Okay, a real live example on whether QF or AA is cheaper. Both prices were using the AA and QF websites last night, as
Dave Noble and I plotted the best way for me to finish my AA Plat Challenge by 15 July.
I have two trips next week, one to SYD and the other to MEL. As I'm sitting on 6,853 EQP's (need 10K to complete Plat Challenge) and mileage earning for these flights are minimum 500 EQP's. I needed a little tweaking on the fllights - so it's BNE/SYD/BNE and BNE/SYD/MEL/SYD/BNE. I also needed to find one sector as a Business Class sector to top off the EQP earning to more than 10K. It also had to fit into my schedule (departure and arrival times) and cost (although I'll be salary sacrificing some of the costs that are above my expense account limits). Amounts below from AA web site have been converted to AUD for easy comparison.
BNE/SYD in S class was $151 on AA, QF was $171 ($20 saved)
SYD/BNE in S class was $151 on AA, QF was $171 ($20 saved)
BNE/SYD in L class and SYD/MEL in S class were $330 on AA, QF was $376 ($46 saved)
MEL/SYD in W class was $293 on AA, QF was $328 ($35 saved)
SYD/BNE in D class was $424 on AA, QF was $474 ($50 saved)
Total saved = $171 (the exact cost of an S class BNE/SYD).
Dave Noble was able to confirm along the way (as I chose flights) whether there was U seat availability using ExpertFlyer. Time to spend my QFF points as I have enough to burn. So after making the booking on the AA website, I rang QF Platinum Desk and relieved myself of 24,000 points (3 x 8K) for the initial BNE/SYD/BNE sectors (they were showing U3 and U9 respectively) as well as SYD/MEL (showed U8).
All bookings only show my AA FF number, but upgrade points burned through my QFF account. Thes best of both worlds. Now I don't need to worry about poor seat asssignment on most of my flights (is there a bad seat in J
:?: )
We could have done it by ICQ or MSN and that would have saved me the telephone call cost (but work pays). It'll also cost me the price of a meal for Dave on Monday night in SYD. Well worth it IMO.