Australia and the Pacific Islands are among the most difficult destinations to obtain premium award seats at a reasonable price due to their enduring popularity as wish list items for many travelers, as I discovered when redeeming points and miles from Australia to the United States
Unfortunately, with many popular programs now using surge pricing, business class awards of 250,000 points or miles (or more) per person each way have become the norm rather than the exception.
However, there are several ways to find better salvation. For example, while I initially couldn’t find flights for my recent booking when searching months in advance, one tool helped me find a 12 1/2-hour business class flight on Fiji Airways for just 75,000 miles.
This is how I do it—and you can do it too.
Related: My Beginner’s Blueprint for Finding the Flight Awards You Want
Premium cabin award seats across the Pacific can be hard to find
If you’ve ever tried to find a premium cabin award across the Pacific for less than 100,000 points or miles, you might be in for a surprise. I occasionally see special class prices, usually on flights operated by Qantas or American Airlines, for last-minute awards within a week or two of departure, but if you plan ahead, they can be one of the hardest seats to get at a reasonable price.
I know Oneworld member Fiji Airways operates flights to Australia and the United States from its hub at Fiji’s Nadi International Airport (NAN), and I’m happy to spend a few days relaxing on a tropical island between flights if it means finding a reasonably priced lie-flat seat. (Trying a new airline is a bonus.)
I started my flight search using the Seats.aero tool, which searches multiple routes, dates, cabin classes and connecting partners, helping me view possible award availability in seconds. Personally, I really like this rewards tool.
While Seats.aero lets you search months in advance, sometimes, especially in premium cabins, they simply don’t exist — even nine months before departure, as happened to me.
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I successfully set up a reward reminder
Rather than succumbing to an economy class seat across the Pacific, I set up award alerts on Seats.aero to notify me when premium class award seats become available that can be booked using American Express Membership Rewards points.
I have a few days of flexibility in my travel plans and would be happy to fly from NAN to any of the three mainland US destinations operated by Fiji Airways, so I set the alert to cover flights to:
- Los Angeles International Airport (LAX)
- San Francisco International Airport (SFO)
- Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport (DFW)
With a Seats.aero Pro account, you can also choose advanced filters. For example, you can only be notified when seats are available on a specific airline (or airlines), set a maximum price for points and miles, and note the taxes and fees you’re willing to pay.
With my Pro account, I have the option to be notified of any results via email or SMS (if you have the Seats.aero app, you can also receive push notifications). I chose text messaging because I wanted to be notified as soon as possible when my desired seat became available.
I set the alarm but quickly forgot about it, thinking that if nothing opened up I could eventually find a more creative route across the Pacific at the last minute since I’d have enough time to finalize my travel plans.
A month later, I woke up to a surprise: a text message from Seats.aero was waiting for me.
Even better, it was Fiji Airways’ longest route to Dallas, so I immediately booked it online for 75,000 Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan miles (now called Alaska Airlines Atmos Rewards points), which was a slightly better deal than booking with Qantas Frequent Flyer points or American Airlines AAdvantage miles.
RELATED: I’ve Never Flyn Alaska Airlines Before—Here’s Why I Want Their New Premium Credit Card
Tips for rating lie-flat seats with reward reminders
Flexibility is key to maximizing your chances of vacating a seat. Consider setting dates before and after your preferred travel date, and choose other airports you can fly into or out of. FlightConnections is a handy tool for finding which airlines fly which routes.
If you’re earning transferable currency, such as Chase Ultimate Rewards points, it’s a good idea to set alerts that cover all Chase partners rather than a single airline program. While Fiji Airways’ special offer seats should be available through all Oneworld partners, you never know if one program may have better availability than another, so you need your alerts to cover all possible connecting partners.
When you initially can’t find your ideal seat but still plan to travel, consider booking any available seat, even if it’s not in a premium cabin or at a good price, and then set a reminder to potentially “upgrade” to your preferred premium award when a seat becomes available. If you do want to change to a better reward, you can cancel many rewards online for free, but if you don’t, it’s worth your time (and possibly paying a small change or cancellation fee) to upgrade your reward to a better reward.
If you do get an alert, I recommend you drop what you’re doing and book immediately, as you may not be the only one who gets an alert for that seat, and you need to make sure that other savvy travelers don’t beat you to it.
bottom line
Setting up reward alerts is a smart way to secure that hard-to-find premium cabin seat. Tools like Seats.aero allow you to now spend a few minutes casting the net based on your needs rather than constantly searching for availability.
Then “set it and forget it” and if the seat is open, you might wake up to a pleasant surprise like I did and have a comfortable flight worth looking forward to.
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