Yep! I found it mighty helpful when trying to scrounge together the cash for his ticket last minute! My family could contribute a little bit at a time to the funds for his flight, and I could slowly buy the miles as I had cash. I had a friend of mine who's relative works at Delta advise me to look into that path, and I have to say I am thankful for their advice!
Now, we're buying $50 worth of miles every paycheck so when his AP card comes in, we can go visit his family in Argentina and the flights will be paid for (first class too)! Once his SSC comes in, we'll probably have him get a Credit Card (CC) with the miles bonus on it, to build his credit & earn miles, the card that AA offered was pretty good... and a CC is a good way to build him credit as a new immigrant; most airlines with a FF program have CC offers. AA limits how many miles you can buy yourself, but not other people! So if you each make a FF account with your airline, check their regulations, you might have to "gift" each other miles every week so you have enough for your flight. There's also some minor fees/taxes to book the flights, if you book it in less than X amount of time, they have a rush fee (usually $75-150). There's a miles processing fee (it was less than $50), and the standard taxes and fees imposed by the state and federal government.
Side note: I only use AA to travel to Argentina because no other major airlines in my area fly there, so that's why I mention them a lot, certainly not selling them to you... .
If you call the booking agent for your preferred airline they'll tell you when the peak and non-peak times are, and they will tell you the cost for miles for each peak/non-peak time. I know with my FF program, they had 2 types of seats for each class. The first one is the cheapest, but they're of a very limited quantity, and the second is limited only by available seats on the plane. So book early when you can, to reserve your price; typically 2 weeks is a good minimum buffer. Best day to buy is Tuesday afternoons... airlines announce their flight prices on Monday evenings, so most of the airlines scramble to make their prices competitive. Best day to fly is Tuesday (cheapest), and first thing in the morning, and redeye flights are the cheapest. I always fly redeye, and just sleep on the plane! If you can find one that coincides with lunch as well, it could be cheaper. Here's a good resource for booking cheap flights.
However, do NOT book your flight until you have your visa in your hands. Trust me... I'm so glad we waited, because there was a hiccup with the delivery and pickup and it ended up taking 3 extra days! This happens all the time. I see so many stories from people so excited the booked it early, and the visa system was down and they didn't get their visa until after their booked flight! Better to wait a week after you have the visa in your hands than to pay several thousand for an oops!
He may still be able to! The interview may not be for 6-8 months! Mine was over a year later! Just wing it.
For more affordable flights, join a frequent fliers (FF) setup, like AAdvantage via American Airlines (AA), or whatever your airline of choice has. You can purchase miles (often for very cheap) and book flights using miles. My husband's ticket was $980 via miles, versus the $1600 it would've cost me cash. Find out when the peak season is, and avoid travelling to and from OZ then. I know with AA, to Argentina, the non-peak flights can be as cheap as 20k miles, which runs about $400, so a round trip ticket would be $800 (tickets are only one-way when purchasing via miles); the peak miles to AR were about 50k miles, which was just under $1k. The prices may be more or less for OZ, but it's worth a look see. PLUS, you can ask for FF miles as a gift (or gift them to his account), and slowly purchase them with every paycheck! They also have incentives to earn miles via a Credit Card you can apply for (if you're looking to build up your credit), and when you purchase & board flights booked through your FF account! You can purchase tickets for other people as well via FF miles, no problem!
