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Expired: Nonstop awards to Australia and New Zealand from 10k miles round-trip

Benji Stawski
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Benji Stawski is a former reporter for the site, covering all things points, miles, credit cards, travel and aviation.
Oct. 29, 2019
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5 min read
Sydney
Expired: Nonstop awards to Australia and New Zealand from 10k miles round-trip
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Want to go to Australia or New Zealand for 6,000 American Airlines miles? Get ready to book. Now. Like, right now.

As first reported by Spencer Howard, American is offering discounted awards on its nonstop Los Angeles (LAX) to Auckland (AKL) route from just 10,000 miles round-trip. But this gets even better. Upon digging a little deeper, TPG has discovered that there are also discounted awards to Sydney (SYD) and that you can depart from other U.S. cities as well, such as Boston (BOS), Chicago (ORD), Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport (DFW) and New York-JFK.

We don't have a full list of cities, but want to get this deal in front of your eyes ASAP as it likely won't last long.

Here are some booking tips:

  • Best availability is found Jan. - March 2020, but there are some examples beyond those dates.
  • Prices start at 6,000 American miles one-way or 10,000 American miles per round-trip
  • There are likely other routes we haven't spotted at these price levels, and the prices can change at anytime.
  • Taxes/fees start at about $67 round-trip
  • We see availability for more than one passenger at these rates
  • You can put an American Airlines award on hold for five days, though personally we'd book now and ask questions later.

At current TPG valuations, 10,000 American Airlines miles are worth just $140, which is bound to be the best deal to Australia most of us will ever see.

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Here are a few examples of what you can book:

Los Angeles (LAX) to Sydney (SYD) for 6,000 miles one-way or 10,000 miles round-trip:

Los Angeles (LAX) to Auckland (AKL) for 6,000 miles one-way or 10,000 miles round-trip:

Dallas (DFW) to Sydney (SYD) for 6,000 miles one-way or 10,000 miles round-trip:

New York (JFK) to Sydney (SYD) for 6,000 miles one-way or 10,000 miles round-trip:

Book directly with American Airlines

To book these awards, head to American Airlines' website and pay the taxes and fees with a card that is good for airfare purchases, such as The Platinum Card® from American Express (5x on flights booked directly with airlines or American Express Travel), Chase Sapphire Reserve, American Express® Gold Card, Citi Premier® Card, Citi Prestige® Card (5x on airfare) or the Chase Sapphire Preferred Card (2x on all travel purchases).

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The information for the Citi Prestige has been collected independently by The Points Guy. The card details on this page have not been reviewed or provided by the card issuer.

Check out this post for more on maximizing airfare purchases.

How AA Economy Web Specials work

In late 2018, American Airlines rolled out a new mileage discount program called Economy Web Specials which offers AAdvantage members a chance to book economy flights for as little as 5,000 miles each way. Although American started with just six obscure routes, it expanded to 11 routes in early November and up to 39 routes in mid-December -- including flights to Hawaii, Mexico, the Caribbean, South America and Europe (some of which are still available). Now, you never know what you will find on the Web Special tab.

I'd recommend reading through all of the details in this post about how Economy Web Specials works. However, as a quick briefer:

  • These awards don’t have all of the American Airlines Basic Economy limitations.
  • Executive Platinum elites get upgrades as they can on other domestic economy awards
  • Where the American website says "Economy Web Specials cannot be changed once ticketed." This isn’t defined but may mean that travelers can’t use Same Day Flight Changes to switch to another award flight on the same day.
  • You can cancel and reinstate your miles according to the same terms as any other AAdvantage award. A redeposit fee of $150 for the first passenger and $25 per additional passenger applies for everyone but AAdvantage Executive Platinum elites.

If these awards leave your AAdvantage account depleted, here are some ways to replenish your account:

  • CitiBusiness® / AAdvantage® Platinum Select® Mastercard®: 70,000 American Airlines AAdvantage bonus miles after spending $4,000 in purchases within the first 4 months of account opening. Plus, 2x miles on a wide variety of expenses.
  • Citi® / AAdvantage® Executive World Elite Mastercard®: 50,000 miles after spending $5,000 on purchases in the first three months.
  • American Airlines AAdvantage MileUp℠ Card: 10,000 miles and a $50 statement credit for spending $500 on purchases in three months — with no annual fee
  • Citi® / AAdvantage® Platinum Select® World Elite Mastercard®: 50,000 miles after spending $2,500 on purchases in the first three months of account opening.

The information for the Citi AAdvantage Platinum card and CitiBusiness AAdvantage Platinum card has been collected independently by The Points Guy. The card details on this page have not been reviewed or provided by the card issuer.

Featured image by (Photo by Nick Ellis/The Points Guy)
Editorial disclaimer: Opinions expressed here are the author’s alone, not those of any bank, credit card issuer, airline or hotel chain, and have not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by any of these entities.