1st time business trip to LHR

[Junji]

I would welcome any and all advice on my upcoming business trip.

Mid October, I will be flying business class SYD - LHR for a week. I have never flown this route and want to weigh all my options. I only have a Qantas Bronze membership.

I am currently thinking Emirates would be my best option as I like their lounges, as well as the complimentary chauffeur drive.

I also have around 120,000 Amex MR Points as well, which I would be willing to put towards an upgrade to first if possible., but am unsure who I can transfer these points to. Alternatively I have a friend at Virgin Atlantic that could help with my booking.

Thanks for your time & please ask questions if you need more details

 

[Will]

I would welcome any and all advice on my upcoming business trip.

Mid October, I will be flying business class SYD - LHR for a week. I have never flown this route and want to weigh all my options. I only have a Qantas Bronze membership.

I am currently thinking Emirates would be my best option as I like their lounges, as well as the complimentary chauffeur drive.

I also have around 120,000 Amex MR Points as well, which I would be willing to put towards an upgrade to first if possible., but am unsure who I can transfer these points to. Alternatively I have a friend at Virgin Atlantic that could help with my booking.

Thanks for your time & please ask questions if you need more details

I would recommend BA/QF for the simple reason that the status you gain after that one trip (at least silver; with up to 560 status credits available getting you almost to gold) - would be much more useful within Australia and to/from Australia than with EK, who have fewer flights heading East/North.

You can no longer transfer MR points to QF though.

 

[Mr Somerset]

If you can score the A380 then QF is definately worth it - my wife did this trip earlier this year in Business and loved it.

The other option she was seriously considering was Virgin Atlantic. QF won through in the end only because my wife ended up travelling from BNE instead of SYD. The QF flight was also a raging bargain at the time (under 7k return)

Somerset

 

[Dave Noble]

I would welcome any and all advice on my upcoming business trip.

Mid October, I will be flying business class SYD - LHR for a week. I have never flown this route and want to weigh all my options. I only have a Qantas Bronze membership.

I am currently thinking Emirates would be my best option as I like their lounges, as well as the complimentary chauffeur drive.

I also have around 120,000 Amex MR Points as well, which I would be willing to put towards an upgrade to first if possible., but am unsure who I can transfer these points to. Alternatively I have a friend at Virgin Atlantic that could help with my booking.

Thanks for your time & please ask questions if you need more details

I would also recommend the Emirates service, especially if you can get the A380 for the flight to DXB. The staggered seating means that you can have a window seat and still not have to climb over another passenger to get out

I don't know what the transfer rate is to EK , but you only need 45k points to upgrade SYD-DXB one way

The car transfer service at each point in the journey is a great feature and the EK lounges are pretty decent

The points earning on EK is better than on QF ; if you book online then you can earn 2 miles per flown mile and with the joining bonus the r/t in business will earn 47,000 points which is enough for a 1 way upgrade next time

Credit as a bronze member to QF and you would earn about 29,100 points r/t . A 1 way upgrade from LHR-SIN ( similar distance to SYD-DXB ) will cost you 45,000 / 72,000 ( depending on whether is is business to 1st or discount economy - business ) .

Dave

 

[Keith009]

If QFF points/SCs are a concern, have you also considered Cathay Pacific or JAL? They sometimes have rather cheap premium fares to Europe. Not that I'd trip over myself to fly either carrier, but the fares can be substantially lower than QF/BA. You do have to have 4 QF group segments somehow though.

 

[simongr]

I don't know what the transfer rate is to EK , but you only need 45k points to upgrade SYD-DXB one way

Dave

There is no direct transfer to EK from MR.

You can go MR->SPG->EK with 122K MR generating 50K of EK points being one way upgrade

On QF 120K MR = 120K QF points (assuming able to transfer to QF) = syd-lhr-syd J -> F

 

[Junji]

Good points all. The price of the fare is not a primary concern, but the experience is. I don't travel internationally often, so I don't think I will worry to much about FF status as I don't have the means to sustain it over the next 12-18 months.

I think to get the most of the experience, I will try to go QF on the A380 one way and then perhaps EK, SQ or BA on the return (A380 if possible). I will talk to my travel agent and also trawl through the forum to see the pro's/cons of each of the airlines.

Please feel free to continue your advice, as I will read all comments.

Thanks for your time,

 

[Dave Noble]

I think to get the most of the experience, I will try to go QF on the A380 one way and then perhaps EK, SQ or BA on the return (A380 if possible). I will talk to my travel agent and also trawl through the forum to see the pro's/cons of each of the airlines.

Switching airlines from QF to airlines such as EK or SQ is likely to be fairly pricey compared to using the same airline each way. I wouldn't be choosing QF ahead of SQ or EK

Dave

 

[Spider]

I am currently thinking Emirates would be my best option as I like their lounges, as well as the complimentary chauffeur drive.

Emirates is a great choice but their main competitor Etihad may be even better and cheaper. On some occasions Etihad special 1st fares are cheaper than Emirates. That's from Europe though. Servicewise SQ and CX are better than QF or BA.

 

[Alanslegal]

Since $$ isn't an issue, if you have a few days on either side of the business trip, you could always consider completing a very quick Round The World with one of the alliances and experience multiple airlines which is what you're after

 

[Harpoon]

Emirates is a great choice but their main competitor Etihad may be even better and cheaper. On some occasions Etihad special 1st fares are cheaper than Emirates. That's from Europe though. Servicewise SQ and CX are better than QF or BA.

As a side note.... Offtopic...

My old man flew Etihad 1st to London recently and he was a little disappointed. The brochure of "Diamond Class" looks amazing but he said in comparison to Singapore, Emirates it was not as good as he'd hoped. The car transfers on Etihad were nice but the flight he was a little disappointed with. It was still first class standard but not as good as he'd hoped - food was a bit average and entertainment was lacking according to him.



(Though when he complains about first class being disappointing I take it with a grain of salt, the old grump! )

 

[Flashback]

As a side note.... Offtopic...

My old man flew Etihad 1st to London recently and he was a little disappointed. The brochure of "Diamond Class" looks amazing but he said in comparison to Singapore, Emirates it was not as good as he'd hoped. The car transfers on Etihad were nice but the flight he was a little disappointed with. It was still first class standard but not as good as he'd hoped - food was a bit average and entertainment was lacking according to him.



(Though when he complains about first class being disappointing I take it with a grain of salt, the old grump! )

I assume they're all supposed to be Etihad ?

 

[notzac]

I read it as missing an "and" and a ",":

As a side note.... Offtopic...

My old man flew Etihad 1st to London recently and he was a little disappointed. The brochure of "Diamond Class" looks amazing but he said in comparison to Singapore and Emirates, it was not as good as he'd hoped. The car transfers on Etihad were nice but the flight he was a little disappointed with. It was still first class standard but not as good as he'd hoped - food was a bit average and entertainment was lacking according to him.

 

[Spider]

As a side note.... Offtopic...

My old man flew Etihad 1st to London recently and he was a little disappointed.

My mom flew Emirates SYD-DXB-LGW in biz back in July. DXB-LGW was 4 hours late due to some fuel leak. She missed her connecting flight in London. Ground staff was rude. Her luggage was checked all the way through to the final destination but the staff declined to send it on and told her that if she didn't take it with her then they'd simply send it for destruction. She was given a hotel voucher since she had to overnight and the person who gave her the voucher was given quite a hard time for it by his manager in front of customers.

All in all, she arrived 18 hours late at her destination and had to pay 1/3 of the price of her LON-SYD-LON biz ticket to get where she needed to fly - new ticket at rack rate plus luggage surcharge.

But she will still fly Emirates since I buy the tix and Emirates miles/points are very generous. Most of the time she flies one way in biz and the other in 1st or LGW-DXB-LGW in biz and DXB-SYD-DXB in 1st.

 

[albatross710]

My mom flew Emirates SYD-DXB-LGW in biz back in July. DXB-LGW was 4 hours late due to some fuel leak. She missed her connecting flight in London. Ground staff was rude.

Was any of the extra costs covered by insurance? or did "fuel leak" fall under mechanical failure

 

[Spider]

Was any of the extra costs covered by insurance? or did "fuel leak" fall under mechanical failure

No insurance and fuel leak was obviously a mechanical failure but noone admitted it. She had a very hard time even getting an official airport printout that the plane was 4 hours late.

 

[Dave Noble]

No insurance and fuel leak was obviously a mechanical failure but noone admitted it. She had a very hard time even getting an official airport printout that the plane was 4 hours late.

Was the onward flight part of the same ticket or was it booked separately?

If a separate ticket then would not expect the airline to do anything ; travel without insurance and need to expect to self insure

Dave

 

[Spider]

Was the onward flight part of the same ticket or was it booked separately?

Separate ticket, so no dice there. The only thing is that the luggage was checked all the way through. If Emirates checked it all the way, then isn't there an obligation on their or even airport's part to get it all the way to the final destination?

I have left my luggage several times at SFO when flying SYD-SFO-LHR, since one has to take their luggage through customs there, as luggage was late or misplaced and it has always found it's way to me. Several days late but nevertheless.

 

[Dave Noble]

Separate ticket, so no dice there. The only thing is that the luggage was checked all the way through. If Emirates checked it all the way, then isn't there an obligation on their or even airport's part to get it all the way to the final destination?

After missing the onward flight, they are quite ok to decline to forward it to another flight and quite ok for them to require it to be collected. They could have declined to have checked it through to the original flight at check in

If wanting a seamless service then you do need to book through tickets. There can be some savings in separate bookings, but then there are issues that can occur and the airline is quite correct in washing their hands of it. Once they have got you to the end of the ticketed journey , then their responsibility is over

To be fair, cannot expect to try and save money by buying separate tickets and then expect the airline to help out when problems occur.

If it had been a through booking , then I am sure that EK would have sorted out the rebooking on another onward flight and they would have ensured that the luggage was retagged and , if overnight accommodation required, that they would have provided it

Dave

 

[Spider]

If wanting a seamless service then you do need to book through tickets. There can be some savings in separate bookings, but then there are issues that can occur and the airline is quite correct in washing their hands of it.

Easier said than done. Emirates don't sell tix to/from lots of destinations in Europe. Most of Western and Southern Europe is covered but this cannot be said about East and North Europe. So, separate tix are unfortunately unevitable.