Avoiding surcharges Mel - North America

[ffhound]

Hi everyone

My niece wants to go to Vancouver from MEL in jan/feb next year and I am looking to help her out. I have around 150,000 Qantas points and also around 103,000 velocity points.

Ideally I'd like to shell out as little cash as possible, However of course a typical Mel-YVR round trip is looking at $800+ in surcharges and taxes.

is there any clever way I could get the cash cost down? For example could she fly with another Oneworld airline that charges lower surcharges? I thought that American Airlines might be an option but they do not appear on the search engine when I search the route. I

Is it possible to book AA flights (with a AA number) using Qantas points for MEL-YVR? If so how?

Hoping someone can help

cheers Peter

 

[JohnPhelan]

Hi everyone

My niece wants to go to Vancouver from MEL in jan/feb next year and I am looking to help her out. I have around 150,000 Qantas points and also around 103,000 velocity points.

Ideally I'd like to shell out as little cash as possible, However of course a typical Mel-YVR round trip is looking at $800+ in surcharges and taxes.

is there any clever way I could get the cash cost down? For example could she fly with another Oneworld airline that charges lower surcharges? I thought that American Airlines might be an option but they do not appear on the search engine when I search the route. I

Is it possible to book AA flights (with a AA number) using Qantas points for MEL-YVR? If so how?

Hoping someone can help

cheers Peter

Yes, search for the two sectors separately - MEL-SYD and SYD-YVR. It is also highly likely that all the award redemption seats for that period are well and truly gone.

 

[offshore171]

How is the seat availability?

That’s the height of the Canadian ski season plus Australian school holidays, so the demand will be peaking. Usually award seats are gone 10 months out.

What goes in your favour is that you’re looking for a single seat.

 

[snabbu]

AA and CX generally have low taxes on awards so check out MEL-HKG-YVR on CX or ...

if you can find SYD-LAX-YVR on AA the taxes will be next to nothing so then tack on a MEL-SYD sector.

As above, finding the seats at such short notice could be tough.

 

[ffhound]

Thanks

I s there any stock that you can only see and book through the operators? I'm thinking one option might be to fly via Japan on JAL.

Cheers peter

 

[serfty]

Note that recently AA awards in economy (T class) stopped showing on Qantas.com (not sure about higher cabins).

This is (supposedly) due to a 'glitch' - to book those awards you need to call at the moment (but check for availability on AA.com first).

 

[offshore171]

Thanks

I s there any stock that you can only see and book through the operators? I'm thinking one option might be to fly via Japan on JAL.

To book JAL through QF, you do need to do it via phone.

It’s worth a call. You may be able to get the sector between Japan and YVR, but between AU and Japan I suspect you’ll hit availability problems. Again you can blame the skiers.

 

[fairbasa]

There's often excellent availability on JAL (I guess because it doesn't show on Qantas.com), particularly out of MEL as it's a new route.

AA I find release their award seats in bunches. Easiest to search on aa.com for their award availability.

 

[jetpack]

Also note the points costs which might offset any tax savings. These are one way economy.
QF MEL-SYD-YVR is 45,000 points
QF/AA MEL-SYD-LAX-YVR is 55,000 points
CX or JL via HKG/NRT is 75,000 points

 

[ffhound]

Thanks

I have another 80k points coming soon on Qantas so points aren't the issue. Its more about avoiding the out of pocket cost.

If a flight is available for AA miles redemption is it available for Qantas miles redemption?

I just did a quick search on the AA website and I can see that one could redeem 42500 AA miles to go Syd-YVR on American flight 72 then AS455 and AS2242. But this does not show up on the Qantas booking engine. Would this be available for booking with Qantas points as an AA flight? If so, how?

cheers Peter

 

[serfty]

AAdvantage awards are not Qantas FF awards.

Certainly you should be able to book that as AS is a partner of QF, however the points cost is likely to be high as there are two 'trips' - SYD-LAX and LAX-YVR - with each calculated separately.

Generally, if you can book an AA award on AA metal with an AA flight number, you should be able to book with Qantas FF.

 

[fairbasa]

Thanks

I have another 80k points coming soon on Qantas so points aren't the issue. Its more about avoiding the out of pocket cost.

If a flight is available for AA miles redemption is it available for Qantas miles redemption?

I just did a quick search on the AA website and I can see that one could redeem 42500 AA miles to go Syd-YVR on American flight 72 then AS455 and AS2242. But this does not show up on the Qantas booking engine. Would this be available for booking with Qantas points as an AA flight? If so, how?

cheers Peter

Make sure you're only looking at Mile Saver Awards and not Anytime Awards. IME Mile Saver awards reflect flights bookable as QF classic awards.*

Disclaimer: Keep in mind they're different programs, and just because it's listed on AA.com doesn't absolutely guarantee it's available on Qantas.com

 

[offshore171]

Have you rung to see what’s available via phone booking?

 

[ffhound]

Have you rung to see what’s available via phone booking?

I tried at lunchtime but was told the queue length was 1 hour

 

[ffhound]

Just got through to Qantas. Unfortunately there are no AA seats currently available for Syd to lax for Jan 18.

 

[deebens]

There are a handful of economy seats on Virgin. From Jan 16th onward outwardbound MEL-YVR, with stops at BNE/SYD and LAX on the way.

77600-78000 all points or 54800 with $147-150 in charges.

As far as Feb on the way back
6th of Feb and 27 Feb the only days with economy reward seats YVR to MEL

 

[offshore171]

There are a handful of economy seats on Virgin. From Jan 16th onward outwardbound MEL-YVR, with stops at BNE/SYD and LAX on the way.

77600-78000 all points or 54800 with $147-150 in charges.

As far as Feb on the way back
6th of Feb and 27 Feb the only days with economy reward seats YVR to MEL

OP need to jump on that ASAP

 

[ffhound]

OP need to jump on that ASAP

I shall!

 

[ffhound]

Thanks everyone for your help

Ultimately I booked a return flight MEL-YVR using my Virgin points. The taxes only worked out at $275. My niece is really happy.

The information about booking American flights is quite useful and I will note this for future reference.

I do however have one final question.

I know that it is possible to use Qantas points to book an American flight number on American metal but is it possible to book am American flight number on Qantas metal using Qantas points?

cheers peter

 

[serfty]

I know that it is possible to use Qantas points to book an American flight number on American metal but is it possible to book am American flight number on Qantas metal using Qantas points?

No! I have have an award flight in AA73 connecting to QF421 booked with QFF points coming up in March (+++ was USD47.29).

An economy QF12 connecting to QF421 flight booked today costs 45000 points and +++ of USD406.43, of which USD350.60 are Carrier charges; it rises USD400.60 in carrier charges for Business.