Question for J class seat from Brisbane to Europe in May. (QF / Oneworld)

[Tao Tao He]

G'day all, need some help with regards to best options of flying from Brisbane to London/Rome/Paris/Frankfurt in May 2016. (say from around 12th May to 3rd June)
Taking the missus for a 3 week break which was delayed for a year and a half because of work... (swapped jobs...)
The missus cracked the whip and would not except anything lower than Business class.

I used to snoop around here for SC run advice. After going through a few threads I think I narrowed it down to 3 options, just want some suggestions to see which is the best path forward or there are other better ways.
1. Bris - > Syd/Melb -> LHR/etc on standard economy and upgrade with points.
2. Use the oneworld award (not yet sure how that works)
3. Classic award using points.

Have about 1 mil QF points and the missus and I are both QF SG. (I just dropped back this year cause half the work flights are on charters now >_<)
No cap in the budget, but just want best bang for the buck.
Preference is 1 as I can go for the SC points and gun for platinum again, but worried that I might not get the upgrades?
Haven't actually had to use points to upgrade on international before, not sure how it works.(Cathay use to give us free bumps to premium every time when we were platinum)

Thanks!

 

[MEL_Traveller]

G'day all, need some help with regards to best options of flying from Brisbane to London/Rome/Paris/Frankfurt in May 2016. (say from around 12th May to 3rd June)
Taking the missus for a 3 week break which was delayed for a year and a half because of work... (swapped jobs...)
The missus cracked the whip and would not except anything lower than Business class.

I used to snoop around here for SC run advice. After going through a few threads I think I narrowed it down to 3 options, just want some suggestions to see which is the best path forward or there are other better ways.
1. Bris - > Syd/Melb -> LHR/etc on standard economy and upgrade with points.
2. Use the oneworld award (not yet sure how that works)
3. Classic award using points.

Have about 1 mil QF points and the missus and I are both QF SG. (I just dropped back this year cause half the work flights are on charters now >_<)
No cap in the budget, but just want best bang for the buck.
Preference is 1 as I can go for the SC points and gun for platinum again, but worried that I might not get the upgrades?
Haven't actually had to use points to upgrade on international before, not sure how it works.(Cathay use to give us free bumps to premium every time when we were platinum)

Thanks!

Unless you hold Qantas Platinum status or higher, you should not even hope for an upgrade coming through as your chances are pretty slim.

Upgrades for Qantas international are on a 'request' basis, and allocated on the basis of FF status, commencing 7 days prior to the flight. A platinum requesting an upgrade a week before departure will trump a Gold who has requested an upgrade 6 months in advance.

Not only that, but you have to pay a higher fare to be eligible to join the upgrade lottery.

To guarantee business class, you should book into that cabin from the outset. There are multiple OW partners, between them you should be able to find 2x business class. A call to Qantas should be able to find available seats, and in some cases you can then book those flights yourself on line to avoid the assisted booking fee.

 

[RooFlyer]

Welcome to AFF Tao Tao He

I think MEL_Traveller's advice is pretty well on the mark (unfortunately for you). Without Plat or P1 status you are unlikely to get a points upgrade Y to J and if you did, you'd only know about it at the last minute (do you want to risk the wrath of the Mrs if it doesn't come through? ). You could in theory snare a wholly points seat, but you would have to be ready to pounce the day they are issued, and I think you are well past that time now. One seat maybe, two on the same flight, almost no chance. And then, the additional cash taxes and charges on Qantas will be high.

F wholly points seat might actually be more available?

Also, not sure if I understood you correctly, but if you got a Y seat, and did manage a points upgrade, you would only get the SCs and points of the fare/class you actually paid for. So whether you got the upgrade or not, your quest to get Plat again is unchanged.

So, again, regrettably a J purchase is probably the way to go to keep the Mrs happy. There are some good fares about - Finnair, Thai and LH have some attractive combo fares and attractive sales from time to time. If you do decide to got that route, there are some good threads already on AFF, or come back and ask again, with your prefs for route / alliance / carrier etc.

 

[Kaiser]

If you decide to burn points and find QF availability lacking, keep in mind there is usually plenty of Qatar J availability - it won't show on the Qantas web booking engine due to a glitch, but if you ring up it's definitely there. Just looked at 8th May and there is QR MEL-PER-DOH available and from DOH there are 4 x LHR flights daily with availability. Coming back to Aus, CX tends to have 4 award seats per flight. Of course this won't help you much with SC. In the past week or so I had no trouble booking 2 x award seats on QR and CX for April 2016, whilst QF was completely gone. From a bang for buck perspective- I would be leaning towards a Y flight to SE Asia and then a sale J fare from the likes of CX, QR, AY,EY that have been floating around for a while.

 

[brazen00]

If you go for option 3 (award booking), I'd recommend having a look at CX. You'll save a ton in fees (close to $1000 one way for 2 pax in J). I can see availability BNE-HKG-LHR on 8/5 but not much the following week. Coming back, avoid LHR. Do some overlands/short-hauls and leave from Europe (FCO/FRA/DUS) to save the departure tax. This is pretty much exactly what I'm doing next August with my wife and kids.

Also, when I booked my tickets the agent mentioned it's better to book them as separate one-way legs in case you miss one of your flights or whatever, you still have the return leg booked.

 

[Tao Tao He]

Thanks for the help guys.
I am looking into option 2 at the moment. Somehow using the website it just gives me the option to pay with $$$ Might have to give them a call..