Absolutely none!

The stopover rules are fairly strict.

Figured they would be, will probably just go for Perth to Vancouver return and then get a seperate internal Vancouver to Calgary flight, leave the Hawaii part for another time...

I did have a look at this...you have a one stop option Perth - Auckland - Vancouver on Air NZ...but business reward seats on the second leg are like gold dust.

As an aside...PER - AKL return in business class on Air NZ is a mere 30k miles...it's an 8 hour flight! That's about US$450 worth of miles...amazing value...and the seats are very easy to get.

So any Perthites fancying a trip to NZ are in luck!

I knew about the PER - AKL one being a major bargain, but wasnt aware I might have issues getting the onward leg to vancouver, I would be booking them as far in advance as possible (ie as soon as that far in advance becomes available to book) so hopefully it would be ok....
Backup plan would be use QFF points to get me over to Mel/Syd and then Air Canada up to Vancouver.
A standard economy fare when I last checked from Perth to Vancouver with Qantas/Air Canada was coming in at about $2600 per person. So i'll still be better off with the worst of those options above plus not have to suffer economy on the pacific legs.

This flight (the non-stop from SYD) is also very difficult to get business seats on - checked this for my friend and couldn't find a single day with a seat at 6 months notice - there were economy seats. In the end went with United via LAX, not the best option but it was also in F so I'm sure he'll get by!

There is an option to go PER-SIN then SIN-NRT with singapore and then on from Tokyo with Air Canada connections look pretty good and its nicely broken down into 3 legs with the longest being 8hr 50 on the way over and looks to be quicker than going via NZ.
The return leg offered when searching on the star alliance website give Air China so id probably go Air NZ or just Air Canada into Syd.

This will only work if the flight is not operated on the A380...which I know does operate some NRT flights...business class awards on the A380 not allowed. You will be allowed a Singapore stopover though if arriving on Singapore Airlines so if you don't mind overnighting for a non A380 flight.

Thanks Bc the wife and i have signed up

[QUOTE=bcworld;8428929]business class awards on the A380 not allowed. QUOTE]

Thats a bit rude of them! still a long way away for me but from what I could tell it wasnt a A380, there was another option that wasnt bad going via Seoul.

I think I might give them a ring and see if they can tell me the first possible date I could book the reward flight if I wanted to fly on say the 1/4/11 and return 3 weeks later.
I can then use that time difference to know when it should be once ive confirmed the actual dates id idealy like to travel.

Umm, just had a look at the Air Canada website, looks like they dont operate Business Class, its just Economy or what they refer to as Executive First, I presume the later would be costed at the 140K points so I need be a bit careful that I have enough points if this is the only option with them.

They might call it that, but it's still business class & books into the business class award bucket.

Excellent, im glad you know how it all works!

I'm having trouble signing up - the address section is asking me to select a State from the drop down list, they are all US states.... ?

Above that it should ask you for your country. Sort that bit and then it should blank out the state bit.

Thankyou, it worked - signed up now