Australia and the Pacific islands are some of the most difficult destinations to score premium award seats at reasonable rates due to their enduring popularity as a bucket-list item for many travelers, as I discovered when looking to redeem points and miles to fly from Australia to the U.S.
With many popular programs now using dynamic pricing, business-class awards priced at 250,000 points or miles (or more) one-way, per person, are, unfortunately, the norm, not the exception.
However, there are a few ways to find better redemptions. For example, while I couldn’t initially find anything suitable for a recent booking when I searched many months in advance, one tool helped me find a 12 1/2-hour business-class flight on Fiji Airways for only 75,000 miles.
Here’s how I did it — and how you can, too.
Related: My beginners blueprint to find the flight awards you want
Premium cabin award seats across the Pacific can be tough to find
If you’ve ever tried searching for premium cabin awards across the Pacific for under 100,000 points or miles, you’ve probably been in for a rude shock. I do occasionally see saver-level pricing, usually on Qantas- or American Airlines-operated flights, for last-minute awards within a week or two of departure, but if you are looking well in advance, they can be some of the hardest seats to secure at reasonable rates.
I knew that Oneworld member Fiji Airways operated flights to both Australia and the U.S. via its hub at Nadi International Airport (NAN) in Fiji, and I was happy to spend a few days relaxing on a tropical island in between flights if it meant finding a reasonably priced lie-flat seat. (Trying out a new airline was a bonus.)
I started my flight search using the Seats.aero tool, which searches multiple routes, dates, cabins and transfer partners to help me view possible award availability in seconds. Personally, I am a huge fan of this award tool.
While Seats.aero lets you search months in advance, sometimes availability, especially in premium classes, just doesn’t exist — even nine months before departure, as I experienced.
Daily Newsletter
Reward your inbox with the TPG Daily newsletter
Join over 700,000 readers for breaking news, in-depth guides and exclusive deals from TPG’s experts
By signing up, you will receive newsletters and promotional content and agree to our Terms of Use and acknowledge the data practices in our Privacy Policy. You may unsubscribe at any time.
My success in setting an award alert
Rather than resigning myself to an economy seat across the Pacific, I set an award alert on Seats.aero to notify me if a premium cabin award seat bookable with American Express Membership Rewards points became available.
I had a few days of flexibility in my travel plans and was happy to fly to any of the three mainland U.S. destinations Fiji Airways operates to from NAN, so I set the alert to cover flights to:
- Los Angeles International Airport (LAX)
- San Francisco International Airport (SFO)
- Dallas Fort Worth International Airport (DFW)
With a Seats.aero Pro account, you can also choose advanced filters. For example, you can be notified only when seats on a specific airline (or multiple airlines) open up, set maximum prices for points and miles, and note the taxes and fees you’re willing to pay.
With my Pro account, I could choose to be notified by email or text message of any results (if you have the Seats.aero app, you can also receive push notifications). I chose text message, as I wanted to be notified as quickly as possible if my desired seat became available.
I set the alert and promptly forgot about it, figuring that if nothing opened up, I could eventually find a more creative routing to fly across the Pacific at the last minute, as I had plenty of time to finalize my travel plans.
A month later, I woke up to a pleasant surprise: A text message from Seats.aero was waiting for me.
Even better, it was on Fiji Airways’ longest route to Dallas, so I promptly booked it online for 75,000 Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan miles (now called Alaska Airlines Atmos Rewards points), which was a slightly better deal than booking with Qantas Frequent Flyer points or American Airlines AAdvantage miles.
Related: I’ve never flown Alaska Airlines before — here’s why I want their new premium credit card
Tips for scoring lie-flat seats with an award alert
Flexibility is key to maximizing your chance of seats opening up. Consider setting dates before and after your preferred travel date(s) and choosing other airports you can fly in or out of. FlightConnections is a handy tool for finding which airlines fly on which routes.
If you are earning transferable currencies, such as Chase Ultimate Rewards points, it’s a good idea to set an alert to cover all Chase partners rather than a single airline program. While Fiji Airways saver seats should be available through all Oneworld partners, you never know if one program might have better availability than another program, so you’ll want your alert to cover all possible transfer partners.
When you can’t find the ideal seat initially but are still set on traveling, consider booking whatever is available, even if it’s not in a premium cabin or at a great price, and then set an alert to potentially “upgrade” to your preferred premium award if a seat opens up. Many awards can be canceled online for free if you do wish to change to a better award, and, if not, it’s worth your while taking the time (and potentially paying a small change or cancellation fee) to upgrade your award to something better.
If you do receive an alert, I recommend dropping what you are doing and booking immediately, as you might not be the only person receiving an alert for that seat, and you’ll want to ensure another savvy traveler doesn’t beat you to it.
Bottom line
Setting award alerts can be a savvy way to secure hard-to-find premium cabin seats. Rather than constantly searching for availability, tools like Seats.aero allow you to invest a few minutes now to cast the net as wide or as narrow as you want.
Then “set it and forget it,” and if the seats open up, you might wake up to a nice surprise, as I did, and a comfortable flight to look forward to.
Related reading:
Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: thepointsguy.com
