Melbourne - Rome / London - Melbourne - Conundrum!

[occxlr8ed]

Hi all,

So I have managed to amass 380,000 Velocity points, and 680,000 QFF points.
I don't hold any status credit, this is all through credit card bonus points and misc spending.

Now the mrs and I are planning to go on a Europe trip next year (June/July) for 5 weeks, departing Melbourne to Rome, then exiting London to Melbourne.

My current plan is to fly Business using the velocity points (139,000 points + ~$90 in fees per person), for the London to Melbourne leg, and then cash for Melbourne to Rome.
However, the one way tickets are far from economical, are there any tips on booking one way flights?

I am looking to retain my QFF points (580,000 points) for a future RTW trip for two.

Unfortunately both my partner and I can't apply for the current AMEX Velocity offer, otherwise it would have been perfect...

Any tips?!

Cheers

 

[lovetravellingoz]

Unfortunately the UK charges Air Passenger Duty for DEAPARTING flights (ie not for arriving flights) unless you are transting. So I suspect that your $90 in fees has not included the Duty.

So you may wish to consider reversing your trip, or perhaps flying out of say Paris (ie get the train to Paris).



See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Air_Passenger_Duty
[TABLE="width: 701"][TR][TD="colspan: 2"][FONT=wf_segoe-ui_light]Air Passenger Duty - Wikipedia
[FONT=wf_segoe-ui_normal]en.wikipedia.org[/FONT]
[FONT=wf_segoe-ui_normal]Air Passenger Duty (APD) is an excise duty which is charged on the carriage of passengers flying from a United Kingdom or Isle of Man airport on an aircraft that has ...[/FONT][/TD][/TR][/TABLE][/FONT]





For example just looking at Krisflyer.


One way Melbourne to London.


1 Adult
53,000 KrisFlyer miles+ AUD 86.39


Whereas London to Melbourne.


1 Adult
53,000 KrisFlyer miles+ GBP 134.87 ( = $AUD 235.81)


See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Air_Passenger_Duty
[TABLE="width: 701"][TR][TD="colspan: 2"][FONT=wf_segoe-ui_light]Air Passenger Duty - Wikipedia
[FONT=wf_segoe-ui_normal]en.wikipedia.org[/FONT]
[FONT=wf_segoe-ui_normal]Air Passenger Duty (APD) is an excise duty which is charged on the carriage of passengers flying from a United Kingdom or Isle of Man airport on an aircraft that has ...[/FONT][/TD][/TR][/TABLE][/FONT]





For example just looking at Krisflyer.


One way Melbourne to London.


1 Adult
53,000 KrisFlyer miles+ AUD 86.39


Whereas London to Melbourne.


1 Adult
53,000 KrisFlyer miles+ GBP 134.87 ( = $AUD 235.81)

 

[RB]

Not sure if 2018 will be the same but previously we used F points to get to Europe & then got a very good one way J commercial fare home on Etihad

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Fares are generally better on a one way basis from Europe to AU. However, if you must leave from Australia on a revenue fare it all depends on class of service. There can be some ok one ways for ~800-1000 on someone like Etihad (in economy). If looking for business class, a cheaper option will be to fly to SIN/KUL/BKK in economy on a low cost carrier (or even 'business' on one of those) and then get a business class fare from one of those cities. Use googleflights to play around and see business class fares on offer out of asia.

Alternatively, you can buy miles through United or Lifemiles. But those will set you back about ~2000 all in to Europe from Australia in business class (per person)