Money and FAME for a miracle

[Lawlass]

Hello AFF!

I'm running around gathering interviews for my second book and have decided I would like to take Mr Lawlass for company (and maybe a little protection seeing as I'm interviewing murderers and drug dealers and whatnot). However, despite perceptions, Australian authors are not wealthy people, so I'm looking to get best value flights possible.

I'm pretty flex with dates. I need to start in last week of June/first week or two of July and be back no later than last week of August.

2 of us need to go:

MEL - BKK (spend 3-6 days in BKK)
BKK – LAX or JFK
4-6 weeks in USA (we will drive x-country)
JFK or LAX (opposite end to where we fly in) – MEL

Alternatively, we could do BKK at the end of the trip instead of beginning

If there’s a cheapish option of throwing London/Europe in there too, hell yeah

Don't have a preference for airlines
Don't mind weird routings, extra stops, different airports, stopovers are good (more places to visit the better), etc

We have approx 400K Velocity points and 240K QFF points between us - happy to use some or all points, if there is good value compared to flight prices

In return, if someone provides an amazing money-saving itinerary that works for us, I offer $100 PLUS your name (real or user handle) in the acknowledgements of my book! It's a real book by a real publisher, not a self-published on Amazon thing It's like the equivalent of being the 3rd assistant gaffer in movie credits or something. FAME!

 

[yld200]

There are a number of options and here is my best go at a few options.

MEL>BKK
Jetscare
- 6th July $399/pax 8th July $358/pax
You will need to add baggage and meals

- I can see availability in J on SQ to BKK on the 11th and 16th of July as a start - I can't check with velocity if those flights are bookable through velocity at this stage - their booking system is down. Otherwise it'll cost you 116,00 KF miles (156,600 VFF miles) + $176

SQ0218	MEL	SIN	7/16/17 12:05 AM	7/16/17 6:00 AM	Airbus Industrie A380-800
SQ0972	SIN	BKK	7/16/17 9:35 AM	7/16/17 11:05 AM	Boeing 777-200

BKK>JFK
- To get the the US I found 2xJ availability on Japan airlines from Narita Tokyo to Boston on JL8 on the 11th of July. I'm not sure of the taxes but points should be around 150,000 total.
There is also premium economy avaialble on the 12, 13 & 16 July on the same route. This will pair up with the Jetstar option.
You will need to get a paid flight from Bangkok to Narita which start from $150/ pax with scoot but this has a 12 hour layover. Good option to explore Tokyo for a few hours?

- Otherwise there are paid options for ~$1000/pax with Asiana which includes a stopover in Incheon.

Returning from LAX to MEL192,0
- There is availability on QF in J coming in on QF11 via Sydney on the 28th August landing in Melbourne on the 31st. This will cost you 192,000 QF points and $900 usd in fuel fines. Obviously if you take the Japan option from NRT to BOS then you wont have enough points to take this flight.

- There is also a flight on SQ back to Melbourne around the 23rd August via Japan & Singapore. This will cost you 220,000 KF miles (297,000 VFF) plus taxes. Same applies if you take the earlier SQ flights you won't have enough points to take this option.

Let me know what you think. I can keep looking but right now my brain hurts, I need a break.

Cheers

 

[Lawlass]

Oh wow, I don't blame you for having an aching head - mine is spinning just reading that! Thanks for your amazing work! I really like the idea of LAX-SYD in J especially

In the interests of transparency, someone else has provided the following itinerary, which looks pretty good value to me (the one that includes a EUR leg), but doesn't take advantage of any points use:

****

If you use an AA far then you can use the new “air pass” fares which give you one segment Australia to Asia and one segment from an AA hub to the US and then 4 segments internally in the US and then a segment back LAX-SYD with AA. Fares for this would be around AUD2600.00 depending on if you took all 4 allowed segments within the US.

Sydney - Asia must be on a Oneworld carrier in the required booking class – Q is the cheapest
Asia- Los Angeles with AA from one of their Asian hubs e.g. NRT-LAX/DFW/ORD, PVG-LGA/ORD/LAX/DFW, PEK-LGA/ORD/DFW, HKG-LAX/DFW, ICN-DFW
Los Angeles-Sydney with AA

23 June – 10 July is peak season and fare for the itinerary would be around AUD2600.00 but you do get 4 internal US flights to take advantage of aloes.

If you did Europe then the fare would be AUD2121.84 for an itinerary some like this:

Airline

Flight no.

Booking class

Date

Departure - Destination

Times

Extra info.

United Airlines

UA840

T

Friday 30th June 2017

Sydney - Los Angeles

09:45 - 06:30

Austrian

OS090

T

Monday 14th August 2017

New York (Newark) - Vienna

17:50 - 08:25

Arrives next day

Austrian

OS413

T

Tuesday 15th August 2017

Vienna - Paris (Charles de Gaulle)

10:45 - 12:55

Austrian

OS418

T

Sunday 20th August 2017

Paris (Charles de Gaulle) - Vienna

20:15 - 22:15

Austrian

OS025

T

Sunday 20th August 2017

Vienna - Bangkok (Suvarnabhumi)

23:20 - 14:20

Arrives next day

Thai Airways International

TG471

W

Thursday 24th August 2017

Bangkok (Suvarnabhumi) - Sydney

08:00 - 20:00

The above Europe fare could potentially come down as there are other airline combinations that can be used but I would expect to be around the $2k mark

****

It's all Y, of course, and not much of a chance for SC/miles that I can tell, but $2K seems like a good price.
My brain is spinning! :shock:

 

[yld200]

Ok take 2:

Flight	From	To	Date	Class	Airline	Dep	Arr	Points	Costs Total
SQ218	MEL	SIN	11/7	J	Singapore	12:05 AM	6:00 AM	130,000 VF	$176.78
SQ972	SIN	BKK	11/7	J	Singapore	9:25 AM	11:05 AM
AY10	BKK	HEL	16/7	J	Finnair	8:55 AM	3:05 PM	156,000 QF	~$437
DY7011	Coppenhagen	JFK	26/7	Y	Norweigen	7:10 PM	9:30 PM	-	~$1300
VA6	LAX	Brisbane	26/8	J	Virgin Aus	11:15 AM	6:15 PM	190,000 VF	$107.24
VA356	Brisbane	MEL		J	Airgin Aus	8:55 PM	11:20 PM

*Hopefully my table skills work

All up costs are $2,020 for these flights. Depending on where you want to go in Europe you'll need to add the costs of the flights as well. You will have a balance of 44,000 QF points that you can also use - for example HEL>Berlin>Rome would cost 40,000 points for 2 + 65 euro.

I don't really know what Norweigen are like but they were one of the cheaper options out of Europe to JFK, there were some others but minimum costs were around $1000/pax. With Norweigen that price includes luggage and a meal - If you're wanting to splurge then you can upgrade to their premium cabin which will come to 650 euro /pax.

 

[Lawlass]

(for 2 people)


MEL – LAX QFF J 14/07/17 – 196,000 pts + $900
JFK – LHR Norwegian Airlines - 11/8/17 $480 (USD 181 pp)
LHR – BKK Singapore J 20/8/17 – 240,000 KF + $680
BKK-MEL JQ - 24/8/11 $480 (plus luggage)

So, $2,540 plus most of our points for the both of us, travelling in J on the long bits? Does that sound right?

 

[Lawlass]

Ok take 2:

Flight	From	To	Date	Class	Airline	Dep	Arr	Points	Costs Total
SQ218	MEL	SIN	11/7	J	Singapore	12:05 AM	6:00 AM	130,000 VF	$176.78
SQ972	SIN	BKK	11/7	J	Singapore	9:25 AM	11:05 AM
AY10	BKK	HEL	16/7	J	Finnair	8:55 AM	3:05 PM	156,000 QF	~$437
DY7011	Coppenhagen	JFK	26/7	Y	Norweigen	7:10 PM	9:30 PM	-	~$1300
VA6	LAX	Brisbane	26/8	J	Virgin Aus	11:15 AM	6:15 PM	190,000 VF	$107.24
VA356	Brisbane	MEL		J	Airgin Aus	8:55 PM	11:20 PM

*Hopefully my table skills work

All up costs are $2,020 for these flights. Depending on where you want to go in Europe you'll need to add the costs of the flights as well. You will have a balance of 44,000 QF points that you can also use - for example HEL>Berlin>Rome would cost 40,000 points for 2 + 65 euro.

I don't really know what Norweigen are like but they were one of the cheaper options out of Europe to JFK, there were some others but minimum costs were around $1000/pax. With Norweigen that price includes luggage and a meal - If you're wanting to splurge then you can upgrade to their premium cabin which will come to 650 euro /pax.

Oh snap, we posted same time. That looks amazing. Is the $2020 per person? The one I posted below you was total, but I fear I might be doing something wrong

 

[yld200]

Good timing!

I was tossing up with something like that as well but knew the QF taxes would blow it out. Your calcs look about right except the Norwegian fare might be for 1 pax?.

The costs I put together are $2020 total - so around $1100 per person for round the world!

With SQ you'll get the A380 to Singapore, the Helsinki flight is on the A350, pretty sure Norwigian is a dreamliner and VA's 777 on the way back from LAX.

Oh snap, we posted same time. That looks amazing. Is the $2020 per person? The one I posted below you was total, but I fear I might be doing something wrong

 

[Lawlass]

Good timing!

I was tossing up with something like that as well but knew the QF taxes would blow it out. Your calcs look about right except the Norwegian fare might be for 1 pax?.

The costs I put together are $2020 total - so around $1100 per person for round the world!

With SQ you'll get the A380 to Singapore, the Helsinki flight is on the A350, pretty sure Norwigian is a dreamliner and VA's 777 on the way back from LAX.

Wow, you are definitely the frontrunner for the $100 + FAME right now yld200!
I got the Finnair flight from Matrix-ITA at 181 USD pp - it seems a lot cheaper to go US-EUR than EUR-US at that time of year!
I've only ever done J on QF metal, so your itinerary might be preferable on that count

If you have any more bright ideas, do keep them coming, and if anyone else would like to chime in on pros and cons of the potential itineraries, please do!

 

[yld200]

Only thing I can add at this stage is that you could use the remaining 80K velocity points to book a Delta Economy flight from London to JFK on the 26th of July for 55,600 points + $830 in taxes - for 2.

If you can somehow manage to get another 20,000 velocity points you can do it in business for around 100K points + $1064 for 2. This is also with Delta.

 

[Lawlass]

Only thing I can add at this stage is that you could use the remaining 80K velocity points to book a Delta Economy flight from London to JFK on the 26th of July for 55,600 points + $830 in taxes - for 2.

If you can somehow manage to get another 20,000 velocity points you can do it in business for around 100K points + $1064 for 2. This is also with Delta.

I def need to go to London, so that might be the plan. I don't mind doing London - NYC in Y - it's only 6 hours.
When pricing London to NY flights for around that date I almost had a heart attack - around $1K *each*!

 

[yld200]

The London > New York economy flights are via Philadelphia which is 8 hrs - can't find a direct flight around the 26th of July. The business flight is via Boston. If you're keen on the J flight but can't find a way to get yourself 20,000 points shoot me a pm so I can point you in the right direction.

I def need to go to London, so that might be the plan. I don't mind doing London - NYC in Y - it's only 6 hours.
When pricing London to NY flights for around that date I almost had a heart attack - around $1K *each*!

 

[Lawlass]

Please PM me your details yld200 - money and fame are all yours
THANK YOU!!!

 

[support]

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