Best way to get Qantas status flying Melbourne - Tel Aviv and not fly for 30 hours..

[newbieflyer22]

Hubby needs status to maintain WP status with Qantas. He has to fly Melbourne Tel Aviv, but this is El Al from Hong Kong (and no status).....IF he flies Qantas to London, then to Tel Aviv, he gets status , BUT it takes an extra 11 hours AND he pays thousands extra (business) ...

Any suggestions creative people as to how to fly Mel - Tel Aviv, get status, not pay $1000's extra and take hours extra AND be on the same ticket so that if a connection is missed, he will be OK?

 

[moa999]

Re: Best way to get Qantas status flying Melbourne - Tel Aviv and not fly for 30 hou

No directs to TLV from SIN or DXB.
Is a 3-wkly from BKK.

Maybe JQ StarClass Max to BKK then ElAl, or route through SYD

 

[newbieflyer22]

Re: Best way to get Qantas status flying Melbourne - Tel Aviv and not fly for 30 hou

No directs to TLV from SIN or DXB.
Is a 3-wkly from BKK.

Maybe JQ StarClass Max to BKK then ElAl, or route through SYD

Problem is that El Al does not earn status.....he needs status.....plane is better from HK

 

[greenfish]

Re: Best way to get Qantas status flying Melbourne - Tel Aviv and not fly for 30 hou

How about Qatar to AMM via DOH, then RJ to TLV. You'll need two tickets, but can earn status all the way.

Alternatively QF to AMM (via DXB), and RJ again. Two tickets, and no doubt more status thanks to simpler and fairer.

 

[Mattg]

Re: Best way to get Qantas status flying Melbourne - Tel Aviv and not fly for 30 hou

Have you looked at Finnair via HEL? It will require a bit of extra flying time, but not 11 hours. Qatar and/or Royal Jordanian via Doha/Amman is also possible.

If you want to save a bit of money, perhaps also look at prices ex BKK as well as HKG and work out if a positioning flight to Bangkok is worthwhile. From BKK, the trip can be done with RJ with only one stop, and relatively inexpensively in J.

 

[A330]

Re: Best way to get Qantas status flying Melbourne - Tel Aviv and not fly for 30 hou

RJ is the best option for all flights on one ticket. Fly QF SYD-BKK, RJ BKK-AMM-TLV.

DOH-AMM & DXB-AMM don't connect well with RJ's AMM-TLV flights so QF & QR are out. AY only runs HEL-TLV 2x weekly.

 

[esseeeayeenn]

Re: Best way to get Qantas status flying Melbourne - Tel Aviv and not fly for 30 hou

Hubby needs status to maintain WP status with Qantas. He has to fly Melbourne Tel Aviv, but this is El Al from Hong Kong (and no status).....IF he flies Qantas to London, then to Tel Aviv, he gets status , BUT it takes an extra 11 hours AND he pays thousands extra (business) ...

Any suggestions creative people as to how to fly Mel - Tel Aviv, get status, not pay $1000's extra and take hours extra AND be on the same ticket so that if a connection is missed, he will be OK?

Some suggestions below ...

You can't book these on one ticket directly with the airline online (I tried on each airline's respective website) but if you go through an online or offline travel agent they can book it for you on one PNR. That will protect your hubby in case of delays etc.

I found these prices on on CheapOAir.com - but be careful as they don't display fare buckets.
As status is the whole point you'll want to clarify that before booking. Although it shouldn't be as much of an issue in business as in economy.
Famous last words - almost all OW airlines other than QF do have fare buckets which do NOT earn SCs. So check.
They do have a phone service and if you do a dummy booking and abandon it after you put in a phone number they may even call you!
However other agents might find better prices.

MEL-KUL with MH then KUL-AMM with RJ then AMM-TLV with RJ - for $3,676 one way in J - 200 SCs - 25 hours 55 minutes total trip time - 21 hours 30 minutes flying time.

MEL-DOH with QR then DOH-AMM with RJ then AMM-TLV with RJ - for $5,902 one way in J - 160 SCs - 30 hours 30 minutes total trip time - 18 hours flying time.

MEL-DOH with QR then DOH-AMM with QR then AMM-TLV with RJ - for $5,905 one way in J - 160 SCs - 30 hours 30 minutes total trip time - 18 hours 5 minutes flying time.

The first option via KUL with MH is showing as cheaper than the price I see for MEL-HKG with CX then HKG-TVL with LY which is $4,743.

Options with CX all include non-oneworld sectors with El Al or Swiss Air which wouldn't earn status.
There is an Emirates option but it's very expensive and there would be no QF code share available on anything within the middle east after DXB anyway.
I haven't included any options with BA because you already said your hubby didn't want to waste the time flying through London.

NOTE: These were all looked up using a dummy date of 18 November as I couldn't see a date of travel in your OP.

 

[docjames]

Re: Best way to get Qantas status flying Melbourne - Tel Aviv and not fly for 30 hou

SYD-BKK-AMM-TLV would seem the best.

RJ operating the 787 BKK-AMM then AMM-TLV less than 1hr on an A320. QF an A330 to BKK (eventually all 330s will be upgraded to their latest J seating).

Can see $6k fares circa November.

 

[newbieflyer22]

Re: Best way to get Qantas status flying Melbourne - Tel Aviv and not fly for 30 hou

WOW! Lots of creative people out there...

To complicate things, Hubby does not want to fly RJ (safety concerns)....

Was on MH flight 2 days after MH 370 went down....not keen on them either....

Seems he is going to have to make some compromises or not keep WP status.....

 

[docjames]

Re: Best way to get Qantas status flying Melbourne - Tel Aviv and not fly for 30 hou

If not wanting RJ the list of sub 2hr flights as the "final leg" evaporates.

Next "easiest" would be QF to DXB or QR to DOH then TK (not one world) via IST.

DOH-IST about 5hrs, IST-TLV about 2hrs.

 

[Mattg]

Re: Best way to get Qantas status flying Melbourne - Tel Aviv and not fly for 30 hou

To complicate things, Hubby does not want to fly RJ (safety concerns)

Out of curiosity, what are the safety concerns associated with Royal Jordanian? I would consider them a safe airline, personally.

 

[boomy]

Re: Best way to get Qantas status flying Melbourne - Tel Aviv and not fly for 30 hou

Out of curiosity, what are the safety concerns associated with Royal Jordanian? I would consider them a safe airline, personally.

Some Jewish people don't feel comfortable flying on ME carriers in case there is an emergency landing in "unfriendly" country and some other seasons. Personally I disagree with those views and flew RJ to TLV many times in the past but I do understand some people's concerns.

To address the OPs question, I'm doing SYD/MEL to TLV a couple of times a year and tried all kinds of creative options by now. No doubt QF/RJ is the most convenient, otherwise if must fly OW to maintain status the next best option will be QF/BA via LHR (assuming he won't like to fly on QR or EK).

Can fly AY as well but connection times are not very convenient.

 

[esseeeayeenn]

Re: Best way to get Qantas status flying Melbourne - Tel Aviv and not fly for 30 hou

Those preferences are very restrictive. If you want to abide by them all and earn status credits there is going to be a cost in dollars and time. It's unavoidable.

 

[newbieflyer22]

Re: Best way to get Qantas status flying Melbourne - Tel Aviv and not fly for 30 hou

Mattg - not sure. Safety rating was his comment. Truly unsure of evidence

 

[newbieflyer22]

Re: Best way to get Qantas status flying Melbourne - Tel Aviv and not fly for 30 hou

Thanks.... Frustrating.....

 

[newbieflyer22]

Re: Best way to get Qantas status flying Melbourne - Tel Aviv and not fly for 30 hou

Boomy will fly EK....I would have thought that made other options feasible...

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Re: Best way to get Qantas status flying Melbourne - Tel Aviv and not fly for 30 hou

Mattg - not sure. Safety rating was his comment. Truly unsure of evidence

Royal Jordanian hasn't had an accident since 1979 by the looks of it. Not sure if there are many airlines that could even come close to that. On that scale you'd have to rule out just about every carrier, except El Al for the journey.

 

[PaulST]

Re: Best way to get Qantas status flying Melbourne - Tel Aviv and not fly for 30 hou

Royal Jordanian hasn't had an accident since 1979 by the looks of it. Not sure if there are many airlines that could even come close to that. On that scale you'd have to rule out just about every carrier, except El Al for the journey.

Nope, you'd have to rule out El Al too. In 1992, a 747F's engine came loose killing 43.
I've flown El Al twice (BKK-TLV and TLV-HGK) and won't be in a rush to fly them again. Old aircraft and less-than-friendly FAs. It was a relief to get onto a QF A380 at HKG...


*BTW I think El Al are perfectly safe.

 

[moa999]

Re: Best way to get Qantas status flying Melbourne - Tel Aviv and not fly for 30 hou

Boomy will fly EK....I would have thought that made other options feasible...

Not with no direct flight DXB-TLV.

 

[esseeeayeenn]

Re: Best way to get Qantas status flying Melbourne - Tel Aviv and not fly for 30 hou

EK flies DXB-MAD and Iberia do fly MAD-TLV but that is going to cost almost as much in extra time, if not in extra money, as flying via London.