Euro trip winter 2018 - airline suggestions welcomed

[scubabe]

Hi all,

After copping a DVT earlier this year and getting a 12 month grounding from flying anywhere, I'm gagging to book an O/S trip. My OH is off to Japan for 2.5 weeks in January on a trip with friends that I was supposed to be on too, only I had to cancel as wasn't allowed to fly So to that end, I have now started thinking about planning a Euro winter 2018 trip. As in, sometime between Nov 2018 - Jan 2019 perhaps.

We have between us 650k QF points and 300k VA points (which converts to 220k KF points should I transfer).

The trip should be all about experiences - want to take in some mindblowing lounges, take some flights or classes or airlines that will blow our minds. I've not really been on the forums for the last 8/9 months because I wasn't allowed to fly so I didn't want to read about everyone's trips, so I'm really out of the loop on what the best places/experiences are these days.

So things like suggestions for the best lounges pre or post flight, chauffeur pickups, amazing products or services, are what we're looking for. We picked Singapore as an outbound stopover due to wanting to experience Suites, and Dubai as an inbound stopover because neither of us have ever visited, and we'd like to try Emirates using QF points


Leg 1 : Brisbane/Sydney/Melbourne to Singapore in J or F
We'll have a 2-3 day stopover in Singers. I don't mind a hop from BNE-elsewhere beforehand for better award availability or cabin/airline/lounge access.
QUESTION: Would love QF F lounge access maybe, from Syd or Mel... are there any other/equal/better lounges we should try to aim for with other airlines? Any J lounges which rock so we could save some points and fly J instead of F? Then again, QF F lounge...

Leg 2 : Singapore to LHR in A380 Suites
I made this choice so we can have TPR access pre-flight, and their amazing in-flight service.
I want a day flight to make the best use of Suites, so I have discounted FRA as the A380 flight is a night flight, I have discounted CPH as they don't fly an A380 there, and sadly they don't fly direct to AMS.

Leg 3 : UK somewhere to AMS
After a week or so in UK, we'll probably revenue this flight, it's a short hop and we haven't worked out yet where we'll be departing from - poss EDI. Spend 3-4 days in AMS.

Leg 4 : AMS to Scandinavia
Again, haven't decided our absolute destination here yet. Want to go inside the arctic circle and stay in a hotel designed for Northern Lights viewings - maybe Kakslauttanen in Finland but we've not finished research here yet. Again, happy to either revenue or award book these flights, once we know where we're going.

Leg 5 : Scandi somewhere, to Dubai, in J
QUESTION: We'd want to award book this, suggestions of airports/airlines/lounges appreciated
Then a 2-3 day stopover in Dubai

Leg 6 : Emirates from Dubai to Oz, in J
Taking advantage of Chauffeur Drive
QUESTION: What's the J lounge access like in Dubai? Any reason we should get F instead of J awards? And are these relatively easy to get hold of with QF? We don't have any QF status

Any advice or suggestions, particularly on the three specific questions in red above, would be very gratefully received.

Fingers crossed there'll be a romantic proposal under the northern lights on this trip, so we want every part of the holiday to be memorable and special.

 

[scubabe]

Question : if I book BA16 SYD-SIN in F using QF points, would I get a QF flight number, and thus be allowed into the QF F lounge?

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Question : if I book BA16 SYD-SIN in F using QF points, would I get a QF flight number, and thus be allowed into the QF F lounge?

If you book BA F your lounge access will be by virtue of OneWorld class-of-service... so no need to be on a QF flight number. F = F and gets access.

In general you cannot book codeshares for award travel. So you will always be on the flight number of the operating airline. This applies to SQ, VA, QF and any other program. There are potentially one or two quirks... you may (I'm not entirely sure) be able to get a QF flight number on a flight operated by Asiana to Seoul... but again it's a bit of an anomaly (if it's even possible).

For intra Europe check BA first for your flight from uk. KLM tended to be expensive last time I was flying, and they charge extra for bags (whereas somehow BA's fares, including bag, were still very cheap). I also did a sector in FlyBe... as it was non-stop MAN-AMS. Also cheap including bag, but beware they have a very small cabin bag allowance (size wise) and they are ruthless with excess baggage charges if you need to check that bag in.

Another tip is that you may be able to open jaw your ticket somehow... if you were to change your itinerary slightly, you could probably get EDI-Scandinavia-AMS as a roundtrip, pricing pretty competitively. on a legacy carrier. Friends of mine booked separate tickets to Helsinki recently... London to Helsinki and then to Dublin. The cost was something like $700 a sector. If they'd purchased it as a single open-jaw the flight was about $220.

For SQ to Europe, I'd go with the flow and perhaps not get too caught up on departure time. Flights that leave late mean you get more time in the TPR. And you'll likely sleep at some stage anyway... suites is about the bed. Yes the service and food is good, but I'm not sure how you'd actually enjoy it for 14 straight hours. And nothing happens in between meals. So you either sleep, or watch a movie. You might check out ZRH as well for availability.

 

[RooFlyer]

Scandinavia - consider Longyearbayan, Svalbard. Northern lights should be a shoo-in, as well a ?polar bears? and other northern activities.

Check out the Trip Report indexes for research: destinations Destination Trip Reports airlines Airline Trip Reports

 

[scubabe]

Thanks so much to you both!
I've still got some time to have a play around with flight options and classes and things before we need to book, so will be spending a lot of time this weekend on the QF multi-stop tool to see what I can come up with
Cheers

 

[Wanderlust_tim]

Scandinavia - consider Longyearbayan, Svalbard. Northern lights should be a shoo-in

Longyearbayan is too far north for the best of the Northern Lights i believe, Tromso would a better bet if focusing on Norway.

 

[scubabe]

Yeah, the last time I went hunting for the Northern Lights I did it from Tromso, fabulous spot! It's on the shortlist for returning to, but I'm also looking at other resorts in Scandi as it's also atmosphere in the accom we're after.

Sadly, my OH has just thrown a spanner in the works... He just managed to get us glitch fares from BNE-YVR-EWR return for just $600 a pop, so it looks like we're going to Vancouver and NYC next Sept/Oct instead. The Europe trip may need to get pushed out a bit. Yay for bargain fares but boo for not travelling at the pointy end.