Making the most of MEL-TLV trip in Premium Economy

[huwcar]

Hi all,

Long time since I have posted here. Not even much of a lurker these days!

In 6 months ago did MEL-TLV return on Cathay (outbound in premium economy, return in business) but I fear that I didn't maximise potential points and status benefits as I simply credited to my Qantas FF account.

I'm likely to be going again in a few weeks, in premium economy, again on Cathay. Should I join Cathay FF before I head over and credit to that? Should I join AA and sign up for the status challenge I read about on here and credit there? Should i just credit to Qantas?

I currently have 300k Qantas points, 0 status credits and no status.
I have 100k Virgin Australia points, plenty of status credits, currently gold soon to be platinum.
The whole family is booked on Qantas for MEL-LA return in October.

Appreciate any thoughts!

 

[levelnine]

Is your goal to acquire points or status?

If it is status, then credit to Qantas.

If it is point, then it is still probably best to credit to Qantas. Some things to remember:

1. Cathay Pacific Asia Miles expire 36 months from the time they are earned. Thus, unless you are going to earn a lot of miles in the next 36 months, you'll eventually lose them.

2. It is better to concentrate miles in a single account rather than have fewer miles in many accounts because the latter option never leaves you with enough miles to use for anything useful.

 

[boomy]

My advice would be not use cash on this route and book with AS miles J all the way for 120k return which will cost you ~$3,400 Aud when miles purchased with 40% promo.

 

[huwcar]

Is your goal to acquire points or status?

It is better to concentrate miles in a single account

Thanks levelnine.

If I can generate a status level from a single trip, then status. If not, then it's just points.

I will be concentrating most miles with VA going forward, but I don't think there is a route option from MEL-TLV that really supports this.

 

[huwcar]

My advice would be not use cash on this route and book with AS miles J all the way for 120k return which will cost you ~$3,400 Aud when miles purchased with 40% promo.

Very interesting option, thanks boomy.

Unfortunately I don't know how I could swing this with my work's travel policy, although it's probably $1500+ less than simply paying for PE so I guess it's possible. Could you point me to an "idiot's guide" to AS miles purchase and redemption? I would definitely do this if I was paying for the trip myself.

 

[boomy]

Very interesting option, thanks boomy.

Unfortunately I don't know how I could swing this with my work's travel policy, although it's probably $1500+ less than simply paying for PE so I guess it's possible. Could you point me to an "idiot's guide" to AS miles purchase and redemption? I would definitely do this if I was paying for the trip myself.

Check out this article, will give you some good ideas:
Guide to buying Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan miles - Point Hacks

Booking MEL-TLV using AS miles on CX is basically two bookings of 30k each (MEL-HKG / HKG-TLV) and taxes are low so I would definitely recommend you to book this way if you’re flying on your own dime (I booked similar route myself for travel in couple of weeks ).

 

[huwcar]

I booked similar route myself for travel in couple of weeks ).

That's a sensational article, thanks boomy!

It does make the point that you have to sign up for AS a minimum of 10 days before buying miles so I will likely miss out this time. I signed up just now - but will probably travel 20/JUL MEL-TLV and then return 27/JUL. Cutting it too fine, and the offer appears to end on 14th July.

 

[boomy]

That's a sensational article, thanks boomy!

It does make the point that you have to sign up for AS a minimum of 10 days before buying miles so I will likely miss out this time. I signed up just now - but will probably travel 20/JUL MEL-TLV and then return 27/JUL. Cutting it too fine, and the offer appears to end on 14th July.

And then you have availability issues as well. While CX do release extra award seats few days before departure it is recommended to book ahead, especially if your travel dates aren’t very flexible.

 

[huwcar]

And then you have availability issues as well.

I'll say. It appears there is very limited availability full stop!

 

[boomy]

I'll say. It appears there is very limited availability full stop!

Most problematic availability is Australia to Hong Kong return so you need to be flexible with positioning. You’ll have more luck finding seats in ADL or BNE rather than MEL or SYD. An extra domestic flight is small price to pay for the comfort of long haul J

 

[huwcar]

Availability, even for paid flights, is so bad that it looks like I'll be going mostly on Turkish via a MEL-CGK-IST-TLV out, TLV-IST-BKK-MEL back with some long layovers. At least in business though, so that's better. To get some status and miles I have signed up to Asiana.