WayneJ
Junior Member
- Joined
- Apr 19, 2017
- Posts
- 27
Hello Everyone,
Well after many years of squirrelling Qantas FF points away and some tricks learnt over many hours, years on these forums I have managed to secure what I hope to be myself and my wife’s trip of a lifetime.
Those of you who know flying Business or better means the actual holiday often starts as soon as you close the door and head to the airport so although what I’ve planned is still 10months away I don’t want to miss experiencing everything there is too offer in the way of Business and First Flights as I believe the opportunity won’t come around my way again.
My story starts below.
Due to a health scare, a Job change, Selling our house, buying an apartment of the plan, renting for 1.5 years and now moving into our new apartment my wife and I have had a pretty focused couple of years.
We had planned 2 European cruises prior to these events but had to cancel. Anyway, we were approaching 750,000 Qantas FF Points.
2 of our friends mentioned to us a couple of months back that they were going to Italy next August 2018 for a friends wedding and were also doing a 7 day cruise out of Venice.
I’d always wanted to sail out of Venice and as it was also my wedding anniversary during that time a plan started to form.
With the cruise deposit paid for it was now time to wrestle the FF gods for the best flights that would get us into and out of Europe in the most comfortable of manor.
Our only stipulated dates were the cruise so we had some flexibility and decided we could have 4-5 weeks at our disposal.
Facts - I’m a lowly Qantas Club Bronze member and most flights are for pleasure.
As we all know the FF (Classic Rewards) lottery is well, exactly that. Do you jump in and get a flight that’s not exactly what you want knowing something better might come along or wait? It’s a nasty game and had me waking many times during the night to login and check flight availabilities.
Jump in I did and although we both live in Brisbane secured to Business Seats on British Airways out of Sydney. And very happy were we to at least know we’d have a comfortable flight Sydney to Singapore on the B777 and then onto London on the thei A380 upper deck. Also Business Class.
At that stage the window for return flights were not available and as fate would have it one early morning I logged in to check flights and suddenly there were 2 Bus seats Brisbane to Hong Kong on QF97 on 28th August 2018.
This immediately appealed as we live approx 7kms from Brisbane airport and in fact that’s one of the big reasons we bought our apartment. I love watching the planes arrive and depart. Anyway, I’m getting of track.
The other carrot was that although we could have spent a few hours in a very nice lounge in Hong Kong and then continued our 2nd leg onto London in Business class another opportunity presented itself.
The following day 29th August Cathay had 2 x. First Class Seats HKG-LON departing at 14:35 on CX253 arriving into London around 20:30 that same day. So a full 12ish hours being pampered.
So it was a pretty easy decision to spend the night in Hong Kong (Regal Airport was chosen) and do First Class onto London the next day.
Here’s where my questions start.
Having only every read First experiences on these forums it was always what I believed to be something that would remain out of my reach. I actually priced those 2 seats and came in at just over $30,000 AUD and I paid $160 in taxes plus points.
I want to experience absolutely everything there is to experience with the Cathay First on CX253.
So any tips would be much appreciated. Some questions I have are
Q1. How much time should I allow to spend in the Cathay First lounges before the flight?
Q2. Should we make the effort to visit both the Pier and Wing First lounges.
Q3. Does Cathay offer and car service into London hotels for First passengers arriving into London similar to Emirates?
I’ll break here and separate the return trip via Emirates from Milan to Dubai to Sydney in my next email.
Thanks everyone for taking the time to read this email.
Wayne
Well after many years of squirrelling Qantas FF points away and some tricks learnt over many hours, years on these forums I have managed to secure what I hope to be myself and my wife’s trip of a lifetime.
Those of you who know flying Business or better means the actual holiday often starts as soon as you close the door and head to the airport so although what I’ve planned is still 10months away I don’t want to miss experiencing everything there is too offer in the way of Business and First Flights as I believe the opportunity won’t come around my way again.
My story starts below.
Due to a health scare, a Job change, Selling our house, buying an apartment of the plan, renting for 1.5 years and now moving into our new apartment my wife and I have had a pretty focused couple of years.
We had planned 2 European cruises prior to these events but had to cancel. Anyway, we were approaching 750,000 Qantas FF Points.
2 of our friends mentioned to us a couple of months back that they were going to Italy next August 2018 for a friends wedding and were also doing a 7 day cruise out of Venice.
I’d always wanted to sail out of Venice and as it was also my wedding anniversary during that time a plan started to form.
With the cruise deposit paid for it was now time to wrestle the FF gods for the best flights that would get us into and out of Europe in the most comfortable of manor.
Our only stipulated dates were the cruise so we had some flexibility and decided we could have 4-5 weeks at our disposal.
Facts - I’m a lowly Qantas Club Bronze member and most flights are for pleasure.
As we all know the FF (Classic Rewards) lottery is well, exactly that. Do you jump in and get a flight that’s not exactly what you want knowing something better might come along or wait? It’s a nasty game and had me waking many times during the night to login and check flight availabilities.
Jump in I did and although we both live in Brisbane secured to Business Seats on British Airways out of Sydney. And very happy were we to at least know we’d have a comfortable flight Sydney to Singapore on the B777 and then onto London on the thei A380 upper deck. Also Business Class.
At that stage the window for return flights were not available and as fate would have it one early morning I logged in to check flights and suddenly there were 2 Bus seats Brisbane to Hong Kong on QF97 on 28th August 2018.
This immediately appealed as we live approx 7kms from Brisbane airport and in fact that’s one of the big reasons we bought our apartment. I love watching the planes arrive and depart. Anyway, I’m getting of track.
The other carrot was that although we could have spent a few hours in a very nice lounge in Hong Kong and then continued our 2nd leg onto London in Business class another opportunity presented itself.
The following day 29th August Cathay had 2 x. First Class Seats HKG-LON departing at 14:35 on CX253 arriving into London around 20:30 that same day. So a full 12ish hours being pampered.
So it was a pretty easy decision to spend the night in Hong Kong (Regal Airport was chosen) and do First Class onto London the next day.
Here’s where my questions start.
Having only every read First experiences on these forums it was always what I believed to be something that would remain out of my reach. I actually priced those 2 seats and came in at just over $30,000 AUD and I paid $160 in taxes plus points.
I want to experience absolutely everything there is to experience with the Cathay First on CX253.
So any tips would be much appreciated. Some questions I have are
Q1. How much time should I allow to spend in the Cathay First lounges before the flight?
Q2. Should we make the effort to visit both the Pier and Wing First lounges.
Q3. Does Cathay offer and car service into London hotels for First passengers arriving into London similar to Emirates?
I’ll break here and separate the return trip via Emirates from Milan to Dubai to Sydney in my next email.
Thanks everyone for taking the time to read this email.
Wayne
