Business Class Query to Europe - Recommendations?

[CaptJCool]

Thanks! I didn’t expend my search to ADL.

Unfortunately MH is on my ‘no fly’ list, so wouldn’t be an option

Yeah understandable
So from what you’re saying Turkish ex Melbourne is over $6,000….

Flight TK 169: Melbourne 21:20 – 02:50+1 Singapore 04:30+1 – Istanbul 10:40+1 Monday, Wednesday and Saturday.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Yeah understandable
So from what you’re saying Turkish ex Melbourne is over $6,000….

Flight TK 169: Melbourne 21:20 – 02:50+1 Singapore 04:30+1 – Istanbul 10:40+1 Monday, Wednesday and Saturday.

I did a 12Dec - 31Jan googleflights search to ‘anywhere’ ex SYD/MEL/BNE. Just now an SQ/SAS combo has come up for dublin at $6505, but everywhere else is 7k plus (although Nice is $6684).

Even changing it to the Monday in the hope of picking up TK in the pricing doesn’t seem to change it

 

[tdimdad]

I know UK is not Europe, but be aware LHR has expensive tax in J flights. It often much cheaper to avoid flights to UK

Just as a side note, why do people keep saying that UK is not in Europe??? It's baffling. The nation has been counted as a part of the European continent forever and also shares plenty of cultural heritage and history. It just happened that the UK government recently detached the country from a political & economic alliance called 'European Union'. But it didn't move the British Isles and the nation to another continent, instead they still remain Europeans.

 

[CaptJCool]

Just as a side note, why do people keep saying that UK is not in Europe??? It's baffling. The nation has been counted as a part of the European continent forever and also shares plenty of cultural heritage and history. It just happened that the UK government recently detached the country from a political & economic alliance called 'European Union'. But it didn't move the British Isles and the nation to another continent, instead they still remain Europeans.

Yes my German friend said the same thing
UK is in Europe
UK is not in the EU

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Just as a side note, why do people keep saying that UK is not in Europe??? It's baffling. The nation has been counted as a part of the European continent forever and also shares plenty of cultural heritage and history. It just happened that the UK government recently detached the country from a political & economic alliance called 'European Union'. But it didn't move the British Isles and the nation to another continent, instead they still remain Europeans.

Because europe = ‘the continent’ for the purposes of discussing airfares (and the hefty UK departure tax, oh, and visas and ETAs, lol)

 

[equus]

aware LHR has expensive tax in J flights. It often much cheaper to avoid flights to UK

Actually the reverse. UK has expensive departure taxes - avoid flights FROM UK - into UK is fine, no issues.

 

[Becc]

Hi there and welcome!

There is a dedicated thread on the OWA here on AFF: "oneworld" award (132.4K/249.6K/318K/455K) Planning - The Definitive Thread

However, even for seasoned professionals, it’s really really hard to put something like that together. Availability is the key issue. It will usually take hours and hours of planning, before you can even start to book. And even when you can book, you’re unlikely to be able to get all the segments you need form the outset, so you’ll need to call the call centre.

This in itself has a range of very significant problems.

My last OWA was easy, only because qantas released a whole bunch of award space as a ‘we’re sorry’ offering… and my award was really simple… QF to London, QF home from the states… so I just needed one transatlantic to find, which was on BA.

Trying to piece together an award when there hasn’t been a huge release of seats can be hard. The starting point is to lock in the long hauls. Look via Sin, Hong Kong, Tokyo etc. Worry about the european connecting flights later.

You might also want to consider a paid service where they find the seats for you. But that can be expensive.

Thanks so much mate, much appreciated. I understand it's a bit of potluck when they release seats. I've signed up for an assessment from the concierge service to find out whether they think they can help. I agree it's going to be expensive, but given the current state of life, it's better than not going at all, and I simply can't ask him to fly economy. So... wish me luck, and again, thank you.

 

[Becc]

Thanks so much mate, much appreciated. I understand it's a bit of potluck when they release seats. I've signed up for an assessment from the concierge service to find out whether they think they can help. I agree it's going to be expensive, but given the current state of life, it's better than not going at all, and I simply can't ask him to fly economy. So... wish me luck, and again, thank you.

Oh! I just saw the other replies, sorry, I was taking hubby to hospital treatment. I'll go through what everybody else is kindly offering as advice. What a great community!

 

[Becc]

Firstly I’m sorry to hear your sad news. And I sense it’s quite emotionally overwhelming

So I would suggest

First
How flexible are you on dates ?
Choose your preferred dates +/- a week and search for the simplified option
If you mention the proposed timeframe here, a kind contributor may well “see what they can find”. we can point you in the right direction like others have because that’s what we do

Simplifying the process

Australia to Europe (and this is likely the hardest part to work out as has been mentioned)
Europe to USA
USA to Australia

Do the internal European flights separately - they are 10-20,000 points and availability is steady and can be booked on the QF website at your leisure.

This hopefully Declutters the path forward and lightens the emotional load because as others have mentioned it can take a lot of time (task-oriented folk love it)

Even recent looks at the where can I go tool, there’s was so little availability until Feb 2025 and then there was the carrier charges ouch

All the best

Thanks so very much for your kind words Captain, yes it is all rather overwhelming.
I was hoping we could go mid to late September, stay away for four to five weeks and return mid to late October.
We would be more than happy to do a stayover in Hong Kong or wherever was useful if that helped in the onward journey.
We can be very flexible with the dates, I'm just hoping to not have him in Europe when it becomes cold.

 

[Becc]

Trying to find flights for a 318k OWA in business is a bit of an art and it requires a lot of patience, flexibility as well as good knowledge of what is available to construct.

For some stsrter tips, the hardest part is getting off our rock. There's quite a bit more options in Asia and Europe. So one of the things you want to familiarise yourself with is the airlines in OneWorld, their home ports and where they fly to long haul in the region your looking at. (Eg where does Cathay fly to or JAL for example).

There is a thread on the Qantas subforums for it and best to keep asking there.

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

Note that this is not exclusively a "Round The World" Award. While it can be so used, it can also be used for "Round Trips", "Circle" Trips or even "one-way trips" without actually going "Round The World". Also note the following from the T&C review that comes up on Qantas.com if you have...

www.australianfrequentflyer.com.au

OK, great, I'll have a look at the thread you've suggested and start educating myself

 

[CaptJCool]

Thanks so very much for your kind words Captain, yes it is all rather overwhelming.
I was hoping we could go mid to late September, stay away for four to five weeks and return mid to late October.
We would be more than happy to do a stayover in Hong Kong or wherever was useful if that helped in the onward journey.
We can be very flexible with the dates, I'm just hoping to not have him in Europe when it becomes cold.

I haven't booked a round the world ticket so I'm not familiar with how it works

this example from the Multi-city tool is feasible (comes in at 693,000 points for two)
but
daytime flights from Sydney to Hong Kong and day time flights from London to Los Angeles would mean you could get away with "cattle class"
the longer transit from Hong Kong to London Premium Economy while not ideal is what's available
the longer longer transit from Los Angeles to Sydney is in FIRST CLASS (there's only these seats around 18-21 November)

 

[Becc]

Welcome to AFF @Becc and sorry to hear about your husband's diagnosis.

With September only 5 months away, will be tricky from "here to there" as premium seats will have been snapped up, though some do get released randomly - may mean checking every day.
Creative planning is key, and lots of helpful information from other AFF'S here.

Agree with @elanshin , a short hop to an Asian port on JQ or similar in Y and give yourself a few days to enjoy this journey and account for any delays etc.
@CaptJCool had some excellent advice too.

How long were you planning on being away and how flexible are you with your September timings?

This is the way I was hoping to do it, using this method https://www.australianfrequentflyer.com.au/fly-around-world-using-qantas-oneworld-award/
It says you can manage a round the world business ticket for 318,000 pts.
We could manage that with our points (660,000) and it would give us up to five stopovers. So maybe I just have to plan for next year to get the seat availability, and hope that his health doesn't spiral down too quickly

 

[CaptJCool]

This is the way I was hoping to do it, using this method https://www.australianfrequentflyer.com.au/fly-around-world-using-qantas-oneworld-award/
It says you can manage a round the world business ticket for 318,000 pts.
We could manage that with our points (660,000) and it would give us up to five stopovers. So maybe I just have to plan for next year to get the seat availability, and hope that his health doesn't spiral down too quickly

Yes the example I added the photo above was using the Multi-city tool

Given the time pressure, there’s a trade-off to be assessed so finishing up on the high note of F Could well do the trick
Remember you can buy top-up points if pressed for time

 

[SYD]

Manila (PR to there then EK OR EY from there) is the most talked about option.
This can also work from
Jakarta
coughet
Bangkok
Kuala Lumpur
Possibly Denpasar

add Singapore to that list of breaking a journey. Hotels might be a little more expensive but the city is more user friendly than some of the others mentioned. If seen and used decent fares to Europe on QR and AY (probably others from time to time).

Although, getting award seats to SIN is difficult compared to CGK (I’m doing my second Jakarta hack in a few months….QF/QR).

 

[MEL_Traveller]

This is the way I was hoping to do it, using this method https://www.australianfrequentflyer.com.au/fly-around-world-using-qantas-oneworld-award/
It says you can manage a round the world business ticket for 318,000 pts.
We could manage that with our points (660,000) and it would give us up to five stopovers. So maybe I just have to plan for next year to get the seat availability, and hope that his health doesn't spiral down too quickly

Keep an eye out for any mass release of awards as part of a ‘sorry’ campaign from Qantas.

Once they do this, you can snag Australia to Europe and USA back (or v.v.)

As soon as you can see those, lock them in and pay for your ticket. You can call later - 6000 change fee per person - to add the transatlantic ticket and any domestic USA flights.

I wouldn’t book economy sectors hoping to get business later… it might never happen.

But do use the ‘flexible dates’ on multi city tickets searches to find business class seats and try and patch something together.

 

[Flyfrequently]

This is the way I was hoping to do it, using this method https://www.australianfrequentflyer.com.au/fly-around-world-using-qantas-oneworld-award/
It says you can manage a round the world business ticket for 318,000 pts.
We could manage that with our points (660,000) and it would give us up to five stopovers. So maybe I just have to plan for next year to get the seat availability, and hope that his health doesn't spiral down too quickly

As you mentioned @Becc , I think using the Concierge service might be worth it in your instance - one less stress in your day to day life and time better spent to focus on you and your family.

 

[Becc]

I haven't booked a round the world ticket so I'm not familiar with how it works

this example from the Multi-city tool is feasible (comes in at 693,000 points for two)
but
daytime flights from Sydney to Hong Kong and day time flights from London to Los Angeles would mean you could get away with "cattle class"
the longer transit from Hong Kong to London Premium Economy while not ideal is what's available
the longer longer transit from Los Angeles to Sydney is in FIRST CLASS (there's only these seats around 18-21 November)
View attachment 378759

Thanks very much, so this is very helpful. I found when using the multicity tool on Qantas and filling in all the fields and flights, it kept taking me to a page which said 'This page is not working', I'm not sure why, and I complained to them and sent screenshots of what I'd put in, but I'll try what you've put in and see how that works.
Your suggestions on how to do this work really well mate, except for the Nov dates situation because I think it'll just be too cold for him with his health challenges.
But thanks very much again for going to the trouble of finding a feasible option and I will pursue it.
Kind regards
Becc

Post automatically merged: Apr 12, 2024

Keep an eye out for any mass release of awards as part of a ‘sorry’ campaign from Qantas.

Once they do this, you can snag Australia to Europe and USA back (or v.v.)

As soon as you can see those, lock them in and pay for your ticket. You can call later - 6000 change fee per person - to add the transatlantic ticket and any domestic USA flights.

I wouldn’t book economy sectors hoping to get business later… it might never happen.

But do use the ‘flexible dates’ on multi city tickets searches to find business class seats and try and patch something together.

Hi Mel_Traveller, thanks for your help.
How often do Qantas do 'sorry' seat releases?
Becc

 

[Becc]

As you mentioned @Becc , I think using the Concierge service might be worth it in your instance - one less stress in your day to day life and time better spent to focus on you and your family.

I think so, being so new to this, I don't think I'm going to be very good at it.
The time would be better spent with him, when I'm not working.

 

[Flyfrequently]

I think so, being so new to this, I don't think I'm going to be very good at it.
The time would be better spent with him, when I'm not working.

It takes a lot of practice to get your head around all of this @Becc !

Just looked and 3 September CR QF has 2× J seats Jakarta (CGK) to Prague with KLM. We flew with them HKG- AMS - LIS last September and although 2-2 configuration, the staff were exceptional and I slept better than on CX and QF.
I actually like a 2x 2, others may think differently !
Have a think about where you want to visit, and also we found trains were great for Spain, France and Italy.

 

[Becc]

It takes a lot of practice to get your head around all of this @Becc !

Just looked and 3 September CR QF has 2× J seats Jakarta (CGK) to Prague with KLM. We flew with them HKG- AMS - LIS last September and although 2-2 configuration, the staff were exceptional and I slept better than on CX and QF.
I actually like a 2x 2, others may think differently !
Have a think about where you want to visit, and also we found trains were great for Spain, France and Italy.

Well I bit the bullet and asked the concierge for assistance and at least they were totally transparent and said after assessing the dates, they felt sure they couldn't help.
I'll keep hunting around, but I'm thinking this is all looking so difficult, we may have to just make do with somewhere in Asia, which is disappointing because he was so keen on Europe, but reality is reality. Thank you everybody for your kind help. Happy travels!