Is it worth redeeming points for Y and W awards?

[ENGLISHGIRLINSYDNEY]

Is it worth redeeming points for Y and W awards? Have to book and fly at short notice and can’t get a J award but combo of Y/W/J might be possible? Is it bad value to use points for awards below J?

 

[downgraded]

It depends on where your going and you're own perception of what you get.
Domestic Y is generally reasonable value, especially when fares are higher, but QF has a very odd perception of it's PE product whether paid or award. Apart from sales, PE seems to always to be really bad value IMHO no matter how it is paid for.

 

[Lemon_Party]

The best value is for business and first, but there can still be good value to be found on some Y routes, particularly for last minute bookings.

 

[ENGLISHGIRLINSYDNEY]

It depends on where your going and you're own perception of what you get.
Domestic Y is generally reasonable value, especially when fares are higher, but QF has a very odd perception of it's PE product whether paid or award. Apart from sales, PE seems to always to be really bad value IMHO no matter how it is paid for.

Thank you...I need to get to KUL from London (preferably LHR but can do LGW for better availability of awards) and then onto SYD and back to London. I can get a PE award with BA outbound to KUL but I’m not a big fan of BA in general so unsure whether to ‘waste’ my points on them. Then a mix of Y and J onwards flights most likely. I’m wondering about OW awards and how I find out about QR availability etc but I’m not cluey enough to know how to play that game.

 

[downgraded]

I don't think your points with BA PE would be any more wasted than with QF, I vaguely thought BA had upped it's game with PE catering (you'd need to confirm) and their seat is no better or worse than the QF A380 really.
Others are much more [one]worldly when it comes to award finding, but I otherwise understood BA and QF websites now supposedly showed availability across the airlines you're talking about.

 

[ENGLISHGIRLINSYDNEY]

QF site shows BA and EK for return but not showing any QR availability even though I know I could get to KUL via DOH, or other OW airlines with various stops. I’d read that PE had improved on BA on certain stock inc 787s that fly to KUL so it would probably be fine but I just never chose them usually when I have a choice, shocking customer service IMO. Thanks!

 

[Mattg]

Have you tried searching for Royal Jordanian availability LHR-AMM-KUL in J? There are usually some seats but may not appear unless you break up the search into LHR-AMM and AMM-KUL.

 

[justinbrett]

BA WTP isn’t bad - definitely a better idea than flying in WT, especially on a 787. I flew KUL-LHR with them in WTP about 18 months ago.

I actually find BA staff much more friendly and attentive than QF, but horses for courses.

 

[dajop]

The other option - if you can't get business class availability from London (but want to travel in that class), and if you have the time and inclination, is to fly out of a nearby foreign port (such as AMS, BRU, CDG, etc) instead, the savings in Air Passenger Duty will probably then pay for Eurostar or extra flight to get to that starting point.

And if you do this, I would be remiss in not suggesting then the best way for this is to take a one-world award ... xx_-KUL/stop/KUL-SYD/stop/SYD-YYY-LHR/ would still leave you with two more stops and perhaps 12-13,000 miles to play with (so you could then, for example, do another trip months later to US, or even somewhere like Bangkok), as long as you ended up back in the starting point.

 

[ENGLISHGIRLINSYDNEY]

Thanks for some great suggestions, will investigate.

BA WTP isn’t bad - definitely a better idea than flying in WT, especially on a 787. I flew KUL-LHR with them in WTP about 18 months ago.

I actually find BA staff much more friendly and attentive than QF, but horses for courses.

I don’t mind BA in the air, it’s ground staff and online customer service I have a big problem with after shocking experiences at LHR T5 more than once! For example, one of the floating staff near baggage scan once lied to her manager (saying I’d sworn at her...multiple witnesses to say I hadn’t) to try and get me offloaded. Long story but she was on a total power trip and didn’t like me disagreeing with her about taking a pram in bag as oversized luggage which is of course 100% allowed. I was 6 months pregnant and traveling solo with a toddler but she felt the need to lie and become verbally aggressive anyway. She was definitely BA staff and to be honest made me never want to fly with them again. This is only one example of several bad experiences amongst myself, family and friends so doesn’t feel like a one-off unlucky encounter but more systemic. Who knows.

 

[jpp42]

PE seems to always to be really bad value IMHO no matter how it is paid for.

Qantas is only charging what the market will bear. My employer for example allows PE/W on flights over a certain length (for my job level), while J is not allowed except for executives, so I will book it: despite the poor value as it's still better than economy for sure. The booking system doesn't notice that it costs $3000 compared to a $1000 economy fare (for example), just as long as it meets the policy, and my department doesn't seem to care about travel costs... so we pay. (Not to mention that I request upgrade to J, with not many points and as WP a decent chance of getting approved; I've even had it op-up'd for free once.) I'm sure there are plenty of other people booking into W on a similar basis, and the cabins are fairly small. The A380 refits that will drastically increase the number of W seats shows this is obviously a cash cow for Qantas. If they couldn't get these fares, they wouldn't charge them, so more power to them.

 

[TedE]

Originally from PER, now live in MEL. Have plenty of points, so QF and VA points basically means I can visit family for $60 return in taxes. Not bad for 7 hours flying (especially with our next trip booked during QF's 30% off promo), definitely worth it to me.