BNE - CNS "status run" (or at least "fun") options

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juddles

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Hi there all!

This year I find myself needing to do quite a few trips from Brisbane up to Cairns. I wanted to know if there are any current methods to tweak the amount of SC earned. I recall vaguely that in Olden Days there were scams like BNE-DRW-CNS or something similar.

I don't mind doing weird stopovers or side-trips, but want value for money SC per $ wise.

Even if such tweaks are not available, would be interested if anyone has any suggestions for how to make these trips more interesting for an aviation enthusiast (eg stopovers in other cities, milk runs, etc)

Just wondering.....

Cheers,
Juddles.
 
BNE-MEL, MEL-CNS on JQi ? :D (currently runs once a week on a Wednesday morning)
 
I do BNE-DRW reasonably often and find BNE-CNS-DRW is usually $1 more and sometimes cheaper. In Y it means 30SC instead of 20 for DRW direct, so the DRW combination is worth exploring.

My only note of caution is that it isn't really a side trip as such. CNS-DRW is about 2 hours and it's another 4 hrs for DRW-BNE, plus the services on DRW-BNE don't have anywhere near the frequency to be practical for most people.

You're other option is the milk run. If you stay on the same aircraft it's likely to be the same flight number and therefore a painful way to earn 15SC. But if you have a crafty travel agent it's possible to stop an hour or two in each port and wait for the next flight with a different flight number. I have no idea if it's cost effective or not.
 
Going back a long time and I have no idea of cost, but a couple of times I flew Brisbane-Townsville-Cairns. I suspect these were in the ASA days. Nice little scenic flight TSV-CNS, albeit on a Dash-8.
 
Oh the old status runs were great, must say I (and Mrs Lime) enjoyed being a WP for 18 months. I did CNS/TSV/BNE/DRW in J, had to overnight in TSV, had spare seat next to me all the way was a hell of a long day departed TSV about 6am and arrived back about 10.30pm.

Was very funny coming back after Darwin stop about 1.5 hours, the crew said "you just got off" I said "didn't like Darwin" FA said "didn't have time to see it!" we all laughed, during that return 3 FA's came to see me to find out why :D.
 
Also look into 'comfort seat'....Brisbane to Mackay via a bounce (generally Rockhampton) was a good earner
 
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Hadn't thought about comfort seats - will do some numbers to investigate.

Technical question: if I purchased a comfort seat, would I also get 50% bonus SC for that seat? (Under the Aquire bonus SC thingy)
 
deejo, how does it actually work? The comfort seat thing? I know you have to phone to book, but what happens when you check in? Two boarding passes? Do you present both for scanning at boarding?
 
Yes phone book....you are charged seat only no taxes. One boarding pass keep it as it has a code EXST on it (this should also come up in you ff account) the system did not allow you to travel twice on one flight so only one ff and sc used to post....a quick email resolved this every time I have done it.
 
I do BNE-DRW reasonably often and find BNE-CNS-DRW is usually $1 more and sometimes cheaper. In Y it means 30SC instead of 20 for DRW direct, so the DRW combination is worth exploring.

I made this run at the beginning of the month as was slightly cheaper than a direct flight plus it gave me an opportunity to visit a new place. Landed in CNS around 9.30am, hired a car to explore the Daintree area and then back to the airport for my 7pm flight. Not sure if this would be of much use to the OP if he needed to spend more than the 1 day in CNS though.

Scott.
 
Hi there all!

This year I find myself needing to do quite a few trips from Brisbane up to Cairns. I wanted to know if there are any current methods to tweak the amount of SC earned.

I recall vaguely that in Olden Days there were scams like BNE-DRW-CNS or something similar.

I believe it was TSV/xBNE/DRW vv 24K points vs 36K (?) BNE/DRW only in the heyday of JASA's.

I wouldn't call it a scam as this was legal but a lot of AFFers felt it was good bang for their buck.

deejo, how does it actually work? The comfort seat thing? I know you have to phone to book, but what happens when you check in? Two boarding passes? Do you present both for scanning at boarding?

One boarding pass in your name eg in 5E and the EXST is 5F. When you scan your bpass it will board 5EF in the one go.
 
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