A high risk strategy to get out of whY

[simongr]

Hi all

As some of you might have seen I have booked my first serious AAward flight - a RTW in J (oneworld award) as follows:

syd-hkg-jfk-lhr-lca-lhr-hkg

Followed by a QF award HKG-SYD in whY

As many of you will also be aware I have a slight aversion to flying in whY

Chatting to QF009 today instead of working on some mind-numbingly tedious accounting stuff I started to muse on potential changes to my oneworld award if availability came up HKG-SYD in J.

Then the brain really started to race as I was thinking about potentially spending a couple of days in HKG to really enjoy the Conrad's facilities As I did that I stumbled across F availability SIN-SYD on BA on the Sunday evening after we get to HKG on the Thursday evening.

So I thought to myself we could spend Friday and Saturday in HKG and fly HKG-SIN on SQ in J for about A$1,380 and then fly SIN-SYD in F overnight getting home Sunday morning.

The problem is the points cost. I am currently sat with the following balances:

QF - 25K
AA - 93K

The points costs of the oneway trip using QF points is 180K. The points cost of an AAward would be 90K but for a return trip (not sure how useful that would be for us though).

I currently have about 60K Amex points sat in Amex ready to move as necessary.

In terms of points to post in the next two weeks I have either 16K/18K if I post them to QF or 21K/24K if I post them to AA (the variance is due to whether I get to switch to the QF flight rather than JL).

I have 4,739 that have not posted to AA at all (AY flights from July) and 13340/17350 that could be posted to QF or AA (aa have refused to give me the points as they posted to QF but were then reversed by QF - QF have agreed to reinstate if I can prove that QQ havent paid the points.

Also if I switch to the SIN-SYD flight I will get back about 50K points from QF refund.

So here are my options...

1 - Try and maximise points in AA and get everything to AA in the next two weeks. I estimate by the end of the PER-SYD flight I will have the following AA points:

Current - 93,000
Flights - 21,842
Stickers - 22,000 (I have 44)
Amex - 24,000 (60K at .4 ratio)
Missing - 21,890 (assuming I can get them all to post)

This gives me a grand total of: 182,732 - which is just about enough for the AAward

2 - Make two separate bookings using AA points for one and QF points for the other. I could reverse the curent HKG-SYD booking and drop in another 10K of points from Amex

There are two risks to this - 1 between reversal of HKG-SYD and booking SIN-SYD the SIN-SYD availability could vanish. 2 Due to BA's seating polciy we may not be sat together. Mind you that might not be such a risk as in F we can preselect and we would just take the BA equivalent of 3EF/4EF.

Overall this strings the trip out a a few days further but does give us quite a nice rest in HKG (I would use points for the Conrad) and let mrssimongr fly in F (also skillfully avoiding whY).

Any thoughts - have I missed any twists?

Cheers as ever

S

 

[Mal]

FF seats are very liquid. They can be there one day, and gone the next. (They can also re-appear at any stage!).

Without enough points to make the immediate booking for your replacement seat, then I would hold off.

A few days in HKG is a good idea. I'm sure Mrs Simongr would enjoy some of the shopping and other things to do there.

 

[simongr]

Just spoke to mrssimongr and she seemed good with the plan

Good points re the risk of cancelling and not having points.

I think the strategy might have to be to dump all of my upcoming flights to QF and the Amex points I have and see if the seats are still available in a couple of weeks. My HHonors points should have posted by then so that also will be a potential booking I can make.

It would be a stunning end to the trip to whiz home in F.

 

[Hawkeye]

It would be a stunning end to the trip to whiz home in F.

It could also conceivably be the very trip that Mrs simongr decides to never travel in anything below F!

Very high risk, indeed.

 

[simongr]

Its only BA F

 

[alect]

I think I am confused, but hope I got it....how to get HKG-SYD not in whY?

So if SIN-SYD in BA F is available, why not call and hold the award with AA. If HKG-SIN leg is also available on CX grab that too. Standard AA awards are return but why don't you try for a one world award which is miles based and will cost you HKG-SYD = 4581 miles (as SIN is transfer only). And you will have two OW carriers - CX and BA. The OW80C ( Total Trip Miles = 4,001 - 9,000) award is 80k miles. SIN-SYD is 75k but you would still need 2 OW airlines which probably won't work.

Or did I completely get this wrong?

 

[simongr]

I think your facts are completely correct - but I didnt give you the whole story - sorry

I have already booked and ticketed 2xOW150 aawards. I did this back in July over the period of a month to secure J for the rest of the trip. At the time I only had 300K AA miles and the additional mileage getting from HKG-SYD would have put me into a OW190 aaward so I had to book separately.

Even AA would amend the aaward and turn it into a OW190 byt adding HKG-SIN-SYD there is no J availability SIN-SYD and I would still be in whY. Hence a separate and slightly expensive way of achieving the same thing.

Does that make things clearer?

Sometimes I do ramble on here as a sounding board to get my thoughts aligned and probably don't help the people trying to help me

 

[simongr]

The process has started - I flicked my Amex points to QF and am putting my upcoming flights to QF.

Now in terms of a recommendation - the options for HKG-SIN for A$1305

SQ863 777 13:30-17:10
CX735 777 14:10-17:55

Both in J. Is there any chance that the 777 would be three class config flying as two class? Which would be the nicer experience?

If I flew CX I would have F lounge access at HKG and SQ qould only be J but it might be nicer J seats on SQ.

Any thoughts?

S

 

[littl_flier]

Now in terms of a recommendation - the options for HKG-SIN for A$1305

SQ863 777 13:30-17:10
CX735 777 14:10-17:55

Both in J. Is there any chance that the 777 would be three class config flying as two class? Which would be the nicer experience?Any thoughts?

S

I haven't flown either Simongr but you're a very pro-Oneworld guy so it might be nice to experience SQ to see what everyone raves about and experience somthing different.

 

[simongr]

It could be a slippery slope though

For the record I am not pro-OW - I am pro-simongr - just trying to maximise the benefits.

My key driver on this part of the trip is for mrssimongr to have the best possible flying experience - for that I will forgoe points and status.

 

[littl_flier]

It could be a slippery slope though

For the record I am not pro-OW - I am pro-simongr - just trying to maximise the benefits.

My key driver on this part of the trip is for mrssimongr to have the best possible flying experience - for that I will forgoe points and status.

You're a great husband Simongr.

There will definitely be no FF points with SQ. Also, depending on how much Mrs Simongr shops in NYC, you will go from having the huge OW baggage allowance back to the SQ business allowance but I'm sure you'll keep Mrs Simongr under control.

SQ do operate First Class on their HKG-SIN flights but as you know, with no status an op-up is unlikely. You could always try to get BMI to match your AA EXP status and that might get you SQ FL access at HKG but I'm not sure of the specific *A rules. Would Mrs Simongr be interested in the Wing at all or is it something that's not worth choosing an airline over?

 

[NM]

CX will definitely be regional product.

think of the candy

 

[Mal]

CX will definitely be regional product.

Plane substitutions happen, so not always - but agree pretty much assured of a relatively average CX J seat.

 

[simongr]

It makes it a very tricky decision - the options might be (obviously all predicated on continued availability of F award sin-syd) a nice lounge experience (BBQ pork buns for breakfast in the wing) or a better onboard experience....

I have to say I am a completely spoilt brat at this point

 

[NM]

Plane substitutions happen, so not always - but agree pretty much assured of a relatively average CX J seat.

Very unlikely for that route. Its more common to see CX substitute a 3-class A330 (333) for a 2-class regional A330 (330). I have never seen a 777 substitution on CX. I certainly would not choose one airline over another based on the possibility of an aircraft sub unless it is a very common occurrence on a route. CX has so few 777-300ERs (only 2 I think) and they are needed exclusively for their promoted long-haul ops, that there pretty much zero chance of getting one on a short-haul op like HKG-SIN.

 

[Shano]

Managed to score a CX 777-300ER between PVG and HKG two weeks ago. As I was only in Y it wasn't really much of a thrill, although the guy beside me was op-up'd on board as his AVOD wasn't working.

I am assuming it was the ER as it was a 3 class AC.

Not sure of the reasoning (if any) of the ER on this particular route (ironing out AVOD bugs perhaps )

I have to say I am a completely spoilt brat at this point

Yes you are, you should be ashamed of yourself..... Oh wait, that should have been posted in another thread.....

 

[simongr]

Currently now sat on 74K QF points so only another 16K to go until I can book So thankful that the 140 points from my onboard purchases posted

 

[NM]

Managed to score a CX 777-300ER between PVG and HKG two weeks ago. As I was only in Y it wasn't really much of a thrill, although the guy beside me was op-up'd on board as his AVOD wasn't working.

I am assuming it was the ER as it was a 3 class AC.

Not sure of the reasoning (if any) of the ER on this particular route (ironing out AVOD bugs perhaps )

If it was 3-class on a 777 then its a 777-300ER. I thought they normally use A340 or A330 aircraft on that route.I have not seen a 777 scheduled to operate it. So perhaps a last min sub for an airbus?

I guess then had enough slack in the schedule to send it up to PVG and back (the schedule calls for a 6 hour turn-around) between its long-haul commitments. Would be a little harder to squeeze in a 9 hour turnaround HKG-SIN-HKG.

The 777-300ER normally operates HKG-JFK, which departs HKG at 7pm, so the 3pm return from PVG would allow it to be prepped for the JFK flight. I can only assume they now have more 77Ws in the fleet, otherwise they had to substitute something else for the JFK run the previous day as its return to HKG at 2pm normally means there is only 5 hours on the ground at HKG which is not enough time to send it elsewhere.

The first HKG-SIN departure is around 9am, and its SIN turnaround departs just before 2pm getting back to HKG at 8pm, which is too late to make the JFK connection. This is why I feel it is unlikely that a 77W would be used HKG-SIN-HKG in place of a 773.

But anything is possible! But as I said before, I would not book CX HKG-SIN in the hope of getting a 77W substitution. But I would book it in preference to SQ in order to earn more AA miles and EQPs.

 

[Keith009]

Or if you don't need the Qpts/miles, I highly recommend booking SQ1 HKG-SIN which is currently a 744 but, being the SFO-HKG-SIN flight, is very high on the list for an 'upgrade' to the A380.

Ticket quick while it's still a 744 to avoid the A380 'new product' fine.

And even if you don't get the A380, the Spacebeds are still streets ahead of any CX regional seat.

There's also SQ861 HKG-SIN which is a 77W but you'd get the 'new product' fine in C.

The only way to guarantee yourself the long haul product on CX is to book CX713 which is a 744 and leaves around the same time as SQ1, but involves a transit via BKK. Or if it's a Sunday, CX739 is currently showing as being operated by the 77A (substitutions to a regional plane can occur though).

 

[jasonja3]

The only way to guarantee yourself the long haul product on CX is to book CX713 which is a 744

CX713 has the "older" long haul product, the same as what operates SYD-HKG on the 333's. Sloping bed (really a seat IMO) and AVOD.