Best options for Europe/Asia?

[ffnovice]

Hello fellow members,
I would like to ask for your help and expertise in the following matter.

I am contemplating traveling to Europe in July 2015 before going to China where I'll be staying for a longer period of time, and I wanted to know the best way to book tickets for this type of journey.
My preferred carrier is QF, but I am looking to credit any points and status credits to my QFF therefore any oneworld carrier would suffice.
A rough itinerary is as follows:

Ex ADL or MEL - MUC 7th of July 2015
MUC - PVG 23rd of July 2015
PVG - ADL or MEL (Anytime in Feb 2016)

My questions are:
-Is it best to book all legs on the one ticket?
-If so, which is the best way to approach this kind of booking? Because I have attempted a couple of ghost bookings through the Qantas website using multi city but it won't show any availability.
-Would it be cheaper to enter Europe via MUC and exit to PVG via another european city (for example AMS or LHR)

If you have any advice or previous experience I would greatly appreciate the input.
Thank you in advanced.

 

[knasty]

My suggestion is to.use Kayak multi city option. Kayak allows you to return results by alliance, so you can select only Oneworld. It's not perfect but I find it to be a great tool to start with.

 

[dajop]

My gut feel is that it will be cheapest to do two separate returns one from MEL/ADL to PVG and second from there to MUC and back. Which class?

+1 for the kayak multi city tool it is, good but do check each sector as one way also .. you never know. Finnair maybe a good option too, so worth checking their website.

I suspect limiting yourself to oneworld may make it more expensive, but I am sure you know what premium you would be willing to pay.

 

[ffnovice]

My gut feel is that it will be cheapest to do two separate returns one from MEL/ADL to PVG and second from there to MUC and back. Which class?

+1 for the kayak multi city tool it is, good but do check each sector as one way also .. you never know. Finnair maybe a good option too, so worth checking their website.

I suspect limiting yourself to oneworld may make it more expensive, but I am sure you know what premium you would be willing to pay.

Thanks for the great info.
I have tried looking into the Kyak multi city tool, however it shows really odd fares. For example if I conduct one search it'll price approx $3000AUD but then I modify the search for slightly different days and it shows the cheapest fare as around $5000AUD.
However it does seem to be the cheapest to fly into China on a return, and fly PVG to MUC on another return ticket.

I am curious, wondering whether anyone could help with the following too. As I have been searching the PVG - MUC ticket the cheapest OW ticket is with QR. I have flown MH in the past which failed to credit to my QFF as it wasn't a valid booking class. When I search the QR tickets through kyak the travel websites show a bookings class letter, am I right to take these letters as guide to whether I'll earn points or not?

Thanks!

 

[knasty]

Massive fare variation is par for the course. If a sale fare expires or is fully booked the next class up can be a big jump. Yes the kayak booking class displayed will be correct but as it's not an actual booking engine check with the website you actually book through.