MEL-LAX on QFF points - first timer after some tips/suggestions

[TahoeSkier]

Hi all

Bit of background - I fly to the USA once a year most years, and domestically on QF perhaps once or twice per annum. The remainder of my dom work travel is invariably on VA. I am not really a true 'frequent flyer' by any stretch, and as such status/SC earn isn't of any great consequence to me.

Over the past 12 months I have stepped up my game in accruing QFF pts, and will soon be in a position to actually 'burn' some on a nice trip to LAX for the two of us. Due to the lead time on QFF Reward seats we are looking towards either mid-2017 or Feb-2018, J return or perhaps F there / J back if we can.

-Given I am not concerned about SC earn, I assume a pure points burn will be far better value proposition for me than points+cash?
-Is it simply just a case of watching their website like a hawk as soon as the window opens and jumping on seats? Any other tips?
-What sort of taxes can I expect to pay on top of a J return F/J combo booking per seat? Can this be paid in points?


Did a little searching which shed some light, but some of the info pertained to larger/more complex bookings and so on.

Any advice on making this as easy as possible for a relative novice would be much appreciated!

Thanks

 

[travelislife]

The best is to actually do a trial run. Seats are released at 10am Brisbane time 353 days in advance. Have a look over the next few days. You will be able to see the taxes and rip off charges then too. They will be in the region of $500 each way per person. I.e around $1000 per person return.

I would book each sector as a one way, you don't want to wait for the return to pop up before booking.

 

[Mooch]

The only risk with that is if you can't get a reward flight for the return trip you'll pay through the nose for the one way fare.

 

[travelislife]

The only risk with that is if you can't get a reward flight for the return trip you'll pay through the nose for the one way fare.

Worse case can book economy on the return and keep an expert flyer alert for business opening up. Though if Tahoeskier is on to it he should be fine, but good to have a couple of days flexibility.

 

[serfty]

Yep, keep your eys on it. It is really only dilgence at the 353 day mark that you have any real chance at booking for more than one PAX.>.

. and practice, you will see patterns related to day of week, particular services etc.

Soon enough you be asking about best seats in the cabin

 

[TahoeSkier]

Yep, keep your eys on it. It is really only dilgence at the 353 day mark that you have any real chance at booking for more than one PAX.>.

. and practice, you will see patterns related to day of week, particular services etc.

Soon enough you be asking about best seats in the cabin

With 12 months lead time, departure/return dates are flexible for me, so I was thinking I would jump on the moment the window opens up, grab what I need, and then ditto return date approx a month later. If I miss my first desired day and end up getting what I need in the days following, that's fine.

Do the seats trickle in one day at a time at the 353 mark, or do they release seats in batches of days/weeks?

 

[cjd600]

With 12 months lead time, departure/return dates are flexible for me, so I was thinking I would jump on the moment the window opens up, grab what I need, and then ditto return date approx a month later. If I miss my first desired day and end up getting what I need in the days following, that's fine.

Do the seats trickle in one day at a time at the 353 mark, or do they release seats in batches of days/weeks?

That's definitely the best approach.
353 day mark, 10am Brisbane time (I think), day by day.

Not to say there wont be 'ad-hoc' batch releases going forward, for previously passed dates (which then dry up pretty quickly once their availability hits the airwaves)
Best to grab at t-353 to start with for sure.
If you're flexible, concentrate on tues-thurs (especially tues-wed travel, released Saturday and sundays), and can avoid school holidays you should be fine.
Also remain flexible for options MEL-SYD-LAX or, MEL-BNE-LAX and vice versa

 

[Buzzard]

-What sort of taxes can I expect to pay on top of a J return F/J combo booking per seat? Can this be paid in points?

Thanks

I think paying the fuel fines/taxes using points represents poor value. YMMV.

 

[BD1959]

If I miss my first desired day and end up getting what I need in the days following, that's fine.

Also consider non-direct options: LAX-BNE-MEL, LAX-SYD-MEL ... these should appear automatically if the direct isn't available (and even if it is!) but sometimes I find the whole itinerary doesn't appear and breaking down into the various sectors (eg LAX-BNE then looking at options for BNE-MEL) does. Less likely on domestic, but certainly used this approach on multi-sectored international itineraries to better effect. If these aren't available, you could also look at LAX-SFO-SYD-MEL.

Lastly, don't forget OW partners: CX via HKG; AA/QF via NRT etc. Again, you'll probably have to search by sector (using the Multi-City) but - as others have said - practice to see what sort of offerings are generally available and then look for those when you are looking to book "in anger".

Finally, BEWARE the [!] herein lies disappointment. Usually means that a long haul sector is only available in Economy and a domestic leg is available in J. Selecting this means you're willing to allow QFF to rip you off BIG TIME !!

Regards,

BD

 

[Quickstatus]

Hi TahoeSkier

Good snow this year.

I would like to echo what the others have said.

In the meantime get on to the website from time to time and get familiar with the functionality of the website. It will be invaluable to get used to it first. Example do a dummy run for the same itinerary for a date 353 ahead tommorrow at 10am.
Note that for that route CX will release their seats a few days before QF. The 353 day apply to QF only.

Booking rewards seats require considerable effort. For our next LAX-SYD J/F rewards in January 2017, I realised that the seats were going to be released for the date of travel while I was inflight between LGA and DEN. Luckily the Delta flight has inflight Wifi and the aircraft reached 10k feet (when wifi is accessible) 15 minutes before the seat release time. Booked the rewards seats I wanted. My son complained that he was bored without the laptop until I assured him that he would be turning left and upstairs on QF94.

Unfortunately QF Bronze will tend not to see J/F availability as well as Plat or above. Personally I wont book an economy reward seat as the value proposition is not there compared with a PE or J reward. An F reward wastes points in my opinion but if you have never done it you could do it once just so you have a boarding pass that says 1A (except 1A is not the best seat on the QF A380)

 

[TahoeSkier]

Hi TahoeSkier

Good snow this year.

Unfortunately QF Bronze will tend not to see J/F availability as well as Plat or above. Personally I wont book an economy reward seat as the value proposition is not there compared with a PE or J reward. An F reward wastes points in my opinion but if you have never done it you could do it once just so you have a boarding pass that says 1A (except 1A is not the best seat on the QF A380)

Great snow this year! Unfortunately work commitments ruled me out, but my friends in SF have been 'kind' enough to keep my FB feed filled with pics from Squaw Valley and Northstar.

So when the 10am/353 day window opens, Plat and above gets better vis over J/F Reward spots than me? Does QF release the same quantity of F/J/PE/Y Reward seats each day or does it vary?

A friend was kind enough to have me down in his F suite when we traveled together back in 2013, but I would love to do a full leg myself and tick it off the list. Otherwise, J is a pretty comfortable way to get to LAX!

 

[Quickstatus]

Generally the higher the status the better the availability. Though it's debatable at what level it becomes significantly better. I think it's WP and higher. Below WP the difference compared with NB is smaller. Debatable. Status does not seem to make a difference over at Borghetti's place cos everyone is a rockstar!

The number of award seats released in any cabin can and does vary from one day to the next.

Also to get you some AFF status credits:

P= first class reward
U= business class reward
Z= premium economy reward
X= economy reward.

CL= Chairmans lounge
P1 = Platinum 1
WP = Platinum
SG= Gold
PS = Silver
NB= bronze

The top tier passengers are CLPO (not CLP1 according to the QF flight attendants) Chairmans Lounge Platinum One

 

[BD1959]

So when the 10am/353 day window opens, Plat and above gets better vis over J/F Reward spots than me? Does QF release the same quantity of F/J/PE/Y Reward seats each day or does it vary?

Hi TahoeSkier,

To echo Quickstatus on both points: debatable; no.

There are anecdotal stories of WP (Plats) having greater visibility; I've done a side-by-side comparison between a search by myself (WP) and Mrs BD (NB/Bronze) and seen no difference. My thoughts are that if QF are looking to sell something, they'll sell to whoever is willing to buy at the (usually!) outrageous price they charge.

One thing most agree on is that QF tend to be very good at yield management. That means that they will look to sell a seat for cash over points if they are pretty confident the cash option will be taken up. Consequently, some days there are NO seats released on certain routes, others there may be one, two etc etc. A new route will tend to be wide-open with loads (excuse the pun!) of availability (IIRC I saw 9+ J seats available on DFW-BNE when that route first went on sale) - Qantas obviously want to "sell" a new route as much as possible!

Good Luck with the searches!

Regards,

BD

 

[Flying mermaid]

I was helping a friend book a J award to and from the States last year. He was bronze and had no problems getting them. I would check as soon as awards were released each day and did this for about 2 months prior to the dates he wanted, so I had some experience. Generally awards were released every day but occasionally there was a day when there were no rewards. Rewards to and from Brisbane were much easier to get and rewards on the 747 was easier than A380. Also midweek seemed much easier than weekends. Also check DFW. I didn't seem to see anymore as a platinum than he was seeing as a bronze. I think as long as you get on straight away and maybe a bit of flexibility with dates and ports and you should be fine.

 

[TahoeSkier]

Well - just to bump my thread I am pretty happy to have secured our reward seats for early next year! 2 pax each way.

QF93 - Z with U upgrade requested
QF94 - U

As a lowly NB and having only just started seriously accruing points this year, very pleased with the outcome. Adding everything up, our cash outlay has been comparable to booking an Economy sale fare. Too good!

I really appreciate the advice from all.

 

[njba]

What's the points damage on those rewards, Mr TahoeSkier?

 

[Quickstatus]

Well - just to bump my thread I am pretty happy to have secured our reward seats for early next year! 2 pax each way.

QF93 - Z with U upgrade requested
QF94 - U

As a lowly NB and having only just started seriously accruing points this year, very pleased with the outcome. Adding everything up, our cash outlay has been comparable to booking an Economy sale fare. Too good!

I really appreciate the advice from all.

Well done, that was not so bad after all??. Can be done!

 

[TahoeSkier]

What's the points damage on those rewards, Mr TahoeSkier?

192k for the 2x U seats
144k for the 2x Z seats

Obviously U is a much better use of points, but at the end of the day it's just Monopoly money, and there's great value in being able to get some use out of them on both legs this trip. Being able to jag 2x seats each way, on our preferred plane/route/dates, is fantastic.

Having never flown PE on the 380 I am quite looking forward to it.

 

[JessicaTam]

Good that you are coming home in the higher cabin. Always better to know what is behind the curtain after the lesser class flight than before.

 

[TahoeSkier]

Good that you are coming home in the higher cabin. Always better to know what is behind the curtain after the lesser class flight than before.

Bit late for that unfortunately - J return in 2013 set the bar too high! Y return last year was a major first world problem...