AFF's Airfare of the Week

[AFF Editor]

See a full list of recent Airfare of the Week (AOTW) articles here:

Airfare of the Week Archives - Australian Frequent Flyer

www.australianfrequentflyer.com.au

Airfare of the Week (AOTW) Guide & FAQs​

How to book an Airfare of the Week​

In general, you can book the featured airfares directly on the airline’s website, or through a travel agent.

Some of the featured fares are for itineraries that depart outside Australia, but you can still book these online on your computer in Australia. If the ticket is priced in a foreign currency, consider using a credit card without international transaction fees to save money.

Some things to consider when booking separate flights on different tickets​

You can often save a lot of money by booking flights on separate tickets. For example, you might use points to fly from Melbourne to Jakarta and then purchase a ticket from Jakarta to Amsterdam on another airline.

However, when doing this, beware that you won’t be protected if a delay to your inbound flight causes you to no-show for the next flight. For this reason, ensure you allow plenty of time between flights on separate tickets.

You may also need to clear immigration & customs and collect your checked luggage at the intermediate airport, before checking in for your onward flight on the next ticket. You may require a visa to do so.

Where to find the fare rules​

If you have an ExpertFlyer subscription, you can find the full fare rules applicable to any ticket by doing a Fare Information Search on ExpertFlyer.com. You may also be able to view fare rules on ITA Matrix.

Key fare rule terms & definitions​

Here are some of the terms you might come across when reading fare rules, and their definitions:

• Minimum stay – some fares require you to stay a minimum number of nights (or at least one Saturday night) at the destination
• Maximum stay – some fares require you to take the return leg of a round-trip ticket within a certain time frame (e.g. 1 month, 3 months, 6 months or a year)
• Advance Purchase Requirement – if applicable, the fare can only be booked more than a certain number of days before departure
• Stopover – A break in the trip of more than 24 hours
• Transfer/Transit – A break in the trip of less than 24 hours
• Blackout dates – Travel dates for which the fare is not available (usually due to high demand)
• Surcharges – Additional charges that could apply, for example, when flying on certain days of the week (like weekends)
• Travel Restrictions – covers the specifies travel dates for which the fare is available
• Sales Restrictions – specifies when this airfare is available to book
• Ticket stock – refers to the carrier that issues your ticket (for example, a Qantas-issued ticket will be on “081” ticket stock, which is the code for Qantas and signifies that the ticket number will begin with 081.
• PNR – the six-digit booking reference (can be a combination of letters and numbers)

How do I find my fare class, and why is this important?​

Your fare class (RBD) is a letter code such as Y, J, D or I which signifies the type of airfare you’re booking. It’s important to know your fare class if you want to earn points & status credits for your flight, especially when crediting to a partner airline, as different fare classes earn at different rates (or may not be eligible to earn points at all).

See our guide to fare classes for more details, including how to find your fare class.

If you want to credit your flight to Qantas Frequent Flyer, you can check whether a given fare class is eligible to earn points using the Qantas Frequent Flyer Earn Category tables. The Where to Credit website is also very useful.

Can I skip one or more of the flights on my ticket?​

If you fail to board any of the flights on your booking, the rest of your ticket will automatically get cancelled and you may not be entitled to a refund. So, you should plan to take every flight on your ticket! If you only want to skip the last flight, beware that airlines may frown upon this and you should not consider doing this with checked luggage.

How can I find cheap airfares for myself?​

We suggest using Google Flights, especially the Explore feature. See our Google Flights guide for details.

 

[AFF Editor]

AFF is introducing a new weekly column in the Frequent Flyer Gazette called “Airfare of the Week" (AOTW)!

Each week, we’ll feature a great Economy, Premium Economy, Business or First Class airfare which could be useful to Australians. It could be a fare available to/from Australia, or could also be another fare which Australians could use to save money getting to a long-haul destination (e.g. from Asia to Europe). We’ll try to feature a good mix of airfares, including fares on alliance-based and Velocity partner airlines that you can earn points & status credits with.

This thread is a place where you can discuss and ask questions about the featured airfare deals, as well as to suggest fares for us to feature in the future. We'd also interested in your thoughts and suggestions on the segment in general.

Our weekly articles will contain details about each of the featured airfares. For the benefit of newbies, we’ve also put together a guide/FAQs which you'll find in the first post of this thread.

 

[AFF Editor]

This week's inaugural AOTW features a Hawaiian Airlines Black Friday sale fare from Sydney to Kona, Honolulu, Kahului, Lihue or Hilo.

This itinerary could earn you enough Atmos Rewards points to book a one-way Qantas Premium Economy award from Australia to New Zealand:

Airfare of the Week: Hawaiian Airlines Sydney-Kona $706 Return

AFF's inaugural Airfare of the Week (AOTW) column features a great Hawaiian Airlines Economy Class deal from Sydney to multiple Hawaiian islands that could earn you enough Atmos Rewards points to fly Qantas Premium Economy to New Zealand.

www.australianfrequentflyer.com.au