Help with making First ever Qantas award flight booking

[AnnaB]

Thanks to this site I decided to dwell into the dark side as some call it, ie. Qantas I have merely done rewards bookings through SQ and I am now racking up enough points to do one with Qantas for 2018.

I am wondering what the best way would be? I am looking at a one way for me and hubby, in J, booked through my account. He needs to fly to London, I am going to CPH. Would it be best to book both to CPH and then get him another flight out of there to London or do you have other suggestions?

Also, what is the difference if I click the box "Classic awards" or not? I seem to get less points if I click the box then if not?

Still about 40,000 points short but have a couple of months to get there so I have time....

 

[Mattg]

There are many different ways you could get from Perth to Copenhagen/London. You shouldn't have too much trouble booking on Emirates if you look around 11 months ahead of time, although the taxes on Emirates are quite high. The points will be higher if you book on most other partner airlines, but the taxes should be lower if you fly, say, Qatar or Cathay Pacific.

QR and CX both release award seats 360 days in advance, so you should probably start looking for flights then.

Yes, definitely check the "search classic flight rewards box", otherwise you'll be looking at points+pay prices (which are much higher).

There's no benefit, necessarily, in both of you flying into CPH unless you can't find any seats to London. I'd probably try to book both of you on the same flight to a hub city (e.g. Dubai or Doha), then separate flights to CPH and LHR respectively. You would need to book on separate tickets (i.e. one passenger books PER-DXB-CPH, and the other books PER-DXB-LHR, both as through-bookings) in order to do this though.

 

[ashleyn]

There are many different ways you could get from Perth to Copenhagen/London. You shouldn't have too much trouble booking on Emirates if you look around 11 months ahead of time, although the taxes on Emirates are quite high. The points will be higher if you book on most other partner airlines, but the taxes should be lower if you fly, say, Qatar or Cathay Pacific.

QR and CX both release award seats 360 days in advance, so you should probably start looking for flights then.

Yes, definitely check the "search classic flight rewards box", otherwise you'll be looking at points+pay prices (which are much higher).

There's no benefit, necessarily, in both of you flying into CPH unless you can't find any seats to London. I'd probably try to book both of you on the same flight to a hub city (e.g. Dubai or Doha), then separate flights to CPH and LHR respectively. You would need to book on separate tickets (i.e. one passenger books PER-DXB-CPH, and the other books PER-DXB-LHR, both as through-bookings) in order to do this though.

When you are searching, beware the little "i". Hover over it and it will say one leg is in a lower class than what you are trying to book. Also check the layovers as the award flights tend to be the less attractive ones with long layovers.

 

[CaptJCool]

Enjoy

because of EK, QR and CX on those routes, the options are wider.

https://www.qantas.com/fflyer/dyn/whereCouldIGo.
Business class to Helsinki or Rome or Vienna is 96,000 points

Copenhagen and London are both 112,000 on QF/EK. (Qatar is 121,000...well that's what the old QF calculator said.)

id you are running short of points, and note that while it's cheaper to buy more points, it's limited to 20% of reward value. Which would fit into what your current points position nicely https://www.qantas.com/fflyer/dyn/program/usingPoints/topupPoints

 

[ozbeachbabe]

How are you getting back from Europe to Aust? Commercial one way fares (not ff awards) can be expensive so check this out before booking the outward award ticket.

 

[PDog]

Thanks for the question RoseAnna, and the advice so far cause I am in a very similar situation, am far more comfortable with the SQ site!

Hoping you don't mind me stealing your thread to ask is there a way to view what the taxes will be if I don't have enough points in my account yet? Looking to travel to HK in August 2018. I see availability (for the red eye, dammit) but can't see the tax component?

Thanks (& good luck with fumbling through the dark side !)

 

[RichardMEL]

I would probably pick London as a base.

You have options via QF, EK (LHR and LGW), QR, CX, AY so on and so forth.... CPH limits you more

I'd prob try to get both of you to LON and then you can get a separate ticket, maybe even a hop on Easyjet or whoever or an award on BA or similar to CPH. Bonus is you travel together for most of the way. If hub doesn't need to be in CPH then it's probably better to be in London with more options

my 2 cents anyway.

 

[ozbeachbabe]

I would probably pick London as a base.

You have options via QF, EK (LHR and LGW), QR, CX, AY so on and so forth.... CPH limits you more

I'd prob try to get both of you to LON and then you can get a separate ticket, maybe even a hop on Easyjet or whoever or an award on BA or similar to CPH. Bonus is you travel together for most of the way. If hub doesn't need to be in CPH then it's probably better to be in London with more options

my 2 cents anyway.

Instead of purchasing a separate ticket LHR/CPH you could make two separate bookings

ie PER/xSIN/LHR then PER/xSIN/xLHR/CPH or substitute SIN for HKG so you could both travel together until LHR then go your separate ways from there. CPH would probably be the same in points with possible a few more dollars in taxes but I would think still cheaper than having to purchase a separate ticket LHR/CPH and most importantly your baggage could be checked all the way through. If you purchase a separate ticket LHR/CPH you'd have to clear customs in LHR, collect your luggage then checkin all over again which will be a hassle.

 

[RichardMEL]

Good points Oz.

I guess I was thinking they could spend a little time in London together (if the timetable works out of course). I'm just a romantic hehehe

 

[CaptJCool]

How are you getting back from Europe to Aust? Commercial one way fares (not ff awards) can be expensive so check this out before booking the outward award ticket.

Well actually, there's some decent return fares depending on how often you care to go back and forth (flights from this end are anywhere upto double -pricey) or re-positioning ship cruises back to Oz

 

[AnnaB]

How are you getting back from Europe to Aust? Commercial one way fares (not ff awards) can be expensive so check this out before booking the outward award ticket.

We have points in SQ, VA and Altituderewards. Probably be booking a one-way back with one of them. If we could get enough points to book a return that would be great, but we are running out of time, so we will just book one-ways instead. Its worked out fine before

 

[Limewood]

Think going Y to HKG try upgrade later if no seats, then out of there in J, normally plenty of J seats.