Award Booking Question.

[Ataj]

Hi,

Not that long ago I came here in deep regret on booking my first trip to the USA. I returned and ate humble pie because it was great. Anyway the daughter is going to LA for 1 week in July and asked me to go. Well I jumped at it.

So my question is that I have enough points for an award flight to LA return in economy on the 747 via Syd or A380 via Melb. But still the trip will cost about $800 in fees and taxes. So I thought I'd ask the experts here if there is another way.

Options

96,000 points + $800 return to LA
$1700 return or $1500 return using 30,000 points.
Other option ?

Yes I want to go but not sure if it's worth 96,000 points and $800.

Thanks for any advice.

 

[Nizar]

Hi,

Not that long ago I came here in deep regret on booking my first trip to the USA. I returned and ate humble pie because it was great. Anyway the daughter is going to LA for 1 week in July and asked me to go. Well I jumped at it.

So my question is that I have enough points for an award flight to LA return in economy on the 747 via Syd or A380 via Melb. But still the trip will cost about $800 in fees and taxes. So I thought I'd ask the experts here if there is another way.

Options

96,000 points + $800 return to LA
$1700 return or $1500 return using 30,000 points.
Other option ?

Yes I want to go but not sure if it's worth 96,000 points and $800.

Thanks for any advice.

It is generally poor value to use points to fly in Economy, and, to the US, it is practically impossible to find seats in Business Class or above unless you are looking 11+ months in advance or are exceptionally lucky.
I would just buy a revenue economy class fare for around $1500 or whatever it is, earn points on it, and save your points for use next time.

 

[Ataj]

I would just buy a revenue economy class fare for around $1500 or whatever it is, earn points on it, and save your points for use next time.

Yeah OK thanks. I mean I'm happy to fly economy, I like way up the back. You just gave me a thought about maybe buying an economy seat and trying to upgrade to premium.

I guess I'm thinking what will I use these points for as I'm not really a frequent flyer at all, but I understand and appreciate the advise that they are not good value on economy flights (didnt know that).

 

[Nizar]

Yeah OK thanks. I mean I'm happy to fly economy, I like way up the back. You just gave me a thought about maybe buying an economy seat and trying to upgrade to premium.

I guess I'm thinking what will I use these points for as I'm not really a frequent flyer at all, but I understand and appreciate the advise that they are not good value on economy flights (didnt know that).

Not sure about upgrades to Premium Economy (PE).
Do you have any status with QF ? Silver, Gold or Platinum or above ? As you said you don't fly often you may not have any status ?

With no status (?) And flying on the most in demand QF route (transpacific) at a peak time of the year I don't like your chances.

Even PE it'll be tough to find award seats but worth having a look. I'd rather use points than buy for anything apart from Economy especially as QFs PE price is a pretty penny.

Must you fly Qantas ? If you have no status and are not a frequent flyer and wanting to fly PE perhaps look at Fiji Airways or Air New Zealand. I think their price for Business Class would surprise you probably not much more than Qantas PE.

 

[mooingchicken]

For that amount of points and taxes i would pay for the full fare, seeming you can get that for under $1000 sometimes. Obviously not in july though being school holidays but 96,000 points to save $800-900 isnt worth it really

 

[Ataj]

Yeah thanks for the replies. I guess doesnt have to be Qantas but just thought I could or should do something with the points.

Actually am planning to go after school holidays to avoid the peak here.

Just wondering when you talk about status I guess that the status points or bronze, silver etc and like whats a status points that is a minimum to get upgrades or cheaper flights ?

 

[RooFlyer]

Yeah thanks for the replies. I guess doesnt have to be Qantas but just thought I could or should do something with the points.

Actually am planning to go after school holidays to avoid the peak here.

Just wondering when you talk about status I guess that the status points or bronze, silver etc and like whats a status points that is a minimum to get upgrades or cheaper flights ?

The point about your QFF status (bronze, silver, gold, platinum, platinum1 covers most of us) is that the higher your status, the better chance you have of getting very elusive 'Award' flights. It is unfortunately one of the traps of the QFF scheme is that its relatively easy to earn points, but very difficult to redeem them in an effective way, but it becomes a bit easier with higher status.

As others have pointed out, redeeming for an economy seats will cost you almost as much in cash taxes and 'fuel fines' as a cheap paid fare with some-body else (or even Qantas). You are wasting your points, or at least not spending them for good value.

If you want to redeem for a PE or a J seat, then you have to plan almost a year out (when the seats get released) and even then, be lucky. But if you have Plat or Plat1 status for instance, you can call and ask for a J Award seat to be released - and often they will do that. But the cost (in points) is the same for all of us. Its just getting them available that's the hard part. The same goes for upgrades.

Don't be too disheartened; you are learning what most never realise . You can redeem on other OneWorld airlines too of course, and on some of them, the cash taxes and fuel fines aren't as much as Qantas, so a Y seat comes into play.

As long as you have one activity a year (eg do a search with the Qantas tool bar - it earns points) your account remains active and the points stay there. So no real need to rush.

 

[Nizar]

Yeah thanks for the replies. I guess doesnt have to be Qantas but just thought I could or should do something with the points.

Actually am planning to go after school holidays to avoid the peak here.

Just wondering when you talk about status I guess that the status points or bronze, silver etc and like whats a status points that is a minimum to get upgrades or cheaper flights ?

Yeah thanks for the replies. I guess doesnt have to be Qantas but just thought I could or should do something with the points.

Actually am planning to go after school holidays to avoid the peak here.

Just wondering when you talk about status I guess that the status points or bronze, silver etc and like whats a status points that is a minimum to get upgrades or cheaper flights ?

How many points do you have exactly ?

Status works like this. For every Qantas flight that you take you get points as well as status credits (SCs). For example MEL-SYD on the cheapest fare may earn you 10 SCs, on a flexible fare maybe 20 SCs and in Business Class 40 SCs. The SCs you earn are mileage based, so flying MEL-SIN may earn 40 SCs on the cheapest fare, 60 SCs on a flexible fare and 120 SCs in Business Class.

If you earn 300 SCs in a 12 month period, you get awarded Silver status. With silver you get some benefits, like 50% more points when you take a Qantas flight, more baggage, etc.

If you earn 700 SCs in a 12 month period, you get awarded Gold status. With gold you get the silver benefits but they are enhanced eg. 75% more points when you fly Qantas, as
well as priority check-in (you can use the Business Class check in counter even when flying in Economy) and Business Class lounge access (even when flying Economy).

If you earn 1400 SCs in a 12 month period, you get Platinum, etc which brings even more benefits.
If you earn 3600 SCs in a 12 month period, you can Platinum One (P1) which is the top tier flying status.

Above P1 there is Chairman's Lounge (CL) which is a status which cannot be accrued* through flying but rather its for Heads of States, Celebrities, CEOs where their company spends millions on QF flights for their employees, etc.

Another benefit of status is that it puts you higher up on the hierarchy tree when it comes to upgrades.

So say there are three seats available in Premium Economy on a given day.
Qantas will see who from Economy has put in point upgrade requests and look at their status.

CL gets first priority, then P1, then Platinum, then Gold, then Silver, then Bronze.

So if you don't have status, I reckon forget about upgrades, ESPECIALLY for high demand routes like MEL/SYD/BNE-LAX or SYD-DFW, and especially during peak periods.
The way I see it, and others may disagree, in this particular case, it would just be a waste of money buying a "Saver" on other higher priced upgradeable fare as your odds of having an upgrade granted are slim-to-none at best.

 

[Ataj]

Yes, thanks alot to the 2 ^^^^ posters for clearing things up. But also for pointing out about the 1world carriers. Look I dont have a huge number of points about 110,000 and return Syd LAX was 96k but that seem like hey unreal.....til I saw I needed to shell out about $800.

But it was a good learning experience and thanks for the advise about spending the points more wisely, so I'm glad I asked because it was all a bit of a mystery and not so foggy now.

 

[RooFlyer]

Hand around and you'll find out ways to get more points more easily (credit card deals, shopping) so you can be a bit more flexible in what you do.

There are people on this forum who don't have any status because they only earn points in non flying ways - but they get to fly First to Europe etc. It does take planning, a long view and some flexibility, but its possible, as these people show.