Booking American Airlines bus 'flights' using QFF points

[L2.]

I was watching a video on YouTube the other day about several routes out of Philadelphia that American Airlines serves using buses departing generally from the airside of the airport (see the applicable part of the AA website), and it was mentioned that tickets on these 'flights' are extremely expensive if booked without a connecting flight.

This led me to have a look to see if there's any availability for QFF redemptions on these routes. It turns out that some of the destinations don't show up in QF's booking tool, but for those that do, there seems to be a tonne of reward seats available, and zero carrier charges:



The same trip is selling for $726 AUD on AA's site, which gives a value of 8.9 cents per point for that redemption, which seems like good value to me!

Has anybody tried redeeming their QFF points before for a bus ticket?

 

[Scarlett]

Who would be buying a trip that short for hundreds of dollars?

Even with QFF points, I’d be looking at that as an $81 ticket, for a 50 minute bus ride. You can get a train from the airport for the same journey duration for ~$40, or a landside bus journey for ~$20.

 

[muppet]

I was watching a video on YouTube the other day about several routes out of Philadelphia that American Airlines serves using buses departing generally from the airside of the airport (see the applicable part of the AA website), and it was mentioned that tickets on these 'flights' are extremely expensive if booked without a connecting flight.

This led me to have a look to see if there's any availability for QFF redemptions on these routes. It turns out that some of the destinations don't show up in QF's booking tool, but for those that do, there seems to be a tonne of reward seats available, and zero carrier charges:

View attachment 453126

The same trip is selling for $726 AUD on AA's site, which gives a value of 8.9 cents per point for that redemption, which seems like good value to me!

Has anybody tried redeeming their QFF points before for a bus ticket?

I mean sure 8.9c per point …. but only if you completely disregard the meaning of “value”.

 

[dylarr]

Who would be buying a trip that short for hundreds of dollars?

The YouTube video in question (from Noel Philips) goes over this in a bit of detail.

Whilst you can buy standalone seats on the bus services for several hundreds of dollars, they aren't meant for standalone purchase. If you are connecting to/from a flight they are much more reasonably priced. Everything about the service is designed for connecting air passengers. The bus even remains “airside” as it travels between different airports, picking you up and dropping you off from gates behind security so you don't need to go through TSA again.

However, there was one pax in the video who thought they'd purchased a plane ticket and was a bit annoyed they'd spent a few hundred bucks to travel a short distance on a bus...

You can get an Uber from PHL-ILG for around USD$50. Using that as a benchmark not the greatest use of 8100 QFF points but at least you're getting a better rate than burning them on gift cards I guess.

 

[aikman]

If there was a QF First lounge equivalent I think people would do it.