If the flights you've found aren't bookable online then I would probably just call the AU reservations number:

https://www.americanairlines.com.au/...merService.jsp

The service charge is approximately double the US number but in the past the US number wouldn't accept payment using non US credit cards.

With regard to what you've found...remember that AA rules are not quite as liberal as US...so they won't allow Australia to UK via the Middle East on a single award for example, unless on a single QF number all the way from MEL or SYD to LHR. They haven't yet cottoned on to the fact that this is a perfectly reasonable way to go, even with partners Qatar and Etihad. Having said that, the cost of two awards for Aus - ME and ME - UK isn't too bad.

If the flights you've found are via HKG, SIN, TYO then it should be fine on one award, remembering BA flights attract large fuel surcharges.

Thanks so much BC. The flights I've found are via KL flying with Malaysian and BA (only one sector being BA). So I presume that makes it OK for a single award then?
I didn't realise you could book online so I'll try that first. Is the procedure for that pretty straightforward or any tricks I should watch out for there?

I don't think MH is available online. KUL should be OK as a connection on a single award I'd guess.

The fuel surcharge for the 1 BA sector will probably be around A$250.

All booked, used the local service centre as you suggested. 120K miles plus $895 taxes for business class. Once again I worship at the altar of BCWorld. Thankyou xx

Glad to see that people are still benefiting from bcworld's thread, I certainly have in the past and remain extremely grateful

I have 121,000 AA miles (used to be US dividend miles) left in my account, nearly lost them because I forgot about them but an email from AA alerted me, only needed to buy 1,000 to reset the clock.

We're moving permanently to the UK shortly, rather than mess about with trying to book something through AA now, I'm keeping my miles for when I'm in the UK. I'm sure I'll be able to use them, maybe Manchester - New York

Hi, I haven't been on here for a while but we are looking to go to UK over Christmas, standard economy is about $2500 per person!!
What is currently the best way of getting business class seats to the UK and is it likely to cost much more than $2500?
Any help would be appreciated

I must say I've only played the miles game with Star Alliance, albeit for many years and will a lot of sweet redemptions.

Now that AA and US have merged their FFPs, does it still make sense to pick up miles there? What was the main source of the miles earned there by forum users? Was it promotions on miles purchases/transfers that were mainly used to rack up the balance?

On a side note, keep in mind that Virgin Australia is a very, very, very good FFP for those often travelling with family as far as gaining status is concerned. Not only can you rack up miles on partner airlines like Etihad or Singapore Airlines, but this is the ONLY FFP that allows you to merge not just regular miles but also... status miles.

I hate to be the bearer of bad news Kevin, but you're pretty much snookered.

Christmas is high peak time for airfares in Oz. I only have experience of flying out of Perth, but I can't imagine Qld would be any different. A Perth - UK - Perth business fare over Christmas would be $7,500 at the very least. You might get a bit cheaper by flying through Indonesia with Garuda, but that would never be an option for me (I'd rather go economy than fly with them).

My husband's flying to Manchester in a few weeks, one way. The cheapest business class fare was $4,600 with Etihad - that's one way and not in high peak time.

I flew Garuda recently. I wan't looking forward to it but I have to say, they were pretty good. Not sure what goes on in the maintenance shed (probably best if I don't know) but the flight itself was fine, the entertainment system was top notch, food was good, service was good.

The only fault I can highlight was the pilot seemed a little keen to get the plane into final approach for landing. He wiggled and wrangled that baby around some good turbulence, before dropping the landing gear before the flaps, which was interesting - not seen gear before flaps before.

It all costs much more than $2500 now, much more!

LifeMiles has just finished up (today) selling bonus miles. The miles would've cost you about $3600 then fees, taxes on top of that, so $4k+.

As it turns out the $2500 flights are on Chinese airlines with a 38 hour journey time!, the nearest thing to decent (Etihad) is $3200 and that's economy.

I can't believe we went first class for not much more on Thai a couple of years ago, is it a ploy by governments to stop us travelling so much I wonder?

Good news is in Feb the flights with BA are $1650 so I guess waiting is the best plan

BCWORLD - have all the schemes gone now for cut price business class flights?

Kevin

Hey BC.Just wondering if you think the Lifemiles promo (which has just been extended for a couple of days) is worth looking at? I used the US Airways deal a couple of time thanks to your guidance, but have no experience on how user friendly lifemiles are or how availability between the UK and Oz works out these days.

NAB is currently offering 250,000 Velocity points for new home loans (purchase or refinance), available directly or through your broker:

NAB Velocity Frequent Flyer Points Offer - nabcampaigns

that's equivalent to 2 economy return flights from Australia to Europe (or 1 return business class)

Asked my husband about this, ex commercial pilot. He did explain, but too technical for me, but yes there is a reason and does happen. Without totally committing my self too high in approach? But then he lost me.

Hi, so now our plans have changed and we want to go to the UK next Sept / Oct - is there anything I should sign up for (Airmiles etc)?
Early bird prices are around $1700 with decent airlines (Economy) which is a lot better than $3000 plus for poorer airlines this christmas.

Now I have plenty of time to sort something out I'm a lot happier