Planning for a FF award J ticket MEL-CDG with the family

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ExcuseMyFrench

ExcuseMyFrench

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Hi there

I am currently in the planning stages of getting my family and me back to France in a J cabin. We have never flown J so the planning stage is quite exciting. Looking at flying there in Aug-Sep 2016.

Neither mr ExcuseMyFrench nor I have any sort of Qantas Status, we are just NB. So upgrades are out.
Next option is to use our FF points to pay for an award ticket. I should have 420k FF points to play with once it's time to book the tickets thanks to CC sign on bonuses.

We'd need 3 seats (2 adults, 1 child and 1 infant).

After a lot of play with the FF booking system, I came up with two options.
MEL-HKG-CDG with CX 139k per J seat, or
MEL-DXB-CDG with EK 128k per J seat.

Several questions :
> How can I see the Taxes, fees and carrier charges that will apply to each option? I don't have enough point currently to get to the check out page.
> I have tried to use the multi city option to be able to get more options in terms of flights that I could pick. So rather than doing a basic MEL to CDG search I did a few MEL to DUB then DUB to CDG searches. It seems that doing it that way is more expensive in points. Does that sound right?
> Also I have found a few award seats with QR in either Y or F but nothing in J. Does anyone have had any luck securing a award ticket with QR in J?

That's pretty much it for now, I'm sure I'll come back with more questions as I go. But I'd appreciate any advice the community might have for me.
It seems that CX would be the best/easiest option for me really. I don't know what QR J class looks like but we have always loved flying with them in Y. One of the best carrier in Y, well ahead of QF, AF, EK or even SQ in my opinion.
So if that translate to their business class, we'd love to try and fly with them.

Thanks everyone!
 
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assuming you already have 139000 points available you could do a dummy booking to see what the taxes and charges come up with - they would Be indicative of course and then extrapolAte for 3 ? Maybe you aready tried this ? Anyway I had a look. And it appears to be just $150.97. Can't find an Emirates ex Melb but ex Adelaide it's $620.04....
 
CaptJCool said:
assuming you already have 139000 points available you could do a dummy booking to see what the taxes and charges come up with - they would Be indicative of course and then extrapolAte for 3 ? Maybe you aready tried this ? Anyway I had a look. And it appears to be just $150.97. Can't find an Emirates ex Melb but ex Adelaide it's $620.04....
Click to expand...

Thanks CaptJCool! I should be over 140k points any day now, still waiting for a sign on bonus to come through.

I knew Emirates was pricier than others in terms of taxes and fees but wouldn't expect it would be by that much!! :shock:
It makes the decision even easier...
 
On 21 Oct 15 EK ex Melb $617.61.departs 3.35 AM. ARR CDG 8.05PM
CX $150.97. Departs 8.40Am. Arrives 6.55PM
 
Yea I double-checked. CUse it seemed too low lol. .... When you get the points In the bank feel free to confirm it for yourself as pricing cAn change!
 
CX may be more points but the J product is superior to QF and probably better than EK too.
 
My first flight in J with the family is getting a little more real every day. I have a little dilemna, we were hoping to fly back to France in business over Christmas 2016. I understand that this is a busy period so I'm hoping to secure seats as soon as booking period open.

I have 320k points at the moment. Enough for 1 adult, 1 child and 1 infant. I'm missing 97k FF to be able to book for the extra adult. Those points are coming my way but probably only in Feb or Mar.

Would you book tickets in J now for the 3 persons I can pay for and hoping there would still be seats available for the extra adult once my extra 97k FF come through? Or is that very risky?
The other option is to wait to have enough points and risk not having enough award seats available for the date we'd like.

What would you do?
 
I'd secure what I could and hope for the best. If it doesn't workout you can always cancel ... sourcing one ticket is infinitely easier than sourcing 4.
 
amaroo said:
I'd secure what I could and hope for the best. If it doesn't workout you can always cancel ... sourcing one ticket is infinitely easier than sourcing 4.
Click to expand...

But of course! Thanks you, cancelling didn't even cross my mind as a potential option. Off I go to read about the terms and conditions. :mrgreen:
 
it's finally here! The day I get to book our first award flight ever and first time in J too! A little bit excited... Feels like Christmas! :mrgreen:

Which one would you pick to get the most out of our time in J? Lounge wise etc. Planes are the same on each combination (A330-300 then B777-300ER) so that doesn't help with our choice.
Screen Shot 2015-12-22 at 1.39.15 pm.jpg
 
Personally I'd go the last option. More reasonable departure hour from Melbourne, then 8hrs 50mins in Hong Kong so you can get the kids out of the airport into some fresh air take the fast trains into the city and sightsee for 2-3 hours then head back to the airport to freshen up in the J lounge before next flight. Then, next flight is a long one but you can all get some sleep and hopefully wake up refreshed for your first day in Paris - arriving in the morning means you'll be able to sightsee in the morning then check in to hotel and have a little afternoon nap for 2 hours then get everyone up and get out into the fresh air again for a walk along the river and dinner and then you can all crash out when completely knackered... and then the following day you'll wake up on Euro Time and hopefully will skip jetlag.

That is the opinion of someone who always travels long-haul and that method works best for me. I also don't have children so perhaps that sounds like a nightmare to parents... so apologies if my ideas don't work.

It also means you will get best use of your J lounge privileges - departure from Melbourne and then both arrival and departure from Hong Kong and even arrival at Paris if you choose to shower etc before heading into the city... The other options mean you would only get 1.5-ish hours in the lounge in your stopover which sure is nice but not making full advantage. But then again for me the journey is part of the trip, not just the destination :) YMMV
 
Options 1 or 3. Then based on if you want to see some of HKG ... I'd go with #3
 
Option 1 - you are travelling with kids (and an infant). Midnight departure = hard work, no matter what class you are in. Save the fast trains to France.
 
I picked option #3 and then we'll get a hotel room so that the baby can crawl around. We'll get an hotel with a pool so that the toddler can blow some steam there.

Mr EMF points have finally landed so I tried to get him an award ticket on same flight but they are all gone in J. I can get him one in Y+. What would you do? Get him a Y+ ticket and cross your fingers that another J award seat gets released then upgrade him? Or change flights altogether and get 3 J seats for another day?
 
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Good option is the Regal Airport Hotel its attached to the HKG international airport, good sized rooms, think they have a pool, its a 5 min walk to train too. we have been there a few times while in between flights.
 
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