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There is:

• widely available
• underpriced
• economy award space
• for two passengers
• for all of 2014
• to Australia
• with the opportunity to stop in Hawaii for a few days in either direction.

If you have 75,000 American Airlines miles and about $100, you can fly a roundtrip award from the United States to Australia on almost any day you want this year. Stop in Honolulu, stop in Los Angeles, or stop in each place one direction to make the trip even more interesting!

How can you book this incredible award space online? What are your stopover options?

Hawaiian Airlines and Qantas

American Airlines does not fly to Australia. But it does partner with the Australian flag carrier, Qantas, which flies from Los Angeles, Honolulu, and Dallas to Australia.

American also partners with Hawaiian Airlines, which flies from Honolulu to Brisbane and Sydney.

While Qantas releases little Business Class space and almost no First Class space–but see here for how to snag what they do release–to Oz, Qantas has incredible award availability to Australia in economy.

Hawaiian operates two cabin planes. There isn’t much First Class award space, but economy award space is open on almost every flight.

Both airlines’ award space is searchable and bookable on aa.com. Here’s how to search and book on aa.com.

American Airlines Stopover Rules

American Airlines allows one way awards to be booked for half the price of roundtrip awards. To Australia, one way awards from the US are 37,500 miles.

American Airlines allows a stopover on each one way award at the International Gateway City, which is the last North American city you fly out of on your way to Australia and the first one where you land on the way home. For more info an examples, see The Five Cardinal Rules of American Airlines Awards.

If you route through Honolulu in either direction, you can stop there (but not any of the other islands. If you want to go to Maui, you’ll need to buy separate tickets there from Honolulu.)

If you use a Qantas flight via Los Angeles, you can stop there.

You can even stop in Los Angeles one direction and Honolulu the other for no extra miles.

Award Space

Award space is fantastic in economy on Qantas and Hawaii flights to and from Australia for two passengers.

Honolulu to Brisbane

The flight operates four days a week. And 2+ economy award seats are available for 37,500 miles per passenger four days a week for most of the year.

Honolulu to Sydney

Honolulu to Sydney is operated daily by Hawaiian and Qantas (or its subsidiary Jetstar.)

Award space is available daily or close to it for most of the year in both directions.

Most of the award space Honolulu <-> Sydney is on the Hawaiian Airlines flight.

Saver economy award space is widely available from the mainland to Honolulu.

American has good space on its Los Angeles to Honolulu flight, and American partners with Alaska Airlines and Hawaiian Airlines to give even more availability to the Aloha State.

Los Angeles to Honolulu

Putting It All Together

To book an award from your hometown to Australia with a stopover in Hawaii, you will need to use the Multi-City search tool on aa.com.

Here’s a YouTube video I made about booking free oneways on American Airlines awards. You can apply the same skills to booking any American Airlines award with stopovers like the award we’re discussing.

Imagine you live in Las Vegas and want to go to Brisbane, but return from Sydney next month to take advantage of the Southern Hemisphere’s summer.

You can easily do that with a stop in Honolulu each way for 75,000 American Airlines miles and $124 per person.

If you want to stop in Honolulu one way and Los Angeles on the return, you can do that too.

Below is an award with a five day stop in Honolulu on the outbound. On this return, there’s only a five hour layover in Los Angeles, but that could be five days, five weeks, or five months for no extra miles.

Getting the Miles

There are four cards to get if you want American Airlines miles. The American Airlines personal and business card both offer up to 50k bonus miles through zombie links found on FlyerTalk.

If you already have the American Airlines cards, your other option is to get cards that earn Starpoints. Twenty thousand Starpoints transfer to 25k American Airlines miles.

I got the Starwood Preferred Guest® Credit Card from American Express and the Starwood Preferred Guest® Business Credit Card from American Express at the same time last year in order to stockpile the extremely valuable and extremely flexible points.

Both Starwood cards have a sign up bonus of 25k Starpoints after spending $5k in the first six months on the card. If you opened both cards and met both spending requirements, you’d have 60k Starpoints total (50k bonus + 10k spending.) Sixty thousand Starpoints would transfer to 75k American Airlines miles–enough for a roundtrip award to Australia with two stopovers.

The Citi cards have a higher sign up bonus, but the automatic 25% transfer bonus on 20k SPG -> AA transfers makes the SPG cards more attractive for big spenders. (See my top three cards for big spenders.)

Recap

Award space is widely available for all of 2014 to Australia with American Airlines miles. For your 75k miles, you can get a roundtrip with up to two stopovers in Honolulu, Los Angeles, and Dallas.

The American Airlines card and Starwood Preferred Guest® Credit Card from American Express can easily get you the miles you need for the trip.

Offer details:

Starwood Preferred Guest® Credit Card from American Express with 25,000 bonus Starpoints!

• Starpoints® bonus: earn up to 25,000 bonus points: 10,000 after your first purchase and another 15,000 after you spend $5,000 within the first 6 months of Cardmembership
• That’s enough for a weekend getaway to a Category 4 Hotel.
• Earn up to 5 Starpoints® for each dollar of eligible purchases at participating SPG hotels and resorts – that’s 2 Starpoints for using the Card in addition to the Starpoints you earn as an SPG member. Earn 1 Starpoint for all other purchases.
• Free Hotel Nights: redeem Starpoints at over 1,100 hotels in nearly 100 countries worldwide – with no blackout dates. Some hotels may have mandatory service and resort charges.
• Free Flights: redeem Starpoints on over 350 airlines with SPG Flights – with no blackout dates
• No limits on the number of Starpoints you can earn
• $0 introductory annual fee for the first year, then $65
• Terms and Restrictions apply.

Application Link: Starwood Preferred Guest® Credit Card from American Express