SYD - DFW return in Business Class using QF points

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ozboy01

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Hi

I am a pretty new poster so please be gentle :) My post is a combination of questions and requests for confirmation of information I believe to be correct.

I want to book a SYD - DFW return in business class using points with departure 31.3.16 and return 3.5.16.

I read somewhere that airlines start making available points seats around 11 months out from departure date (from memory QF is 353 days?).

At present I have approx. 160K of the 224K points needed. I feel I will be able to reach the 212K in about 6 months - primarily accumulating points through credit card usage.

Is it a worthwhile strategy to secure the outbound sector as soon as reasonably possible and then hope the return leg becomes available after I have accumulated the additional points required? If the opportunity to secure the return leg doesn't eventuate my expectation is that the cost of a one way ticket back will be more (quite a bit) than half the return fare cost.

Is it better to purchase outright a return fare when a juicy QF sale comes along and use my war chest of points for subsequent trips? I am an avid traveller so there will be many more opportunities to use the points in the future :) For those familiar with business class pricing on the SYD - DFW route, what type of lowest return costing is realistic - $7K?

I am happy to be mentored by the many experienced AFF members here. Maybe there are other strategies I am not even aware of?

Apologies for the length of this post.

Cheers

Geoff
 
I usually book all seat at same time as they are so hard to get on that sector.

Another way you may consider s get a QF return to HNL and fly to/from USA mainland from there, this also gives you nice stopovers too, plus award flights are much easier to get..

I'm doing just that and using USDM miles or AS Miles internally and latter a good deal ATM
 
Waiting for and then snagging a QF J seat to LAX or DFW can be tough without being on one of the higher status levels such as WP or WP1. Some-one here will pipe up with how far out the seats are released (and the time of day), but I'm not sure if PS get to see the seats at the same time as higher status members. If you keep a keen watch, you might be lucky.

Current MEL-DFW sale price ('global deal') though to the end of Feb 2016 is $9K. I haven't seen a 'juicy' QF sale to USA for a long time! :)

Fiji Airways has well priced J seats via Suva to LAX if you want to shop around.

Limewood gives excellent advice re going via HNL and buying miles. Buying miles on AS is a cheap way to get a J seat, but again, you are at the mercy of an Award seat becoming available, but at least there isn't a QF status hurdle. Going via HKG with CX on AS miles may be an option. (Note that if you are thinking of buying AS miles, set up your account ASAP, as you can't buy until ??10 days after you establish your account, and the offer has a finite period.) Check the various AS threads here.
 
I secured 2 J seats to NYC departing September and returning October, away about 6 weeks.
For about 5 weeks before our preferred departure date I would monitor reward availability.
It was a very stressful process as there was never much available and if there was it was snapped up within minutes.
I ended up getting 2 J seats a few days before my preferred departure dates but I was so stressed about the process, I was happy to get anything at all. So I booked the flight over first, then waited for the return date. That proved even harder and I ended up getting return flights with CX via HK. Qantas offered nothing for weeks.
I also tried flights via DFW but I never saw 2 J seats ever available from there.

Yes I worked on the 353 days out and searching online at 10am when the flights were released. I did some dummy bookings for weeks before to see how quick the reward seats would go. I tried ringing Qantas but the operator could not get me anything either.

I still can't believe I even was able to get the flights.
So yes I booked the out going flight as soon as they were available and sweated on the return when they became available.

So good luck. I did write a thread on my experiences, that may be helpful for you to read.
I was helped by many experienced people on AFF.
 
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In general, you should always book the outbound sectors first - as they become available.

Waiting for the inbound sectors would - on popular routes - run the high risk of missing out on the outbound seat(s).

QFF allows separate in / out-bound bookings so take advantage of that. USDM requires a complete booking (unless you're prepared to pay return mileage for a single direction).

Once or twice I have snapped up QF seat by scanning EF (for QF award seats) as they seem to show it before it is seen on QF systems the next day.

Could be a fluke but test it out on your routes.
 
Hi ozboy01/Geoff,

And welcome to AFF! Hope you find the information here as useful as I have over the years and - with your travels - you're able to share and help others going forward.

I want to book a SYD - DFW return in business class using points with departure 31.3.16 and return 3.5.16.

I read somewhere that airlines start making available points seats around 11 months out from departure date (from memory QF is 353 days?).

At present I have approx. 160K of the 224K points needed. I feel I will be able to reach the 212K in about 6 months - primarily accumulating points through credit card usage.

Is it a worthwhile strategy to secure the outbound sector as soon as reasonably possible and then hope the return leg becomes available after I have accumulated the additional points required? If the opportunity to secure the return leg doesn't eventuate my expectation is that the cost of a one way ticket back will be more (quite a bit) than half the return fare cost.

Is it better to purchase outright a return fare when a juicy QF sale comes along and use my war chest of points for subsequent trips? I am an avid traveller so there will be many more opportunities to use the points in the future :) For those familiar with business class pricing on the SYD - DFW route, what type of lowest return costing is realistic - $7K?

Given you're looking to book for a return journey where the inbound leg is a month after the outbound then I would certainly be looking to book the outbound as soon as they become available (even ignoring the fact that you will be short of points for the inbound when you book the outbound).

Points vs dollars (sale):

1. Yes, a general rule of aviation that a one-way will cost much more than 50% of a return ticket
2. How often are you planning SYD-DFW? If you are flying this often, can't get DFW-SYD on points, buy the return from DFW if no points and then use the SYD-DFW at a convenient time

Consider multi-city using points:

- in Asia: CX via HKG, JL via NRT etc
- south America: AA and LAN via SCL etc

NB: Booking via partners is quite often more possible than sticking to QF. The downside is that it will cost you more points; the upside is that "taxes, fees etc" are usually cheaper. If you're into this for the journey experience rather than speed of getting there, another upside is that you get to enjoy the J experience for longer (I once did J LHR-DFW-BNE-MEL because I couldn't get LHR-MEL direct ... this is probably overkill on the "experience").

Play with the booking engine between now and the booking dates. Yes, QF opens up availability at 353 days (midnight GMT seems to be common perception) although partner availability is varied. CX seems to offer the best options into the US if no QF.

Doubtless there will be others along to offer more advice ... enjoy "the game" !!

Regards,

BD
 
Current MEL-DFW sale price ('global deal') though to the end of Feb 2016 is $9K. I haven't seen a 'juicy' QF sale to USA for a long time! :)

I remember last year (Sep/Oct maybe ?) seeing a sale to the US that had MEL-LAX for $5999 in J and $9999 in F.
Because your dates are so far in advance you could sit tight and hope for the best.

But in my opinion by far the best option is to monitor daily, find out which time of the day seats are released, secure the outbound first, and then go from there.
 
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