Can 333,000 points take me Syd/SthAmerica/Europe/Africa/Syd

[TravelLover2006]

I have been accumulating points for years but have never used any. I now have about 330,000! Has anyone been around the world from Sydney via Sth America to Europe to Africa to Sydney. Where do I start? I want to leave about August or September 2006. I would be interested in hearing any advice as it seems a mammoth task to organise.

 

[NM]

Firstly, I will assume your points are with Qantas and not another airline.

What class of travel and how many people travelling together?

Where do I start?

When I arranged my family RTW holiday using QF FF points (planning started about 3 years ago, trip was May-Aug 2004) I started by looking at the award fare rules and how I could best fit in my desired destinations. Then I used the on-line availability tools to find flights with award seats available around the dates I wanted to travel. Then its time to call the airline and start making reservations.

Note that availability will be the biggest issue if you do not hold Gold or Platinum FF status and hence have access to greater availability.

OneWorld Award rules at a glance:

You can have up to five stopovers. A stopover can also be a "surface sector" where you arrive and depart from different places and perhaps drive, train or use other transport between these places. This is particularly useful in Europe where you can easily travel by Eurail Pass or in the US by rental car or even train.

A stopover is a break in the journey of more than 24 hours. So you can spend up to 24 hours in some places and still only be seen as a transit. This takes careful planning. We did this in DFW where we overnighted and met with friends for dinner before departing the next day in under 24 hours. We did the same in HKG on the way home and had a day of sightseeing before departing late the same night.

You must use 2 non-Qantas OneWorld airlines, but that will not be a problem for your itinerary as you will need to use LA trans-Pacific and BA, IB or LA to Europe, and BA to Africa.

Fees and charges will shock you. Be prepared for many hundreds of dollars per ticket.

Be prepared to spend a lot of time on the phone to the res agent looking for availability etc.

 

[TravelLover2006]

Economy 1 seat roundworld Syd/SthAmerica/Europe/Africs/Syd

Economy 1 seat roundworld Syd/SthAmerica/Europe/Africs/SydMy points are still with Citibank as I can accumulate forever and only need to convert to Qantas when I have to. This is a hard one as I do not want to convert until I have everything I want. Can I have more than five stopovers?

 

[FF Wannabe]

Check how many days it takes for points to transfer from your Citibank account to your FF account as often FF seats are available on one day and snapped up very quickly - you don't want to be sweating it out waiting for 2-3 days for points to convert if there is only one FF seat available on a flight. If the bank says it will take a couple of days for points to convert don't sit back and wait for those days to pass as the points often move much faster and may appear on your FF account a few hours later. It pays to check your FF account on line each hour in order to utilize the points earlier.

Good luck and enjoy the thrill of the chase.

 

[NM]

Re: Economy 1 seat roundworld Syd/SthAmerica/Europe/Africs/S

Economy 1 seat roundworld Syd/SthAmerica/Europe/Africs/SydMy points are still with Citibank as I can accumulate forever and only need to convert to Qantas when I have to. This is a hard one as I do not want to convert until I have everything I want. Can I have more than five stopovers?

No, you cannot have more than 5 stopovers. You cannot "buy" more stopovers with points or cash. This is where the ground segments and <25 hour transits come into play.

The other option is to use some extra points and next several rewards. The RTW award with 5 stopovers will cost you 142,500 points for one seat in economy (up to 35,000 miles). So you have some points left over to make a few side trips during your RTW trip stopovers. But these would be independent and separate award tickets. Look for the most efficient places to purchase additional awards, such as Europe where the distances are generally low and you may be able to use for 10,000 point <600 mile awards.

Remember that the mileage for surface segments (ie the distance between an arrival point and the next departure point) is included in the award mileage calculations. For example, if you arrive into London from Sth America, and travel around the UK by car and perhaps EuroStar train to Paris, then fly out from Paris, the London-Paris part is seen as a single stopover and a "surface segment" where you are responsible for getting from London to Paris. In this case the distance between London and paris is included in the calculation.

 

[Kiwi Flyer]

Re: Economy 1 seat roundworld Syd/SthAmerica/Europe/Africs/S

This is where the ground segments and <25 hour transits come into play.

25 hours? Is that anything to do with (lack of) daylight saving in cane toad country, or metric time, or a guess because you ran out of fingers and toes?

 

[NM]

Re: Economy 1 seat roundworld Syd/SthAmerica/Europe/Africs/S

This is where the ground segments and <25 hour transits come into play.

25 hours? Is that anything to do with (lack of) daylight saving in cane toad country, or metric time, or a guess because you ran out of fingers and toes?

a bit of both ... and also much to do with the hour sleep I lost last night attending to Mini NM#4 making my day feel like at least 25 hours 8) .

 

[Kiwi Flyer]

Re: Economy 1 seat roundworld Syd/SthAmerica/Europe/Africs/S

This is where the ground segments and <25 hour transits come into play.

25 hours? Is that anything to do with (lack of) daylight saving in cane toad country, or metric time, or a guess because you ran out of fingers and toes?

a bit of both ... and also much to do with the hour sleep I lost last night attending to Mini NM#4 making my day feel like at least 25 hours 8) .

Both? I counted 3 reasons!

TravelLover2006 - should be <24 hour transits (scheduled arrival time to scheduled departure time).

 

[NM]

Re: Economy 1 seat roundworld Syd/SthAmerica/Europe/Africs/S

Both? I counted 3 reasons!

I have it on good authority that 1 + 1 + 1 = 2 for small values of 1

 

[Kiwi Flyer]

Re: Economy 1 seat roundworld Syd/SthAmerica/Europe/Africs/S

Both? I counted 3 reasons!

I have it on good authority that 1 + 1 + 1 = 2 for small values of 1

Sure if you're rounding the same way inland revenue does on the form (and then they come back with a correction - we meant 3, never works the other way :roll: )

 

[NM]

Re: Economy 1 seat roundworld Syd/SthAmerica/Europe/Africs/S

never works the other way :roll: )

Yes it does .... 1 + 1 + 1 = 2 for large values of two .

 

[Kiwi Flyer]

Re: Economy 1 seat roundworld Syd/SthAmerica/Europe/Africs/S

never works the other way :roll: )

Yes it does .... 1 + 1 + 1 = 2 for large values of two .

If only inland revenue would see things as you do, then I'd get along so much better with them.

 

[NM]

Re: Economy 1 seat roundworld Syd/SthAmerica/Europe/Africs/S

If only inland revenue would see things as you do, then I'd get along so much better with them.

I once queried an accountant friend (yes, I do know an accountant who has a friend) and asked him what is 1 + 1. His reply... "what would you like it to be".

 

[Kiwi Flyer]

Re: Economy 1 seat roundworld Syd/SthAmerica/Europe/Africs/S

If only inland revenue would see things as you do, then I'd get along so much better with them.

I once queried an accountant friend (yes, I do know an accountant who has a friend) and asked him what is 1 + 1. His reply... "what would you like it to be".

That sounds about right. You know an accountant who knows he doesnt need to know how to add.

 

[QF WP]

You two gentlemen have had your fun taking another topic OffT, you really need to take these kind of discussions via PM. That would save the original poster and us... :roll:

Let's get back to discussion of the topic...