Planning my first all-points first class trip

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shib71

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I have finally collected enough QFF points to travel first class to the US and I'm really looking forward to a trip where the flights are a highlight instead of a trial-by-endurance. I would be going from Sydney to the north-east US at the end of July '18 and returning (from Seattle) at the start of September '18, and was hoping to take Emirates one way and Qantas the other. However some experimental flight searches suggest that I'm going to have to work hard for those seats, or change my plans.

Do you veterans have any advice for me? I'm flexible about the cities, adding short connecting flights at the start/end, and am happy to pay for something like Award Flight Assist if it will get me those sweet, sweet long-haul seats.
 
I have finally collected enough QFF points to travel first class to the US and I'm really looking forward to a trip where the flights are a highlight instead of a trial-by-endurance. I would be going from Sydney to the north-east US at the end of July '18 and returning (from Seattle) at the start of September '18, and was hoping to take Emirates one way and Qantas the other. However some experimental flight searches suggest that I'm going to have to work hard for those seats, or change my plans.

Do you veterans have any advice for me? I'm flexible about the cities, adding short connecting flights at the start/end, and am happy to pay for something like Award Flight Assist if it will get me those sweet, sweet long-haul seats.

Hi and welcome to AFF!

There's no need to spend money on an award assistance program for this type of booking. If it really comes to that you'd be better off paying the $60 fee for the Qantas call centre to do all the work searching for you (even better, you can ask them to find the space, then go on line and book it yourself for Qantas and Emirates flights!).

Flying to the USA with Qantas your options are limited... only SYD and MEL to LAX or SYD to DFW - you connections to other cities in the states is secondary, and not going to be nearly as difficult as finding the space trans-pacific.

Emirates is usually better with F availability than QF. They are cutting capacity to the states though, so that might either (a) make it wasier to find some seats (downturn in traffic) or (b) make it slightly harder to get seats as there are less flights.

When searching for your connecting flights in the USA use the AA.com award booking tool. Once you find availability there, Qantas can book it for you and put it all on to the one ticket if you book the connecting flights at the same time as the long hauls.
 
If going QF to the USA you will be on the QF11 to LAX, but if you are in Seattle, instead of taking another flight back to LAX to fly home why not take the Amtrak up the coast to Vancouver BC, (it is a really beautiful 3.5hour train ride) and then using JAL (if on points) fly to Narita (Tokyo) for a day or so before flying to SYD. Just a thought. correction: 4hr train trip and at $62 premium class equal to QF business class seats.
 
I was thinking that I would need to go down to LAX for the flight back, and Amtrak is a cool way to do that. Thanks for the idea!
 
My piece of advise, be flexible with the dates of travel, and just do dummy bookings until you find a combination of flights which suit, and the second you find a combination which works, book it.

You may be able to include tag flights in for free as part of the award bookings, so don't just look at hub to hub flights if you're wanting to tag additional locations in. For example I once did AKL-MEL-CBR in J and the price (inc taxes) was identical to a simple AKL-MEL, effectively giving me a J MEL-CBR for (legitimately) free. Just watch for the "* - This flight is in economy", as they tend to be the long haul sector. So for example, you've stated that SEA is your final destination, try for combinations which go directly to SEA rather than booking just to LAX and then booking a second paid flight from LAX-SEA.
 
Do you have any status? If not, you might have to be more flexible with dates depending on availability. Also look at when school holidays are on and try to avoid such times.
 
Only Bronze, unfortunately. My experiments suggest that MEL_Traveller is right about there being a lot of availability on Emirates, and none at all on Qantas. I used Expert Flyer to see what seats show up for the direct LAX-* flights when the next day's seats were released at at 12m GMT, and there were only economy. Is there any way to get better than economy on one of those flights? If I get an economy ticket with points, could I upgrade if a better seat opened up?

Related, I checked out points-plus-pay to see if I could go that way. Is it just me, or is the value of the points in those transactions ridiculously low compared to awards?
 
Only Bronze, unfortunately. My experiments suggest that MEL_Traveller is right about there being a lot of availability on Emirates, and none at all on Qantas. I used Expert Flyer to see what seats show up for the direct LAX-* flights when the next day's seats were released at at 12m GMT, and there were only economy. Is there any way to get better than economy on one of those flights? If I get an economy ticket with points, could I upgrade if a better seat opened up?

Related, I checked out points-plus-pay to see if I could go that way. Is it just me, or is the value of the points in those transactions ridiculously low compared to awards?

No - points+pay is generally a bad proposition (there are circumstances where it can be cost effective). QF seems to calculate the value of a point at about .07c for p+p.

IIRC - and others will chime in here - I thought premium awards were released to higher status members initially, and then later to silver/bronze. Not sure when the release window is though.
 
If going QF to the USA you will be on the QF11 to LAX, but if you are in Seattle, instead of taking another flight back to LAX to fly home why not take the Amtrak up the coast to Vancouver BC, (it is a really beautiful 3.5hour train ride) and then using JAL (if on points) fly to Narita (Tokyo) for a day or so before flying to SYD. Just a thought. correction: 4hr train trip and at $62 premium class equal to QF business class seats.

I'd do something similar, but there's no JL F for YVR-NRT or NRT-SYD, and the J seat on YVR-NRT is nothing special at all. I'd be aiming for CX YVR-HKG.
 
Suggest you consider CX flights via Hong Kong. Lots more availability in my experience to the US.
 
Only Bronze, unfortunately. My experiments suggest that MEL_Traveller is right about there being a lot of availability on Emirates, and none at all on Qantas. I used Expert Flyer to see what seats show up for the direct LAX-* flights when the next day's seats were released at at 12m GMT, and there were only economy. Is there any way to get better than economy on one of those flights? If I get an economy ticket with points, could I upgrade if a better seat opened up?

Related, I checked out points-plus-pay to see if I could go that way. Is it just me, or is the value of the points in those transactions ridiculously low compared to awards?

As a Bronze, the only option is to wait for seats to open up, if at all. If you book an economy award ticket, yes you can change to a different cabin if one opened and you would be liable for the award change fee. It is technically upgrading but not a "classic upgrade award" in the sense that those types of awards are revenue fares that enter the upgrade lottery using points, subject to hierarchy.

Points plus pay is a very expensive way to buy a ticket and you'd probably only do it if you are very points rich.
 
For July 2018 travel get on the website the 355 days or whatever to book F class. I was lucky to get a F seat SYD-LAX this August, but booked that far back i can't recall. There are usually business class award seats available. The QF service people are generally good, if you have the time to wait 45 mins for them to answer :evil:
As for my comment above about flying out of Vancouver (if in Seattle) BacchusMarsh is correct in saying YVR-NRT is nothing special with JAL using 787-8 with 2-2-2 configuration, and although CX is a much much better product, after spending a fair bit of time in Beijing and mainland China last year, then to HKG, i found HKG to be a place I no long wish to visit, dirty/smelly etc. In saying that, you would have better opportunity of booking J class out of LAX if you book the 355 days in advance.
 
I am planning to book as early as I can. But when I checked for seats on Expert Flyer the minute the next days seats are released, there were only J awards available.

Are you saying that I might have better luck if I use the phone service? I'm totally willing to do that.
 
I have finally collected enough QFF points to travel first class to the US and I'm really looking forward to a trip where the flights are a highlight instead of a trial-by-endurance. I would be going from Sydney to the north-east US at the end of July '18 and returning (from Seattle) at the start of September '18, and was hoping to take Emirates one way and Qantas the other. However some experimental flight searches suggest that I'm going to have to work hard for those seats, or change my plans.

Do you veterans have any advice for me? I'm flexible about the cities, adding short connecting flights at the start/end, and am happy to pay for something like Award Flight Assist if it will get me those sweet, sweet long-haul seats.

Having done a number of EK flights to USA, there's no code share EK QF to North America so yes you can book the flights on EK to Seattle, New York, Boston etc,, you can't book EK to NA on QF points, only with EK points or cash.
 
Having done a number of EK flights to USA, there's no code share EK QF to North America so yes you can book the flights on EK to Seattle, New York, Boston etc,, you can't book EK to NA on QF points, only with EK points or cash.

Not sure I understand this - you can book EK flights with QF points from DXB to USA - I'm looking at flights right now. For example awards are wide open on EK, all classes, for May next year DXB-JFK. Or did you mean something different?
 
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Not sure I understand this - you can book EK flights with QF points from DXB to USA - I'm looking at flights right now. For example awards are wide open on EK, all classes, for May next year DXB-JFK. Or did you mean something different?

Really! ? Yes I just checked and you are correct. One can book DXB -SEA Fir example on points. It wasn't the case last year, at least using points from Australian ports. Go for it!

But one can't book flights from Australian port s to USA on EK via DXB as QF code share tickets for paid flights, AFAIK.
 
Really! ? Yes I just checked and you are correct. One can book DXB -SEA Fir example on points. It wasn't the case last year, at least using points from Australian ports.

You could, you just needed to use multi-city or phone in. The multi-city option was crazily temperamental, so it doesn't surprise me that you weren't able to find what you wanted.
 
You could, you just needed to use multi-city or phone in. The multi-city option was crazily temperamental, so it doesn't surprise me that you weren't able to find what you wanted.

Interesting. We gave up and just bought EK BNE-DXD-US. Long way around but Hennessy Paradis eased the long flights.:)
 
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