Travelers often end up partial to one airline or another for a variety of reasons: loyalty program perks, specific routes or destinations, or the amenities offered to travelers. If you’re an American Airlines’ AAdvantage member or are thinking about joining the program, you might be wondering about its membership benefits.

Among others, one of American Airlines’ sweet spots is that you can use your miles to book flights to Australia on Qantas. Here’s how to nab your ticket for a trip Down Under on the cheap.

Booking Qantas flights to Australia

There are multiple options for travelers wanting to fly to Australia, notably on the country’s largest airline Qantas. Qantas is a member of Oneworld alliance, which means that its flights can be booked using miles from a variety of partner airlines — including American.

Booking American Airlines flights to Australia with your AAdvantage miles can offer a superior value compared to booking directly with Qantas, though this can depend on your dates of travel.

When searching Qantas’ website for a one-way nonstop flight from Los Angeles to Sydney in mid-August 2022, an economy award ticket costs 41,900 points. Using that many points for such a long flight isn’t bad, but American charges only 40,000 miles for the same flight.

However, the value proposition gets even better when booking business class flights. American charges 80,000 miles for a business class seat on Qantas’ 15-hour flight from the U.S. to Australia. Considering American charges the same amount of miles for an eight hour flight to Tahiti in business class, you’re spending nearly double the time on a plane for the same amount of miles.