Fees & Taxes on Classic Award Flights

[craig78]

Looking at booking flights with QF points to USA but finding it impossible to get direct flights as I need 2 adults & 1 child, looking at other options such as Fiji Airways & Cathay Pacific which take a bit longer but am able to book all three, I noticed there is a big difference in Booking Fees, BNE-JFK with Qantas is almost $500pp for fees where Cathay via Hong Kong is only $180, also LAX-NAD-BNE with Fiji was only about $35 in fees. Quite a big difference especially when you have the fees for three travellers.

Are there other fees to be hit by down the track or do Qantas & Emirates just have higher fees?

 

[bigjobs]

QF taxes out of australia are crazy on the award tickets. I didn't even bother looking for award flights out of australia to mainland USA. I just booked a ticket to LAX from AU and then will use points for award flights inside USA - the taxes on these are few dollars by comparison.

a friend just flew with Fiji Airways. 2 adults and 2 kids under 8yo. he said the service was pretty ordinary and basically operated on 'Fiji Time' … lol (I mean service on board - the flights were on time)

My suggestion, try getting a cheap ticket to the USA and then use your points to fly domestically in the USA and pay way less tax. Remember, Honolulu is the USA, so a ticket to there might be an option and you can start from Hawaii.

 

[craig78]

Have heard a lot of negative feedback about Fiji Airways, was thinking them for the way home but not sure now.

Its a shame as the fees are minimal & it doesn't take that much longer to get to USA as well

 

[bigjobs]

Have heard a lot of negative feedback about Fiji Airways, was thinking them for the way home but not sure now.

Its a shame as the fees are minimal & it doesn't take that much longer to get to USA as well

my mate and his family went to the US and back with Fiji Airways over christmas like i mentioned. they had a 4 hr stop over in Nadi on the way over. they couldn't leave the airport. on the way back I think they had 10 or 16 hrs in Nadi. so they left the airport and got a hotel room to rest up in for that period of time.