All sorts of help for a newbie please - booking QFF reward seats, tips and tricks pls

[rock86]

Re: All sorts of help for a newbie please - booking QFF reward seats, tips and tricks

If it's only for 2 people then you'll have enough points to use the qantas oneworld rtw reward, and I'm in the same situation as you looking at January 2019 reward to the US for 2. So I've been doing dummy searches with different routes, plenty of availability with CX, QA, AY & BA depending on what routes you want to take. However, BA does have very high surcharges which you'd need to take into consideration.

Or you could fly EK, there seems to be a fair bit of availability to get to the US via DXB.

All of these searches have been in J also.

 

[GoldCanyon340]

Re: All sorts of help for a newbie please - booking QFF reward seats, tips and tricks

If your flight SYD - US is about 12noon, and the first flight you get from ADL is at 6am, gets to SYD at 8.30am, the transfer time, really is getting short.

Barring a major unforeseen circumstance 3.5 hours is MORE than enough time to have a stress free transfer from T3 to T1 at SYD.

 

[mannej]

Re: All sorts of help for a newbie please - booking QFF reward seats, tips and tricks

Poochie, 3.5 hours is ample transfer time...

 

[RichardMEL]

Re: All sorts of help for a newbie please - booking QFF reward seats, tips and tricks

Poochie, 3.5 hours is ample transfer time...

I'd even say too much, specially if no decent lounge access (one's definition of that can vary ) ... and EVEN if wanting to look at the shops etc.

for me when doing a Dom->Int at SYD I'd allow no less than 90min (just in case of inbound derlay) and prob around 2-2.5 hours ideally (mostly for a decent meal in the Flounge, but that's the option I am lucky enough to have). Over 3 is oerkill, even if relaxing in a lounge IMHO.

 

[ozbeachbabe]

Re: All sorts of help for a newbie please - booking QFF reward seats, tips and tricks

Also someone mentioned the multi city booking. If you use this remember that if there is less than 24 hours in Sydney when connecting to QF73/from QF74 then the price will be as per Adelaide to San Fran.

For premium economy in this case the price is the same for both Sydney to San Fran and Adelaide to San Fran, provided you spend less than 24 hours in Sydney.

Basically timing of flights is very important. You can also use this to not get the first flight from Adelaide, but to get up later and have an overnight in Sydney before getting the flight to the US. That way the transfer is nothing to worry about.

I second this. With QF73 currently departing 1300 and possibly earlier at other times of the year I would opt to fly out the day before.

Having to get up at 0300 for an 0600 departure isn't a great way to start a long flight when you can fly the day prior for the same price.

You could either splurge on the Rydges SYD Airport or get the 400 bus to Bondi and stay at an Airbnb at Coogee then Uber it to the airport the next day.

If you do fly ADL/SYD the same day as SYD/SFO then avoid B7 17 operated flights as they're more likely to be delayed than B738 flights.

 

[RichardMEL]

Re: All sorts of help for a newbie please - booking QFF reward seats, tips and tricks

In Jan, QF73 departs at 1500 per the current schedule. More than enough to get say a 0900 -1000 out of ADL arrive SYD ~1pm plenty of time. It's certainly not going to be a 0-dark-thirty departure.

 

[MissMandM]

Re: All sorts of help for a newbie please - booking QFF reward seats, tips and tricks

How many people do you have travelling? The 570000 points has got me a bit confused. In premoum Economy 570k point would be the cost for about 4 people. It is going to be extremely hard to get 4 seats in January.
I did assume you only wanted 2 seats - 570000 point shuold be able to get 2x business return.

i apologise, there are 4 of us. my husband and I and our (will be at the time) 11y old and 8 y old daughters
we have realised (rookie mistake) that the points we need will be ACCRUED but not necessarily CREDITED to me in time to book for Jan 2019. So March/April it is (but avoiding easter maybe ????)
i am DEFINITELY going to need help with this stay over night, split flights, multiple airlines craziness. stay tuned. begging to follow

 

[AustraliaPoochie]

Re: All sorts of help for a newbie please - booking QFF reward seats, tips and tricks

Truthfully, you could do it better to sit in whY from ADL if you HAVE to transit SYD/MEL/BNE on the flight from ADL to the eastern states before the big flight.
FIRST, option, if available, go via HKG.
Second option, if you still want to go via SYD, is to fly the 5.55pm flight from ADL - SYD, gets to SYD about 8.30pm, you can get the get a taxi, for 4 is not that bad, $30/4.
From T3 to T1, the distance is short, but the taxi fare is high, but with your luggage for 4, taxi will be best.
You could also get a bit of an earlier flight ADL - SYD, and get a bit of sunshine for window view, arr into SYD.
I assume your QF SC is Bronze, so you won't have any lounge access as it is, ADL QP (Qantas Club) is nothing special to crow about, nice to get a drink/basic meal, or you can have something at many of the eateries.
PremY does not give lounge access.
If you do successfully scoop 4 J award seats, this will give you lounge access all the way. SYD QFi J lounge is nice.

 

[Pushka]

All sorts of help for a newbie please - booking QFF reward seats, tips and tr...

Why the need for a taxi to carry luggage on a connecting flight Poochie? But even if the day before just use the transfer bus. Rydges is very close to Int.

OP. Maybe you could purchase 2 Y seats and redeem 2 award seats. Award seats aren't easy to get for 4 with no status.

 

[amaroo]

Re: All sorts of help for a newbie please - booking QFF reward seats, tips and tr...

My experience in booking hundreds of award seats for family trips - is being flexible and devoting lots of time learning how the QFF game is played. Start playing with dummy bookings and be creative with search and routing queries.

SYD-SFO-SYD along with BNE-LAX-BNE will be your best bet for QF .... however, as has been mentioned above CX will most likely deliver the seats you need.

 

[RichardMEL]

Re: All sorts of help for a newbie please - booking QFF reward seats, tips and tricks

Truthfully, you could do it better to sit in whY from ADL if you HAVE to transit SYD/MEL/BNE on the flight from ADL to the eastern states before the big flight.
FIRST, option, if available, go via HKG.
Second option, if you still want to go via SYD, is to fly the 5.55pm flight from ADL - SYD, gets to SYD about 8.30pm, you can get the get a taxi, for 4 is not that bad, $30/4.
From T3 to T1, the distance is short, but the taxi fare is high, but with your luggage for 4, taxi will be best.
You could also get a bit of an earlier flight ADL - SYD, and get a bit of sunshine for window view, arr into SYD.
I assume your QF SC is Bronze, so you won't have any lounge access as it is, ADL QP (Qantas Club) is nothing special to crow about, nice to get a drink/basic meal, or you can have something at many of the eateries.
PremY does not give lounge access.
If you do successfully scoop 4 J award seats, this will give you lounge access all the way. SYD QFi J lounge is nice.

Far out. I totally disagree with this UNLESS one wants to spend the extra time and money, but get more rest prior to the long haul.

However, getting a peak (~6pm) flight out of ADL is probably worse to get reward seats on vs say a 0900 flight.

Looking at current (Jan 2018) schedules, you can easily get a few connections out of ADL to get to SYD to connect to QF73:

0800-1025
0915-1140
Even 1100-1325 would be do-able as a connection to the 1500 departure of QF73.

I could see more chance of seats opening on the 0915 out of ADL than the previous evening's ~6pm peak departure for SYD.

IMHO.

 

[Flying mermaid]

Re: All sorts of help for a newbie please - booking QFF reward seats, tips and tricks

I wasn't quite sure where to put this, but this thread seemed appropriate. My friend who I often help with award bookings, texted me on Monday asking if I could see any J award availability to DXB in January. Initially I thought "in your dreams", but being a good friend and armed with this board's expertise I went looking and in fact found him cbr-bne-dxb return flight for his dates and in J, with Emirates. He was very impressed with me, but then realised it wasn't the A380. I told him he could have an award flight or pay for the A380 with money

Anyway he went to book late last night and after a bit of frustration was almost there when the system crashed on him, so he phoned up Qantas and asked them to book for him (he has no status). What they managed to find for him was a cbr-bne overnight then bne-Syd-dxb in J flying the A380 out of Sydney! I think he is then dxb-bne-cbr coming back, but he was really happy to get the a380 one way. Just a really bizarre routing and the Syd-dxb routing wasn't available if you did cbr-Syd overnight Syd-dxb. He also tossed them for the booking fee on the grounds that the system had fallen over when he was trying to book! I am sure the experts on here would know why this routing is needed. But moral of the story is if you can't find what you want online, a phonecall might help.

 

[travellerqff]

Wasn’t sure where else to post this without starting a new thread... but I just read this:

How to book two flights for the price of one using Qantas Points

So in theory, a LST SYD PER classic award should be 36,000? Yet when I search it I’m being quoted 60,000 (24,000 plus 36,000) for taking both on the same calendar day.

Am I missing something?

 

[CaptJCool]

Wasn’t sure where else to post this without starting a new thread... but I just read this:

How to book two flights for the price of one using Qantas Points

So in theory, a LST SYD PER classic award should be 36,000? Yet when I search it I’m being quoted 60,000 (24,000 plus 36,000) for taking both on the same calendar day.

Am I missing something?

Right at the bottom of the article, it suggests the distances maybe change the points spend when the stopover is included ?

 

[CaptJCool]

JL awards are already on......

Re: All sorts of help for a newbie please - booking QFF reward seats, tips and tricks

Hello

The biggest risk is the desire for 4 seats.....that may well stonker your efforts....

Taking a leaf from @Limewood.

TICKET one You could do a one way adelaide HK.
TICKET two. HK - SFO. Then SFO - AD done as a multi-city booking

This WAY ought prune all QF/EK carrier surcharges as HK bans them. AND that could be a saving for 4 tickets

 

[travellerqff]

Right at the bottom of the article, it suggests the distances maybe change the points spend when the stopover is included ?

After looking further, the distance falls into zone 4, which is still 50,000 points, not 60,000 - so something is not right.

 

[JohnK]

So in theory, a LST SYD PER classic award should be 36,000? Yet when I search it I’m being quoted 60,000 (24,000 plus 36,000) for taking both on the same calendar day.

Am I missing something?

This is a new glitch that has crept in recently. I've posted about it in another thread.

From memory it was something like BKK-SIN-SYD as a multi-city instead of 28,000 points was quoting ~37,000 points. Some will be caught out and book the expensive award. If you call they'll book the award at the correct points required.