[Expired] From 44.5K RT to Australia from New York!

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a large yellow building with a dome and a crowd of people in front with Flinders Street railway station in the background
The Iconic Flinders Street Station by J.M. Hoffman
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Air China has a terrific price going from New York to Melbourne, Australia next March and April — from just $666.36 available through Expedia (or about $648 through some other OTAs). This can also be booked through the Chase Travel Portal for as little as 44.5K points if you hold the Chase Sapphire Reserve. No doubt this is a long way to fly in economy class — but this is a great price to Australia and a decent itinerary with only one stop on the way.

How to find it

This fare is available through Google Flights:

a screenshot of a website
Click the image to go to Google Flights

However, I can’t get the calendar view to load in Google Flights (perhaps it’s my Internet?):

a screenshot of a calendar

To get a better idea as to availability, I popped in flexible dates on ITA Matrix. These are the results for a 10-15 day trip in March or April (and as you can see in the first screen shot, there are several possible return dates on most of these – and there are also shorter and longer trips available):

a screenshot of a search engine a screenshot of a search engine

Book with Expedia or smaller agencies for less

As noted above, you can book this through Expedia:

a screenshot of a website

If you want to eek out just a bit more savings, you can put your dates into Momondo, where I saw some dates from $648 (though this example is $649):

a screenshot of a bus schedule

Book through Chase for 44.5K RT

If you have the Chase Sapphire Reserve card, I am seeing these flights available through the Chase Travel portal for just 44,490 points round trip.

a screenshot of a flight schedule

Does it earn miles?

It should. ITA Matrix shows these as L-class fares. Wheretocredit.com claims that L-class earns 100% mileage flown with Avianca (and Avianca’s website says the same), though the last time we posted an Air China L-class fare someone mentioned a Flyertalk thread suggesting that Air China L-class fares were not earning anything with Avianca. Other programs offer 25%-75% of the ~25,000 flown miles on this one I believe. It’s possible you could earn something.

Get inspired

If you need a little motivation to go, see J.M. Hoffman’s You Gotta See This: Melbourne and Sydney. I stayed at the Grand Hyatt Melbourne earlier this year and used a suite upgrade award. The suite was very spacious and comfortable.

a room with a couch and a glass table

But whatever you do, you can’t really go wrong in Australia.

Bottom line

Keep in mind that this will be fall in Melbourne, but temperatures should still be great. Furthermore, after you’ve flown to Australia in economy class, this could be a great excuse to book that fantastic 40K-each-way first class award ticket noted last night in our week in review around the web (See: Fly first class for 40K, value from SkyMiles, upgrade strategies and a 5 year road trip). These prices won’t last. Keep in mind that you should have 24-hours to cancel without penalty (check the terms at the booking site you choose), so I’d definitely recommend booking sooner rather than later.

H/T: Slickdeals

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