Booking Business Class flights using frequent flyers

[Sarah Gawman]

Hi - I am researching trying to use AMEX points to book business class frequent flyer tickets from Sydney to the UK (return) in June next year. Just getting my ducks in a row as flight schedules not even available yet. Am trying to work out what is the best way to go about trying to get these seats (I need 5) as they are in short supply. Is it best to pick one airline and transfer all my AMEX points to them before the flights are released, or wait to see who has availability and transfer points that day, risking losing the seats as it takes 24 hours to transfer the points? I am open to which airline to use. Was thinking Qantas might be a good one to transfer all my points to as they have more partner airlines?

 

[Mwenenzi]

Welcome to the forum

The chances of getting 5 business class award seats on 1 flight from Aust to UK in June is close to zero. Even getting 2 J is hard. You should expect to fly on different days and different routes

 

[knasty]

Be prepared to split your party up. It is extremely unlikely you will find 5 business class award seats on the one flight. In general QFF has poor burn rates vs other Amex partners such as Krisflyer and AsiaMiles

 

[Sarah Gawman]

Hi - I am new to this - what do you mean by "burn rates"?

 

[smit0847]

Burn rates means how many points you will need to book the flights.

 

[knasty]

Sorry - the number of miles it takes to redeem a flight. Eg. Using QF points to Lon is 256,000 return. AsiaMiles is.175,000. Using AA miles is 120,000 but to get AA miles you need to transfer via SPG. This is fir flights on Oneworld and partner airlines. Short answer is it ain't going to be easy ti get 5 in one flight.

 

[zainman]

Hi - I am new to this - what do you mean by "burn rates"?

You will need less points (hopefully less fees/taxes/surcharges etc) on other airlines vs QF.

 

[Sarah Gawman]

Thanks for your help. A friend of mine managed to do it with 4 people but they flew with a different airline on each leg. We will probably look at even trying to get the longest part biz class and the short legs on economy

 

[deejo77]

Just some quick advise - research research research - good place to start is reading all the threads (Conversations) on this forum. Find out who you can transfer points to and what their "burn rate" is - for example airline 1 might be 100,000 frequent flyer points return and $800 taxes/fees whereas airline 2 might be 140,000 frequent flyer points and $35 taxes/fees.

Highly unlikely you will get all business class tickets for 5 people - split the group up as much as possible will increase your chances.

Do not transfer the points until you see good availablity and be very FLEXIBLE on the departure date (school holidays and summer in europe these tickets go very quick) - otherwise you will have points stuck in a program you can't use for your trip.

Best of luck but really do some reading - I spent the first 6mths reading the forum for hours everyday before things started to click.

 

[Mwenenzi]

Sorry - the number of miles it takes to redeem a flight. Eg. Using QF points to London is 256,000 return. AsiaMiles is 175,000. Using AA miles is 120,000 but to get AA miles you need to transfer via SPG. This is for flights on Oneworld and partner airlines. Short answer is it ain't going to be easy to get 5 in one flight.

How many Amex points do you have?

The words "transfer via SPG" means Amex to Starwood/SPG then to a range of airlines
Membership Rewards to Starwood Hotels & Resorts

Another way is to split the journey at Dubai, Singapore, Hong Kong etc. 1 award to your intermediate city then another separate award ticket to UK or France or ??. For UK look at all the main airports LHR, LGW, MAN etc. Book as one ways may/will give more options than a return

 

[Bazzi]

Thanks for your help. A friend of mine managed to do it with 4 people but they flew with a different airline on each leg. We will probably look at even trying to get the longest part biz class and the short legs on economy

My vote is with SQ or MH for both availability, burn rate and routing. Personally, I have never had a problem with getting seats in J on SQ at the Saver rates. Agree with all of Mwenenzi's suggestions - particularly routing through the UAE - more options if using Asia as a jumping off point. We recently did SYD SIN DXB in J with SQ on the same day as a through ticket for 60k points per person then DXB STO in J with EK for 50k per person (booked through QFF - cheaper) PAR AUH in J with EY for 30k points plus $320 (points and pay) per person and AUH SIN in J with EY for 33k points and $90 (points and pay) per person.

Next trip we are thinking of buying cheap SYD SIN return in Y with SQ and and book onward flights from there in J.