Advice on booking J tickets to the USA with frequent flyers (Qantas and AADvantage)

[kirstyoz]

Hi forum geniuses

I have been causally reading this forum for a little while and picking up bits and pieces. I think I am on the right track, but I was hoping for advice before I decide how to proceed.

My husband and I want to fly J to the USA (into LAX, then we will arrange a few domestic flights from there seperately) from Perth in 2014 for 4-6 weeks during September/ October. Money is tight so I have been working on points to try and get us there as cheaply as possible.

Between us we currently have about 275,000 Qantas frequent flyers and will likely have anywhere from 5000-10000 more by the time september rolls around. If we book 353 days out when seats become available, from checking on the Qantas site I am guessing that will be enough for two outward J seats flying Qantas.

For the way back, we were going to purchase AAdvantage miles and book a one way J fare on the code share qantas / American flights so we'll be on a Qantas flight back. 60,000 points (plus a bonus of 12,000 points) is currently in the region of USD$1700-1800 and it would cost about 62000 points to book a one way J airfare USA to Perth. So I could purchase 60,000 and my husband can, and then we are set with points to book return flights. Are AA mileage flights available 353 days out same as Qantas?

So the outward flights should be sorted with points plus taxes. And return flights should cost $3500 plus taxes or thereabouts.

Does anyone have any concerns, input or suggestions around this? Does it sound like a reasonable plan? I would really appreciate any feedback people may have.

 

[Danger]

Re: Advice on booking J tickets to the USA with frequent flyers (Qantas and AADvantag

Your calculations in terms of points seem good. A one way Business award form Perth to Los Angeles (via Brisbane, Melbourne or Sydney) will set you back 112k per passenger so even for two you'll still have a not insignificant amount of points left over.

Award seats on American Airlines are released about 330 days out; however, you'll be flying on Qantas who releases their awards closer a full year out (355 days sounds familiar but I'm not sure of the exact number). (Note that because you're not flying on AA metal, the time when they release their award seats is not relevant.) A one way AA awards from North America to Australia will cost you 62.5k per person so with an AA purchase points bonus (I think there is one on now) you wouldn't need to buy the full 62k, probably more like 50k each.

Taxes on a QF award won't be small. At a guess I would say somewhere around $400 per passenger but a simple dummy booking on the QF website will give you a much better indication. When using AA miles, even when flying on QF metal, the taxes will be much lower. On your route I doubt you'd be paying more than about USD80 per person.

You will need to find out exactly how many days in advance QF releases their award seats (a member will post the exact days) and then be ready to pounce on availability as soon as they are availability. Two Business seats on the same flight may be a little tricky to get a hold of but the upside is you can through either Sydney or Melbourne (for the A380) and there's always Brisbane if worse comes to worse (only a 747 at this stage, although the Business seat will almost certainly be the same product as on the A380).

You mentioned you plan on doing some internal flights. Note that AA awards allow a stopover at the North American gateway city. So, for example, your 62.5k AA miles could get you, say, Chicago to Los Angeles to Sydney for the same price. This would save you the cost of getting a separate flight from Chicago to Los Angeles. And don't forget the service to and from Dallas. You could fly Washington to Dallas to Brisbane, for example, again for the 62.5k

Finally, when booking your AA award, try hard to avoid paying through AA's Australian call centre number as they will charge you AUD80 per passenger. If possible, do it all through AA in the US. When it comes times, ask for advice on how to do that as there are plenty of people who have done that on AFF.

 

[Danger]

Re: Advice on booking J tickets to the USA with frequent flyers (Qantas and AADvantag

Again, wow.



Feel free to sign up, people. It's . . . free.

 

[get me outta here]

Re: Advice on booking J tickets to the USA with frequent flyers (Qantas and AADvantag

I'm often on here as a guest as AFF keeps throwing me out so that I have to log in yet again.

 

[Hvr]

Re: Advice on booking J tickets to the USA with frequent flyers (Qantas and AADvantag

I'm often on here as a guest as AFF keeps throwing me out so that I have to log in yet again.

Check the "remember me" button before you sign on and you'll stay logged on forever.

 

[shellthom]

Re: Advice on booking J tickets to the USA with frequent flyers (Qantas and AADvantag

I'm often on here as a guest as AFF keeps throwing me out so that I have to log in yet again.

Glad to see im not the only one that does 1000 other things then gets kicked out before moving on to the next page of posts.

 

[Inver]

Re: Advice on booking J tickets to the USA with frequent flyers (Qantas and AADvantag

Check the "remember me" button before you sign on and you'll stay logged on forever.

Yes works really well. Never had a problem being logged out after checking that option.

 

[get me outta here]

Re: Advice on booking J tickets to the USA with frequent flyers (Qantas and AADvantag

And no one can get in and pretend to be you and say all sorts of amusing / unamusing (or should that be nonamusing), things on your behalf?

I'm stopping myself pointing out the difference between uninterested and disinterested elsewhere.

 

[shellthom]

Re: Advice on booking J tickets to the USA with frequent flyers (Qantas and AADvantag

Check the "remember me" button before you sign on and you'll stay logged on forever.

I use fconnect and I cant get the remember me to work ... but I also can't use my user name and password to long in

 

[lovestotravel]

Re: Advice on booking J tickets to the USA with frequent flyers (Qantas and AADvantag

The issue I believe in trying to use AA to get J seats on QF for the Australia-USA-Australia route is that in the 25 or so days after Qantas release them, is that they will already be booked by QF customers....

 

[Mwenenzi]

Re: Advice on booking J tickets to the USA with frequent flyers (Qantas and AADvantag

Aust - Lax is a notoriously hard route to get award flights. Will be so more coming back.
As you are in Perth consider one or both flights via Asia. Even if you have pay to get to Asia: SIN - KUL- HKG
Reward seats are NOT guaranteed to be available One of you may have to travel different days and/or routes

 

[Paddy55]

Re: Advice on booking J tickets to the USA with frequent flyers (Qantas and AADvantag

Managed to get 2 x cheap JASAs for travel Dec 12 last year SYD-MEL-LAX (QF93), and 3 x cheap JASAs LAX-SYD on (refurbished) QF108 for travel Jan 7 this year.
So, it can be done, even at peak times, but you have to pounce, and I mean pounce, at the minute they become available.

I find seatexpert invaluable in sussing things out ahead of time - getting a sense of what is likely to be available on which day of the week. Mon - Thu availability is better than Fri - Sun, for example.

As someone else has mentioned, being in Perth you might find PER-HKG-LAX, etc on CX a little easier to obtain via QF, or as 2 Aawards on AA.

 

[kirstyoz]

Re: Advice on booking J tickets to the USA with frequent flyers (Qantas and AADvantag

Great advice everyone thanks so much. We are open to going varying routes including the Cathay route through HK, we came back that way last time after some issues with delayed flights and Cathay J was excellent Chicago to Hong Kong. I will plan on being ready to pounce as soon as the award flights are released!

 

[garybatz]

Re: Advice on booking J tickets to the USA with frequent flyers (Qantas and AADvantag

I understand that AA releases their Award seats 330 days ahead, but does anyone know what time of day they appear online? I know it's 10.00am Melbourne time for QF but keen to find out if AA also have a set time for release. Hoping to use my AA points for a LAX-MEL flight around 15 July 2014. Many thanks.

 

[ozbeachbabe]

Re: Advice on booking J tickets to the USA with frequent flyers (Qantas and AADvantag

Another option would be to purchase a J fare PER/NAN for AUD1,497.00 one way or in Y for AUD592.00. You could then do a QF Classic/Partner award on FJ NAN/LAX for 72,000 plus FJD195.30 (AUD115.00) so taxes not too bad.

If you purchased a NAN/LAX fare in J instead of using points, FJ have a Biz Saver fare for approx AUD1,352.00 pp one way including taxes so that way you could hang on to your points & use them for a Classic Award in J USA to Aust for the homeward sector.

You could grab the award seats LAX/SYD when they're released at 353 days ahead on a QF Classic Award then if you manage to get award seats via AA 330 days out you could then cancel the QF Classic award* & go with the AA Saver award & save yourself cash as the AA taxes are much cheaper. AA's points structure is much better as well as NYC/PER is the same points as LAX/SYD so you're not penalised for living in the West.

You've obviously done a lot of research before your post which puts you in the box seat to get the most bang for your buck and potentially save yourselft thousands of dollars.

Matrix - ITA Software

* Cancellation penalty would apply

 

[drron]

Re: Advice on booking J tickets to the USA with frequent flyers (Qantas and AADvantag

It is obviously in the wee small hours.If I look at Midnight our time then again ~0600 another day has appeared.
At present can select LAX flights to Australia for June 1st,June 2nd appears on the calendar but when you click on it it wont show.
FAawards disappear quickly but J are OK.On 1/6/14 for example 2 J Aawards LAX-BNE.
AA also comes up with BNE,SYD,MEL awards when you select any of them.Makes it a lot easier.

 

[garybatz]

Re: Advice on booking J tickets to the USA with frequent flyers (Qantas and AADvantag

It is obviously in the wee small hours.If I look at Midnight our time then again ~0600 another day has appeared.
At present can select LAX flights to Australia for June 1st,June 2nd appears on the calendar but when you click on it it wont show.
FAawards disappear quickly but J are OK.On 1/6/14 for example 2 J Aawards LAX-BNE.
AA also comes up with BNE,SYD,MEL awards when you select any of them.Makes it a lot easier.

Thanks drron, good to know. I agree too that the AA site is great the way it gives you more routes to get to your destination, I'm not that fussy with this trip so long as I make it home

 

[drron]

Re: Advice on booking J tickets to the USA with frequent flyers (Qantas and AADvantag

Ok June 2nd awards available at 2300 BNE time.

 

[garybatz]

Re: Advice on booking J tickets to the USA with frequent flyers (Qantas and AADvantag

Ok June 2nd awards available at 2300 BNE time.

Brilliant, thanks again drron

 

[serfty]

Re: Advice on booking J tickets to the USA with frequent flyers (Qantas and AADvantag

Ok June 2nd awards available at 2300 BNE time.

That would have been 8am DFW (summer) time.