Using points to fly to South America

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Fritztatta

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Hello,

My wife and I are in the midst of trying to plan our trip to South America next year (late August) and we were hoping to use our QFF points to get flights. We had initially hoped to get business class flights but we aren't sure we'll have the points for that. Anyway, we've now noticed that QANTAS currently has a sale on some fares which include the dates we're looking at but we've never used points before and are just looking for some advice about how to get the most out of them, the most efficient way to use them, if it would be better to try and accumulate more points and book later etc, and if it's reasonable to think we might be able to get flights for around 160,000 points (about what we each have currently).

Thanks in advance for any advice!
 
Welcome to AFF. :)

You should have enough points to get business to SCL at least, but getting the seats when you want will be a challenge.

When are you looking to go?

Business is a good use of points but if you can afford a sale, and can't get exactly what you want with the points, then paying might be the way to go.

Also, there are some issues reported here about QF / LA codeshares. I assume the paid tickets would by on QF metal?
 
That current sale is as cheap as paid flights have ever got - have a serious look at it, as getting J awards is not easy, depending on your status. Make sure that when you look at the economics of actually buying fares, you take into consideration the decent amount of QFF points you will earn on a paid ticket, and also the obscene "co-payments" QF charges for those "free" points tickets. In many cases this reduces the real cost of a paid ticket by many hundreds of dollars.

For what it is worth, the sweet spot for me with QFF points has always been upgrades from a Premium Economy paid ticket to J. I basically only do long haul. Unlike economy, even the cheapest premium economy tickets can be upgraded on points. But again, that is a lottery :)

P.S. The other best use of QFF points is to accumulate them until you can join the big league - save then for a once in a lifetime F trip in Emirates to Europe :)
 
Welcome to AFF. :)

You should have enough points to get business to SCL at least, but getting the seats when you want will be a challenge.

When are you looking to go?

Business is a good use of points but if you can afford a sale, and can't get exactly what you want with the points, then paying might be the way to go.

Also, there are some issues reported here about QF / LA codeshares. I assume the paid tickets would by on QF metal?

Thanks for your reply. Yes, we’re looking to go sometime around the 23rd of August and return about 2-3 weeks later.

Just in case, what are the issues you mentioned, exactly? As far as I understand it, the paid tickets would be on QF metal.
 
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That current sale is as cheap as paid flights have ever got - have a serious look at it, as getting J awards is not easy, depending on your status. Make sure that when you look at the economics of actually buying fares, you take into consideration the decent amount of QFF points you will earn on a paid ticket, and also the obscene "co-payments" QF charges for those "free" points tickets. In many cases this reduces the real cost of a paid ticket by many hundreds of dollars.

For what it is worth, the sweet spot for me with QFF points has always been upgrades from a Premium Economy paid ticket to J. I basically only do long haul. Unlike economy, even the cheapest premium economy tickets can be upgraded on points. But again, that is a lottery :)

P.S. The other best use of QFF points is to accumulate them until you can join the big league - save then for a once in a lifetime F trip in Emirates to Europe :)

Thanks for your reply!

Sorry, I’m not up to speed on the jargon etc. or much to do with using points at all!

What exactly are J awards? Is that business class, judging by what you said about upgrades? If so, considering the sale fares then it seems like it would be cheapest to purchase premium economy on sale and upgrade. But in that scenario, what is the lottery you’re referring to?
 
Thanks for your reply. Yes, we’re looking to go sometime around the 23rd of August and return about 2-3 weeks later.

Just in case, what are the issues you mentioned, exactly? As far as I understand it, the paid tickets would be on QF metal.

Issues concern codeshares between Qantas and LATAM (Chilean airline who also fly the route, via Auckland). There is aoccasionally a problem in say, LATAM not recognising a ticket for travel on their planes issued by Qantas ('codeshare'). Very rare, but difficult to solve when it happens.
Beware QF codeshares on LATAM to Santiago

If you fly Qantas on a Qantas ticket this issue doesn't apply.

The 'lottery' juddles spoke about (if he doesn't mind me answering while I'm at it :) ) is, with Qantas, you have to buy an 'upgradable' fare (more expensive than the cheapest fare you can get, for the same seat) and then put in for an upgrade. The upgrades don't clear until a few days before the flight (for non-status flyers; a week before for people with status). Whether or not the upgrade will be approved or not is the lottery.

Yes, a 'J Award' is a business class seat redeemed using points. But with most airlines, including Qantas, there is additional cash to pay in addition to the points - sometimes many hundreds of dollars per passenger. So its not 'free'. Sometimes with an economy reward seat, the cash charges are almost as much as buying the cheapest paid seat! Economy is not a good use for points. But business can be, if there is availability.
 
Issues concern codeshares between Qantas and LATAM (Chilean airline who also fly the route, via Auckland). There is aoccasionally a problem in say, LATAM not recognising a ticket for travel on their planes issued by Qantas ('codeshare'). Very rare, but difficult to solve when it happens.
Beware QF codeshares on LATAM to Santiago

If you fly Qantas on a Qantas ticket this issue doesn't apply.

The 'lottery' juddles spoke about (if he doesn't mind me answering while I'm at it :) ) is, with Qantas, you have to buy an 'upgradable' fare (more expensive than the cheapest fare you can get, for the same seat) and then put in for an upgrade. The upgrades don't clear until a few days before the flight (for non-status flyers; a week before for people with status). Whether or not the upgrade will be approved or not is the lottery.

Yes, a 'J Award' is a business class seat redeemed using points. But with most airlines, including Qantas, there is additional cash to pay in addition to the points - sometimes many hundreds of dollars per passenger. So its not 'free'. Sometimes with an economy reward seat, the cash charges are almost as much as buying the cheapest paid seat! Economy is not a good use for points. But business can be, if there is availability.

Thanks for all the information! I feel like we’ve been able to get our head around the options a lot better now. In the end we decided to go with Premium Economy tickets and will try to upgrade to Business class using our points in the lead up to the trip. We thought the extra bit of comfort on a long flight was worthwhile and if we can’t uograde to Business using points then we’ll aim to use them on a future trip.
 
Thanks for all the information! I feel like we’ve been able to get our head around the options a lot better now. In the end we decided to go with Premium Economy tickets and will try to upgrade to Business class using our points in the lead up to the trip. We thought the extra bit of comfort on a long flight was worthwhile and if we can’t uograde to Business using points then we’ll aim to use them on a future trip.
if you have enough points then request the upgrade to business as soon as possible. You can always cancel later. Upgrades are processed in status order and then date requested within that order, so sooner is better.
 
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