South Pacific using miles

The article below focuses on Australia, New Zealand, and the South Pacific using miles – including the best mileage deals to the region using various credit card transfer partners. Please use this as a guide to finding some great deals. If you’re interested in other regions, choose from the articles below. Other destinations:

Australia, New Zealand, and the South Pacific are bucket list destinations for many travelers, at least in part due to distance and expense. It makes sense that many people would look to use airline miles to offset the cost and perhaps fly more comfortably for the long journey. Unfortunately, the popularity of the region means demand is very high, and therefore award space can be hard to come by (particularly in premium cabins). However, with the wide range of award chart sweet spots that exist, it is far from impossible to snag a deal up front with some time and diligence in searching.

If you want to use airline miles, it’s great to have transferable points. Transferable point programs let you transfer your points to any of a number of airline programs. This is great because it gives you the freedom to book many different flights through many different methods, some of which are strikingly cheaper than others. If you’re not familiar with transferable points programs, please check out our guides:

Table of Contents

Read this first: Award Booking Advice

Quick disclaimer: If you struggle to find award flights, want to save time, or feel overwhelmed reading this article, I highly recommend checking out a tool that can search award flights for you. This can turn a beginner into an expert without the 10,000 hours. Using an award booking search tool like this can be a huge time saver, but also erase the learning curve for how to find and book these kinds of flights that have great value.

There are some great tools out there. Lately, my favorite tool for beginners is PointsYeah.com. It is really fast, includes multiple-date searches, and has a free version! I previously recommended Point.me as my favorite, and I still think it is the best for step-by-step tutorials for the absolute award booking and points transfer beginner. But, you’ll quickly grow frustrated by how slow each search takes with Point.me, and you have to search one day at a time.

Read our review of Point.me here. If you want to check out the tool, here is our link to sign up for point.me. You can use the promo code TRAVELFREELY5 to get your first month for $5 — this applies for both a monthly or annual plan. To get the deal, select the Standard Plan (don’t select “I Have a code”). When you reach the checkout page, enter TRAVELFREELY5 and the $12 per month will become $5 (or if you prefer an annual subscription, use the code TRAVELFREELY20 and you’ll get a 20% off discount.

Best Mile Deals

Best ways to get to Oceania with points and miles

The deals below are sorted alphabetically, not in order of best to worst. Remember that the lowest price isn’t always the entire picture: be sure to consider which airlines levy fuel surcharges and the ease of amassing the miles for your chosen award. Each description describes where to search, how to book, and which partners you can use to transfer for the given award. It’s always best to confirm availability before transferring miles to be sure that the award you seek can be booked with the miles you intend.

Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan

The short story: Alaska has excellent rates to Oceania on several nice partners and you can include a stopover for free on a one-way award.
Miles required: Alaska has a distanced-based award chart, but business class awards start at 75k-85k each way.
How to find awards: Partner award space shows up at AlaskaAir.com.
How to book awards: Book online at AlaskaAir.com
Key warnings: Finding premium cabin space on any of these partners can be a challenge.

ANA Mileage Club

The short story: ANA offers very good pricing for business class between North America and Oceania and also offers a wide range of partner options. You can route via Canada, most of East / Southeast Asia or fly Air New Zealand.
Miles required: From 130K round trip in business class on ANA metal during low season and from 145K round trip in business class on Star Alliance partners or during high season. ANA has eliminated fuel surcharges on many/most of its flights, making routing on ANA an even better deal.
How to find awards: Search for available space at ANA’s website. (you’ll need to create a free ANA Mileage Club account and log in to search for space)
How to book awards: Search for available space at United.com. (Note: Do not log in — logging in may show you expanded availability based on your credit card or elite status that is not available for partner bookings) or ANA’s website (though ANA requires searches to be round trip, so it is easier to find availability by searching one way at United first).
Key warnings: You must book round trip. High fuel surcharges are assessed by some carriers, others have little to none. The ANA website interface is not particularly user-friendly or modern-looking, so it may take some time to get used to the search features. Note that transfers to ANA are not instant. Transfers typically take 2-3 days from Amex Membership Rewards, so there is risk of award space disappearing while you wait for a transfer.
Transfer from: Amex Membership Rewards

Air Canada Aeroplan

The short story: Aeroplan’s Oceania region includes Australia, New Zealand and Eastern Asia. While award pricing to Oceania is on the high side, members can now book a stopover in eastern Asia en route to Australia or New Zealand for 5K additional miles one-way and lap infants are just $25 CAD or 2,500 miles per direction (far cheaper than what most programs charge).
Miles required: 55K-115K each way in business class or 90K-140K each way in first class from North America to the Pacific zone, though practically for most North America-based flyers, distance bands start at 75K / 115K each way.
How to find awards: Search for available space at Aeroplan.com (you’ll need to create a free Aeroplan frequent flyer account to search)
How to book awards: Book online at Aeroplan.com. Lap infants must be added to your reservation over the phone.
Fuel Surcharges: Aeroplan no longer charges fuel surcharges on partner award tickets.
Transfer from: Amex, Chase Ultimate Rewards, Capital One, Marriott

Avianca LifeMiles

The short story: Avianca LifeMiles might have some awards if you could find premium cabin space on the long-haul.
Miles required: 80K miles in business class from the US to Australia / New Zealand / Oceania. Note also that Air New Zealand economy class flights price lower than the chart shows for flights to/from Los Angeles. Business class may also price lower if you can find availability.
How to find awards: Search for available space at LifeMiles.com (you’ll need to create a free Avianca LifeMiles frequent flyer account)
How to book awards: Book online at LifeMiles.com. Can also book via email. Phone bookings are known to be a hassle but also possible.
Key warnings: Availability at LifeMiles.com does not always match what you’ll find at United.com. Phone agents generally do not see better availability than what is shown at LifeMiles.com. Always check the LifeMiles site before transferring points.

British Airways Avios

The short story: British Airways offers an award chart for travel on a single partner and a lesser-known chart for travel on two partners. That second chart could save you some Avios if you were to mix AA and Qantas for example.
Miles required: From around 200K “round trip” in business class from most US cities (can vary based on distance). See the mixed partner chart along with an excellent explanation for how to leverage it here. In short, you could turn this into a multi-stop, multi-carrier journey and the number of miles required will vary some but still be less than booking separately via British Airways.
How to find awards: Search for available space on each segment separately at britishairways.com.
How to book awards: Book over the phone. There isn’t always a clear methodology for pricing mixed-cabin awards and some agents may be less well versed in this mixed chart. There is a maximum of eight flight segments and seven stopover and travel must be completed within twelve months. One open-jaw is allowed and you can only use oneworld partners.
Key warnings:This is a lesser-known chart and some agents may not be well versed in using it. Be prepared to hang up and call again.
Transfer from: Amex, Chase, Capital One, also transfer to Qatar and then to BA with: Citi.

HawaiianMiles

The short story:Hawaiian may be a good option for those who can position to Hawaii cheaply, particularly for Pago Pago or Papeete.
Miles required: 65K miles one-way in business class to Australia or New Zealand; 47.5K miles one-way in business class to Pago Pago or Papeete.
How to find awards: Search for available space at Hawaiian Airlines’s Hawaiian Miles site (you’ll need to create a free Hawaiian Miles account)
How to book awards: Book online at Hawaiian Airlines’s Hawaiian Miles site.
Key warnings: Availability can be hard to come by, but if you find it it may be worth it.

Qantas Frequent Flyer (for Jetstar)

The short story: Qantas’s low-cost-carrier Jetstar flies between Hawaii and several Australian cities and can be booked with Qantas points.
Miles required: 61,500 miles one-way in business class from Honolulu to Sydney.
How to find awards: Search for available space at Qantas.com (you’ll need to create a free Qantas Frequent Flyer account)
How to book awards: Book online at Qantas.com.
Key warnings: Jetstar flights can be quite cheap. While their business class is much more expensive than their economy class fares, it’s worth comparing to cash fares to be sure you’re getting a decent value.

Qantas for Emirates

The short story: While the award cost here is substantially higher than most others, it may be worth it to those who really want an indulgently long experience in Emirates business class. It is possible to spend upwards of ~30 hours in A380 business class by routing via Dubai (note that some US cities have 777 service, which is likely angled in business class).
Miles required: 159,000 miles one-way in business class between North American cities and those cities served by Emirates in Australia and New Zealand.
How to find awards: Search for available space at Qantas.com (you’ll need to create a free Qantas Frequent Flyer account)
How to book awards: Book online at Qantas.com.
Key warnings: Choose A380 routes to get a fully-flat aisle access business class seat with a bar at the rear of the plane.
Transfer from: Amex, Capital One, Citi, Marriott

United

The short story: United gives you access to Star Alliance and has more lenient routing rules than many other programs. For instance, you could fly via Canada, China, or South Korea, giving you access to more availability (although still somewhat limited).
Miles required: From 85K/100K miles each way in business class on United; 110K each way in business class on partners
How to find awards: Search for available space at United.com
How to book awards: Book online at United.com
Key warnings: United has eliminated its award chart, so we see highly variable pricing for award tickets.

Virgin Atlantic for Air New Zealand

The short story: Virgin Atlantic offers very good deals for Air New Zealand premium cabin flights – if you can actually find availability.
Miles required: 62.5K each way in business class between New Zealand to North America.
How to find awards: Search for available space at United.com (Air New Zealand space does not show up at VirginAtlantic.com).
How to book awards: Book over the phone with Virgin Atlantic Flying Club at 800-365-9500. You’ll need the dates that you found saver award availability on United’s website.
Key warnings:Virgin Atlantic charges each segment separately (i.e. an itinerary with a single connection will cost 25K miles), so they are not a good choice for connecting itineraries. Furthermore, Air New Zealand business class award space is extremely rare.

Also consider: ANA Around the World ticket

The short story:ANA (a Star Alliance airline) offers an incredible around-the-world award chart that offers some amazing value to those who have the time for a big multi-stop trip.
Miles required: Varies based on cabin and distance. Business class is probably the sweet spot, with some amazing redemptions possible for 125K, 145K, or 170K miles (see the chart below for all distance bands and prices).
Award availability: Star Alliance award space is often plentiful for flights outside of the US, making it relatively easy to put together an itinerary once you’ve locked down your flights to and from the US.
How to find awards: Search united.com segment by segment to find availability.
How to book awards: Book over the phone with ANA Mileage Club.
Transfer from: Amex