Help - ATW with American or Qantas?

[Smithy789]

Fellow FFs,

The smithy789 clan (me, wife and 3-month old) are planning a 4-week around the world trip in May 2009. A straightforward itinerary (shame, I know) of Melbourne, London, Lyon, Kansas City, Melbourne.

Ideally we'd like to cash in some points and travel in business class all the way around, (who wouldn't), but - as I think you will see below, we don't have quite enough points. (Each available points amount is the total available if all points went to that program).

Total Available Points:

Qantas 480,655
American 224,134
Krisflyer 255,925
Velocity 388,500
AirNZ 4,261

Points needed for 2 x reward tickets and % of required points accumulated:

American:
Economy 240,000 (93.4%)
Business 300,000 (74.7%)

Qantas
Economy 280,000 (200.3%)
Business 560,000 (85.83%)

Krisflyer
Economy, 360,000 (66.9%)
Business 480,000 (excl 15% online discount) (53.2%)

AirNZ
Economy 6,860 (62.11%)
Business 15,820 (53.86%)

We are both AA Platinum (until February 2009 ) (post last-year's platinum challenge).

I would prefer to book the tickets through AA - we are nearly there in terms of points for 2 x business tickets, and their availability is much better than QF.

Do you have any thoughts on the following (or other suggestions and comments)?

1) What would be the best use of points that minimises the capital cost of purchasing more tickets? E.g.
a) buy 2 x economy, upgrade international legs to business where available
b) claim one award business, buy one business ticket.
c) claim two award economy seats and upgrade where possible to business.

2) Generally speaking, is seeking to do this with QF going to be impossible because of how few classic award seats are available?

3) What is the most effective ticket in terms of taxes - AA I assume?

4) What must 7-month old babies do for tickets - do they cost as much as adult tickets, either in cash or points?

5) I can probably apply for some US credit cards (with a US postal address and SS#) to accumulate some quick miles - any other ideas for how to get the 76,000 points that I am short.

6) Would it be more effective to claim award seats on a different way of routing, e.g. MEL-MCI-MEL and, say, ORD-LHR-ORD. That would get us to Kansas City return, and from Chicago to London return. More flight miles, but we could book our own side tickets easily enough.

Cheers,

smithy789

 

[simongr]

With american you will need to pay 10% of the full fare for the cabin you are travelling in for the 3 months old even if flying as a lap baby.

 

[NM]

I would prefer to book the tickets through AA - we are nearly there in terms of points for 2 x business tickets, and their availability is much better than QF.

Award availability in business class should be exactly the same for a OneWorld award from AA and QF. QF does not show all availability on their on-line system, but via a phone agent they should see the same as AA for all OneWorld airlines.

Do you have any thoughts on the following (or other suggestions and comments)?

1) What would be the best use of points that minimises the capital cost of purchasing more tickets? E.g.
a) buy 2 x economy, upgrade international legs to business where available

Will depend on the airlines used and their policy for upgrades. For example, QF upgrades are processed based on FF status, so less chance of scoring an upgrade with non QFF status. AA upgrades can be confirmed in advance but may need a cash co-payment.

b) claim one award business, buy one business ticket.

Note simongr's comment regarding infants. This will cost you a full OneWorld Explorer type fare of around $11,000.

c) claim two award economy seats and upgrade where possible to business.

You cannot upgrade an award ticket.

2) Generally speaking, is seeking to do this with QF going to be impossible because of how few classic award seats are available?

QF's Classic Award seats availability will be exactly the same as AA's awards. They come from the same inventory. Note that CX seats do not show on the QF on0-line system but can be booked via a phone agent and often have better availability especially for premium cabin awards.

3) What is the most effective ticket in terms of taxes - AA I assume?

Yes, that does seem to be the case. Note that awards, QF still adds the fuel fines for cash payment while AA does not charge fuel fines for awards.

4) What must 7-month old babies do for tickets - do they cost as much as adult tickets, either in cash or points?

This varies between airlines. For AA, they charge 10% of the full fare for infants. QF does not charge for infants not occupying seats. In both cases they need to be noted in the booking and will be issued a boarding pass.

5) I can probably apply for some US credit cards (with a US postal address and SS#) to accumulate some quick miles - any other ideas for how to get the 76,000 points that I am short.

You will struggle to get those points/miles in time to make an award booking for travel in May this year, especially in premium cabins. Unless you are willing to pay for one business class seat and use the points for the second, I think you should plan to be travelling in economy for this trip.

6) Would it be more effective to claim award seats on a different way of routing, e.g. MEL-MCI-MEL and, say, ORD-LHR-ORD. That would get us to Kansas City return, and from Chicago to London return. More flight miles, but we could book our own side tickets easily enough.

You may be able to book Australia-Europe in business class via an AA award and taking advantage of the better premium cabin award availability on the Kangaroo route with CX and BA. And then purchase an economy return from Europe to USA. Note that it may be cheaper for travel to/from places other than London and Chicago.

 

[simongr]

One thing to consider - and this is coming from a hard core mileage runner (i.e. I hapily flew lgw-barbados-jfk rather than lhr-jfk and jfk-dfw-lax-jfk-nrt-hkg-syd rather than jfk-lax-syd) - you have a bundle of "joy" which much paraphenalia, a wife probably breastfeeding and taking care of baby and thus pretty exhausted - trying to fly complex routes to get into premium cabins or save a few $ is I think going to bite you on the a$$. I would try and make sure you can book the best you can and keep it simple.

One question if you really want to fly in business might be to burn mor points and book a number of unconnected awards such as:

mel-hkg-lhr on BA and CX using a OW mileage award with AA
lhr-cdg-lhr on BA using an AA partner award
lhr-jfk- on BA/AA using a one way or OW award

and so on...

I am taking babysimpending when he is 7 months old to the UK in J and was told syd-lhr-syd and nothing more complex and all in J - it cost a few points but I think the price is worth bearing.

I do not expect to be travelling anywhere outside of Oz in 2010 as I suspect travelling with a 1 1/2 year old will be less than fun.... so burning more points than you might want to might generate more rewards in the long run...

 

[Smithy789]

Thanks Simongr and NM - your comments are very helpful and much appreciated!

smithy789