Secure & change, or wait?

[rock86]

I reckon you'd be OK. I ticketed BNE to LAX on EK in F at 192k a couple of days ago.

When you add flights to a classic award booking, is it only the new flight/s that need to be ticketed? Or do your existing legs in the booking also need to be re-ticketed? (ie. would a CSA then try to hit you with additional points on top of the 192k points from it being ticketed online)

 

[sjk]

When you add flights to a classic award booking, is it only the new flight/s that need to be ticketed? Or do your existing legs in the booking also need to be re-ticketed? (ie. would a CSA then try to hit you with additional points on top of the 192k points from it being ticketed online)

I can't quite understand what you're asking here. You pay a change fee, and you pay any extra miles that are warranted.

Trying to think of an example off the top of my head, say I had SYD-LHR at 192k and wanted to add in CBR-SYD, I'd pay the change fee and nothing else.

If I had SYD-DXB at 144k and wanted to add DXB-LHR, I'd pay the change fee plus 48k to take it up to 192k.

 

[rock86]

I can't quite understand what you're asking here. You pay a change fee, and you pay any extra miles that are warranted.

Trying to think of an example off the top of my head, say I had SYD-LHR at 192k and wanted to add in CBR-SYD, I'd pay the change fee and nothing else.

If I had SYD-DXB at 144k and wanted to add DXB-LHR, I'd pay the change fee plus 48k to take it up to 192k.

Sorry, it doesn't sound very clear when I re-read my post.

Say if you wanted to add flights to your BNE-LAX with EK - online it priced it for you at 192k, when in reality it is more. So then if you wanted to add a flight home in your booking say with QF, normally you would be charged the 5k change fee and the 96k for the flight - but you've also got a flight in their which has been priced wrong by the online booking tool, so would the CSR also look to charge you the extra points for the original flights?

 

[sjk]

Sorry, it doesn't sound very clear when I re-read my post.

Say if you wanted to add flights to your BNE-LAX with EK - online it priced it for you at 192k, when in reality it is more. So then if you wanted to add a flight home in your booking say with QF, normally you would be charged the 5k change fee and the 96k for the flight - but you've also got a flight in their which has been priced wrong by the online booking tool, so would the CSR also look to charge you the extra points for the original flights?

I guess in an example like that I wouldn't risk it. I can see a case for adding something in to save taxes if the first flight was (say) ex TYO or HKG, but what would the need be to have it all on one booking otherwise, rather than just making a new booking, saving the change fee altogether, and keeping the original "discounted" one?

 

[rock86]

I guess in an example like that I wouldn't risk it. I can see a case for adding something in to save taxes if the first flight was (say) ex TYO or HKG, but what would the need be to have it all on one booking otherwise, rather than just making a new booking, saving the change fee altogether, and keeping the original "discounted" one?

The big one that throws up issues for the flights I'm looking at is if we also fly home from the US with EK. If the POS is from the US with EK, carrier charges are astronomically higher then an AU POS.

Might have to find a way to work a Aus domestic flight into the US to Australia flight back home.

 

[rock86]

I guess in an example like that I wouldn't risk it. I can see a case for adding something in to save taxes if the first flight was (say) ex TYO or HKG, but what would the need be to have it all on one booking otherwise, rather than just making a new booking, saving the change fee altogether, and keeping the original "discounted" one?

If you could also convince my wife on this it'd be much appreciated.

Trying to convince her we'll fly from MEL so we can add a domestic leg from BNE to MEL and then add on our return US to Aus EK flights to avoid the ridiculous EK fees they charge from US POS, this is retty much the conversation.

Me: "we're going to fly out of MEL to LA"
Mrs rock: "can we fly out of BNE"
Me: "yes we can, but the issue is that if we ring up to add flights back from the US they may ask for additional points for the outbound flight"
Mrs rock: "but they can't do that as it will be ticketed, it's their fault not ours"
Me: "well they can as it's not within their rules"
Mrs rock: "so, it's still their fault that their system can't do things correct, I can't see why they could request additional points for their error"
Me (in my head): you obviously don't read this forum and see some posts about QF

 

[Franky]

If you could also convince my wife on this it'd be much appreciated.

Trying to convince her we'll fly from MEL so we can add a domestic leg from BNE to MEL and then add on our return US to Aus EK flights to avoid the ridiculous EK fees they charge from US POS, this is retty much the conversation.

Me: "we're going to fly out of MEL to LA"
Mrs rock: "can we fly out of BNE"
Me: "yes we can, but the issue is that if we ring up to add flights back from the US they may ask for additional points for the outbound flight"
Mrs rock: "but they can't do that as it will be ticketed, it's their fault not ours"
Me: "well they can as it's not within their rules"
Mrs rock: "so, it's still their fault that their system can't do things correct, I can't see why they could request additional points for their error"
Me (in my head): you obviously don't read this forum and see some posts about QF

So like me, you sighed and said, of course you are right dear...

 

[rock86]

So like me, you sighed and said, of course you are right dear...

Haha, yep at first I did.

Then I showed her if we could snag F flights on the way back how much more it would cost with POS xUSA ($750 each), suddenly a few hours on the outbound trip wasn't so bad.

 

[rock86]

So at the moment I have SYD-HKG-LAX.

If I ring QFF will they be able to amend the booking to BNE-MEL/US Domestic/JFK-HKG-BNE? (As there won't be a AUS-USA leg on it anymore, but POS will still be AUS.)

 

[rock86]

So, with the outbound leg now upgraded from CX J to EK F (BNE-DXB-SEA) I'm now looking to upgrade the return leg to EK F as well from CX J.

I've been monitoring the release of EK F seats on QFF and it's a bit sporadic in that their are certain routes that seem to be released around the 336 days and then other released around 330 days and a lot of the time not daily but in 'batches' of days at a time, so it's one of those cases of constant checking. So for the dates I'm after I can book EWR-DXB-MEL-BNE, flying through MEL I'm not to worried about (although a direct to BNE is obviously preferable) but a few people I've talked to aren't the biggest fans of EWR.

What's everyone's thoughts, give it a few days to see if additional route seats are released (as it's still between the 335-330 day window) or just fly from EWR on the 777?

 

[Pushka]

So, with the outbound leg now upgraded from CX J to EK F (BNE-DXB-SEA) I'm now looking to upgrade the return leg to EK F as well from CX J.

I've been monitoring the release of EK F seats on QFF and it's a bit sporadic in that their are certain routes that seem to be released around the 336 days and then other released around 330 days and a lot of the time not daily but in 'batches' of days at a time, so it's one of those cases of constant checking. So for the dates I'm after I can book EWR-DXB-MEL-BNE, flying through MEL I'm not to worried about (although a direct to BNE is obviously preferable) but a few people I've talked to aren't the biggest fans of EWR.

What's everyone's thoughts, give it a few days to see if additional route seats are released (as it's still between the 335-330 day window) or just fly from EWR on the 777?

I’m glad it’s not just me who can’t understand the EK release pattern. I’m waiting for release of flights for Christmas Day and the weeks before are all over the place.

My bad but which airline is EWR? I misread, it’s the airport.

 

[Pushka]

And just now a whole stack got released for the days previously that were not there this morning. Sigh. I think Y May be released before J and F by several days.

 

[rock86]

I’m glad it’s not just me who can’t understand the EK release pattern. I’m waiting for release of flights for Christmas Day and the weeks before are all over the place.

My bad but which airline is EWR? I misread, it’s the airport.

Yeah, it's just so sporadic. When I upgraded our outbound flights the seats were released in a batch of about 4 days an afternoon about a fortnight ago, it definitely doesn't follow the 'standard' 10am EST release.

 

[rock86]

This is now just confusing.

Since Monday no EK F rewards have been released for my preferred routes, JFK-DXB-BNE, yet on Monday they released a massive batch of F rewards up to 370 days ahead for EWR-DXB & DXB-MEL/SYD.

I can understand the EWR-DXB being released 'early' and having good availability, but the other 2 routes I thought would have been more popular routes being released and not to BNE - it's just abit weird.

Anyhow I will still wait, because their's still wide open availability around the dates I'm searching so I'd rather give it a few days to see if those routes get some award space released.

This sporadic release schedule with EK flights is just so confusing and you've got to be constantly searching!!

 

[Pushka]

This is now just confusing.

Since Monday no EK F rewards have been released for my preferred routes, JFK-DXB-BNE, yet on Monday they released a massive batch of F rewards up to 370 days ahead for EWR-DXB & DXB-MEL/SYD.

I can understand the EWR-DXB being released 'early' and having good availability, but the other 2 routes I thought would have been more popular routes being released and not to BNE - it's just abit weird.

Anyhow I will still wait, because their's still wide open availability around the dates I'm searching so I'd rather give it a few days to see if those routes get some award space released.

This sporadic release schedule with EK flights is just so confusing and you've got to be constantly searching!!

It’s giving me nightmares too! They are all over the place. It won’t let me have any EK fares direct out of Adelaide but routes me through to MEL on a night stop over in Mel then out of Mel at 6am. Yet Adelaide -DXB used to be great. I just dunno.

 

[rock86]

It’s giving me nightmares too! They are all over the place. It won’t let me have any EK fares direct out of Adelaide but routes me through to MEL on a night stop over in Mel then out of Mel at 6am. Yet Adelaide -DXB used to be great. I just dunno.

Yep, definitely frustrating at present.

There's space released ahead of their scheduled date in what you'd consider the primary airports, but then none (yet) in the secondary airports even at 330 days, a little confusing to say the least.

 

[Pushka]

Yep, definitely frustrating at present.

There's space released ahead of their scheduled date in what you'd consider the primary airports, but then none (yet) in the secondary airports even at 330 days, a little confusing to say the least.

And I think they release Y ahead of J. The 777 out of Adelaide is the new refurb and with no F. I’m wondering if that has something to do with it although I searched a few weeks earlier and could get a return into Adelaide direct. I wonder if they see how their revenue seats go before releasing awards a few days later.

 

[Beasley]

Does anyone know when Qantas release their award seats?