How to best use my 200k Qantas Frequent Flyer Points

[shovelsmyth]

I have approximately 210,000 QFF points and I was wondering how I can best use them. Weather to use them to purchase a flight or use them to upgrade.
I am flying return from Brisbane to Ireland at the end of July this year. I have not booked any flights yet, But ideally i was hoping to book an economy ticket then use my points to upgrade to business. However it seems the only way I can do that is to fly Brisbane to Sydney then Sydney to London then London to Dublin then I can upgrade the Sydney to London leg of the journey.
Does anyone have any advice on how I can best utilise my points for this trip.
Any advice is much appreciated.

Thanks

 

[lovetravellingoz]

If you are only a Bronze QFF Member you will have little chance of gaining an upgrade.

 

[Dr Ralph]

Keep saving until you have enough for a J flight. 210k is not regarded as many QFF points. Many people have balances in the millions.

Upgrades are very unlikely if you are Bronze.

 

[shovelsmyth]

Dr Ralph, apologies for the ignorance but can i ask, what is a J Flight?

 

[Dr Ralph]

Dr Ralph, apologies for the ignorance but can i ask, what is a J Flight?

Recommend looking here for common abbreviations used on AFF:

http://www.australianfrequentflyer....ions/abbreviations-and-explanations-5056.html

But in this case, J = Business Class.

Ticketing Abbreviation
Add-ons	Extra flights at extra costs
First Class	Examples : A, F
Business Class	Examples : C, D, J
Economy Class	Examples : H, K, L, M, O, N, S, V, Q & others

 

[cory]

If it's during July school holidays this will reduce your chances. But even being a bronze member, updates from Y to J on the Dubai-London leg are fairly common. When I was a bronze member a couple of years ago (flying from Perth so I was always on EK Perth-Dubai) I was upgraded 4/6 times on Dubai<>London. The times I wasn't was a week either side of christmas.

 

[Limewood]

Buy a cheap Y flight to HKG or BKK then award in J HKG/DUB/HKG/BNE award seats be easier to get long haul on a OneWorld out of HKG or BKK and fees will be next to nix. You need to be flexible on those close dates. Join Award Nexus to find award flights.

 

[Guvner]

Sign up to a CC with a sign on bonus, you should be able to get to 280k in your account fairly quickly, then have a read here: http://www.australianfrequentflyer....ogram/oneworld-award-140k-280k-420k-8228.html

 

[shovelsmyth]

Thanks Dr Ralph

If it's during July school holidays this will reduce your chances. But even being a bronze member, updates from Y to J on the Dubai-London leg are fairly common. When I was a bronze member a couple of years ago (flying from Perth so I was always on EK Perth-Dubai) I was upgraded 4/6 times on Dubai<>London. The times I wasn't was a week either side of christmas.

It will be the last two weeks of July.I think the issue is that flights from Brisbane to Dublin are usually emirates flights operated by Qantas.

Buy a cheap Y flight to HKG or BKK then award in J HKG/DUB/HKG/BNE award seats be easier to get long haul on a OneWorld out of HKG or BKK and fees will be next to nix. You need to be flexible on those close dates. Join Award Nexus to find award flights.

Limwood thanks for the advise I will definitely look into it.

Guvner Thanks for your reply, i have actually just signed up to ANZ CC so I should have another 75,000 points in the next couple of months.

Sign up to a CC with a sign on bonus, you should be able to get to 280k in your account fairly quickly, then have a read here: http://www.australianfrequentflyer....ogram/oneworld-award-140k-280k-420k-8228.html

 

[greenfrog86]

Keep saving until you have enough for a J flight. 210k is not regarded as many QFF points. Many people have balances in the millions.

Upgrades are very unlikely if you are Bronze.

Hasn't QF significantly limited J award availability for those with no FF status though? I can no longer see any premium award availability on QF (there's sometimes EK) and I'm a Bronze...

 

[mviy]

Many people have balances in the millions.

If you churn credit cards regularly and don't use your points very often.

Upgrades are very unlikely if you are Bronze.

Agreed. It still does happen sometimes. Sometimes not enough higher status passengers put in upgrade requests to take all the upgrades available. Some routes and times are easier than others. There is a thread where you can ask what the loading of a flight is which can help give an indication as to what your chances are but this is only really helpful when your QANTAS flight is just days away.

Hasn't QF significantly limited J award availability for those with no FF status though? I can no longer see any premium award availability on QF (there's sometimes EK) and I'm a Bronze...

It would depend on the route and how far out you're looking. Seats on QF metal become available later for Bronze than for high status passengers. Try to look at what dates are available now (earlier than what you want to fly) and anticipate when you're likely to see seats become available for the dates you want if they do.

 

[RichardMEL]

Several thoughts:

July is a peak season to Europe/UK/Ireland... award space in a premium cabin will be nigh on impossible specially only 4 months away.
The price of an upgradeable fare will not be the cheapest (remember sale and some cheaper fares are not upgradeable)
QF will not operate every sector involved, and since you likely would like the best chance for an upgrade on a longer haul you want to make sure to have a QF flight (not operated by Emirates/EK) for say SYD-DXB. QF do BNE-SIN but that's a relatively short flight.

Given award space (to use points to book the ticket) would be hard to find, even in Y at this point. If you could though, and Y (EconomY) is OK then it may be reasonable to do so given the higher ticket prices then offsetting the extra charges on top of the points for the award (if that makes sense).

Whichever way you look at it, it's probably unlikely to easily wind up in a Business Class seat for a majority of the way

(I personally feel DXB-LHR is such a short-relatively-sector that upgrading that may not be really worth it, unless it was a once-in-a-lifetime type idea to try it out.. and that's a personal choice)

Best wishes.

 

[mviy]

I know a friend had a failed upgrade request from PE to J to DXB but was grateful to have a successful upgrade from PE to J on to LHR to be able to lie flat and get some sleep in a somewhat comfortable position.

 

[bmcc]

My favourite use of QFF points (by far) is a Zone 10 classic award on Qantas and Emirates.

You will find that the taxes on QFF awards will be astronomical unless you depart from a port which bans fuel surcharges - the obvious ones are Hong Kong, Manila and Tokyo.

By way of example, I recently snared the following multi-city flight for 192,000 points plus about AU$120 in taxes:

HKG>BKK>SYD>BNE>MEL>SIN>DXB

The Hong Kong to Bangkok, Melbourne to Singapore and Singapore to Dubai legs are in Emirates first class.

The Australian domestic legs are Qantas business class.

Because first leg is Emirates, you get chauffeur drive service (pick up and drop off) at each of the 7 cities.

You need to make sure that 1) stopovers are less than 24 hours in each transit city; 2) total distance does not exceed 15,000 miles; and 3) only carriers are QF, EK or AA to make this routing work.

Happy hunting!

 

[cwphoto]

Weather?

I think you mean 'whether'..