2014 European earlybird flights - worth flying One World?

[High Horse]

Our family of 5 plans to fly to Europe next June ($$$). We have been waiting for the earlybird fares to come out, and Cathay are first off the rank.

So far airline preferences include full service, IFE, open jaw (fly into LHR out of AMS) and somewhere warm and relaxing for a 3 night stopover on the way home. (open to flying to Kota Kinabalu e.g. ex KL). The cheaper hotel accommodation in this location the better.

My husband is Gold with Qantas, is it worth restricting our search to One World, or are the benefits not worth it? Our kids are getting bigger now (will be 12, 11 and 8) so the lounges turning a blind eye to the cute young things may be a thing of the past? Unless I get the AA 30 day pass??

Extra luggage is neither here nor there as we will have plenty of capacity with 5 of us.

Your thoughts and wisdom greatly appreciated.

 

[madrooster]

Our family of 5 plans to fly to Europe next June ($$$). We have been waiting for the earlybird fares to come out, and Cathay are first off the rank.

So far airline preferences include full service, IFE, open jaw (fly into LHR out of AMS) and somewhere warm and relaxing for a 3 night stopover on the way home. (open to flying to Kota Kinabalu e.g. ex KL). The cheaper hotel accommodation in this location the better.

My husband is Gold with Qantas, is it worth restricting our search to One World, or are the benefits not worth it? Our kids are getting bigger now (will be 12, 11 and 8) so the lounges turning a blind eye to the cute young things may be a thing of the past? Unless I get the AA 30 day pass??

Extra luggage is neither here nor there as we will have plenty of capacity with 5 of us.

Your thoughts and wisdom greatly appreciated.

The AA pass won't be a lot of use to you if flying out of AMS on the way back. It's only useful for QF lounges in Australia and the AA lounge at LHR (departures only) in the context of a trip to Europe.

Lounge restrictions on guesting children vary, you will generally be fine with QF lounges (note it is generally 2 children only but some sweet talking should get the third in). For BA, CX and EK lounges, children over 2 count as a guest.