Do I book BA or Quantas for easiest access to lounges whilst in Aus?

[humphrea]

Hi - airline websites are driving me mad - can you help???

My company is sending me to Sydney for three years (hooorrraayyy!). Before I start in Mid June I will be taking one business class return from LHR (to find somewhere to live) and then one business class single back out to Sydney to start on 1st August.

I will be doing about two business class returns per year back to London. Whilst in Sydney I will also have to fly around Aus quite a bit, however, as my company policy is only business class on flights more than four hours most of these will be economy - therefore I need a card that gets me access to the business lounges.

I alraedy have 300 points (run out in Oct 10) on my BA Executive Blue card so can easily get upgraded to and maintain BA Silver

Question is - If I book BA and get upgraded will this give me access to all the Quantas lounges across Aus. If not if I start using Quantas for all flights now will I earn enough points to get me into lounges etc??

Any help would be great!!

 

[Mal]

As Qantas and BA are both in the oneworld alliance, status (Silver / Gold with BA or Gold/Platinum with Qantas), will give you access to the Qantas lounges in Australia when flying Qantas.

Besides this, if you are travelling in Business, then you'll get access to the lounges anyway.

So the question really is - Is the BA Scheme better than the Qantas scheme or not?

LHR-SIN/BKK/HKG-SYD (return) + LHR-SIN/BKK/HKG-SYD will earn 720 Status Credits, which is the equivalent of Qantas Gold (equivalent to Silver BA). Only 700SCs are required to gain Qantas Gold.

Note you have to fly on 4 Qantas segments within those flights. This could pose an issue with originally getting Gold, as eg QF2 LHR-BKK-SYD will be treated as only one segment.

A difference between the Qantas scheme and the BA scheme is that when you go from Bronze-Silver-Gold-Platinum, your status credits are rolled over (vs being reset with the BA scheme). lso, Qantas does credit better when flying Economy than the BA scheme.

 

[JetLagged]

Note you have to fly on 4 Qantas segments within those flights. This could pose an issue with originally getting Gold, as eg QF2 LHR-BKK-SYD will be treated as only one segment.

True, Mal - though if humphrea books this trip as two different legs - i.e. LHR to BKK and then BKK to SYD (even on the same plane but booking with both the UK and Thailand web sites) - then that return trip in itself will classify as 4 qualifying flights.

I did this myself - not to get the required sectors but to both maximise SCs and also to lower costs. Another post o here showed that booking SIN-LHR from the SIN Qantas site was cheaper than doing it all from AU - no real idea why, but it is. Same for trips from the UK - they are remarkably cheaper - how about the equivalent of $9000 for a return First class ticket, compared to $180000 for the same product booked here?

 

[Mal]

True, Mal - though if humphrea books this trip as two different legs - i.e. LHR to BKK and then BKK to SYD (even on the same plane but booking with both the UK and Thailand web sites) - then that return trip in itself will classify as 4 qualifying flights.

Yeah, this is an option, and for some strange reason my first SC count for this thread was actually representing the split booking. It's now corrected. The intended J flights do still meet Gold Qualification with QF.

Another option of course is LHR-MEL-SYD, or change flight numbers in SIN/BKK/HKG to get 2 eligible segments out of one set of flights.

 

[JetLagged]

Question is - If I book BA and get upgraded will this give me access to all the Quantas lounges across Aus. If not if I start using Quantas for all flights now will I earn enough points to get me into lounges etc?? Any help would be great!!

Humphrea - before you settle here in Oz - be good idea for you to know that the word is Qantas - no near automatic 'u' - it is an acronym for the original name of the company:
Q ueensland
a nd
N orthern
T erritory
A erial
S ervice

I mean - we can't have you appearing on the scene as simply yet another damn Brit tourist, can we?

 

[JetLagged]

OOPPS, sorry - and welcome to the FF forum!

 

[humphrea]

Thanks guys - this is really useful!!

 

[dajop]

or change flight numbers in SIN/BKK/HKG to get 2 eligible segments out of one set of flights.

This option is simplest. LHR-SYD (QF1 or 31) .... SYD-SIN-LHR (QF5 connecting to QF 9 or QF31) or SYD-BKK-LHR (on QF codeshare on BA on 1 leg, QF metal on the other) then LHR-SYD (QF 1 or 31 again). 4 segments. Done.

In any event if the OP did only use 3 segments for the return trip + one way trip, it would just mean missing out on being gold for the first QF flight taken domestically - hardly an issue worth worrying about.