Absolute greenhorn needs advice on how to get classic award tix from ChCh to NY

[Coral Sea]

Hi everyone, I'm new and having real trouble trying to work out the best way to use my meagre points to get to NY for my 50th bday in June. Have spent the last 3 nights on qantas.com searching for classic award tix but more confused than ever. I've got 171,061 Bronze status points (I could add another 23,000 of my daughter's points if necessary). I want to go from Christchurch or Auckland at the beginning of May and don't mind where I route through but I'd have to break the trip up if it was too long ie more than 16hrs. I'd really love to do the longest legs in PE or business and although there are PE award seats available I can't seem to snag them unless I try multi-city which uses much more points.
Am I better to just buy the cheapest upgradeable economy fare I can and pray I can get an upgrade to business? How likely is this with my lowly bronze status? I've never been successful before.
I would be happy to pay extra for a middle exit row seat in economy but how do you know if they're available?
Ideally I'd leave May 1st and return July 31st.
Any tips greatly received.

 

[markis10]

Hi

Have you considered a ASA (any seat award) and looking at possibly paying for a fare transcon in the USA, a points + pay ASA can be close to a classic when taxes etc are taken into account for the classic, and of course you get points!

 

[Coral Sea]

Thanks Markis10 I'll have a look.

 

[grussellt]

Here's an itinerary that will get you there and back:

May 1 AKL-MEL-SYD-DFW (QF134/420/70

May 2 DFW-LGA (NY (La Guardia)) AA766 : 64000pts

July 31 JFK-LAX-AKL (QF108/26) : 56000pts

Afraid it's all Y so no luxury!

 

[Coral Sea]

Thanks grussellt. Finally after 3 days of searching hard out - the Qantas award search engine is a real cough, I have found 2 PE classic award fares. One goes SYD-LAX on an A380, the other SYD-DLR on a 747. Which is best?
I kept getting really excited thinking I was finding PE fares when it was always only for the CHR-SYD leg. This is a really stupid system and a HUGE timewaster. Surely there's a schoolkid somewhere who could fix this in a few minutes. Next time I'll ring Qantas and get them to search.

Thanks for your help guys, much appreciated.

 

[grussellt]

I agree that the QF award bookiing engine can be trying and seems to be designed so that you have to put in the hard yards. Mind you that's when you finally get the satisfaction of booking an itinerary that you want. You can also try Awardnexus for a bit of help. Registration (and a limited number of searches) is free.
I would always use to fly an A380 when available. I wasn't sure of your other choice to DLR? Would that by any chance be DFW?
Happy flying!

 

[Coral Sea]

Doh! DWR not DLR - blame fuzzy brain from 4 days on the Qantas site. Wish me luck I'm going back to try and book the A380 Melb-LAX but definitely pouring a strong drink before I start.