How to get from Vancouver to Sydney using Amex Gateway points?

Flights & Airfares
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Hi all

Im hoping to book Business Class one way Vancouver to Sydney using my American Express Gateway points. I have 130,000.

I found a good deal flying Air Canada using MileagePlus FF progam (90 miles for Business Class in June 2018)but not sure how I would transfer my amex gateway points to mileageplus?

I did look at Asia Miles too but doesn’t seem to be any availability in June.

Any other ideas would be very much appreciated as its all getting very confusing!

Thanks :slight_smile:

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AmEx AU points are not transferrable to United. If you cant find availability through Asia Miles, the other option could be Velocity, flying VA to LAX and then onward on DL. I haven’t tried this and have no clue on what the award availability will be like. Just a suggestion.

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Thanks Rohit, I’ll check out those options. Do you know if it’s possible to transfer Amex points to Air Canda’s Aeroplan FF program?

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Hey mate, it is possible to obtain United MileagePlus miles indirectly using Amex AU points, it’s just a bit difficult with minimum transfer amounts that are worth checking out first. At best, it works out as 1 Amex GW -> 0.5 SPG Starpoint -> 1.5 Marriott Rewards points -> 0.67 United MileagePlus, which isn’t bad value. You could always buy some more MileagePlus with the current promo United is running if you needed to.
(I did this to book the same Air Canada award last year, same as you are wanting to do.)

You could also transfer Gateway Amex to Krisflyer and book a star alliance redemption (on Air Canada) with them, except you wouldn’t quite have enough points at the moment (you would need 156000 Amex GW points I believe).

Hope this helps

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i recently redeemed one way business class air canada melbourne to vancouver through Singapore airlines star alliance partner award. I had 100 000 gateway points which converted to 75K Krisflyer points, plus the 20 i had there already, plus I rang the amex call centre to purchase the rest (you can purchase from amex directly if you are short, didnt seem to be a limit from memory my 3000 cost around $25 or so). I found the seat through united’s mileage plus web interface, then rang singapore airlines call centre to book it. Good luck!

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