How to fly Manila to Sydney with Asia Miles?

Frequent Flyer Programs
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Hi All,

This is my first time posting and hoping to get some tips as i am not familiar with asia miles.

So I want to book a return ticket from sydney to manila later this year in business class for my wife, daughter (infant) and myself.
I have already booked a business class one way ticket from Sydney - Manila for the family through Qantas frequent flyer so that leg is sorted.

Where I am having a bit of issue is that when i want to book from Manila - Sydney through asiamiles (i ran out of qantas points but have asia miles) it says i need to transit through HK due to flight availability so i require 70,000 points instead of 45,000 which is what it would be if there was a direct flight.
I currently have around 80,000 points which is enough for me to book a one way ticket in business for my family (with top up option) but when i called, the agent said i cant because i now require 70,000 points because the flight transits through hong kong.
I’ve been reading some of the articles about transits/stopovers to optimise the flights but don’t quite understand.

So i want to see if anyone can help me figure out the best way to use my 80,000 points to get my family a one way business class from Manil to Sydney.
In addition, do you know how much the infant ticket costs for asia miles reward booking?

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Hi,

As you have mentioned, it costs 45k Asia Miles (AM) for direct flight from Manila to Sydney with Qantas. For 2 adults and 1 infant, you would require 90k AM. Even then, you are short by 10k AM. However, as you have found out, there is no availability on Qantas direct and you would have to fly via HKG or other Oneworld ports increase the costs to 70k AM per person.

Buying AM directly is not very costs effective it seems. You could consider buying American Advantage miles if the numbers stack up.

Guide to buying AAdvantage miles for cheaper Business & First Class travel with oneworld partner airlines

Best to confirm availability before proceeding with buying points. With AA, you can hold seats for 5 days while you decide whether to buy points.

You could buy 40k AA miles to redeem 1 adult’s seat. Then use the AM to redeem directly with Cathay Pacific. Both AA and AM program charges 10% of revenue ticket for an infant booking. You could call up at a later date to attach the infant booking to one of the adults booking.

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