Best awards Europe bound flight

[mrsterryn]

Husband and I are wondering about using Qantas points to book an award First (preference) or business to go to Europe. Handy to land in London Frankfurt or Paris
Can be leaving Melbourne or Sydney
Wondering which one world carrier would be best ?
Looking at Nov 2019 just wondering if feasible or not? Do carriers have bookings then ?
Happy to fly separately
Thanks

 

[JohnM]

QF opens award seats 353 days out (at midnight UTC). Premium cabin seats are generally very rare on key routes so be ready to swoop.

IME, using QF points to get F or J redemptions on EK is much easier - at least from PER. EK seats open, ostensibly at 333 days out, but some of my observations suggest that they seem to release whY seats earlier and F&J possibly in weekly tranches around 333 days out.

It may be worth thinking about positioning to ADL, BNE or PER to have a greater chance of securing awards on EK - and DXB is a natural hub into Europe.

EK F is far superior to QF F IMHO.

 

[mrsterryn]

It may be worth thinking about positioning to ADL, BNE or PER to have a greater chance of securing awards on EK - and DXB is a natural hub into Europe.

EK F is far superior to QF F IMHO.

Thanks. We are happy to fly out of other capital cities.

 

[Aus ATC]

Not sure about Cathay Pacific F (compared to EK or QF), but often has good availability, and the taxes / fuel fines will be much less, for a small increase in the number of points required.

 

[mrsterryn]

Not sure about Cathay Pacific F (compared to EK or QF), but often has good availability, and the taxes / fuel fines will be much less, for a small increase in the number of points required.

Any particular city better to depart from in Aust ?

 

[Aus ATC]

Any particular city better to depart from in Aust ?

I've only looked to/from BNE myself, but a dummy booking (for dates within range) should give some ideas on availability from your preferred departure port.

 

[JohnM]

I've not used CX for award bookings, but according to the listing here: Wiki - "oneworld" award (140K/280K/420K) Planning - The Definitive Thread availability opens at 360 days out.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Any particular city better to depart from in Aust ?

CX doesn't offer F from any Australian cities, that's only available from HKG onwards to select Euro destinations, on select flights. When searching, better to use the multi-city tool on Qantas and search for PER-HKG and then HKG-Europe. The catch with CX is that you may not be able to snag 2 F seats at the time they open award reservations. You may need to book one ticket in business and the other in F, and then 'upgrade' to F closer to the date of departure (CX generally opens up in the two weeks prior to departure).

Emirates is very generous with F seats.

 

[amaroo]

Last week we had some trouble securing QF F seats, so decided to fly J to Tokyo, then JAL F to LHR .... on the way back we're doing CX F from CDG to HKG, then CX J to BNE.

The beauty about this arrangment - the F flights are day flights. With awards, you've got to be flexible!

 

[mrsterryn]

Last week we had some trouble securing QF F seats, so decided to fly J to Tokyo, then JAL F to LHR .... on the way back we're doing CX F from CDG to HKG, then CX J to BNE.

The beauty about this arrangment - the F flight are day flights

I did a couple of dummy runs from Tokyo and award seats seem to be easier from there
So many permutations to do this
Appreciating all the advice

 

[JohnM]

Keep playing and testing - rewards come from hard work and persistence .

 

[mrsterryn]

Just watching out for rewards and what is available , kinda, via which airlines and in doing do I have come across some Syd to Paris Cathay Seats (via Qantas) for June 7th 2019.
Didn't expect the availability for those dates

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Just watching out for rewards and what is available , kinda, via which airlines and in doing do I have come across some Syd to Paris Cathay Seats (via Qantas) for June 7th 2019.
Didn't expect the availability for those dates

snap them up! cancellation is only 6000 points if your plans change

 

[mrsterryn]

snap them up! cancellation is only 6000 points if your plans change

Unfortunately not the dates I need
However nice to get Cathay first and business
Hoping will be some in Nov for Nov 2019
I was just seeing what airlines there were on the Qantas site when I asked for points only flights

 

[Silvia]

It all depends on taxes you are willing to pay, flexibility... CX may be a good option if you have enough time in your stopover as you can do a pretty decent lounge crawl with the variety of great F and J class lounges.
EK is pretty good as well, yet taxes tend to be higher.

 

[CaptJCool]

You ought have little little trouble booking classic rewards for November from your city of preference. I tried to book some this year and there’s good availability in November 2018... (as there was in March 2018)

That said. Repositioning out of Australia opens up a pile of availability not available from here. Hub ports like Singapore and Hong Kong. Better still booking from Hong Kong reduces the whole pile of pain of carrier charges. And JAL BA EK amongst others give plenty of options.

The other comment is that Perth to Rome or Vienna is the lowest points spend (F 288,000 return had a look just now and endless availability) of all so that’s worth a thought too.

 

[mrsterryn]

It all depends on taxes you are willing to pay, flexibility... CX may be a good option if you have enough time in your stopover as you can do a pretty decent lounge crawl with the variety of great F and J class lounges.
EK is pretty good as well, yet taxes tend to be higher.

1st to Frankfurt from Sydney with Cathay was 354 in taxes and charges
I thought that was quite good

 

[mrsterryn]

Thanks @CaptJCool sounds promising.
We were considering trying from an Asian port as well

 

[JohnM]

Thanks @CaptJCool sounds promising.
We were considering trying from an Asian port as well

Keep up the lateral thinking and you'll be sweet .

 

[BD1959]

1st to Frankfurt from Sydney with Cathay was 354 in taxes and charges
I thought that was quite good

Just be very careful with the QF Awards booking engine. AFAIK Cathay don't fly first from Australia, in fact the only oneWorld First options I'm aware of ex-Australia are QF, BA and Qatar. The QF engine will offer you first on Cathay with a caveat that your flight from the Australian port to HKG (and return) is in - usually - Business.

Emirates - as others have highlighted - also offer first from Australian ports, though to maximise the F experience, some would say pick a route with the A380.

Most oneWorld partners: Cathay, Malaysia, Cathay, JAL will offer Business to their home port and First to either London or Frankfurt - BA us usually also an F option from there too - but consensus seems to be, that the Booking Engine will charge you F for the whole trip. You're usually better sticking with Emirates or Qatar if you want a European port other than Heathrow and F the whole way.

Happy hunting!

Regards,

BD