PER to Europe in May/June 2019

[Antoallison]

Hi

I have just had an invitation to join a friend in Split, Croatia on 22nd June 2019 for a holiday.
I normally book my own flights online but I need some guidance with this problem please.

It's complicated ....
I have ended up with various amounts of points sitting with various airlines and credit card programmes eg

Westpac Altitude - 242,965
Amex (David Jones)- 219,000
Velocity - 45,500 - maybe more after their latest promo

then a few scattered with:
Delta Skymiles - 21,155 - no expiry
Qantas - 15,180 - no expiry
Vietnam Airlines
I am also with Krisflyer but nothing much in there !

The good news is I am very flexible with my dates, so I was thinking of flight from Perth to maybe ?Rome, Milan, Prague, Ljubljana - to make a bit of a holiday before making my way to Croatia before 22nd June to meet my friends.

I know that sounds vague, but I have to plan which way the itinerary goes -
either fly into Edinburgh or London and have a UK holiday, then use train, bus, or LCC flights in UK to Europe, before the Croatian holiday OR vice versa.
Flying back home out of Zagreb (I think that is the preferred option as May and early June will be cooler and pre UK school hols in mid July).

I would like to use the points to get a Business class flight at least for the long haul sector on any airline (as you can see from my track record I am not a loyal flyer- oops).

If it is too late to snag 1 Business class award seat for next May or June; then I am fine with economy, but open to multiple stopovers with 1-2 nights stay minimum to break up the journey. I have never been to Hong Kong but seen Dubai/Singapore multiple times.

I wish you all a Happy New Year !

 

[Antoallison]

Have I posted in the wrong section ?

Tried to do Flight Award Assist, but they have closed up shop till 7th January, so I thought I would start the ball rolling and get some knowledge about what to do... head hurting after a day spent searching flight combo and best way to use points,

 

[yld200]

Have I posted in the wrong section ?

Tried to do Flight Award Assist, but they have closed up shop till 7th January, so I thought I would start the ball rolling and get some knowledge about what to do... head hurting after a day spent searching flight combo and best way to use points,

With your Westpac Altitude and DJ Amex, do you know what programs they can transfer into and at what rate? I'm not familiar with either of those so knowing what your effective points balances at VA, SQ and QF can be is helpful.

 

[yld200]

There is a J flight from PER to Milan on the 5th of May. You will need 95,000 Krisflyer miles + $100 in taxes if you want to book this flight.

 

[Antoallison]

Thanks ..I am learning a bit more about what to do with points..so far I had just been accumulating them ..not very successfully but not using them. So this year I should start doing both those things.

I am checking flights into Italy any airport ..but out of Zagreb at the moment. The plannings stage and all the various routes and airlines is part of the pre-trip fun of a holiday, but being a procrastinator it gets hard to make decisions,

 

[JohnM]

I can't give advice on how best to utilise or consolidate your points coughtail. The only thing I would say is that June is high season in Europe and only six months away, so I wouldn't procrastinate if I were chasing premium cabin award seats.

 

[Antoallison]

I can't give advice on how best to utilise or consolidate your points coughtail. The only thing I would say is that June is high season in Europe and only six months away, so I wouldn't procrastinate if I were chasing premium cabin award seats.

yes I agree, and I might end up paying for this upcoming trip myself and using this mish mash of points to plan a long and involved rewards trip for 2020, if there is little availability for May or June this year.

 

[Leroy87]

The only decent availability remaining out of Perth for mid May - early June is via SQ to SIN, MH to KUL or various QF/CX combinations to SIN or HKG. Direct flights to the middle east are all gone it seems, unless you want to stump up some extra for QR first (which would be quite something but will cost you 135k Asia Miles = a stack of your Westpac + DJ points).

Picking various points in Europe on SQ yielded scarce availability, but there was some:
eg. PER - SIN - ZRH on May 29 for 95k KF miles (or 121k Velocity - you have to search the legs separately and then call up and insist they be booked as a single ticket in case of operator fail, but it can be done). Velocity via auto redemption might be the most efficient use of those Altitude points, because you can still get a 2:1 transfer but it restricts your flexibility.

Oddly, the QF engine kept throwing up SIN - HND - LHR on JAL as an option when searching that leg (availability from KUL and HKG as well), so maybe go all out and use an Asia miles OneWorld award to get the flight home as well (see here: How to Book a Cathay Pacific Asia Miles Round-the-World Award). For 185k Asia miles you can travel up to 25,000 miles in Business.

PER - SIN - HND - LHR - MXP - DOH - PER for example is only 20,806 (I haven't researched availability on the return leg at all).

 

[Antoallison]

The only decent availability remaining out of Perth for mid May - early June is via SQ to SIN, MH to KUL or various QF/CX combinations to SIN or HKG. Direct flights to the middle east are all gone it seems, unless you want to stump up some extra for QR first (which would be quite something but will cost you 135k Asia Miles = a stack of your Westpac + DJ points).

Picking various points in Europe on SQ yielded scarce availability, but there was some:
eg. PER - SIN - ZRH on May 29 for 95k KF miles (or 121k Velocity - you have to search the legs separately and then call up and insist they be booked as a single ticket in case of operator fail, but it can be done). Velocity via auto redemption might be the most efficient use of those Altitude points, because you can still get a 2:1 transfer but it restricts your flexibility.

Oddly, the QF engine kept throwing up SIN - HND - LHR on JAL as an option when searching that leg (availability from KUL and HKG as well), so maybe go all out and use an Asia miles OneWorld award to get the flight home as well (see here: How to Book a Cathay Pacific Asia Miles Round-the-World Award). For 185k Asia miles you can travel up to 25,000 miles in Business.

PER - SIN - HND - LHR - MXP - DOH - PER for example is only 20,806 (I haven't researched availability on the return leg at all).

Thanks for answering .. I appreciate your work, I am reading up now and I have a sense of urgency, not just from the fact that award seats are harder to find closer to any flying date in May/June -but @also the other posts about devaluation of certain points schemes.