FF Booking - Melb - Frankfurt, LHR-Melb, Family of 5

[Jon Spiers]

First timer here. We are about to book 5 tickets to Europe for December 2008 using QFF points (I am only a member of QFF program- Platinum status) however before I part with 640,000 points + taxes, charges etc. on Qantas, reading previous discussions on this site it looks like there are a lot of other options.

I would greatly appreciate advice on how to get the best bang for what is essentially my full points balance.

Thanks, Jon.

 

[straitman]

First timer here. We are about to book 5 tickets to Europe for December 2008 using QFF points (I am only a member of QFF program- Platinum status) however before I part with 640,000 points + taxes, charges etc. on Qantas, reading previous discussions on this site it looks like there are a lot of other options.

I would greatly appreciate advice on how to get the best bang for what is essentially my full points balance.

Thanks, Jon.

Jon Spiers,

Welcome to AFF.

As you say there are a lot of options. My suggestion is look at everything you can via the search function and come back and ask some specific questions. Without that it's almost impossible for people to to help as they need to second guess you.

eg
Where do you want to go specifically?
When?
Are you flexible with dates?
Does it matter which airlines?
Can the party be split? (getting 5 seats together may not be possible)
Would you accept around the world? (700,000 QF points)
Do you realise that you will only get (legally) lounge access for yourself and one other?
... and many more.

 

[moa999]

Jon,

The most important tables to understand are the following:
Frequent Flyer - Using Points - Award Flights - Points Tables

From this am surmasing that QF is currently looking at booking you on say 5 x SYD-LHR and 5x LHR-SYD trips (via either BKK or SIN).
Note the one advantage of booking these trips on QF through QF is the FF desk can send requests to yield management to release seats which will hopefully allow you to get the 5 seats on a single flight.

What may be worth considering is instead using the oneworld explorer fare
5x 142,500 pts = 712,000 which will let you fly up to 35,000 miles (as a return) but MUST have two other airlines apart from QF.
-- ON this fare you could also use the points for a number of flights within Europe (if you can manage to use two of BA, Iberia, Finnair this is probably the easiest way)
So the explorer fare = a few more points used, and probably more +++ taxes, but may let you see more of Europe for the small extra
Could also consider routing back via HKG as an option rather than BKK/SIN

 

[Evan]

Just out of interest, anybody know the conditions/limitations etc for the oneworld award flights ? I could find nothing on the OW site.

 

[Mal]

Just out of interest, anybody know the conditions/limitations etc for the oneworld award flights ? I could find nothing on the OW site.

Most of the info is split over the page on the Qantas site here:
Frequent Flyer - Using Points - Award Flights - Points Tables

and the T&C's section here:
Frequent Flyer - About the Program - Terms & Conditions (Section 13.5)

 

[Jon Spiers]

Thanks very much for all the advice. I guess my newbie question was bit like; 'how long is a piece of string'.

I am pretty well versed in using just Qantas on FF points internationally through making plenty of mistakes (just don't mention Hawaii and Jetstar code share!), and before booking this trip I am keen to find out if there is a more 'efficient' way to do this than the most obvious option (being just Qantas return).

For example, I did a serch on 'Questions' and there was an example (from 2002) where someone had used Qantas to Singapore and then BA to London and saved 10,000 points.

Do these sort of differences still exist to get to Europe using less points, and if so, what is the best way to do it? Secondly, how you go about booking different airlines using FF points as part of the one trip (e.g do you just go through the QFF call centre)?

We are flexible in how we get to Europe (through SIN, HK, BNK or other), the airline (no strong preference) and also with dates, other than we would like to be in Germany for Christmas '08 and then around 5 weeks later, leave from London back to Melbourne - we will get to London on Eurostar and avoid Heathrow. I also do not have much more than 640,000 points which is 5 return tickets on Qantas.

I don't know if this extra detail makes it easier to provide advice?

Thanks again.
Jon

 

[moa999]

Jon.
Think in this case - simplest solution is probably the best.
Base routings
MEL-LHR 10500 miles (64,000 pts on QF/BA)
MEL-SIN 3750 miles (30,000 on QF)
SIN-LHR 6760 miles (42,000 on QF)
So by booking as single legs you will still be more than the direct.


My only caveat is if you wanted to tag on some additional flights into Europe, or reroute into a circle-style fare (eg MEL-SIN-LHR-FCO-MAD-HKG-MEL) you would be able to do it for another 70k points (712.5k in total) (and a few extra +++ $s) which is very good 'points value' if you wanted to do that.

 

[JohnK]

We are flexible in how we get to Europe (through SIN, HK, BNK or other), the airline (no strong preference) and also with dates, other than we would like to be in Germany for Christmas '08 and then around 5 weeks later, leave from London back to Melbourne - we will get to London on Eurostar and avoid Heathrow. I also do not have much more than 640,000 points which is 5 return tickets on Qantas.

As mentioned earlier you may find it hard to book 5 return award tickets on the one flight.

So essentially you want to be in Germany for Christmas 08 and return around end of January 09. The seats for the return flight will not be able to be booked until mid February 08 by which time availability for the December 08 flights may have disappeared. You may have to consider booking 2 one way flights, ie book MEL-SIN-FRA or MEL-LHR-FRA as soon as this becomes available and then book the return LHR-SIN/HKG-MEL when this becomes available.