Book with Points or use points for Upgrade?

[mhldn]

I am looking to book a multi-city trip with Qantas in July 2022.

Itinerary will be
1. Melbourne to Larnaca (Emirates codeshare via Dubai)
2. Larnaca to London (BA to Gatwick)
3. London to Melbourne (Qantas via Singapore)

Found the flights at a price I am happy with on Qantas website around (AU$2500)
I have around 355,000 Qantas points which are. enough to pay for these flights in economy.

My question is do I do that and use the majority of my points, or do I pay the cash price and use points to upgrade?
A friend has suggested this is a better value.

Your thoughts, please
Any more info you need?

 

[RichardMEL]

Welcome to AFF.

You face several issues here.

1. You cannot use QF points to upgrade on Emirates (EK) flights, even with a QF flight number
2. You may not get an upgrade on LHR-SIN-MEL on QF due to peak season, high demand and lots of elites vying for limited upgrade seats. Even if a Platinum or higher member the chances could be iffy.

If you can redeem points for J on these flights I would definitely suggest that if you wish to ensure Business Class as much as possible and not rely on the chance of an upgrade which could be iffy specially if you have lower (or no) status.

 

[Lynda2475]

If you can find classic award J seats that itinerary should only cost you 318k in points.

 

[Lynda2475]

My bad, One World rewards cap out at 318k in J, but i forgot that EK isnt actually a one world carrier (rather it is a partner).

Maybe check out the one world reward thread and see if you can find routing with 2 one world carriers, so you can maximise points usage, it is here:

Thread '"oneworld" award (132.4K/249.6K/318K/455K) Planning - The Definitive Thread' "oneworld" award (132.4K/249.6K/318K/455K) Planning - The Definitive Thread

 

[mhldn]

My bad, One World rewards cap out at 318k in J, but i forgot that EK isnt actually a one world carrier (rather it is a partner). Maybe check out the one world reward thread and see if you can find routing with 2 one world carriers.

No Worries. Thanks.
I found how to do the classic reward. But the dates I want are not available!
I think I will end up using the point + cash option and use most of the points to bring the price down!

 

[andye]

No Worries. Thanks.
I found how to do the classic reward. But the dates I want are not available!
I think I will end up using the point + cash option and use most of the points to bring the price down!

No idea of your circumstances but in general this is poor-value use of QF points. If cash flow permits you would be better off saving the points for another higher-value redemption

 

[jase05]

Border restrictions permitting you could try getting a points flight to Asia and picking up cheap fares from there. As an example use points to MNL and EY are currently doing MNL-AUH-DOH for $1150 return in J or various airlines have fares at $2200-2600 return in J from Asia to Europe.

 

[Mwenenzi]

I am looking to book a multi-city trip with Qantas in July 2022.

Itinerary will be
1. Melbourne to Larnaca (Emirates codeshare via Dubai)
2. Larnaca to London (BA to Gatwick)
3. London to Melbourne (Qantas via Singapore)

Are you visiting London/UK?
LCA-LON/UK will be other options (not OW)
As above cash plus points is general considered poor value, even for QF ffp.

A map from the Great Circle Mapper

A map from the Great Circle Mapper

www.gcmap.com

If you are happy with the QF schedule/price go for it
Have you priced it on EK, QR and/or BA? (keeping it QF partners)
Premium Economy would be better than Y and less than J. But cost in $$ and/or ff points to be considered.

 

[RichardMEL]

I note OW members UL (Sri Lankan), RJ (Royal Jordanian), S7 (unlikely to be useful), AT Royal Air Maroc QR Qatas and BA all serve LCA..

could a Ooneworld Award maybe not work for this?

 

[AIRwin]

I note OW members UL (Sri Lankan), RJ (Royal Jordanian), S7 (unlikely to be useful) UT Royal Air Maroc QR Qatas and BA all serve LCA..

Even UL and AT?

 

[RichardMEL]

Even UL and AT?

Fair question. I took that off the LCA airport website tbh

on further searching I see AT codeshare on QR (for at least today) and probably the same for UL as I could not find any flights CMB-LCA.

my bad. Thanks for that prod to check more than an airport website

 

[AIRwin]

my bad. Thanks for that prod to check more than an airport website

I'm even worse using Wikipedia...

 

[AustraliaPoochie]

Aust - SIN either QF or BA.
SIN - HEL with AY.
HEL - LGA/LHR with AY, Y class if you can bear it.
LHR - LCA with BA in Y class if you can bear it.
LCA - LHR/LGW -> HEL in Y if you can bear it.
HEL - SIN - Aust with AY, then QF or BA.
Try to fly out of the UK in Y as it will have the lowest APD.
HEL - SIN - Aust can be J if you can get seats.
On QF, do you have status, the higher the better.
This will irk the other colleagues, as it has a lot of back trekking.
Just an option to save on the APD charges though.