Bloody cyclones

[calgarychris]

First off, I hope our Kiwi friends are safe across the ditch - that's most important.

This Gita thing though is possibly going to interrupt my mini-vacation! I had booked VA J on Thursday morning, returning on EK in F Thursday evening. Basically meeting my wife over there and flying back with her, finally getting to experience EK in F....and now a cyclone gets in the way of my plans! First world problems, I know. In all seriousness though, I'm seeking advice on what to do:

If I can't fly across on VA in the morning (or it's delayed by more than a bit!), can I get a refund of the award ticket without incurring costs? I presume I might have to pay the Qantas cancellation fee but how soon before the flight do I need to cancel? I'm hoping that if I explain the situation they'd waive it... ?

More importantly, my wife's WLG-AKL flight (seperate ticket) may be affected, which would cause her to miss her EK flight. In the event that happened, I'd need to reschedule her flight, but Qantas told me it can only be onto another EK flight with award availability?!? Could I not cancel, get the points and rebook her on any QF flight?

Travel insurance is through Amex Platinum charge, if that helps?

Going to be a tense few days, hopefully everyone's safe over there.

Thanks for any tips...

 

[juddles]

.....If I can't fly across on VA in the morning (or it's delayed by more than a bit!), can I get a refund of the award ticket without incurring costs? I presume I might have to pay the Qantas cancellation fee but how soon before the flight do I need to cancel? I'm hoping that if I explain the situation they'd waive it... ......

What I understand from this part is that if (a) you cannot travel on your VA ticket, and (b) due to (a), you cannot make it to a flight on a completely separate ticket with QF (that is on EK metal), you want to know if QF will help you out? The answer is no, they are not responsible nor liable for whatever other travels you were attempting before reaching flight (b). They MAY help you, if you explain the situation, but they should not and probably won't.

 

[juddles]

....More importantly, my wife's WLG-AKL flight (seperate ticket) may be affected, which would cause her to miss her EK flight. In the event that happened, I'd need to reschedule her flight, but Qantas told me it can only be onto another EK flight with award availability?!? Could I not cancel, get the points and rebook her on any QF flight?......

RE this part, I am a tad confused what tickets your wife has? Am I correct in assuming that you got her one ticket solo for WLG-AKL, and that you have another ticket for BOTH of you for the F flight out? And in this paragraph you are discussing cancelling/rebooking just the AKL-australia ticket? And this ticket is a QF points redemption?

If all my assumptions are correct, I would agree with QF that if you wish to reschedule the flight in advance, BUT still wished to travel EK F, then you could only rebook for a day with that award availability. IF you are prepared to just book on "any QF flight" then yes, you can do that too.

(P.S. try to be more specific with describing the individual tickets / airlines involved )

 

[calgarychris]

RE this part, I am a tad confused what tickets your wife has? Am I correct in assuming that you got her one ticket solo for WLG-AKL, and that you have another ticket for BOTH of you for the F flight out? And in this paragraph you are discussing cancelling/rebooking just the AKL-australia ticket? And this ticket is a QF points redemption?

If all my assumptions are correct, I would agree with QF that if you wish to reschedule the flight in advance, BUT still wished to travel EK F, then you could only rebook for a day with that award availability. IF you are prepared to just book on "any QF flight" then yes, you can do that too.

(P.S. try to be more specific with describing the individual tickets / airlines involved )

Sorry for the confusion - it was written in haste. All ended up fine, the weather passed by 24hrs earlier! Whew! We had the following:

She
WLG-AKL (NZ cash ticket in Y)
AKL-MEL (EK ticket in F from QF points)

I had
MEL-AKL (VA ticket in J from VA points)
AKL-MEL (EK ticket in F from QF points)

Should've been clearer, so my apologies and thanks for the replies guys. By the way, first time in F - super excited! So good! My observations were that the service was okay (not as "warm" as I might have expected?), the food was appalling - I sent back the main - an overcooked steak...terrible. The shower, the bar and the drinks made up for it, along with the ridiculous blingy-ness! Loved it! Glad I spent a small amount of points to do it now as I won't need to fly EK F again

 

[eric2011]

Glad I spent a small amount of points to do it now as I won't need to fly EK F again

Oh yes you will, now you've had a taste it will sneak up on you again until...until...oh cough, you will turn into one of us

 

[Deleted member]

Steak is hit and miss on almost any airline. I have done F across the ditch with EK and found it faultless. That said I have done J on EK and found it wanting.
I agree with eric2011 once you put your toe into the F pool. It’s difficult to swim with the ordinary ever again
I will definitely do EK Premium cabin again.

 

[eric2011]

Steak is hit and miss on almost any airline. I have done F across the ditch with EK and found it faultless. That said I have done J on EK and found it wanting.
I agree with eric2011 once you put your toe into the F pool. It’s difficult to swim with the ordinary ever again
I will definitely do EK Premium cabin again.

I echo your thoughts. With the demise of EK from BNE across the ditch the experience is going to be difficult to achieve now

 

[Deleted member]

I echo your thoughts. With the demise of EK from BNE across the ditch the experience is going to be difficult to achieve now

If I’m not mistaken, CHC still has EK F to Oz

 

[eric2011]

If I’m not mistaken, CHC still has EK F to Oz

I think from SYD only, nothing from my home port of BNE

 

[calgarychris]

No, no...You people are the devil!

It was a great experience and one that everyone should try...but seriously, shower aside, I don't know that F is worth it for the missus and I (nor will my points balance handle it!). I am keen to try SQ suites, but aside from that, I'm not sure what or why we'd try any of the others...

...although the new fully enclosed EK F does look nice.

No damnit, we're done. Back to J, and only then if we're lucky!

Thanks all

 

[eric2011]

...although the new fully enclosed EK F does look nice.

No damnit, we're done. Back to J, and only then if we're lucky!

Ha Ha, you are swimming around the bait, all we have to do is jig the line and we will have you hooked

 

[calgarychris]

Ha Ha, you are swimming around the bait, all we have to do is jig the line and we will have you hooked

Soooo shiiiiiinyyyy...

Nope, I've had my fun, I don't have squillions of points like you guys do I'm sure. My next adventure is on TG/SQ in J to Vietnam and Bali, then using CX miles to Florida somehow...I looked for F all the way there, but I don't think it's worth it as I don't know of that many carriers that fly F to Florida from MEL.

 

[serfty]

but I don't think it's worth it as I don't know of that many carriers that fly F to Florida from MEL.

AAdvantage miles would do the trick. First from MEL/SYD-LAX-//-MIA. QF/AA.

 

[calgarychris]

AAdvantage miles would do the trick. First from MEL/SYD-LAX-//-MIA. QF/AA.

Thanks, unfortunately I have 380,000 CX points to burn (and no AA). And MEL/SYD-LAX is a unicorn flight isn't it? I'm looking at that routing though; other possible alternatives contemplated are MEL-DOH-MIA and MEL-HKG-JFK/EWR-MIA. The former isn't showing up though and I don't know why - availability on QR dried up out of MEL looking a year out???

Open to suggestions...

 

[serfty]

Asia Miles? YVR as an entry point perhaps.

 

[calgarychris]

Asia Miles? YVR as an entry point perhaps.

Yes - there are three HKG-JFK/EWR flights and one HKG-YVR-JFK that I'm looking at....Adds an extra stop though (and ironically I'm meeting Canadian family in MIA so it's not needed this time