The Qantas Newbie Questions Thread

[Mwenenzi]

Thank you Mwenenzi and sorry, yes preferred is east coast because our new grandchildren are in Michigan. So Chicago is good as AA is the hub. We have been travelling through Dallas but Qantas are pricing this up now.

Thanks SYD.
I am LTG so I look for QF and partners to make life easier for baggage and lounges. Yep I think you're right, BNE or SYD to Nandi are the best options followed by FJ to LAX and onwards, unless anyone else has found something better?

ORD/MDW ~ Michigan makes it a little complicated. A USA domestic flight. Depending on destination some of the secondary MI airports (Grand Rapids GRR, Kalamazoo AZO, Flint FNT, etc) have AA flights.

QF have twice announced BNE ORD flights. ORD is a destination that I consider would work well for QF. A route I would fly. Air NZ used to fly AKL-ORD until they had issues with aircraft engines.

While you are QF LTG would not restrict to only Oneworld (QF,.AA, AS/HA) airlines. May get better schedules and/or pricing with other alliances ~ airlines. Also worth considering via Canada (Air Canada) to ORD. AC fly to YVR from AU. Also as above HNL via QF or AAS/HA

As a way off option could price out a OW Circle Pacific,. But may be expensive compared to point to point. Could include an AU side trip later with a careful route selection RTW Flights: Round The World Airline Tickets - RTW,

If you want to travel a little differently the Amtrak train Seattle to Chicago is a good, if pricy, trip.

A map from the Great Circle Mapper

A map from the Great Circle Mapper

www.gcmap.com

 

[AustraliaPoochie]

Hi all

Not really a newbie to flying, but yes a newbie to the forum.

A newbie type question, the wife and I will now be flying regularly to the USA and due to a bit of age we are considering breaking the trip up and enjoying a stop over, eg. Fiji or similar using a partner airline such as Fiji airways.

Does anyone else regularly do this and what are the most cost effective ways to do this keeping in mind most stopovers in the pacific are good ones.

Would CX via HKG be an option?
Or JL via HND/NRT?

 

[Retired Flyer]

Thanks guys all great options, never thought about connecting through HKG.
Appreciate the responses.

 

[Retired Flyer]

Travel in the main cabin?

Normally fly PE with points upgrade to business if we can get it.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Normally fly PE with points upgrade to business if we can get it.

Well Fiji airways dun have premium economy

 

[Retired Flyer]

Well Fiji airways dun have premium economy

Ah well.
Can you upgrade on FJ using QF points?

 

[Mwenenzi]

Would CX via HKG be an option?
Or JL via HND/NRT?

With long haul routes distance does not correlate to cost.
From AU QF is almost 100% guaranteed to be the most expensive.
Hence my suggestion to look at a OW Circle Pacific But expect is expensive.

Normally fly PE with points upgrade to business if we can get it.

OK. We asked that before. Not all airlines have real PE

Ah well.
Can you upgrade on FJ using QF points?

No.
OW have a trial airline upgrade scheme,. Currently only QF & AA are offering.

 

[05flyer]

I had a ticketed CR booking with MH flights BNE-KUL-BKK, and KUL-BNE.

Called yesterday to make a change and remove the BNE-KUL-BKK flights from the booking.

After nearly 24 hours I’m yet to receive a new eticket or be charged for the change. Requesting e ticket via MMB gets me a copy of the original including the removed flights. Should I follow up or wait a bit longer? Is there a risk of the flight dropping off if it’s on an existing eticket awaiting reticketing?

 

[MEL_Traveller]

I had a ticketed CR booking with MH flights BNE-KUL-BKK, and KUL-BNE.

Called yesterday to make a change and remove the BNE-KUL-BKK flights from the booking.

After nearly 24 hours I’m yet to receive a new eticket or be charged for the change. Requesting e ticket via MMB gets me a copy of the original including the removed flights. Should I follow up or wait a bit longer? Is there a risk of the flight dropping off if it’s on an existing eticket awaiting reticketing?

As per madrooster’s previous post:

QF, JL, AA, BA, FJ, AY, AS are fine. They won't cancel that quickly.​

QR, AT, IB, MH, CX can cancel quite quickly, as quickly as 2 hours.​

​

So the seats could already be cancelled. You need to follow this up asap.

 

[05flyer]

As per madrooster’s previous post:

QF, JL, AA, BA, FJ, AY, AS are fine. They won't cancel that quickly.​

QR, AT, IB, MH, CX can cancel quite quickly, as quickly as 2 hours.​

​

So the seats could already be cancelled. You need to follow this up asap.

Thanks. What a pain. Can't call at the moment so have emailed escalations team and will keep my fingers crossed.

 

[Cloud9]

Thanks. What a pain. Can't call at the moment so have emailed escalations team and will keep my fingers crossed.

If you do get an opportunity to pick up the phone, I'd encourage you to do so when you can.
Trusting an email to be picked up in good time, let alone for it to be dealt with, is a roll of the dice IMHO.

 

[elanshin]

If you do get an opportunity to pick up the phone, I'd encourage you to do so when you can.
Trusting an email to be picked up in good time, let alone for it to be dealt with, is a roll of the dice IMHO.

Afaik, that email is actually monitored and actioned (if its for them to action) fair quickly as they have cases where imminent flight are missing. They may not necessarily respond to you quickly though. (But you might see the e-ticket roll in with no immediate reply).

I watched my own case actioned pretty quickly - just without a reply (waitlisted bookings appeared suddenly on my app as they waited for a response from the partner).

 

[robinsparkles]

Definitely a newbie question and I'm sure I've read the answers many times over in the past - my reward booking includes 2 flight segments, 1 of the segments has had a minor time change (10 mins). I'm thinking about cancelling the entire booking with the cancellation fee of 6k pts p/p. Is that the cancellation fee or is it per segment so 6k p/p x 2? Do I have any lee-way in asking for a refund for the 1 segment (or entire booking) based on the minor time change? Thank you.

 

[05flyer]

Afaik, that email is actually monitored and actioned (if its for them to action) fair quickly as they have cases where imminent flight are missing. They may not necessarily respond to you quickly though. (But you might see the e-ticket roll in with no immediate reply).

I watched my own case actioned pretty quickly - just without a reply (waitlisted bookings appeared suddenly on my app as they waited for a response from the partner).

Mine too it seems. No reply from them, but have now received an unformatted Amadeus eticket.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Definitely a newbie question and I'm sure I've read the answers many times over in the past - my reward booking includes 2 flight segments, 1 of the segments has had a minor time change (10 mins). I'm thinking about cancelling the entire booking with the cancellation fee of 6k pts p/p. Is that the cancellation fee or is it per segment so 6k p/p x 2? Do I have any lee-way in asking for a refund for the 1 segment (or entire booking) based on the minor time change? Thank you.

You can say the new time isn’t suitable and ask for a refund.

Qantas is usually pretty good with that.

If they disagree and argue 10 mins is too short, you could try another agent. If that too fails, it’s 6000 points for the entire booking, regardless of the number of flights.

 

[robinsparkles]

You can say the new time isn’t suitable and ask for a refund.

Qantas is usually pretty good with that.

If they disagree and argue 10 mins is too short, you could try another agent. If that too fails, it’s 6000 points for the entire booking, regardless of the number of flights.

Amazing, thanks. I want to book a completely new segment, still via reward seats, do you think that counts as change (and hence 5k change fee p/p) or any potential to have the change fee waived on the basis of the time change? I'm trying to avoid calling in with all my questions but will still have to call in anyway I guess.

 

[AustraliaPoochie]

I had a ticketed CR booking with MH flights BNE-KUL-BKK, and KUL-BNE.

Called yesterday to make a change and remove the BNE-KUL-BKK flights from the booking.

After nearly 24 hours I’m yet to receive a new eticket or be charged for the change. Requesting e ticket via MMB gets me a copy of the original including the removed flights. Should I follow up or wait a bit longer? Is there a risk of the flight dropping off if it’s on an existing eticket awaiting reticketing?

This is the scary part, hopefully your whole flight hasnt been cancelled!
Not unheard of!
Esp in relation to QFF and partners.
Good luck tho.

 

[LifesGood]

Hello, this is my first post ((waves))
I'm relatively new to Qantas FF but have used points to book a few domestic flights. For O/S we usually pay cash as we travel over Oz summer holiday period.
My question is - what chance would we have of getting flights with points at Christmas/Jan? None? Buckleys? any possibility at all? To complicate things further we would want to travel BC. Looking at Japan, HK or Korea from Sydney - 4 people travelling but only enough points for 2, would pay cash for the other 2.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Hello, this is my first post ((waves))
I'm relatively new to Qantas FF but have used points to book a few domestic flights. For O/S we usually pay cash as we travel over Oz summer holiday period.
My question is - what chance would we have of getting flights with points at Christmas/Jan? None? Buckleys? any possibility at all? To complicate things further we would want to travel BC. Looking at Japan, HK or Korea from Sydney - 4 people travelling but only enough points for 2, would pay cash for the other 2.

Easiest way is to use the Qantas award seat finder, on the Qantas website.

That will give you all availability, to all the regions you select, based on the number of passengers you want.

This year might be a bit late to book, but you migjt find some options for next year.

 

[LifesGood]

Easiest way is to use the Qantas award seat finder, on the Qantas website.

That will give you all availability, to all the regions you select, based on the number of passengers you want.

This year might be a bit late to book, but you migjt find some options for next year.

Thank you. I am planning ahead for Dec/Jan 2027/28. I assume those wouldn't be visible yet?