United seems to have the best combination of point redemption and low taxes and fees for flights from the U.S. to Australia. I checked on the award maximizer tool first anyways. It is also easy to transfer my Chase Ultimate Rewards Points over to United almost instantaneously.
Unfortunately they do not offer reward flights to Darwin. They do offer flights to many other places including Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Auckland, New Zealand. For 40,000 points each, I booked two flights. The days to fly for this price point were a little slim, and at one point I thought I had missed my opportunity, The next day, the day I had been eyeing was back at 40k instead of 100k points. I quickly transferred my points to United and booked it, which I can cancel within 24 hrs free of charge.
Now I need to come up with some more points fast or else pay for the airfare from AKL to DRW. The last time (several months ago) I applied for a credit card to get the bonus points I was declined. The reason being I had gotten too many cards in the last few years. I had read that people routinely wait six months and then apply for more, and as long as they have good credit it usually works. my credit is around 775.
I know Chase has a 5 card limit for a 24 month period, so I tried signing my wife up for another card. Even though I know she hadn't gone over this limit, the same thing happened to her. I am not sure, but it seems like the banks are cracking down on the Bonus seekers. I am going to try again, as it has been a few months, but I am not holding my breath.
Mike
