Advice to get to Europe and back using Qantas points Oct 2020

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Clive005

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Hi all, My mother In law wants to get to Ireland around the 1st October 2020, she is flexible with time and would like to spend 4 weeks travelling.
She has 240,000 points and is willing to part pay? she would like to fly in J for as much time as she can, She likes the Idea of a stop over in Dubai and will use domestic flights or train travel to get around once in Europe, She is in Adelaide
any help would be fantastic I have only ever used Velocity and Kris Flyers
many thanks
Clive
 
Your best bet would be to get a quote from Frequent Flyer Solutions Award Flight Assist.

Can't give the link, sorry - Google will find them
 
On here its mentioned the straight QFF points + pay system, is a very poor use of points, but with that side, once you book on line, and use points + pay to pay, the seat is yours.
If you use the award system, it would depend on her status, if she is QFF NB, her chances of upgrade will be lower, does mother in law family linkage help if you are higher status, and can book on her behalf, with points transfer?
Of course, you would need a lot of points yourself.
I always use QFF points + pay, and yes, I do realise what I mentioned in the first line above, but I like the system, others on here say nope.
Say, if the EK J fare, (via QF) is Aud$5999, ADL - DXB - LIS, 240,000 is worth about 0.0435, would reduce that fare by $1044, to $4955, still very pricey.
Award request will rely on status of the flyer, or the booker, but the QF points + pay, once you pay with $ and points, does not rely on status, once you have paid, the seats are yours.
 
At 240,000 points she isn't far off the 289,200 required to fly ADL-DXB-DUB return.
Could other family members transfer points to her to make up the difference?
Otherwise buying 50,000 extra points would cost $1,427.
This sounds like a lot, but might be better value than points plus pay.
I tried booking those flights using points plus pay and I was only getting 0.5 cents per point!
So if you redeemed all 240,000 points you would only receive $1,200 off the fare.
This would leave you paying $5594.49 of the $6794.49 fare I was looking at (1/10/2020-14/11/2010).
However the next problem is availability.
I couldn't find any award seats on QF - so much for all the extra premium seats!
There is fairly good availability on CX or QR and some on EK around those dates.
But those options will cost 318,000 points return.
This would mean buying 80,000 points which would cost $2192
Of course there would be taxes and charges to pay as well.
This compares to the cheapest Y fare which is $1336 but that is on EK and not upgradeable.
The cheapest upgradeable fare on QF metal would be $2127.
And that could not be upgraded on the segments between London and Dublin.
If you could upgrade all the other sectors it would cost you 277,900 points anyway!
So you'd still need to buy 40,000 top up points for $1155.
And you would need to seek upgrades for 5 sectors.
I don't fancy your chances of succcess on all of them, and you won't know until the day before each flight!

In summary of the above.
(1) Buy 80,000 points and book business reward flights on CX/QR/EK metal - $2192 + 240,000 points plus taxes and charges = certainty of J for all sectors.
(2) Buy 40,000 points, book economy cash flights on QF metal and upgrade - $2127 + $1155 = $3282 + 240,000 points = upgrade lottery, LHR<->DUB in economy.
(3) Use points plus pay to book business class flights - $5594.49 + 240,000 points = certainty of J bookings all the way but what a waste of points!

As you may guess I would favour option (1). It is clearly the cheapest and gives you certainty she will be in J class all the way.
Also note option (2) would not allow a stopover in Dubai.
Although I think that is overrated.
 
Oh no I almost completed the booking process to do that research and now they are holding the booking for me.
This means I will be receiving messages about those flights next October!
 
(3) Use points

Option 4:

Pay for a staging flight to Asia (HKG, SIN, BKK etc) and get an award flight to Europe from there.

Firstly it requires fewer points, but more importantly, as users here regularly point out, it’s one of the most reliable ways to be successful in obtaining premium award seats to Europe.

Also note, the desired departure date falls bang on at the start of AU school holidays, which means the sector from AU may be hard to get award seats.
 
Option 4:

Pay for a staging flight to Asia (HKG, SIN, BKK etc) and get an award flight to Europe from there.

Firstly it requires fewer points, but more importantly, as users here regularly point out, it’s one of the most reliable ways to be successful in obtaining premium award seats to Europe.

Also note, the desired departure date falls bang on at the start of AU school holidays, which means the sector from AU may be hard to get award seats.
The problem with that strategy is that its the flight getting out of Aus that seems the most expensive leg.
 
The problem with that strategy is that its the flight getting out of Aus that seems the most expensive le

Sure, but OP indicated that they were ok to pay for part of the trip. Once they get to a staging port in Asia, there’s a lot of options to really exploit those 240k points.


And this is a far better value way to use them than Points Plus Pay.

Another thing that might help the OP is to depart a week or so later, moving their departure date away from the start of the school holidays. There’s usually a short term price surge as families travelling with school age kids all try to depart at the same time.
 
Sure, but OP indicated that they were ok to pay for part of the trip. Once they get to a staging port in Asia, there’s a lot of options to really exploit those 240k points.


And this is a far better value way to use them than Points Plus Pay.

Another thing that might help the OP is to depart a week or so later, moving their departure date away from the start of the school holidays. There’s usually a short term price surge as families travelling with school age kids all try to depart at the same time.
Oh yeah, points plus pay is a ridiculous waste of money. Much more cost effective if just a few points short is to buy them for a full award booking.
but i really struggled booking a J flight for next year for July starting 12 months out on a WP account. EK and QR never seemed to release seats and only CX ever appeared.
 
Depending on just how much the OP wants to spend they could also perhaps consider paying for 1 way in J and an award flight home?
TK for instance are doing $3k one way ADL-DUB via SIN or KUL with SQ or MH.
Otherwise a J return trip to Asia for about the same or worst case a Y trip from ADL-SIN or ADL-KUL.
 
Thanks everyone, I will play with some of the suggestions,Mum is flexible with dates and likes the Idea of a stop over in Dubai ? The price isn't such a concern within reason she is in her 70's so wants the longer legs in J.
 
Option 4:

Pay for a staging flight to Asia (HKG, SIN, BKK etc) and get an award flight to Europe from there.

Firstly it requires fewer points, but more importantly, as users here regularly point out, it’s one of the most reliable ways to be successful in obtaining premium award seats to Europe.

Also note, the desired departure date falls bang on at the start of AU school holidays, which means the sector from AU may be hard to get award seats.
It also means the staging flight to Asia and J return is going to be more than the $2192 plus fees and charges it would cost to go all the way from Adelaide on award flights.
 
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Thanks everyone, I will play with some of the suggestions,Mum is flexible with dates and likes the Idea of a stop over in Dubai ? The price isn't such a concern within reason she is in her 70's so wants the longer legs in J.
Given her preferences it would probably be best to buy the top up points and book the award flights on EK metal at least one way.
But make a decision soon as there is limited availability and it will probably be gone before long!
If she has to choose between CX and QR the other way I would recommend a stop over or transit in Hong Kong over Doha.
If she DOES stop over in Doha the only things worth seeing are the Museum of Islamic Art (which is absolutely stunning architecture even before you see the art) and the souk (market), which is conveniently across the road from the Museum.
Everything else in Doha is just a photocopy of Dubai and an invitation to spend vast amounts of money.

Another note - the option people are suggesting to book a separate flight to Asia and then award flights from there can be good advice in some circumstances.
However you should be aware these flights will be on separate bookings and tickets so it will almost certainly not be possible to book through (except possibly on CX if the award flights are with CX, QF, QR or another OW airline - NOT EK!). QF will not through check for flights on a separate ticket even if they are on a OW airline. They should if and only if all the flights are QF - which will definitely not be the case given the destination is Dublin and award flights are always under the code of the operating airline even when a codeshare would be available if you were making a cash booking.
So your mum will need to either stop over in Asia, or at least collect her bags, go through immigration, go from arrivals to departures, check in again, leave her bags and get a new boarding pass, then go to the lounge to wait for her second flight. Some countries (such as Indonesia) may charge a fee as she would effectively be entering the country, if only for hours or even minutes.
 
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Given her preferences it would probably be best to buy the top up points and book the award flights on EK metal at least one way.
But make a decision soon as there is limited availability and it will probably be gone before long!
If she has to choose between CX and QR the other way I would recommend a stop over or transit in Hong Kong over Doha.
If she DOES stop over in Doha the only things worth seeing are the Museum of Islamic Art (which is absolutely stunning architecture even before you see the art) and the souk (market), which is conveniently across the road from the Museum.
Everything else in Doha is just a photocopy of Dubai and an invitation to spend vast amounts of money.

Another note - the option people are suggesting to book a spearate flight to Asia and then award flights from there can be good advice in some circumstances.
However you should be aware these flights will be on separate bookings and tickets so it will almost certainly not be possible to book through (except possibly on CX if the award flights are with CX, QF, QR or another OW airline - NOT EK!).
So your mum will need to either stop over in Asia, or at least collect her bags, go through immigration, go from arrivals to departures, check in again, leave her bags and get a new boarding pass, then go to the lounge to wait for her second flight. Some countries (such as Indonesia) may charge a fee as she would effectively be entering the country, if only for hours or even minutes.
I can’t speak for others but I advocate the seperate flight to Asia mainly because availability ex Australia is so poor normally. Often see good F availability on EK but J seems harder to come by. If you can find availability ex Australia then definitely top up points are the go.
 
It also means the staging flight to Asia and J return is going to be more than the $2192 plus fees and charges it would cost to go all the way from Adelaide on award flights.

I would suggest taking the staging flight in Y. Then use the 240000 points for a nice premium flight for the long sectors using JAL or CX for example.
 
I can’t speak for others but I advocate the seperate flight to Asia mainly because availability ex Australia is so poor normally. Often see good F availability on EK but J seems harder to come by. If you can find availability ex Australia then definitely top up points are the go.
But the actual availability ex Australia for the dates in question is good.
 
How about another approach? if available points to Asia or even somewhere like CMB and then a cheap(er) biz fare onwards?
Or, depending on financial situation, taking either a mixed class fare (Y+/J) or J such as a Finnair sale or similar?
 
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