Flights from BA>Santiago to Perth on QFF

[knic_world]

My partner and I are travelling from mid 2014 til the end of 2014 in a big loop from
(31/5)Perth>Tokyo
(4/6)Tokyo>Boston
—overland—
(13/8)Miami>BuenosAires
(16/12)BuenosAires>Santiago
(20/12)Santiago>Perth.

The plan was to book all flights through QFF the Oneworld Classic Award (140,000 points, max 35,000miles, 5 stops, 16 segments).

As you can see from our dates, there is a big gap between flights TO the Americas and flights FROM the Americas.

To avoid missing seats Qantas suggested we book the first leg (all flights from Perth to BA) last year, so we did that, with the intention of paying a 3,500points penalty to adjust the itinerary with flights to complete the loop (BA>Santiago>Perth) when they were loaded into the system.

Qantas first said they'd expect the return flights to be loaded in by early Jan. To date they still haven't loaded them in and can't give a definite answer as to when/if that might be. Strangely they have two business seats around the dates we want (I'm wondering whether they'll ever release them or if we'll have to make alternative plans to get back home.

My questions:

What's your gut feeling on whether flights have been released or not. Qantas can't give an answer (and there have been Business Class seats released around those dates)?

Has anyone had experience with Lan or QF flights from BA>Santiago>Perth using qantas classic awards? Was it hard to book them?

Any suggestions on alternative routes home? We are currently looking at routing through Dallas>LA>Perth but would like to avoid AA at all costs.

Would really appreciate your advice (if you have any to give!)

Thanks,
Nic

PS - The qantas website doesn't show flights from BA when looking for award bookings. It comes up with error msg 66022 (we are unable to find recommendations from the airlines we search). So we are having to call qantas and get them to check over the phone each week.

 

[aikman]

I think that at this point in time they have chosen not to release award seats on those dates. It is ultra peak season after all and oneworld has a monopoly on that route. If it was me, I'd settle for the route via Dallas & LA for now. If they do release award seats for the SYD/AKL routes sometime in the next several months you can always change your routing. You'll just have to continually check for availability which could either bu fun or annoying. Worst case scenario is if the Dallas & LA options disappeared then you won't be able to get back home.

 

[Mwenenzi]

Welcome to the forum

So this is PER-???-NRT-BOS, MIA-EZE-SCL-SYD-PER
Have you booked this as a OW award trip or as point to point classic awards?
http://www.australianfrequentflyer....ogram/oneworld-award-140k-280k-420k-8228.html

Trying to get 2 seats (Y or J?) on a specfic date is hard/optimistc. You need to be very flexible with dates & routes. 2xY(J?) is likely to 4 (2²) times as hard as a 1xY(J?)

Avoiding AA is a tough ask, considering DFW in AA's home and they fly to South America.

EZE(BA)-SCL will be on LAN. They may, like AA, only release seats for sale/award at 330 days. Easy to check is by doing a dummy paid ticket test for say SCL-SYD.

For route maps you need www.oneworld.com & http://www.oneworld.com/flights/timetable-search

 

[knic_world]

Thanks for the feedback Aikman and Mwenenzi. Very useful.

May have to arrange route through USA with AA as the back up for now.


Mwenenzi — we are going PER-SYD-NRT.

So far trip is booked as point to point classic awards but Qanatas have said upon reissuing of the itinerary it should be classified and capped as OW (140,000points). Just made me think if we are returning home via AA and QF (instead of LAN) we may not satisfy the OW requirement to fly with two OW airlines + qantas. (All flights TO the Americas are with QF and AA only at this time).

I'm not right across the class types but if Y=economy J=business we are only able to go for Y (not enough points to go for business).

Cheers again

 

[zig]

I have been looking for seats EZE - SCL for early Dec 2014, and like you have not had any luck. I am looking at a classic rewards for this leg and when I have rung QF there has been no availability at all on any days in any class- zilch.
I did manage to get a mASA for SCL- SYD, also early Dec 2014, but could only get PE. It was literally the only seat available that I could see (Gold FF) in the time period I wanted to fly, so I grabbed it.
I am only trying to find 1 seat, as you are looking for 2 you might have to look at going via the USA.

Edit : BTW Welcome to AFF

 

[JohnM]

I recently flew QF SCL-SYD on a paid flight. I was booked on 21 Dec but owing to disruptions in Argentina I had to change. The earliest I could get out was Xmas day because all the flights prior to Xmas (QF & LAN) were absolutely chockers, so I'd very much doubt your chances of snaring any sort of award flight around then.

 

[fersea]

Hi Nic,

Obviously your concern here is the Santiago to Sydney flight because you are always going to get an award Perth - Sydney or even Auckland - Perth.

In my experience they Sydney to Santiago and return are the hardest flights to get on the oneworld award. I am leaving in a couple of weeks and am a little different to you in that I am doing South America first. I jumped on a flight as soon as I could get it 353 days in advance because they were pretty scarce. I booked that 7 March last year for a Feb 23 flight and it was 15 October before I booked the rest of my round the world trip. Apart from having to fly direct to JNB rather than Cape Town from London, everything else was pretty easy to get award seats (and I wanted two from that point) with only a day or two adjustment. That included flights on LAN, BA, Cathay and Qantas.

The problem with the Sydney - Santiago is that there are 3 direct QF flights a week. They seem to offer a PE seat or two on the Wednesday but virtually nothing else. The other option and what I am going on is the QF321 / QF322 which is a Qantas / Lan codeshare but on an actual Lan plane which stops over at Auckland. (I am actually going on QF to Auckland, having a <24hr stopover in Auckland the going QF321 AKL - SCL) You can't book into the Lan seats (LAN800 / LAN801) so can only book into the Qantas half of the plane again award seats are really rare hence the reason I jumped in as soon as I could. You will see a lot of people on here talking about the issue about getting award seats in the premium classes, but in my experience of booking, on this route, business class is much easier. Of course the problem with the oneworld award is as soon as you do one award in the higher class, you are charged more points for the whole award.

Looking at the QF site (and I am only a Bronze FF - higher status seem to have better availability) I can see flights on the 16th and 21st December but they are Santiago - Dallas Fort Worth - Los Angeles - Sydney which apart from taking 43 hours rather than 14, I imagine will take you over the 35000 mile limit. They do have a premium economy direct on Dec 24 but again that stuffs up you as far as the oneworld award. Looking at the flights the only direct (or via Auckland flights) in all of December are PE or Business, there are no flights from SCL to SYD in Economy from 5 Dec to 4 Jan that don't take you back through the US. Only other thing that might be worthwhile is to join Expert Flyer so that you can see availability.

Sorry, I know I have given you a lot of information there, but in the end have been no help what so ever. Good Luck with it.

 

[knic_world]

Thank you all for you input. You've helped a lot. Fersea, I did join ExpertFlyer and was able to map out a better route home (which allowed us to visit Europe, with a few changes to the itinerary upfront). We are now traveling PER-HKG-NYC-BOS (overland) MIA-EZE-MAD-HEL-SIN-PER for 140,000 on the OneWorld classic award. Best of all we get home before Christmas, too! Thanks, Nic

 

[zig]

Thank you all for you input. You've helped a lot. Fersea, I did join ExpertFlyer and was able to map out a better route home (which allowed us to visit Europe, with a few changes to the itinerary upfront). We are now traveling PER-HKG-NYC-BOS (overland) MIA-EZE-MAD-HEL-SIN-PER for 140,000 on the OneWorld classic award. Best of all we get home before Christmas, too! Thanks, Nic

Sounds like a great outcome for you. Enjoy the trip.

 

[fersea]

Thank you all for you input. You've helped a lot. Fersea, I did join ExpertFlyer and was able to map out a better route home (which allowed us to visit Europe, with a few changes to the itinerary upfront). We are now traveling PER-HKG-NYC-BOS (overland) MIA-EZE-MAD-HEL-SIN-PER for 140,000 on the OneWorld classic award. Best of all we get home before Christmas, too! Thanks, Nic

wow you must have got every mike out of the 35k. This time next week I will be at the start of my RTW journey. Enjoy.