Help for a new comer

[Chris DeSanto]

Hello all,

I am new to both the site and rewards programs and/or flight clubs and i am hoping you all can give me some advice and or links to previous asked and answered questions similar to what i am trying to understand.

My family and I will be making a move to Australia after the new year from France. I was looking to sign up for some form of club membership and/or a frequent flyer program. I have absolutely no clue what i am looking into as it is new to me. From the bit I have done seems there are some serious lines to walk to get the most for your money and it is not as easy as finding a program and signing up.

I was expecting to fly with qantas from Europe. Can anyone either point me to posts with recent information or tell me what a good alternative would be. I will be using the site and reading thru what seems like a vast repository of information over the next few days, but any links in the right direction will of course save me tons of time to filter through the site for what i need.

As some background on us as I assume it will help a bit with which program may be the best for us. We are a early 30s couple with a 15 month old daughter. We travel often for long weekends but will most likely use flights in Australia a few times a year and maybe one trip every year or 1.5 yrs back to France for family visits, also possibly to the US on occasion. We are mainly looking for a way to gain some rewards or points to help with the costs and some upgrades would of course be great. We will be based in the NE in Cairns if that matters. Thanks for any and all advice in advance.

Cheers,
Chris.

 

[fjc]

Welcome to AFF, Chris.

There are 2 major Australian domestic airlines: Qantas and Virgin. Qantas has 2 parts: Qantas full service (called Qantas) and JetStar, a low cost carrier (LCC). Qantas has the most services into the regions outside of the big cities so if you're flying into the regions, then consider Qantas (they may be operated by other airlines eg Brindabella). I regularly fly through regional airports, also Sydney / Brisbane / Cairns and find that Qantas full service is often as cheap as JetStar (particularly when you look at the add-ons) and book during their sales.

Internationally, Qantas is regarded as the national airline (like Air France) but many other airlines fly in. There are 2 main FF programs: OneWorld (Qantas, BA, American Airlines) and Star Alliance (Virgin, Singapore Airlines and others). Air France doesn't show up as a One World airline, but Qantas does code share with them. I don't know about points and Status Credits with Air France.

Although you will often see rants and raves about Qantas in this group, they are still a good airline IMHO. Certainly their pilots know how to get a plane down when an engine blows out (but then so would most other airlines). Also, because they are Australian based, when things go wrong (eg snow storms, volcanos etc) they realise that Australians overseas are all flying long haul and do their best to accommodate.

Cairns is not the easiest of airports to get connections from and to. My brother lives there and he moans about the connections. He often flies Cairns / Hong Kong on Cathay, then on from Hong Kong. Other times, its Cairns / Brisbane and on or Cairns / Townsville and on.

I had a look at the Qantas fllights on 2 random dates and quickest Cairns / Paris is Jetstar Cairns / Singapore, then Air France to Paris.

However, be aware that the cheaper Jetstar flights don't attract Status Credits, whereas the cheap Qantas flights always attract Status Credits. I don't know if the Air France flights attract Status Credits - someone else can help you there. BTW, Jetstar can be accessed through the Qantas booking engine.

Someone living locally in Cairns may be able to help you with other airlines flying into there. Another option is to google Cairns Airport and see which airlines fly in.

BTW, you will find the weather there completely different to Paris. I spoke to my brother this morning, and he said that it is pouring down with rain and a very wet summer is expected. A lovely city if you can stand the humidity.

 

[straitman]

Chris DeSanto,

Welcome to AFF.

There is a lot to learn here and I'm sure that you will get plenty of answers.

Just a couple of other aspects that may be of use.

Of the two major carriers in Oz only Qantas (QF) is aligned with a major alliance. (One World). Virgin Blue (DJ) and the rest of its group are undergoing a major internal reorganisation and are moving from a semi LCC toward being a full service airline. They are currently being courted by Star Alliance and possibly Sky Team towards joining one of those groups. Since the demise Ansett Airlines in 2001 there has been a major hole in the Star Alliance network in this part of the world.

QF has many Credit Cards tied up to its frequent spender rolleyes program which helps make accumulation of points a lot easier. DJ has fairly limited options in this regard.

There are many more things that could be said so I'll just leave it with the following two links that might help your research.

The Ultimate Virgin Group Guide.
The ULTIMATE Qantas Guide.

Good luck.

 

[dRossi]

Hi Chris,
I might be able to give you some advice as I come from Europe (Bavaria) as well and also have been living in Cairns for the last 10 years, which, by the way, is a great place to live and raise kids. Like you intend to do, I go back roughly once a year , but we also like to travel a fair bit to other places, like Asia, NZ etc, so we
've had our fair share of the good, the bad and the ugly and plenty of experiences to share. Our daughter is 6 now and we have been taking her on flights since she was 3 months old, so by now she is a seasoned traveller with her own frequent flyer membership. Please get in touch with us once you arrive in Cairns and we'll be happy to give you some suggestions on which program to join and what to avoid. In the meantime have a lovely X-mas and a good trip Down under.
Cheers

 

[straitman]

Hi Chris,
I might be able to give you some advice as I come from Europe (Bavaria) as well and also have been living in Cairns for the last 10 years, which, by the way, is a great place to live and raise kids. Like you intend to do, I go back roughly once a year , but we also like to travel a fair bit to other places, like Asia, NZ etc, so we
've had our fair share of the good, the bad and the ugly and plenty of experiences to share. Our daughter is 6 now and we have been taking her on flights since she was 3 months old, so by now she is a seasoned traveller with her own frequent flyer membership. Please get in touch with us once you arrive in Cairns and we'll be happy to give you some suggestions on which program to join and what to avoid. In the meantime have a lovely X-mas and a good trip Down under.
Cheers

dRossi,

Welcome to AFF.

Thanks for a very useful first post.