OneWorld - Is 1st class worth the pain vs Business Class

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Foibles

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Hi,

My partner and I are in the early stages of planning for a round the world trip sometime next year – probably commencing in April 2020 and returning around September 2020.

We intend to hire Matt & Co. (AFF) to do the detailed itinerary – but I appreciate that the AFF team are there to help with the schedule itself…not the early ‘FAQ’s’. Which is why I am posting here instead, in the hope someone may be kind enough to provide me some guidance on a specific question?

Essentially – what I would like to ascertain is the feasibility of doing the Qantas OneWorld Award in first class as opposed to business class given the constraints I have to work to.

I have 350K QFF points at present – and it seems every time I get close to the 420K mark – I burn some with a short trip. My partner is doing slightly better – she has 390K points. We are both (only) bronze with status credits. I also hold 350K Velocity points and am likely to get gold status in about 4 weeks.

So we are close but not there yet for first class, but definitely have enough in the kitty already for business class.

My question is – given the dates I wish to fly (i.e only 7 months from now), and the airlines (I think only 6 or 7 from OW have 1st class), and the limited routes and planes which support first class, and the fact that we want not one but two first class seats per flight – am I kidding myself as to availability and – even if we did book in first class, would we end up doing business class most of the journey, so we would be better off just getting this locked in now using 280K for business, rather than struggling to get 420K whilst time ticks down for an April departure?

In case destination cities / airports are of relevance – we’re likely to want to go to Tahiti, Hawaii, continental USA, Canada, over to Ireland, up to Russia, down to Spain, into Greece and maybe home via Sth Korea. I can see Tahiti is likely to be so isolated that it warrants its own later trip as it just burns miles for no reason. We don’t need to go to Africa, but we might choose to go to Sth America briefly. I can see us wanting to do lots of sectors in Nth America and Europe.

Is there any detail I should provide, or questions I have not considered?

Essentially, what I am really after is a ‘gut feel’ from those who have some idea – as to whether aspiring to do this first class is largely futile given our constraints, and whether we are better off sticking to business class anyway.

Cheers,

Foibles
 
In your position I would go for a oneworld Business award, given that paying 420k for First would mean you'd be forced into business anyway due to lack of F service on the following sectors:

Aus to Tahiti
Tahiti to USA
Intra-Europe (although BA do run F on LHR-DME)
Asia to Australia no F unless you route via SIN to catch BA F or QF F.
 
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I'd also just go with the 280k option. As nice as it is (talking about long haul and the USA 3 class transpacs) to fly F, for me personally it's not worth the points/money/etc over J plus you'll have more flexibility in destinations.
 
Also keep in mind the points required are increasing on September 18: J will increase from 280,000 points to 318,000 and F will increase from 420,000 points to 455,000.
 
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I hear availability to Tahiti is cough.....you might want to do some searching as I think this close to departure some of the good stuff is long gone
 
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As others suggested J may be a better option for you and if you are commencing in Apr 20 it is likely that F rewards have been snapped up. That being said I booked a OW F for next year for MrsM and I. We were only planning JP and NYC but ended up going the long way round as the points required was about the same as a return. It is not all in F but I have a few more points and did not care about using them.
 
Agree with others. Lock in the 280K award right now while you can. Changes are only 5K per person. Waiting for F and trying to find availability could be problematic.

If you were interested in F you could probably buy the remaining points you need. Either through Qantas wines, or just outright buy them (not great value, but better than nothing).
 
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Another vote for J.
I have spent hours poring over the OW RTW planning tool (which crashes constantly) and came to the conclusion that F wasn't worth it.
There are simply too few routes with aircraft with F cabins to make it worthwhile.
 
Forgive me from not being up to date but don’t you drop back to Y in the US on AA if you do flight on anything other than transcon when you do DONE4 reward?
 
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