BNE to JNB to LHR to BNE

[sanne]

I am planning a trip next year to South Africa...safari... plus we also wish to go to England to see family. we have no points left to do this so will be paying for myself and husband in J. Ouch!!!

Please could I have some help with the most cost effective way to do this. If I look sector by sector it comes out at over $12,000 each. We are both QF gold so wish to do this with one world for points and status.

Thanks again for being able to post and ask questions to the very knowledgable people on this board. It has been invaluable to me over the last couple of years. Would never have made Gold without it. Just love those JASAs for our overseas travel.

 

[markis10]

Have you looked at using either the Star Alliance via US Air or AA Advantage buying miles scheme? No points earned but chances are most of it is doable and for a lot less than 12K. The other alternative is a OneWorld DONE4 I suspect, but will leave it to those with DONE experience to price/confirm that!

 

[docjames]

I am planning a trip next year to South Africa...safari... plus we also wish to go to England to see family. we have no points left to do this so will be paying for myself and husband in J. Ouch!!!

Please could I have some help with the most cost effective way to do this. If I look sector by sector it comes out at over $12,000 each. We are both QF gold so wish to do this with one world for points and status.

Thanks again for being able to post and ask questions to the very knowledgable people on this board. It has been invaluable to me over the last couple of years. Would never have made Gold without it. Just love those JASAs for our overseas travel.

The gurus will no doubt post shortly, but i'll get you under way.

Try a circle fare or around the world fare (have you tired the oneworld online journey planner on www.oneworld.com)? Reset the country to see the pricing from various countries of departure.

eg. try AKL-SYD-JNB-LHR-LAX-SYD (you can add various numbers of side trips if you desire within the price quote)

You could also try ticketing from New Zealand as it often will work out cheaper (even allowing for a return flight to NZ to start the journey). And then either defer the final leg back to AKL or "throw it away" by not travelling the final leg.

Another option given the new EK alliance would be to buy a return Aus-DXB-LHR-DXB-Aus return and then have a "stopover in Dubai" in one or other direction, and then buy DXB-JNB-DXB return fare (to resume the journey to London or back to Aus. Hope that makes sense - you end up with two return tickets with one "nested" in the middle of the other's dates.

 

[docjames]

I should add, you could also look at QF ticketed Aus-DXB-JNB return and try a British Airways ticket DXB-LHR-DXB.

 

[markis10]

I should add, you could also look at QF ticketed Aus-DXB-JNB return and try a British Airways ticket DXB-LHR-DXB.

Not a bad idea Doc! One could pay $$$ to JNB, then even use the AA 50% promo, as JNB LHR is 30K in Y or 37500 Miles in J with AA, if availability is there effectively your J add on ex JNB is costing $1500 odd (using the current promo for Feb).

 

[casanovawa]

If you used either AA, USAir or Lifemiles you could get the J fare to JNB then LHR for much less than $12,000, then depending on how much time you have for this if you could do a side trip to the USA and spend a few days doing a status run you could earn the SC's much more cheaply than that...

But if time is an issue and money isn't it then the DONEs might be the best avenue...

 

[sanne]

Thanks for all your replies. That gives me something to think about. I will start researching your suggestions and see how I go.

I don't know anything about AA or promotion miles. Would be most appreciative if someone could explain this in layman's language Please

 

[casanovawa]

Sanne, there are threads on here on most of these, for USAir Dividend Miles there is a thread explaining the program and also another on successfully booked itineraries which should wet your appetite for what can be done and the cheapness of it as USAir (and AA) don't charge fuel surcharges on their redemptions...

There are also a couple of threads on AA's AAdvantage program... The basis of it is that you buy miles from either of these programs when bonus offers are available... There is a current one for AA that you can buy a certain amount of miles and get a bonus of up to 50%, i think the max you can buy at present is 60,000 and get 30,000 miles bonus... You then have to go on to AA's site and see their chart for redemptions in terms of how many miles you need for redemptions between different zones in different classes...

USAir also has 100% bonus promos that seem to run almost every month, again this is when you want to buy your miles then you need to check their chart for the amount of miles to book between different zones...

Either program i think you should be able to travel in J to JNB and then LHR for close to or under $3000 each for the miles and then several hundred dollars in taxes (flying out of LHR is expensive)...

I haven't really used Avianca's LifeMiles so there will be others who can better explain that prgram... Avianca and USAir will mean flying *Alliance, AA is One World...

 

[markis10]

There are also a couple of threads on AA's AAdvantage program... The basis of it is that you buy miles from either of these programs when bonus offers are available... There is a current one for AA that you can buy a certain amount of miles and get a bonus of up to 50%, i think the max you can buy at present is 60,000 and get 30,000 miles bonus... You then have to go on to AA's site and see their chart for redemptions in terms of how many miles you need for redemptions between different zones in different classes...

Their booking engine for working out availability and points required is not protected:

https://www.americanairlines.com.au/reservation/awardFlightSearchAccess.do

 

[drron]

Here to explain the AA program.You can join their FF program,Aadvantage,on line.It is free.You can then buy miles.For february you can buy 60000 miles for $1650 and get 30000 bonus miles.
For JNB-LHR on BA the Aawards cost 37500 miles in J or 50000 in F.I have checked and reasonable availability for 2 in December-you can only book AA awards 331 daqys out.
For LHR-BNE the cost is 60000 miles in J or 80000 in F.Not as good availability over December.In J it usually is using BA to NRT,SIN,BKK etc and then QF.Funnily slightly better availability in F and on a few days on QF10 LHR-DXB-MEL then connecting to BNE.
To get the extra AA miles you can join up SPG on line and you can buy 20000 points max for $700.This converts to 25000 AA miles when transferred.Leaves you just short of J JNB-LHR then F LHR-BNE.You can transfer DC or Amex points via SPG to AA.But one of you will probably need to stay at an SPG hotel to get those extra 2500 AA miles.So all up that would cost you between 2500-3000 dollars each flying JNB-LHR-BNE.
So just need to find a good fare BNE-JNB.

 

[sanne]

Here to explain the AA program.You can join their FF program,Aadvantage,on line.It is free.You can then buy miles.For february you can buy 60000 miles for $1650 and get 30000 bonus miles.
For JNB-LHR on BA the Aawards cost 37500 miles in J or 50000 in F.I have checked and reasonable availability for 2 in December-you can only book AA awards 331 daqys out.
For LHR-BNE the cost is 60000 miles in J or 80000 in F.Not as good availability over December.In J it usually is using BA to NRT,SIN,BKK etc and then QF.Funnily slightly better availability in F and on a few days on QF10 LHR-DXB-MEL then connecting to BNE.
To get the extra AA miles you can join up SPG on line and you can buy 20000 points max for $700.This converts to 25000 AA miles when transferred.Leaves you just short of J JNB-LHR then F LHR-BNE.You can transfer DC or Amex points via SPG to AA.But one of you will probably need to stay at an SPG hotel to get those extra 2500 AA miles.So all up that would cost you between 2500-3000 dollars each flying JNB-LHR-BNE.
So just need to find a good fare BNE-JNB.

That is great. Thank you so much for a very full and straight forward explanation. I really appreciate your time to 'spell it out" . I will look at everything you said and take it from there. I had no idea all that was possible. It's amazing what we learn from the knowledgable guys on this site.

 

[markis10]

Just had a look at star alliance using Avianca:



You can transfer miles to a partner for $15 per 1000 at present and get a bonus 1000, so 38000 miles would cost $570 + $727 cash when making a booking for J ex JNB to LHR return.

 

[casanovawa]

And for US Airways Dividend Mile program you would probably need to fly Oz-LHR-JNB-Oz with LHR as your destination because it is not a * Alliance hub so couldn't be a stopover, which means you would need 120,000 DM miles....

So if bought using 100% bonus promos (you would need 2 as the max miles you can buy in any 1 promo is 50,000 miles + 50,000 bonus) you would buy 60,000 miles at 3.5 cents/mile with 7.5% sales tax + 2x$30 program fees for buying miles...

So 60,000*0.035*1.075 = $2258 + $60 = $2318... You would then most likely need to pay a phone booking fee of $50 plus whatever taxes would apply, and seeing you were flying out of LHR with its higher APD tax or whatever its called the taxes might be in the $400-500 range??? Although seeing its calculated on the distance of the flight leaving LHR flying down to JNB might result in a lesser amount then flying back to BNE??? Not sure, others would probably know this better...

So should come to less then $3000 each...

 

[Bundy Bear]

Interesting that a thread about Qantas, going to JNB and LHR and everyone is talking about US Airways and AA.

In the past you could purchase a BNE-SIN-LHR-AMS-LHR-JNB-SYD-BNE for about $3,200.00

I organised one for my brother in 2010, the price to come back via South Africa was surprisingly cheap, it only cost a few hundred dollars extra to go via South Africa, because the airfare was Brisbane to Amsterdam return, but the return via South Africa.

Now that Emirates and Qantas have got together it might screw up those different stop over city pricing.

 

[markis10]

Interesting that a thread about Qantas, going to JNB and LHR and everyone is talking about US Airways and AA.

In the past you could purchase a BNE-SIN-LHR-AMS-LHR-JNB-SYD-BNE for about $3,200.00 .

Not in J which is what the OP is looking for, hence the many references to buy miles.

 

[Bundy Bear]

Not in J which is what the OP is looking for, hence the many references to buy miles.

Thanks Mark, I should not reply to threads on AFF when I am still at work, until I have read them properly.

 

[markis10]

Thanks Mark, I should not reply to threads on AFF when I am still at work, until I have read them properly.

What are you doing still at work!