Getting to New Caledonia

[ffhound]

Hi all

I'm interested in going to Noumea in the last weekend of April 2018 for a week. The plan is to go to The Giant Omelette Festival at Dumbea that weekend.

The difficulty I am facing is finding award seats ex Melbourne. The only seats flying direct Australia - NC are from Sydney. The difficulty is that the Sydney flights leave early in the morning and I'd rather not stay in Sydney overnight. I know there are no award seats ex Melbourne. I have plenty of both Qantas and Velocity points but Virgin don't fly to NC.

Any idea on how to use points to get to NC? I'm happy to go either economy or business but with the economy discount at present I'd prefer to book that. its also a relatively short flight.


cheers Peter

 

[Steady]

There are also direct QF BNE-NOU flights you could check - they used to be in the evening

 

[ffhound]

I could get from Brisbane to Noumea on the 28th except that the plane leaves at 10AM. The earliest flight Mel-Bri would have me into Brisbane at 9.20 AM which is not really enough time to swap planes.

There are hardly any available flights in April.

 

[defurax]

The SYD-NOU flight on Friday leave in the afternoon and the BNE-NOU flight on Saturday is in the evening. I think all other flights are early morning.

 

[ffhound]

Unfortunately the only classic award seats ex SYD are at 7.40 AM in the morning. Not great if you are coming from Melbourne.

 

[eric2011]

To get something for nothing you may have to spend just a little. Come to SYD the night B4 and stay at the airport Rydges. $200

 

[Catweazle]

Yes, I've noticed the same, not too many options. BNE - NOU operate Saturdays I think. I'd pick up a cheap MEL or AVV to SYD flight to position for the following day as others have suggested. Of course, taxes on that route are far from cheap!

Alternatively, Air Calin does now fly from MEL direct, but not sure of availablity. Probably much the same, if any at al!

 

[defurax]

Yes, I've noticed the same, not too many options. BNE - NOU operate Saturdays I think. I'd pick up a cheap MEL or AVV to SYD flight to position for the following day as others have suggested. Of course, taxes on that route are far from cheap!

Alternatively, Air Calin does now fly from MEL direct, but not sure of availablity. Probably much the same, if any at al!

QF do not codeshare on the direct MEL-NOU flight operated by SB. In the past 2 years QF have reduced significantly the number of award seats to NOU ( I haven't seen a single U award seat to NOU in 18 months).

 

[ffhound]

Hello again

I have some good news on a number of fronts.

First I got a form email back from Qantas telling me to ring their service centre.

I played around with the booking engine with no luck and then up came a live chat request asking if I needed any help. So I asked them to look at available seats for me to Noumea ex MEL (direct or indirect).

The very nice person I spoke to (Trish) found award seats on a number of flights connecting from Melbourne. I settled on QF412 leaving Melbourne at 7.30 AM and connecting with QF361 leaving Sydney at 12.25 PM.

However I then found out that if Trish booked this for me It would cost me an additional 6,000 points. I pointed out that award seats were not showing for me when I searched for that route. What was curious was that she did the exact same search and could see the seats. I copied everything from my screen and let her look at the results I was getting. She then sought some help and offered to book the flight for me without the 6,000 point cost! And so it has been booked.

The return leg I will book myself once the first leg is confirmed. More award seats show up coming back when I search and it is much easier. I am just waiting for my credit card to be charged and points deducted from my balance before booking the return leg. I am still mulling whether I should stay longer than a week. Any thoughts?

have also asked Trish to escalate the booking engine issue to her superiors so that people can see all the available award seats to get to Noumea
.
Trish was very patient and both she and Qantas get 5 stars from me for service. I hope that they follow up on the booking engine issue.

Also with the 25% discount, the return ticket will have cost just 27,000 points all up which is a bargain.

The Giant Omelette awaits!

cheers Peter

 

[justin23]

However I then found out that if Trish booked this for me It would cost me an additional 6,000 points. I pointed out that award seats were not showing for me when I searched for that route. What was curious was that she did the exact same search and could see the seats. I copied everything from my screen and let her look at the results I was getting. She then sought some help and offered to book the flight for me without the 6,000 point cost! And so it has been booked.

This is not that uncommon. Especially when it involves other partners. I had to call Qantas to book a Lima to Cusco flight on LATAM, which would be a fairly popular route for Australians. They usually always wave the 6000 point fee when you tell them you can't book it online.