Background
We are a family of 4 (2 adults, 2 kids) in Perth who are looking to go to London (and probably Paris) in June/July 2016.
For medical reasons, we need to keep the individual legs no more than 8 hours. So that rules out PER-DXB or SIN-LHR as options.
My current thinking is that stopping over in SIN and then DXB is the best compromise between keeping the flights short and not taking forever to get to Europe.
With kids aged 9 and 7, our preference is to fly during the day where possible and stay at least overnight at each stopover. The plan is to stay in Dubai for 2 nights on the way back (as it's Ramadan on the way over) and 4 nights in Singapore, probably on the way back.
The other wrinkle is that we have family who have offered to pay for a business flight for my wife and economy flights for me and our 2 kids.
We have no QFF status but we do have a little over 500k QFF points. So I am trying to work out if we can use those points to book business award flights for me and our 2 kids. Given the unlikelihood of getting upgrades, I am intending to use the points to book business flights and effectively having the fees and charges paid for by family.
Current plan
My current plan is to book PER-SIN-PER on either SQ226/SQ215 or QF71/QF72, departing Perth on Saturday, 25 June and returning on Monday, 18 July. We are happy to fly economy on these flights.
I had previously planned for us to fly SIN-DXB-LHR-DXB-SIN but the idea of going to Paris at either end of the London stay has recently been suggested. After checking different options, it seems that it will be easier to add in Paris before London so the flights will look like SIN-DXB-CDG and then LGW-DXB-SIN.
Looking at award flight availability through Qantas, it looks like I can book business award flights for 1 adult and 2 children on the following flights:
Sun, 26 Jun: EK353 on B777 departing SIN at 10:25am, arriving DXB at 1:40pm
Mon, 27 Jun: EK75 on A380 departing DXB at 2:50pm, arriving CDG at 8:05pm
Tue, 12 Jul: EK12 on A380 departing LGW at 10:00am, arriving DXB at 8:00pm
Business is not available for this next flight but economy award is:
Thu, 14 Jul: EK404 on A380 departing DXB at 9:25am, arriving SIN at 8:55pm
Taxes, fees and charges come out at S$1,297.70 per adult (I haven't got sufficient points in the one account to check whether those charges are the same for kids but I assume so). So that's probably about what it would cost to buy an economy flight, give or take.
I am intending to book my wife a business seat on each of these flights through Emirates. Business on these flights is showing on the Emirates website at S$5,483.60.
Queries
Is this current plan doable? Have I missed anything super obvious that will throw a spanner in the works?
Are any of the flights that I have picked outright duds?
I haven't flown Emirates before so the whole QF/EK codeshare issue is a bit of a mystery to me. I think I have managed to avoid any and all codeshare flights - is that the best approach here?
I also haven't booked a flight that originates outside of Australia before - are there any difficulties with the idea of buying Emirates business flights via the Emirates website?
Thanks in advance.
We are a family of 4 (2 adults, 2 kids) in Perth who are looking to go to London (and probably Paris) in June/July 2016.
For medical reasons, we need to keep the individual legs no more than 8 hours. So that rules out PER-DXB or SIN-LHR as options.
My current thinking is that stopping over in SIN and then DXB is the best compromise between keeping the flights short and not taking forever to get to Europe.
With kids aged 9 and 7, our preference is to fly during the day where possible and stay at least overnight at each stopover. The plan is to stay in Dubai for 2 nights on the way back (as it's Ramadan on the way over) and 4 nights in Singapore, probably on the way back.
The other wrinkle is that we have family who have offered to pay for a business flight for my wife and economy flights for me and our 2 kids.
We have no QFF status but we do have a little over 500k QFF points. So I am trying to work out if we can use those points to book business award flights for me and our 2 kids. Given the unlikelihood of getting upgrades, I am intending to use the points to book business flights and effectively having the fees and charges paid for by family.
Current plan
My current plan is to book PER-SIN-PER on either SQ226/SQ215 or QF71/QF72, departing Perth on Saturday, 25 June and returning on Monday, 18 July. We are happy to fly economy on these flights.
I had previously planned for us to fly SIN-DXB-LHR-DXB-SIN but the idea of going to Paris at either end of the London stay has recently been suggested. After checking different options, it seems that it will be easier to add in Paris before London so the flights will look like SIN-DXB-CDG and then LGW-DXB-SIN.
Looking at award flight availability through Qantas, it looks like I can book business award flights for 1 adult and 2 children on the following flights:
Sun, 26 Jun: EK353 on B777 departing SIN at 10:25am, arriving DXB at 1:40pm
Mon, 27 Jun: EK75 on A380 departing DXB at 2:50pm, arriving CDG at 8:05pm
Tue, 12 Jul: EK12 on A380 departing LGW at 10:00am, arriving DXB at 8:00pm
Business is not available for this next flight but economy award is:
Thu, 14 Jul: EK404 on A380 departing DXB at 9:25am, arriving SIN at 8:55pm
Taxes, fees and charges come out at S$1,297.70 per adult (I haven't got sufficient points in the one account to check whether those charges are the same for kids but I assume so). So that's probably about what it would cost to buy an economy flight, give or take.
I am intending to book my wife a business seat on each of these flights through Emirates. Business on these flights is showing on the Emirates website at S$5,483.60.
Queries
Is this current plan doable? Have I missed anything super obvious that will throw a spanner in the works?
Are any of the flights that I have picked outright duds?
I haven't flown Emirates before so the whole QF/EK codeshare issue is a bit of a mystery to me. I think I have managed to avoid any and all codeshare flights - is that the best approach here?
I also haven't booked a flight that originates outside of Australia before - are there any difficulties with the idea of buying Emirates business flights via the Emirates website?
Thanks in advance.
