Is anyone here who has flights booked through the ME in the next couple of months planning to book backup flights through Singapore, Hong Kong or other Asian ports? We have an award flight SYD-LHR with QR in J booked with Avios that departs in 7 weeks. Our return flight at the end of the trip is a J award booking with SQ.
Yesterday I booked a PE flight with CX that departs 2 days before our QR booking in case QR are still not flying. At the moment a travel agent friend has a hold on the tickets and I have a couple of days before making the payment. I have booked the Essential fare that has a $550 cancellation fee but I am thinking about asking her to change it to a flex fare before the ticket is issued which will cost $600 more each but has free cancellation.
I would hope flights would be back to normal in the next 7 weeks but of course no one knows what will happen. We would of course prefer to fly QR J but at least the CX PE will be more comfortable than Y booked closer to the time, when prices are likely to be much higher. I wonder if QR flights don't resume for a few more weeks and have high demand on flights if they could downgrade our Avios redemption booking to Y, which we wouldn't want as we both get back pain or move us to a different date.
I am now thinking that I should change to the flex ticket and pay the $600 each extra now so if we can fly with QR we get all of the CX costs back and are not out of pocket, but if we can't fly with QR we are paying $1200 extra between us than if we leave it with the Essential fare with the $550 each cancellation fee.
Yesterday I booked a PE flight with CX that departs 2 days before our QR booking in case QR are still not flying. At the moment a travel agent friend has a hold on the tickets and I have a couple of days before making the payment. I have booked the Essential fare that has a $550 cancellation fee but I am thinking about asking her to change it to a flex fare before the ticket is issued which will cost $600 more each but has free cancellation.
I would hope flights would be back to normal in the next 7 weeks but of course no one knows what will happen. We would of course prefer to fly QR J but at least the CX PE will be more comfortable than Y booked closer to the time, when prices are likely to be much higher. I wonder if QR flights don't resume for a few more weeks and have high demand on flights if they could downgrade our Avios redemption booking to Y, which we wouldn't want as we both get back pain or move us to a different date.
I am now thinking that I should change to the flex ticket and pay the $600 each extra now so if we can fly with QR we get all of the CX costs back and are not out of pocket, but if we can't fly with QR we are paying $1200 extra between us than if we leave it with the Essential fare with the $550 each cancellation fee.
