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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:
However, I can’t get the calendar view to load in Google Flights (perhaps it’s my Internet?):
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):
Book with Expedia or smaller agencies for less
As noted above, you can book this through Expedia:
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):
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.
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.
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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[…] From 44.5K RT to Australia from New York!: This will not last. It was alive at the time of writing late last night, but could be gone by the time this post publishes (and I will be out of cell service much of Sunday morning and unable to update immediately). See the post for more information on where to book it if it’s still around. […]
I flew Air China L Class from YUL to SHE via PEK, and attached Avianca LifeMiles number. Only domestic segment within China (PEK-SHE) posted at 100%. YUL-PEK posted at 0%. I contacted LifeMiles, and they told me Air China North America to China flights are not eligible for earning.
It’s honestly bizarre to me to write a headline where you take a good cash fare and then denominate it in terms of a CSR 1.5 cent per point redemption. It’s a bit too “this one weird trick.” Head over to FlyerTalk Mileage Run Deals forum and you’ll see traditionally fares are shared as denominated in USD.
Also, 32 hours of travel… yum.
Bloggers gotta get clicks any way they can – they’re addicted to your eyeballs.
Have you noticed this blog used to be all about useful but creative ways to generate points? But now, after this blog called attention to all the exploits and pointed the way to close off all the good opportunities (and provided a blueprint for all the RAT teams’ shutdown efforts), the great exploits are gone, and now its all about low-end “deals” for low-end experiences – it’s become the Walmart of “travel blogs”. Expect more and more “one weird trick” posts.
If I book through Chase will it be First Class for 45k R/T?
No — this deal is in economy class. The first class deal is not to Australia — that’s a separate trip you can book from Australia (see the link to the week in review around the web in the last paragraph for more info).
I updated the post to make that clearer.