Are we there yet Mr QFF ? (subtitle am I missing something ?)

[medhead]

If you will observe, I referred to a QF award seat.

Would that be a tautology then? Is "seat" redundant?

 

[roomer]

Thanks Ellen for sharing your experiences.

So you are saying even a year out you had to hang about ie wait 6 plus weeks before you could book a return flight? And I guess you did the booking on the basis of the fallback position in that if you couldn't get the return flight in J for the date you wanted, you'd have to shell out for an economy flight home instead?

In my mucking around today with the Qantas site, I notice you can bookmark / save your itinerary, but do you (or anyone else) know how long that saved itinerary would be held for so you could make the actual flight booking?

Ah! This is not straightforward, even being flexible with dates. Just been on the phone with Qantas after dealing with the online chat system "person" Nuku , this guy on the phone just contradicted what I had just been told by Nuku.

See I couldn't understand why when I ticked "search classic flight" and began a RtW itinerary it never gave me a points useage total, whereas a multi city selection did. Turns out a RTW trip using points can only be booked via phone! It wasn't a site error Nuku.

Using the the website for Classic Rewards for any trips (other than RTW) can be done via points but at a much higher rate than the aforementioned RTW trip booked over the phone.

Points plus pay can be used for any trip but at a much higher burn rate.


So can anyone please confirm via personal experience that what I was told over the phone is correct given the erroneous info I received. Ie RTW flights via redemption of points can only be booked over the phone?

 

[medhead]

If you want to book an RTW type classic award you should use the multi city booking tool on the website.

 

[roomer]

If you want to book an RTW type classic award you should use the multi city booking tool on the website.

thanks Medhed ( and this is a higher point use than using the Qantas phone booking service, correct ?)

 

[medhead]

thanks Medhed ( and this is a higher point use than using the Qantas phone booking service, correct ?)

I'm not entirely familiar with all the award categories. But I'm pretty certainly that a oneworld partner award is capped at 140,000 points in Y (280K in business). Provided you have QF and 2 other oneworld partners it should cap at that points level. I think all qantas flight awards might be a bit cheaper (but not sure all QF is possible for RTW). I would've expected a phone booking to be more expensive with the phone assistance fees.

 

[travelislife]

Definitely go the 280k business award. It can be booked online but this is what most people do:

1. Book your first leg online. Say Adelaide to Europe. I would recommend Cathay or Qatar. Ignore the points cost.
2. When the next leg is released, ie Europe to USA call up Qantas and get them to book it and add it to the booking.
3. Repeat step 2 for USA to Australia.

This will cost 280000 + 3500 + 3500.

Using this technique also ensures you aren't waiting and lose your earlier flights.

What you want is definitely doable and I am happy to help for no cost. If you post your ideal itinerary we can then see what is likely to work best.

thanks Medhed ( and this is a higher point use than using the Qantas phone booking service, correct ?)

No same cost. As long as you meet the rules. Harder to do though as you need all the availability at once. Better to do as I suggested above.

 

[roomer]

I'm not entirely familiar with all the award categories. But I'm pretty certainly that a oneworld partner award is capped at 140,000 points in Y (280K in business). Provided you have QF and 2 other oneworld partners it should cap at that points level. I think all qantas flight awards might be a bit cheaper (but not sure all QF is possible for RTW). I would've expected a phone booking to be more expensive with the phone assistance fees.

Yes, this is where I got confused Medhead, the guy who I spoke to telling me that there were no phone booking fees for a RTW because there was no other option to do so other than booking via phone. Apparently the phone assistance fees applied to the bookings you could have made online - which would be the multi city bookings but as I mentioned , I think those bookings use more points. It certainly is not straightforward. Thanks for your comments

 

[medhead]

Yes, this is where I got confused Medhead, the guy who I spoke to telling me that there were no phone booking fees for a RTW because there was no other option to do so other than booking via phone. Apparently the phone assistance fees applied to the bookings you could have made online - which would be the multi city bookings but as I mentioned , I think those bookings use more points. It certainly is not
straightforward. Thanks for your comments

As per the below, I don't think multicity bookings cost more points once you hit the capped level. For a business award with upto 5 stopovers that cap is 280000 points. The cost will (should) be the same.

No same cost. As long as you meet the rules. Harder to do though as you need all the availability at once. Better to do as I suggested above.

 

[roomer]

As per the below, I don't think multicity bookings cost more points once you hit the capped level. For a business award with upto 5 stopovers that cap is 280000 points. The cost will (should) be the same.

Thanks for making that point medhead, I got confused earlier as I thought that the RTW bookings by phone allowed the same number of stopovers, as a RTW trip using the one world site ( think that allowed 16). When I couldn't get the total points for that RTW trip, I did the same itinerary using multi city bookings and given I had more than 5 stopovers, it showed a higher points useage. Making a bit more sense now

Definitely go the 280k business award. It can be booked online but this is what most people do:

1. Book your first leg online. Say Adelaide to Europe. I would recommend Cathay or Qatar. Ignore the points cost.
2. When the next leg is released, ie Europe to USA call up Qantas and get them to book it and add it to the booking.
3. Repeat step 2 for USA to Australia.

This will cost 280000 + 3500 + 3500.

Using this technique also ensures you aren't waiting and lose your earlier flights.

What you want is definitely doable and I am happy to help for no cost. If you post your ideal itinerary we can then see what is likely to work best.

For some reason I missed seeing your later comments travels-life. That is very kind of you to offer to help and I am most appreciative! I'll still try to nut out how the sites work but would definitely like to seek your help closer to the time if I get into strife. I can't shout you a beer cos your in Melb and I am in Adelaide, but I could tee up a carton as a token of my appreciation
.

 

[travelislife]

For some reason I missed seeing your later comments travels-life. That is very kind of you to offer to help and I am most appreciative! I'll still try to nut out how the sites work but would definitely like to seek your help closer to the time if I get into strife. I can't shout you a beer cos your in Melb and I am in Adelaide, but I could tee up a carton as a token of my appreciation
.

No trouble at all, and no need for beer! Happy to help.

As a starting point it would be good to know what your 'ideal' itinerary is with no compromises. We can then plan out if it is possible or what might need changing and make a plan of attack for when the time comes to book.

 

[roomer]

No trouble at all, and no need for beer! Happy to help.

As a starting point it would be good to know what your 'ideal' itinerary is with no compromises. We can then plan out if it is possible or what might need changing and make a plan of attack for when the time comes to book.

Thanks travelislife, will do. I'll do my homework and be in touch soon

 

[Deleted member]

My visions of snaring a business upgrade, via my points collection at that time, were dashed by those in the know of this forum, when I was advised that for a bronze member ,not only was there no certainty in booking a flight and requesting an upgrade via points, in fact it would be very unlikely at all.

So since I had already had those my points, I went further with all the various point earning tricks, such that my foray into the art (dark?) of collecting QFF points amassed into ~ 660,000 points for my wife and I.

But wait, the thought of netting a business trip to Europe (possibly RTW) seemed to dimish when I went onto the Qantas site to look at making a hypothetical booking, it seemed that we'd be using pretty much all our points just on an economy trip to Europe. I then figured out that was a pay or points approach and that there was another option; Classic Rewards

As best I could, I saw that there were more economical use of my points in snaring a business class flight using the Classic rewards but obviously it was subject to availability and suprise, suprise there were extra dollars needing to be forked out if you were actually successful. The trick I gleaned was try to book a year out.

Now being a complete novice at this, I thought I'd do some extra homework, so for a few bucks I sampled a few of the Flight solutions programme but didn't like my chances of actually gaining anything for my subscription - no criticism of the course more of a reflection of the dill I am when it comes to understanding how all of this stuff works.

So the nub of this , we are looking to do a RTW in September next year going to somewhere in Europe eg Paris or Rome and thence to visit my son and family in Dallas (business class would be good but if not, well so be it, I'm tired of collecting points and not seeing any benefit from them.

I know it is more than a year out but I thought 'Id begin my "brain picking" early in case there was a slim beacon of hope that there was an easier way. ie I understand you can only use QFF points on the QFF website but I heard there's a third party booking crowd out there other called I Fly Flat.

So has anyone had any experience with the I Fly Flat crowd, where you pay a fee for someone to book your trips using your points? or any other crowd for that matter?

Anyway appreciate peoples suggestions as to how someone who's never does this might finally be able to achieve this long awaited lifestyle event or do I resign myself to a lifetime supply of toasters

cheers

You may want to consider buying one ticket with cash, using points for the other. yes there are issues around availability, but it might deliver a good result for less (or not much more) than the cost of two whY tickets..... just a thought

 

[medhead]

One thing I noticed while investigating the family's return from the USA was that one way flights across the pacific with AA were not significantly higher that the one way cost in a return ticket. i.e. one way SFO-ADL for about US$950, and return for about US$1800. I was expecting the one way cost to be something like US$1800. One way is US$1350 booked via Qantas website.
If you can only get an award to the US within the rules, buying that flight home might price ok.

 

[Scr77]

While planing for our September trip coming up with CX, I noticed that availability over the northern hemisphere summer was restricted. Approaching September 2017 you will find better availability.

Also, register and use BA website to see the number of seats available in each class.

 

[roomer]

While planing for our September trip coming up with CX, I noticed that availability over the northern hemisphere summer was restricted. Approaching September 2017 you will find better availability.

Also, register and use BA website to see the number of seats available in each class.

thanks for your comment Scr77. I am puzzled as to how viewing of the BA site assists when you are obliged to use the Qantas site to view seats availability. Let's say you do see some seats on BA but if they are not on the Qantas linked site, surely there's not much you can do about it?

You may want to consider buying one ticket with cash, using points for the other. yes there are issues around availability, but it might deliver a good result for less (or not much more) than the cost of two whY tickets..... just a thought

Thanks for your thoughts, GPH, All grist to the mill!

One thing I noticed while investigating the family's return from the USA was that one way flights across the pacific with AA were not significantly higher that the one way cost in a return ticket. i.e. one way SFO-ADL for about US$950, and return for about US$1800. I was expecting the one way cost to be something like US$1800. One way is US$1350 booked via Qantas website.
If you can only get an award to the US within the rules, buying that flight home might price ok.

Cheers Medhead, appreciate the tip

 

[Scr77]

thanks for your comment Scr77. I am puzzled as to how viewing of the BA site assists when you are obliged to use the Qantas site to view seats availability. Let's say you do see some seats on BA but if they are not on the Qantas linked site, surely there's not much you can do about it?

The BA site shows carriers that the qantas site doesn't, like Japan Airlines. They are bookable via Qantas with Qantas points but you need to know that they are there in the first place. For planning, it can be helpful to learn that CX release 8 J seats on certain days of the week, but only 2 on some other days of the week.

 

[roomer]

The BA site shows carriers that the qantas site doesn't, like Japan Airlines. They are bookable via Qantas with Qantas points but you need to know that they are there in the first place. For planning, it can be helpful to learn that CX release 8 J seats on certain days of the week, but only 2 on some other days of the week.

Gee, this is not designed to be straightforward, is it. Thanks very much for that insight Scr77

 

[travelislife]

Gee, this is not designed to be straightforward, is it. Thanks very much for that insight Scr77

Yep this is 100% why should start with an ideal itinerary for your dates and destinations and then looking at all one world airlines that go to those destinations and then can work back from there to fill the slots.

 

[roomer]

Yep this is 100% why should start with an ideal itinerary for your dates and destinations and then looking at all one world airlines that go to those destinations and then can work back from there to fill the slots.

Yes, it's been quite an eye opener. I am finalising discussions with my wife re itinerary and dates as you have suggested so I can get back to you. Wonder if I may need to have a backup itinerary as well ...

Yep this is 100% why should start with an ideal itinerary for your dates and destinations and then looking at all one world airlines that go to those destinations and then can work back from there to fill the slots.

Yep this is 100% why should start with an ideal itinerary for your dates and destinations and then looking at all one world airlines that go to those destinations and then can work back from there to fill the slots.

G'day travelislife,

Just responding to your kind offer of assistance in advising that our ideal itinerary flying business class would be something like

beginning of September 2017 or thereabouts

ADL - HKG ( Hong Kong) 1 day travel plus 2 nights stay
HKG - FCO ( Rome) 3 weeks in Europe
CDG (Paris) - IAH (Houston) 1 day travel plus 7 nights stay
IAH - HNL ( Honolulu) 1 day travel plus 4 or 5 nights
HNL - ADL 1 day travel

making it a shade under 6 weeks, but of course knowing that it will be all about availability. Now my understanding is that you can't see if any such flights are available ( via points at least) until 353 days beforehand, but it is also patently clear I have no clue as to the finer points of this booking caper:-|.

When convenient of course, I look forward to your suggestion as to the the next part of this journey!

 

[travelislife]

G'day travelislife,

Just responding to your kind offer of assistance in advising that our ideal itinerary flying business class would be something like

beginning of September 2017 or thereabouts

ADL - HKG ( Hong Kong) 1 day travel plus 2 nights stay
HKG - FCO ( Rome) 3 weeks in Europe
CDG (Paris) - IAH (Houston) 1 day travel plus 7 nights stay
IAH - HNL ( Honolulu) 1 day travel plus 4 or 5 nights
HNL - ADL 1 day travel

making it a shade under 6 weeks, but of course knowing that it will be all about availability. Now my understanding is that you can't see if any such flights are available ( via points at least) until 353 days beforehand, but it is also patently clear I have no clue as to the finer points of this booking caper:-|.

When convenient of course, I look forward to your suggestion as to the the next part of this journey!

That all looks pretty good. The hardest bit of that itinerary is going to be the Honolulu bit. So there might need to be some flexibility there to head straight from the US back to Australia. Otherwise I reckon the rest of it is doable.

Cathay Pacific flights are actually available at approximately 360 days out. You will notice if you search for ADL-HKG today it only allows you to select up to July 12 2017 (i.e. 353 days). But when the results show up there are actually flights available through to the 19th of July. You can see my example search below actually lets you choose flights further out then the initial search allows.






So my suggestion would be to first book ADL-HKG//Stopover//HKG-FCO online in one booking. You can do this online using the multi city tool.

You would want to start looking at this at about 360 days out from the HKG-FCO flight.

Getting this initial leg booked in online will then start the booking. The following legs will be added by phone. I will do some further investigation on availability for the other legs soon. But it appears you should have any issue getting Cathay Pacific for the ADL-HKG and HKG-FCO legs booked a year in advance.

Best advice is to get on and have a play with the multi city tool online for the ADL-HKG//HKG-FCO flights so that when it comes time to book you know the process inside out.

Any questions just let me know.