losing my business class virginity on QF?

[Alanslegal]

If you have 282,500 points, why not go for a QF multi-flight award redemption in business class (for routings less than 35,000miles). Then you can fly multiple carriers, try out multiple products and then decide which is the best one (in your opinion).

[sunbeamrapier]

I have a few tips for you, having travelled Business on points for some years now...

1. Where are your points? Already in QFF? If so, then you are limited. If not, then there are better airlines than Qantas - Virgin Atlantic being the obvious one...

2. Qantas Business Class on the Airbus380 has flat beds - on 747 flights they have sloping seats which are not in the same league. If you cannot get an A380 flight, and you have only QFF points to use, fly BA...

3. If you meant to buy an economy ticket and upgrade to business at checkin using points, you will quite possibly miss out - and have to fly economy. Yuk!

4. QFF flights on the Kangaroo route are in very limited supply. In fact I have not been able to book a return leg from London on that route for some years, despite booking 12mths in advance. I end up travelling via the USA usually...

5. If you are flying on a 747 choose a seat in the bubble upstairs - it is much quieter and the window seats have bins along the side under the windows (the cabin roof slopes in so the seats are further inboard. These are wonderful - you can rest a tray on them and keep everything close to hand instead of in the overhead lockers.

6. Time your sleep to work with your arrival time. If you are arriving in the morning, try and sleep for most of the 8-10 hours before arrival. I generally get a mild sleeping pill script from the doc before I fly. Then you arrive refreshed. If you arrive at night, sleep earlier so that you are sleepy again when you arrive.

Virgin Atlantic have the best lounges and much better service - the crew are much happier I feel - Qantas cabin crew are ok, but VA crew are in another league. The seats in VA are arranged individually and fold fully flat.

I used the Virgin Atlantic roundworld ticket once, via the USA, and using Air New Zealand on the Auckland-LA link. They have the same seats as VA in business. World Explorer or something I think it is - check the VA UK site, and then book through an agent or VA by phone. Its a good deal if you are planning a return trip.

[tobago]

I have travelled J class SYD to LHR a number of times using FF points.

In my experience the only way to do it with FF points is to book it many months in advance. Sometimes by going via SIN or BKK or NAR to find a ticket. Many times it will be on BA as they have many more FF seats available than QF.

Last time I went SYD - BKK on J class BA in a 747. Don't like the seats facing each other and since I want a window seat it means you sit backwards which I don't like. On this flight the food was inedible and the service non existent.
Then BKK - LHR in PE with BA on a 747 here the service was = to BA economy which is pretty poor and worse than QF's economy.

Coming back LHR - SIN in QF J class 747 which is way superior to BA's and met my expectations of previous flights in this class with QF. SIN - SYD was in QF PE 747 where the food and service was not much short of J class. The seats don't lie flat but I cannot sleep in a plane so it was no big deal not to have a flat bed. For half the points of J class I reckon the QF PE is the best deal going at present.

Agreed if you are going J class on a 747 the upstairs cabin is the best position to be.

Have bought a PE seat to LA on the A380 in a couple of months so will be interesting to compare this service.

[sr81]

I think Virgin Atlantic is VS?

Anyway, have you thought about just paying a fare with a cheaper carrier? I know Royal Brunei always seem to have very cheap J but....... no booze.

I would also look at going OZ-SIN/HKG/BKK on a paid ticket and trying for points into Europe. Don't forget to include FRA in your search. ASIA - Europe is the long sector so both ways in points that way can be good. The down side is that you know a Y trip to OZ is waiting for you.

When doing a multi-city redemption booking you can include transfers at the same cost if the layover is less than 24 hours. EG. if you can find a seat to FRA from SIN then the connector to LHR on BA would be included in the cost if the layover in FRA is less than 24 hours.

[Rambo]

I have been lucky and got Business Class a couple of times on Sydney to London using QF points on both Qantas and BA.

Generally the BA planes are older than Qantas but service and food is basically the same. Usually BA is easier to obtain than Qantas but would happily fly BA.

Regarding the Premium Economy I feel there is a major difference between Qantas & BA with Qantas being much better. BA the only difference I can see is a slightly larger seat the Premium Econony Qantas Seat wins hands down.

But as many have said very hard to move back down the plane after getting a Business seat.

[mosanator]

Agree with what the others have said particularly around booking Award seats way in advance. I rang QF and tried to do a phone booking for Dec 2010 and the guy was useless. So I went on-line and managed to get CBR - AMS (via HKG) in J, first leg QF, second CX and then returning from Frankfurt in late Jan 2011 all QF in J.

After much searching ! I got those 12 months out. I had my trip over sorted, and just kept looking for my return as the windows opened. I was lucky I guess.

So keep your options open as to available European airports to fly into. LHR in J is next to impossible (at least in the dates I was looking at) it seems and I would rather fly into AMS any day.

You might try out of MEL to Europe, there was heaps more availability from there when I was looking, including PE, and even F

[austrider]

So I went on-line and managed to get CBR - AMS (via HKG) in J, first leg QF, second CX and then returning from Frankfurt in late Jan 2011 all QF in J.

Sorry to hijack the thread but did you redeem CX using QFF and did you do it online? If so can you please share how? I've always had to call up to get partner (e.g. CX, JL) award redemptions. Thanks!

[mosanator]

Sorry to hijack the thread but did you redeem CX using QFF and did you do it online? If so can you please share how? I've always had to call up to get partner (e.g. CX, JL) award redemptions. Thanks!

Yeah no problem, as I said I tried by phone, originally to try into LHR or Venice or Rome, with no luck and a guy who didn't seem to want to spend anytime looking at options, for my 2500 points per px.

So I just started searching CBR to anywhere in Europe. Eventually found dates to suit into AMS. All online, and one booking, not seperate (perhaps I didn't explain that bit, sorry). Cost a little more points I think @26K to go with a partner but it was all done on-line, including seat preselection on the CX leg. Not that I am actually expecting to get the first row, J, upstairs on 747 as only an SG (we must know our place, you know ), but hey put it in there and wait for some higher status CX/OW customer to bump me !

Have I been able to do something strange? I must say HKG likes me, last time through there got Op Up'd (overbooked in Y) to J for wife (NB), son (NB) and myself (SG) to LHR .

[dilbert]

Even if you can't go the whole way, consider upgrading just the final leg to Business - to maximise the chance of arriving rested. You might need a travel consultant to help with that tho?

At 6'0 (183cm) the non-flat hooded seats are too short for me anyway. As a QFF, I had to pay an extra 5,000 pts (above the QF pts) to fly on a partner airline - Cathay (BNE-HKG) but got their fully flat seats (all forward facing) on an A330. Loved it. Only booked 1 month before (despite flying on the day before Chinese New Year!). Business class was <25% full!

Enjoy!

[Albert Hoffman]

Wow how time flies, got lost in a vodka haze for a few months in poland then slummed it back to oz on airasia x premium. Great seats for the price and a match for many '2nd tier' full service airlines. The guy sitting next to me said he switched from Malaysian as he just couldnt justify paying 3x more and its the seat and not the fawning service that matter, an attitude that will become more mainstream with time and for has spooked MAS. It did annoy me slightly to pay for water etc, broke my bubble of feeling special :mrgreen:

I concur with a previous poster that the sloping lie flat seats are uncomfortable for tall people so i will wait till the new qantas seats are available on ff points before i have a 'proper' busiiness class experience. :p

thank_you_airplane_card-p137614592442276779q9lu_400.jpgfor taking the time to post on my first thread