Honeymoon Flights - Questions

[brycie]

Hi all, at the end of January my new Wife and I will be going to Mexico and Cuba, below are my flight details, just wondering if anyone can let me know of anything I should watch out for or any 'bonuses' that may be available, cheers

Itinerary:

1 Air
QF - Qantas Airways
Flight 416
Booking Code: S
Date: January 2008
From: Tullamarine Arpt, Melbourne VI - Australia
To: Sydney Kingsford Smith Arpt, Sydney NS - Australia
Departs: 08:30 Arrives: 09:50
Status: confirmed


2 Air
QF - Qantas Airways
Flight 107
Booking Code: S
Date: January 2008
From: Sydney Kingsford Smith Arpt, Sydney NS - Australia
To: Los Angeles Intl Arpt, Los Angeles CA - U.S.
Departs: 12:00 Arrives: 06:30
Status: confirmed


3 Air
MX - Mexicana
Flight 947
Booking Code: Q
Date: January 2008
From: Los Angeles Intl Arpt, Los Angeles CA - U.S.
To: Cancun Aeropuerto Internacional, Cancun Mexico
Departs: 10:10 Arrives: 16:40
Status: confirmed


4 Air
MX - Mexicana, Operated By: CLICK GRUPO MEXICANA
Flight 7574
Booking Code: Q
Date: February 2008
From: Cancun Aeropuerto Internacional, Cancun Mexico
To: Jose Marti Intl Arpt, Havana Cuba
Departs: 12:40 Arrives: 14:45
Status: confirmed


5 Air
MX - Mexicana, Operated By: CLICK GRUPO MEXICANA
Flight 7579
Booking Code: Q
Date: February 2008
From: Jose Marti Intl Arpt, Havana Cuba
To: Cancun Aeropuerto Internacional, Cancun Mexico
Departs: 15:45 Arrives: 15:50
Status: confirmed


6 Air
AS - Alaska Airlines
Flight 299
Booking Code: V
Date: February 2008
From: Cancun Aeropuerto Internacional, Cancun Mexico
To: San Francisco Intl Arpt, San Francisco CA - U.S.
Departs: 18:25 Arrives: 22:25
Status: confirmed


7 Air
QF - Qantas Airways
Flight 74
Booking Code: Q
Date: February 2008
From: San Francisco Intl Arpt, San Francisco CA - U.S.
To: Tullamarine Arpt, Melbourne VI - Australia
Departs: 22:30 Arrives: 11:15 2 Days Later
Status: confirmed

 

[Petch]

Make sure 4&5 are ticketed separately, and not itemised on your travel itinerary. Or you may have problems entering the USA on flt2, you will NOT be allowed on the AS flt 6!

 

[Petch]

My apologies for the directness of my original reply, not quite the bonus you had in mind i'm sure... but as that itinerary looks like one already booked, & then cut and paste from Qantas, time is of the essence.

Convention on here indicates I should welcome you to AFF (although I am sure a regular would have done it in time) & congratulations!

P.S. contact Qantas immediately (again assuming it was them, that sold you this) and DISCUSS (of course Cuban embargo rules may have changed recently, US-Cuba relations are anything but static) -

• Routing via Europe/South America
• Complimentary upgrades to business class (due to extra routing)
• Unbelievable potential honeymoon stuff up!

 

[littl_flier]

Hi brycie. Welcome to AFF.

The only thing I can suggest is to have the QF74 broken into two segments for a few extra status credits ie. SFO-SYD and SYD-MEL both on QF74.

Apart from that, enjoy the Honeymoon and play up!!!

Make sure 4&5 are ticketed separately, and not itemised on your travel itinerary. Or you may have problems entering the USA on flt2, you will NOT be allowed on the AS flt 6!

Hey Petch. Even with your other post and this one, I am confused and worried. Why should it be such a hassle entering the US? I have an ORD-MEX flight booked for next year via Canada but it's all located on the one ticket. I am also returning by going MEX-MIA-JFK-YUL so what problems might I have? I've heard that the US aren't particularly fond of us visiting Mexico but you seem to indicate that they will be prohibited from re-entering the US.

Cheers,
littl_flier

 

[serfty]

The problem would not be with Mexico, it's with travel to Havana in Cuba.

PNR's including flights to/from Cuba are not permitted to employ segments operated by USA carriers.

This ticket may be OK as there's no US carrier involved. However, expect to be scrutinised on entry to the USA with such a ticket.

e.g. Here's an excerpt from the xONEx rules:

If a ticket includes travel to/from/via Cuba it may not also include flight segments for travel on American
Airlines/American Eagle/American Connection due to U.S. Government restrictions. Any such ticket will not
be honoured by AA and cannot be used to travel on AA.

 

[Petch]

This ticket may be OK as there's no US carrier involved.

Alaska has not been part of Russia since 1867 ;-) ... otherwise as per serfty! noworries littl_flier.

 

[littl_flier]

noworries littl_flier.

Phew, thanks Petch and Serfty. The heart rate has returned half way back to normal.

 

[brycie]

Thanks for your quick reply guys. The Cuba thing as far as I know has been sorted, the honeymoon has been booked through a travel agent and as far as I am aware as long as we don't enter Cuba from the USA and vice versa we will be fine. Excuse my ignorance but what are status credits? Also does anyone know the likelyhood that any of these flights will be packed. I had an ordinary experience coming back from Greece last November with Emirates when there were no seats at all in Economy, just want to prepare myself!!

PS "play up" I will!!

 

[littl_flier]

Status credits are the way by which QF frequent flyer's gain elite membership. The more SC's earnt, the more elite you are.

QF have four tiers available to everyday Frequent Flyers in order from bottom to top.

Bronze- everyone starts here, requires no minimum travel
Silver- Requires 350 Status Credits to attain
Gold- Requires 700 Status Credits to attain
Platinum- Requires 1400 SC's to attain

Basically there are different "perks" with each level of membership. Eg. Silver gets Business Class checkin, priority tags. Gold gets lounge access and Business Class lounge access when travelling Internationally along with their bags tagged "Business Class". Platinum gets First class lounge access when travelling internationally and soon, access to the QF Domestic Business Class lounges regardless of class flown with bags tagged "First" class when travelling internationally. Each level also earns some bonus points (ie. Silver 25% more miles and Plat 100% more miles) than a Bronze.

So when you fly, you'll earn SC's. For example, in discount Economy between SYD-LAX, you will earn 45 SC's and MEL-SYD will earn 10 SC's. If you were booked in Business, you would earn 180 SC's on SYD-LAX and 40 SC's on MEL-SYD.

Hope this helps.

 

[Dave Noble]

Platinum- Requires 14 SC's to attain

A lot easier than it used to be

In my day it needed 1400 to get to Platinum; people today don't realise how lucky they are

Dave

(1400 needed to attain Platinum )

 

[littl_flier]

A lot easier than it used to be

In my day it needed 1400 to get to Platinum; people today don't realise how lucky they are

LOL, clearly wishful thinking. Thanks Dave.

 

[brycie]

So is it worth us joining the Qantas FF program? Our flights have already been booked does that make any difference?

 

[Dave Noble]

So is it worth us joining the Qantas FF program? Our flights have already been booked does that make any difference?

If based in Australia, you will have to decide whether the miles earned are enough to justify the joining fee. the fact that your flights are already booked doesn't matter so thats not an issue

Dave

 

[littl_flier]

So is it worth us joining the Qantas FF program? Our flights have already been booked does that make any difference?

It's a $82.50 joining fee for each of you though this can be waived if you were to both sign up for the Westpac Earth cards which includes complimentary QF FF membership for the cardholders. There was a deal until 31 December that offered a bonus 10,000 points upon signup but this appears to have disappeared. If you signed up for the basic Earth Card, it seems to have a $49 annual fee so there is a marginal saving over the FF membership fees. earth - Home

Based on your current itinerary, MEL-SYD-LAX, SFO-MEL you will earn 16,348 points each which is enough for a weekend in SYD, ADL or HBA among others. You will have to pay taxes and fuel fines which may be quite high but it's still better than nothing.

Alternatively, if you frequent overseas or have "friends" who live at an overseas address (not New Zealand) you could sign up as an overseas resident and membership is free. Disclaimer: I don't endorse this whatsoever but are simply providing an alternative.