How much would you pay for F or J return Europe booked for you as an award?

[paultiffen]

Hi,

Theoretical question here. With the promo on for AAdvantage miles it's possible to buy enough for an economy seat return to Europe and there's been similar deals with Avianca (Star Alliance) and United in the past. It would max out your quota that you could buy but over a couple of years you could get enough to fly F return to Europe for about 3400 + taxes (~2 cents per mile plus taxes, F return is 160K AAdvantage miles). Given that this is a lot cheaper however more restrictive as it's a partner award how much would people that fly this pay for a trip to Paris return say in F?

I guess it's also dependent on whether you can book for anyone or just family members.

Paul

 

[Simo]

Huge question and I guess you would also want to see how much the actually dollar value of the fare is that you want to take.

 

[paultiffen]

It seems as though some of the info is in here

http://www.australianfrequentflyer....nes-advantage/qantas-per-mel-j-dxb-47462.html

So they go as cheap as 10K return. Would anyone pay 6K say for say Sydney->London via Dubai in June 2014?

 

[casanovawa]

I would pay as much as the award costs and not any more to have some other agent or something do it for me.... I'll do the read up on places like this, ask the questions and then do it myself...

As to how much i would actually pay for a cash fare, well i will never pay with my own money for a J or F fare (short of me winning lotto perhaps), if my work wants to pay (which it never will) fine, but no way i am paying $5000 + for a few hours in a plane... $2500 or so with USDM or AA or LM perhaps for J because it is within a bull's raw of a Y cash fare... I might try F once as an award for around $3000 just to say i did it, but in no particular hurry and if it never happens so be it...

 

[paultiffen]

Maybe I should have rephrased the question as most people on here will obviously read forums and not pay a premium. How much would someone who DOES pay for J or F pay for such a flight?

 

[cove]

I think you could do those points in two names per person flying to get two one ways in First faster than you have been thinking.
With SQ Suites can be $5000 from SIN to LHR each way and that is good money value according to Mrscove.

 

[fersea]

My upcoming F flight (one way LHR-MEL via DXB then J to CBR) cost 80k points plus about $400 in taxes, so roughly $2000. Economy was going to be 45k plus about $250 in taxes (don't know why the taxes were different) so about $1150.

A couple of people said they would punch me in the head if I didn't choose F for an extra $850 and markis10 thought that I wasn't asking a serious question when I asked on here if it was worth it.

 

[markis10]

A couple of people said they would punch me in the head if I didn't choose F for an extra $850 and markis10 thought that I wasn't asking a serious question when I asked on here if it was worth it.

Not to many times are you going to get an opportunity to travel that far in comfort for that price!

As for what people would pay for an award, there is actually quite a few businesses out there that have a model of booking points flights for people then taking money, not sure how sustainable it is long term (see ripoff.com for various reports re issues), AKA alpha flight guru. We get the odd post here from new members saying they found a bargain premium fare etc etc, once you point them in the right direction as to how to do it yourself, the bargain becomes less of a bargain.

 

[paultiffen]

Yeah I'm thinking that it would be difficult and might only be possible for friends and family given the trust issues and then if it is friends or family you won't want to charge much of a premium

 

[MH_fan]

Maybe I should have rephrased the question as most people on here will obviously read forums and not pay a premium. How much would someone who DOES pay for J or F pay for such a flight?

I always fund my own travel. I would not pay any more than $6500 for a return J ticket from Aus to Europe. A J ticket for around $6000 is good value. A J ticket for <$5500 is fantastic value. I'm talking about decent airlines here (so no China-based airlines, and not including airlines like Royal Brunei, Garuda and Vietnam Airlines).
As for an F ticket between Aus and Europe, I would only be prepared to pay up to $10000. I've only ever done it once and it cost me just a little over $9000.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Hi,

Theoretical question here. With the promo on for AAdvantage miles it's possible to buy enough for an economy seat return to Europe and there's been similar deals with Avianca (Star Alliance) and United in the past. It would max out your quota that you could buy but over a couple of years you could get enough to fly F return to Europe for about 3400 + taxes (~2 cents per mile plus taxes, F return is 160K AAdvantage miles). Given that this is a lot cheaper however more restrictive as it's a partner award how much would people that fly this pay for a trip to Paris return say in F?

I guess it's also dependent on whether you can book for anyone or just family members.

Paul

I always fund my own travel. I would not pay any more than $6500 for a return J ticket from Aus to Europe. A J ticket for around $6000 is good value. A J ticket for <$5500 is fantastic value. I'm talking about decent airlines here (so no China-based airlines, and not including airlines like Royal Brunei, Garuda and Vietnam Airlines).
As for an F ticket between Aus and Europe, I would only be prepared to pay up to $10000. I've only ever done it once and it cost me just a little over $9000.

While AA has an annual limit, LM is very generous. Particularly since you only need 40% of the actual miles to redeem an award, and can top up the rest with cash (and the miles cost less through this option than buying them outright). US Air also has frequent 100% mileage bonuses, sometimes 6, 7 or more of them a year, each time allowing 100K in total to be purchased.

The going rate for a star alliance F class flight Australia-Europe... and generally speaking carriers such as TG are wide open (especially if you have felxibility by one day here or there)... is therefore around AUD$3000. Business class obviously cheaper, and with even more availability (pretty much fly any day you want at any time you want, to any destination you want).

Sure if you want SQ or LH F you need to buy a full revenue ticket, but for ~$3K TG is an excellent option.

 

[mrpooky]

The going rate for a star alliance F class flight Australia-Europe... and generally speaking carriers such as TG are wide open (especially if you have felxibility by one day here or there)... is therefore around AUD$3000. Business class obviously cheaper, and with even more availability (pretty much fly any day you want at any time you want, to any destination you want).

(Sorry; dredging up a slightly old thread.)

You say "the going rate". How would a noob go about actually getting a F seat on Thai from Australia to Europe for this price?

Thanks!

mrpooky.

 

[knasty]

My upcoming F flight (one way LHR-MEL via DXB then J to CBR) cost 80k points plus about $400 in taxes, so roughly $2000. Economy was going to be 45k plus about $250 in taxes (don't know why the taxes were different) so about $1150.

Since this thread has been reopened anyway...the difference in taxes is substantially because of the UK's Air Passenger Duty (ie departure tax). There are different rates depending on whether you fly economy (reduced rate), or a premium cabin (standard rate). Over 6000 miles it's GBP94 for reduced, and GBP188 for standard rate, so think of it as a very substantial donation to the UK economy.

 

[burmans]

Huge question and I guess you would also want to see how much the actually dollar value of the fare is that you want to take.

The actual dollar cost and the value I assign can vary significantly. Given this is used all the time in sales I guess it has some meaning to some people but for me I really assign very little weight to the sellers published "price" in determining what I want to value something at.

In relation to the question, yes theoretical but I have considered it. Given you can get reputable tickets for around 1750 to Europe my value for J and % are ~ 2 times for J = ~$3500 and 3 times for F = ~ $5000. Can't see me paying more than that, indeed with the FF options around currently $2500/$4000 would be pushing it.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

(Sorry; dredging up a slightly old thread.)

You say "the going rate". How would a noob go about actually getting a F seat on Thai from Australia to Europe for this price?

Thanks!

mrpooky.

purchasing miles through US Airways or Avianca Lifemiles. There are detailed threads on both of those programs elsewhere on AFF.

 

[paultiffen]

I guess what I'm wondering is if some people are prepared to pay 20k maybe you could buy miles and sell it for 6 to 8. But it would be hard to break down trust barrier etc