Getting stung with one way fares .... Again

[karen blancfield]

We should have learned from a previous experience but wonder if anyone has a bright suggestion. Have bought a one way ticket to London, award fare, 64 000 points plus $400 tax and fee, in June. Now trying to get home and of course it is $2000 one way. Annoying when the return flights are $2600. A big waste of points. Anyway, we can cancel the one way and forfeit 5000 points. Anyone know a better way of getting a flight home and doesn't have to be from London. Thanks.

 

[ReLoad]

Alrighty, a bit of info is needed.

Where is home, I.e SYD? MEL?
What is your carrier/alliance?
What dates do you want to fly?
What other ports can you fly out of?

 

[dajop]

Look on kayak.com and set country to the country you want to depart from. Easily found fares around $900 on MH ex LHR and AMS and $900 on SQ ex AMS. Probably can also check websites of preferred airlines.

 

[karen blancfield]

Sorry, Gold QF and Silver QF. We fly in and out of Alice Springs so from here it makes little difference which port we leave from. He is booked 3 June with that points offer and we would both return about 11 July. I need to get some SCs to keep gold so we would be better sticking to QF for that. $2600 gets a return fare from Alice to Heathrow, or it did yesterday. We have a small amount of flexibility with dates. I don't mind paying that for my return but it was the fact he has a one way and getting back is nearly as expensive. We didn't come across any $900 fare home, not on QF and not under about 40 hours. Thanks for any good leads. We are happy to do the hunting if we know where else to look.

 

[Pushka]

You can book cheaper fares or use points programs but if you are after status credits then you are pretty much restricted to Qantas and code shares.

 

[ozbeachbabe]

We should have learned from a previous experience but wonder if anyone has a bright suggestion. Have bought a one way ticket to London, award fare, 64 000 points plus $400 tax and fee, in June. Now trying to get home and of course it is $2000 one way. Annoying when the return flights are $2600. A big waste of points. Anyway, we can cancel the one way and forfeit 5000 points. Anyone know a better way of getting a flight home and doesn't have to be from London. Thanks.

So I'm guessing the ticket is ex Aust to London & you're looking at a one way London back to Aust?

I was looking at the ITA/Matrix website for one way fares early May BCN/BKK and noted AY had a one way fare of AUD488.00 BCN/xHEL/BKK and from there you could always purchase a JQ one way sale fare eg BKK/MEL or HKT/SYD as JQ don't penalise you for booking one way fares.

Alternatively you could book a return fare in whY on QF eg BKK/SYD/BKK and 'nest' the return sector back to BKK which you could use to position for your next holiday so ideally you need to know the date to book the SYD/BKK to avoid change fees.

Wait until AV LM next have a 100% bonus buy sale and purchase a TG award in J BKK to Aust (not sure if whY would be worth it on an award) or purchase some AA miles and do a one way award on QF.

You've got heaps of options.

 

[Mark3000]

It's so unfair that airlines do this.
How about Air Asia - I can't remember if they still do KUL-LHR

 

[cambriamarsh]

You can book cheaper fares or use points programs but if you are after status credits then you are pretty much restricted to Qantas and code shares.

Don't other OneWorld carriers give SCs?

 

[cambriamarsh]

It's so unfair that airlines do this.
How about Air Asia - I can't remember if they still do KUL-LHR

I think they stopped some time ago

 

[ozbeachbabe]

Sorry, Gold QF and Silver QF. We fly in and out of Alice Springs so from here it makes little difference which port we leave from. He is booked 3 June with that points offer and we would both return about 11 July. I need to get some SCs to keep gold so we would be better sticking to QF for that.

$2600 gets a return fare from Alice to Heathrow, or it did yesterday. We have a small amount of flexibility with dates. I don't mind paying that for my return but it was the fact he has a one way and getting back is nearly as expensive. We didn't come across any $900 fare home, not on QF and not under about 40 hours. Thanks for any good leads. We are happy to do the hunting if we know where else to look.

How many QF status credits do you want/need and when is your freq flyer year end?

Have you still got any QF points to burn that you could use for a one way award ex UK Europe to the Caribbean on AA or BA? If so, you could then do a KUPP from the Caribbean to HNL which could get you approx 330 SC flying in J Caribbean to MIA then F MIA/xDFW/HNL.

As you're from ASP it may be better value using AA points HNL/xSYD/ASP as I think ASP is common rate with SYD whereas would probably be more expensive purchasing a fare HNL/ASP than HNL/SYD.

 

[karen blancfield]

Thanks very much everyone. We will start investigating these various options. Great help and appreciated. We have plenty of points so can look at different options as suggested.

 

[Pushka]

Don't other OneWorld carriers give SCs?

Yes. But those one way fares can be expensive.