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acampbel

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Oct 31, 2005
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After all my pontificating I nearly turned to the dark side today, and feel I should purge my soul by telling you all about it.

I was trying to book a trip to Kuala Lumpur and Singapore, so I made a start by checking out the options on Qantas.com before I called up the TA. No dice there as Qantas don't believe that Malaysia exists, so next stop was One World and their funky interactive map

Now this was interesting ....they were showing QF383 SYD-KUL direct but with a few caveats. Time to call 131131 and see what gives - and after being put on hold for 5 minutes I was told that it was a Jetstar codeshare flight that could be joined to a JL flight to Singapore and a QF flight home. I was going to quiz her about meals, IFE, and what Qantas would do if it didn't suit Jetstar to fly on the day, but first things first - the price. I mentally prepared a figure in my mind and was a little taken aback when she tripled it. $3678!!! "Err ..... no thanks", says I and back to the net.

I ran the itinerary through mobs such as statravel.com and got the expect SQ and MH offerings, but on a whim tried aa.com who came up with exactly the same OneWorld itinerary but priced it at 1050USD. "What were Qantas on about?", I thought, and penned an email to the ubiquitous Amex TA who has to do all our flights and lodgings. She could do the OneWorld itinerary for about $1400 (that's better!) but with one fatal problem - she could not access the QF codeshare and would have to book it as Jetstar!!!

That's the point at which I came to my senses and realised I was about to ditch a quality Asian airline for a LCC that was actually going to cost me $300 more. All for the sake of gaining a few miles and some status credits that aren't going to get me to Gold anyway. What was I thinking!?!


So does anyone have advice for a long-time Star Alliance recluse? Worth joining any programs when I am likely to return to One World for all future travel? Any possibility of blagging my way into the SQ lounges at SYD, SIN, KUL? Any sympathy for the fact that I am flying out on the 9th with all the APEC terrorists?


Cheers,

Andrew

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acampbel said:
Any sympathy for the fact that I am flying out on the 9th with all the APEC terrorists?


Cheers,

Andrew

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I fly out on the 8th - presumably with the advance guard of bureaucrats wuo dont get invited to the final dinner ;)
 
JQ prices seem to be Saver $274/ Flex $674 / Star $934 + $160 in taxes etc
for the one-way.

Anything on a Qantas code would normally be Flex booking (they never seem to offer the Saver fares Internationally)
 
A perfect opportunity to try out the Flagship SQ and MH First class lounges. :cool:

Get yourself a booking to SIN. Then book a one way First class SIN-KUL on SQ from SGD274 (~AUD225). After that book a one-way KUL-SIN on MH from MYR642 (~AUD230).

Just make sure you book evening flights and get to the airports 4-5 hours before hand to maximise your Flounging Experience. :p
 
I just flew to Singapore direct then took JAL to KL return, received 80 status credits for about $370 AUD for the JAL trip. Would this help you?
 
I just flew to Singapore direct then took JAL to KL return, received 80 status credits for about $370 AUD for the JAL trip. Would this help you?

It would .... but JAL only have one flight per day between SIN and KUL and neither timing suits.

Best(ish) fare of day policy will not allow me to request Business class between SIN and KUL, but do SQ offer upgrades? The TA will "ticket" it on Monday so time is running out for me to scam anything more than Economy class with no lounge access. Maybe I should just be grateful they are not sending me to Indonesia!


Cheers,

Andrew

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acampbel said:
It would .... but JAL only have one flight per day between SIN and KUL and neither timing suits.

Best(ish) fare of day policy will not allow me to request Business class between SIN and KUL, but do SQ offer upgrades? .

its been 6 months since i looked at shuttle runs so i am not up to date. the JL flights have bad timing and only once a day. from memory if you prebook the SQ/MAS shuttle then its full-fare economy. you might be able to pay your own upgrade from that - would be worth investigating as it is not expensive. 4 hours drinking Dom/Krug in the F lounge would help it to pay for itself :)

otherwise if you have a business class if over x hours policy then get it all on the one itinerary so you can F it up.

the JQ option is crazy.
 
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Hey mate,

How long are you going to be in KUL for?

I'll be there 17th to 22nd SEP. Would be lovely to catch up if this overlaps with ur visit. :)

Alas I'm flying oneworld so won't be able to help with lounge access, apart from 17th SEP with the SIN lounge since im doing SQ for SIN-KUL. Remains to be seen if I can upgrade that portion of the ticket to F as I bought it as a throughfare...

I'm doing a BA WTP fare via SYD and SIN with an overnight in SIN - for about $1600. Interestingly, BA/QF WHY fares priced out at $900 when I looked at it. :) [NOT the JQ option] It went up to $1400 if you want to get to KUL on the same day by going via BNE or PER.
 
So it was just a test of my morals, after all.

The main reason for visiting KL is off so it is now a simple SYD/SIN return and I have (of course) switched to Qantas. I was quite surprised to get a Friday night return as last time I had to route via Perth back to Sydney (not recommended).

The next trick is to find accommodation in Singapore. All the hotels are either completely full or only available for part of the week (and charging a hefty premium above rack-rate). There must be some hookers' convention in town to cater for the post APEC crowd.


Right - I'm off to flush the KrisFlyer card to remove all the evidence.


Cheers,

Andrew
 
I've flown SYD-SIN-KUL and return using QF and JL. I booked the JL flights on Zuji and saved quite a lot of money compared with the price of the regular SIN-KUL shuttles operated by SQ and MH.

SQ only offer F and Y on their shuttles and there wasn't a huge difference in price so I've done this a few times too. The F lounge in SIN is great if you have time to enjoy it. :)

I did read somewhere that SIN-KUL was going to be opened up soon to more airlines.
 
Right. Have now retrieved soggy KrisFlyer card as I need to organise a day trip to Jakarta. Given the option of Singapore Airlines or Garuda (for half the price) there is only one sane choice.

I have heard that the C&I experience in Jakarta is the opposite of Singapore - anyone have some good survival tips for someone arriving with just a passport and laptop?


Cheers,

Andrew
 
OK ... 2 more hints :-

  • It's not my money
  • I like the airline to have a half-decent safety record.
Cheers,

Andrew
 
I thought the soggy Krisflyer comment made it pretty obvious
 
acampbel said:
OK ... 2 more hints :-

  • It's not my money
  • I like the airline to have a half-decent safety record.
Cheers,

Andrew
And you choose SQ :rolleyes: :confused: :confused: .

Ahh, I see you said "half decent" ...
 
NM said:
And you choose SQ :rolleyes: :confused: :confused: .

Ahh, I see you said "half decent" ...

Actually, now that I look into safety ratings ( Airline accident ratings ) it seems that there's a bee's **** between Garuda and Singapore Air (76th and 77th respectively). It could even be argued that after a high-profile crash the saftey focus at Garuda may be at better than average levels.

I still hope the whole thing gets called off as I don't particularly want to visit Jakarta/Indonesia.


Anyway .... 'bout time this little black duck got packing.


Andrew

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acampbel said:
Actually, now that I look into safety ratings ( Airline accident ratings ) it seems that there's a bee's **** between Garuda and Singapore Air (76th and 77th respectively).

Interesting stats. I note that DL, SW, AA, CO, UA, US, NW, America West, LH, BA, United Express, AC, NH, IB, SK, American Eagle, AS, KL & JL are all ahead of QF, and AY, MH, AF, AZ & VASP just behind rounding out the top 25. But I guess they are just stats, and the disclaimer that there are many other factors at work.
 
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