Expert Advice Please! Best way to get 2 to London Return Sydney 1st Class

[AussieSavingExpert.com]

Hi Folks,

This is only my second post (how exciting!) so forgive me if this, like the last, isn't in the right spot. Nevertheless...

I've got about 600K Qantas points, target 900kish, with a view to getting me and the OH to London for Xmas 2017 to visit the family.

My question is which is the best way to get the seats I need?

I'm assuming classic awards are the best bet but at nearly a million Qantas points they seem a little expensive. I did the same on BA a few years back and with a 2 for 1 deal from an amex card the whole thing only cost around 300k BA points.

Any seat awards are probably beyond my price range in $$ and in points unless I'm missing something? It would be so great to be able to bank the potential status credits!

All and any advice welcome!

ASE

 

[samh004]

Assuming you don't have status, you might find it hard. The biggest tip is to be flexible as the seats disappear fast so if you're inflexible you might find it harder to get your choice.

 

[BriarFlyer]

Christmas is a peak/prime travel time so, as samh004 says, flexibility on dates/times and airlines is essential. Qantas status would be a big help as you'd get first dibs at released seats. As for the points cost, I don't have any magic answer for securing award seats at less than the going rate (768,000 pts for 2 people return on Qantas or Emirates, a few more with Qatar.) Good luck in your hunt!

 

[Matt_01]

If you are after F rewards you will need flexibility in both dates and carrier. You make the point about banking SC, you will not get these on reward seats.

Options (IMO)
- purchase x2 business sale fares and try for F upgrade if you do not have status chances will be low. You will at least get Business SC
- hope for a companion fare offer.
- If it is only 1 travel who cares about SC, try for 1 reward seat and pay for the other.

Also Christmas is like school holidays, the availability is even tighter as the the carriers know they can sell the seats.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Hi Folks,

This is only my second post (how exciting!) so forgive me if this, like the last, isn't in the right spot. Nevertheless...

I've got about 600K Qantas points, target 900kish, with a view to getting me and the OH to London for Xmas 2017 to visit the family.

My question is which is the best way to get the seats I need?

I'm assuming classic awards are the best bet but at nearly a million Qantas points they seem a little expensive. I did the same on BA a few years back and with a 2 for 1 deal from an amex card the whole thing only cost around 300k BA points.

Any seat awards are probably beyond my price range in $$ and in points unless I'm missing something? It would be so great to be able to bank the potential status credits!

All and any advice welcome!

ASE

You can book as one ways, and if you are happy to consider one way business and one way first you are almost at your goal for points needed. I'd lock in you flights each way as soon as they open, that gives you the best chance.

You can also pay to top up your qantas points - up to 20% of the total needed... so one way business and one way first would require 640,000 points. If you have 600 the top up of 40K would cost AUD1019. Yes that's expensive but it means you can act fast to secure the seats. Of course it depends how quickly you will accrue QF points via other means.

 

[bsb]

How about get to KL and fly F from there on MH. Or get to BKK and F QR from there. The new MH and QF J suites getting up to Asia are pretty close to F and I'd say better than BA F seats and similar to QF, although food and service is the difference.

If you're hell bent on OW F from Aus, you'll have to be very lucky and very flexible.

 

[GoldCanyon340]

How about get to KL and fly F from there on MH. Or get to BKK and F QR from there. The new MH and QF J suites getting up to Asia are pretty close to F and I'd say better than BA F seats and similar to QF, although food and service is the difference.

If you're hell bent on OW F from Aus, you'll have to be very lucky and very flexible.

If it's available then MH F is a good option. EK F into a lower traffic port like OSL could work and get a cheap shuttle on BA to LHR.

All the above only if straight Australia to London is unavailable.

 

[Infrequent]

You can book as one ways, and if you are happy to consider one way business and one way first you are almost at your goal for points needed. I'd lock in you flights each way as soon as they open, that gives you the best chance.

You can also pay to top up your qantas points - up to 20% of the total needed... so one way business and one way first would require 640,000 points. If you have 600 the top up of 40K would cost AUD1019. Yes that's expensive but it means you can act fast to secure the seats. Of course it depends how quickly you will accrue QF points via other means.

I'd thought the top-up was limited to 20K ... is that limit just for mortals?

 

[junbugging]

I'd thought the top-up was limited to 20K ... is that limit just for mortals?

Understandable skepticism given MEL_Traveller's continued innumeracy, but:

https://lmgtfy.com/?q=qantas+top+up+points

[h=3]How Top-up points works[/h]

• Points may be purchased in blocks of 500.
• Minimum 500 to maximum 60,000 points per purchase.
• Points may only be purchased with a specific Reward in mind.
• A maximum of 20% of the points needed for the Reward can be purchased.
• Top-up points can be purchased twice per member in a 12-month period.

 

[Infrequent]

Whoa! Has this just changed? Or did I miss the plot completely a few months back? I recall rather vividly a table that only went to 20K. My bad luck!

 

[grussellt]

I would start reading the first WIKI thread in QFF "One World award planning". This will show you the flexibility offered by this award but you may have to be prepared to book J and hope that F awards show up at a later stage. To give you some hope have a look at current availability form SYD-LHR via HKG (multi-city tool) and you will see that CX offers Xmas presents in F even this close to December 25. You may also have to look at other European destinations and then make a final trip to LHR. Sadly you can't use EK on this award type.
Best of luck!