Mixed class / mixed points booking suggestions - MEL-CMB

[Edge]

My wife and I need to travel from MEL-CMB for a wedding early next year. We have 120,000 QFF points left to use and the balance in cash. Best scenario looks like MEL-SIN-CMB-SIN-MEL. We'd like to travel MEL-SIN in J and prepared to tolerate SIN-CMB in Y. 120k points should get us one MEL-SIN return in J on QF/EK, with the rest of the itinerary paid in cash.

Any tips or advice on what's the best way of physically booking this so everything "syncs up" properly, or will we need to book MEL-SIN-MEL and SIN-CMB-SIN flights separately? Can a travel agent facilitate QFF bookings? Will we need to use the Qantas call centre? Any other tips on reducing the cost? Also have about 60k velocity points but don't think they'll be of any use on this occasion. Thanks in advance for any advice / suggestions.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

My wife and I need to travel from MEL-CMB for a wedding early next year. We have 120,000 QFF points left to use and the balance in cash. Best scenario looks like MEL-SIN-CMB-SIN-MEL. We'd like to travel MEL-SIN in J and prepared to tolerate SIN-CMB in Y. 120k points should get us one MEL-SIN return in J on QF/EK, with the rest of the itinerary paid in cash.

Any tips or advice on what's the best way of physically booking this so everything "syncs up" properly, or will we need to book MEL-SIN-MEL and SIN-CMB-SIN flights separately? Can a travel agent facilitate QFF bookings? Will we need to use the Qantas call centre? Any other tips on reducing the cost? Also have about 60k velocity points but don't think they'll be of any use on this occasion. Thanks in advance for any advice / suggestions.

You can't combine award and paid tickets. So they'll have to be separate. 120K is enough (per person) for a return to SIN. From there, you can pick up Sri Lankan Airlines or Singapore Airlines (may require an overnight depending on you flight from Australia). Prices on Sri Lankan can vary, but at the moment they look like SGD264 per person each way in economy, or SGD690 each way in business class (probably not worth it).

You can book your business class tickets to SIN on line.

You can use velocity points for travel on singapore airlines. That may help reduce the cost of your SIN-CMB flights. Whether or not that's a good use I don't know as I'm not fully up to speed on Velocity redemptions. You can also transfer velocity points to Kris Flyer points, and again redeem points there.

 

[Edge]

Thanks for your advice.

If I book the flights separately are the airlines able to combine the bookings so that baggage, etc is transferred straight through? EK405 lands in SIN at 23.35 and EK349 departs SIN at 00:30 so unsure if that's enough connection time? And returning EK348 lands at 21:05 then EK404 departs at 22:25.

One of us would have to book the MEL-SIN-MEL leg via Qantas as a classic reward, would this throw a spanner in the mix?

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Thanks for your advice.

If I book the flights separately are the airlines able to combine the bookings so that baggage, etc is transferred straight through? EK405 lands in SIN at 23.35 and EK349 departs SIN at 00:30 so unsure if that's enough connection time? And returning EK348 lands at 21:05 then EK404 departs at 22:25.

One of us would have to book the MEL-SIN-MEL leg via Qantas as a classic reward, would this throw a spanner in the mix?

Airlines cannot 'combine' bookings. In some cases however they will offer through check of baggage, and be able to issue boarding passes at the point of origin.

I'm not sure of the minimum connecting time at SIN, but 55 minutes will be cutting it fine. You can confirm the validity of the flight by checking the EK booking tool and seeing if they offer the EK405 to EK349 connection for a paid seat. if they do, you're good to go for an award.

As as tickets can't be combined, if you miss your next flight, the airline is not usually under obligation to protect you on another service free of charge. EK->EK will obviously put you in a better position than QF->EK... although you could book the qantas Classic award for travel on EK?

 

[Edge]

Airlines cannot 'combine' bookings. In some cases however they will offer through check of baggage, and be able to issue boarding passes at the point of origin.

I'm not sure of the minimum connecting time at SIN, but 55 minutes will be cutting it fine. You can confirm the validity of the flight by checking the EK booking tool and seeing if they offer the EK405 to EK349 connection for a paid seat. if they do, you're good to go for an award.

As as tickets can't be combined, if you miss your next flight, the airline is not usually under obligation to protect you on another service free of charge. EK->EK will obviously put you in a better position than QF->EK... although you could book the qantas Classic award for travel on EK?

Thanks again. Yes, looking at booking the QFF classic award on EK metal. Checking the EK website it appears you can book those flights with those connection times if booking MEL-CMB direct, so shouldn't matter if they are on separate bookings?

I guess our other option is to just book MEL-CMB-MEL via Qantas in Y, but what's the upgrade policy these days? Still can't upgrade from the cheapest Y tickets?

 

[MEL_Traveller]

... so shouldn't matter if they are on separate bookings?

It doesn't, connecting EK->EK will have no problem through checking the bags and they will also issue boarding passes. You'll need to present both tickets at check-in at Australia, and inform them your final destination is CMB. You'd need to check the EK policy on connecting flights in the event one EK service is late.