Syd --> pnh/sgn/lpq --> hkg --> nrt/hnd --> lax, las --> nyc --> kef--> lhr ($40)

[Sethur]

Hi Guys,

Slightly complicated route to London hence the $40 on offer.

Travelling to London via SEA, Hong Kong, Japan, USA and Iceland. I have 500K QFF points and am currently a Qantas Platinum Frequent Flyer (will likely drop to Gold by the time the trip starts unless I get comped (Red Roo!)). We can move days +/- a few depending if there is a good reason too from a cost perspective. Also flexible around whether we start the trip in HKG and then fly to SEA after 4 days then from there to TYO or as below to SEA first then through to HKG then TYO. If it makes sense to make this a RTW flight from a cost perspective that would be great, but would need to be flexible on the Sydney return leg.

I am comfortable sorting out internal SEA flights on LCC and am driving from LAX to LAS via SFO.

Flights required:

5/4 Sydney --> Laos / Cambodia / Vietnam (whatever is the best routing here in terms of cost / aircraft / airline) J
17/5 Laos / Cambodia / Vietnam --> HKG Y/J
20/5 HKG --> NRT / HND J
3/6 NRT/ HND --> LAX J
15/6 LAS --> NYC Y/J/F
24/6 NYC --> KEF Y/J
4/7 KEF --> LHR Y/J

Cheers!

 

[magnacartic]

Getting to KEF on QFF is going to be difficult. RTW could be possible if you skip Reykjavik. You could fly to Icelandair on Economy Comfort or Business for your Reykjavik stopover on your desired dates. Economy Comfort, Icelandair's premium economy product is available from US$824.45; Saga Business class is available from US$2064.45. Here are the options for each segment:

New York - Reykjavik Fri, June 24

2:10PM		New York - John F Kennedy International (JFK)
11:40PM		Reykjavik - Keflavik International (KEF)

Icelandair(FI612)
5:30 0 stop(s)

8:45PM		New York - Newark Liberty International (EWR)
6:15AM		Reykjavik - Keflavik International (KEF) +1 day(s)

Icelandair(FI622)
5:30 0 stop(s)

8:40PM		New York - John F Kennedy International (JFK)
6:15AM		Reykjavik - Keflavik International (KEF) +1 day(s)

Icelandair(FI614)
5:35 0 stop(s)

Reykjavik - London Mon, July 4

4:10PM		Reykjavik - Keflavik International (KEF)
8:10PM		London - Heathrow (LHR)

Icelandair(FI454)
3:00 0 stop(s)

7:40AM		Reykjavik - Keflavik International (KEF)
11:45AM		London - Heathrow (LHR)

Icelandair(FI450)
3:05 0 stop(s)

 

[greenfish]

Hi Sethur

Do you want to use your points at all? How many people are travelling?

There are J flights NRT to LAX on the 2nd of June for 72000 points each. Nothing to / from KEF.

 

[Computerjules]

Hi Sethur,

I've had a go at putting together an itinerary for your trip - I've taken the approach of what I thought would be 'flyable' if I was in your situation.

Assumptions:

• You are willing to use your QFF points
• You would prefer to fly J where possible, especially when using points
• You're OK with flying JFK-London and doing a LON-KEF-LON round trip from there

Flights:

Date	Origin	Destination	Flight #	Class	Points	AUD$ / taxes
6/4	SYD	CGK (overnight)	QF41	J	50000	263.00
7/4	CGK	HKG	CX718	J	38000	15.48
10/4	HKG	SGN	CX799	J	26000	29.48
20/5	SIN	xHKG-NRT	CX636, CX524	J	53000	42.09
2/6	NRT	LAX	AA170	J	72000	53.13
14/6	LAS	JFK	AA145	F	54000	7.54
25/6	JFK	LGW	BA2272	J	53000	565.09
26/6	LGW	KEF	FI471	Y	-	592.57
4/7	KEF	LGW	FI470	Y	-

Total: 346,000 QFF points and approx AUD$1568

Notes:

• I've placed the HKG 3-day trip first, prior to SGN
• Overnight stay in CGK on the way to HKG (not ideal I know, but one-way J to SEA is expensive and there's limited award availability)
• Make your own way from SGN to SIN
• Make your own way from LAX to LAS
• There's limited award availability from JFK-LON, none in J that I could see on 24/6
• BA fly LHR-KEF, but I couldn't get the dates to work, hence I chose Icelandair. If you're happy to have a later departure LHR-KEF, you might be able to make BA work. (Also J on the BA A320 is basically Y with the middle seats blocked out, not worth paying J IMHO)

Plenty of options available.. I haven't compared RTW costs, which may end up working out to be better value.

 

[Sethur]

Hey thanks for the reply guys, 2 PAX travelling so only really have 250K points each.. I have a platinum award request for the 8/4 direct to HKG not sure what's happening on the first week of april but seems to be busy...

VN seems to be very competitive in J from SGN to NRT on their dreamliner which saves heading down to singapore from laos/vietnam/cambodia. I hadn't thought flying NYC to LGW and then back out - i'll take look at it now.

Cheers,

Sethur

 

[Mattg]

Hi Sethur,

I've had a go at putting together an itinerary for your trip - I've taken the approach of what I thought would be 'flyable' if I was in your situation.

Assumptions:

• You are willing to use your QFF points
• You would prefer to fly J where possible, especially when using points
• You're OK with flying JFK-London and doing a LON-KEF-LON round trip from there

Flights:

Date	Origin	Destination	Flight #	Class	Points	AUD$ / taxes
6/4	SYD	CGK (overnight)	QF41	J	50000	263.00
7/4	CGK	HKG	CX718	J	38000	15.48
10/4	HKG	SGN	CX799	J	26000	29.48
20/5	SIN	xHKG-NRT	CX636, CX524	J	53000	42.09
2/6	NRT	LAX	AA170	J	72000	53.13
14/6	LAS	JFK	AA145	F	54000	7.54
25/6	JFK	LGW	BA2272	J	53000	565.09
26/6	LGW	KEF	FI471	Y	-	592.57
4/7	KEF	LGW	FI470	Y	-

Total: 346,000 QFF points and approx AUD$1568

Notes:

• I've placed the HKG 3-day trip first, prior to SGN
• Overnight stay in CGK on the way to HKG (not ideal I know, but one-way J to SEA is expensive and there's limited award availability)
• Make your own way from SGN to SIN
• Make your own way from LAX to LAS
• There's limited award availability from JFK-LON, none in J that I could see on 24/6
• BA fly LHR-KEF, but I couldn't get the dates to work, hence I chose Icelandair. If you're happy to have a later departure LHR-KEF, you might be able to make BA work. (Also J on the BA A320 is basically Y with the middle seats blocked out, not worth paying J IMHO)

Plenty of options available.. I haven't compared RTW costs, which may end up working out to be better value.

This looks really well-researched, and you've provided some excellent advice.

I just have one suggestion. You could make this a oneworld award in Business class for 280,000 Qantas points with a couple of minor changes. (More on oneworld awards here: http://www.australianfrequentflyer....ogram/oneworld-award-140k-280k-420k-8228.html)

Basically, for 280,000 points you can fly up to 35,000 miles in Business class with up to 5 stopovers (stopovers only count if greater than 24 hours - so transits don't count), using at least 2 oneworld airlines other than Qantas. Where you don't start in the same place that you finish, the mileage that would be required to return to the origin is added and makes up part of the 35,000 mile allowance.

By changing the LAS-JFK sector from F to a Y flight (no J on this route), or instead flying LAX-JFK (or SFO-JFK) in J, this will price at the 280,000 point level. The total mileage would be 32,423 miles - so under the 35,000 mile limit. Note that this includes the miles needed to get back to SYD from LHR. Taxes should be pretty much the same as above.

I was able to find pretty much the same flights as Computerjules with just a few exceptions. I couldn't see J availability on the CGK-HKG leg, but you could go Premium Economy. For the LAS-JFK, try instead going LAX-JFK in J on 16 June. I also couldn't see BA availability to LGW on the 25th of June, but I could find a seat on JFK-LHR.

Also, it's worth noting that this will use up your full 5 stopovers that are allowed on a oneworld award - in Hong Kong, Saigon/Singapore (open-jaws count as one stop), Tokyo, Los Angeles & New York. If you were to remove one of these stopovers, you *could* make London the fifth stopover. Then you could return from London to Sydney in J on the same booking sometime within 12 months of starting the trip. You will still only pay 280,000 points in total.

 

[Sethur]

Thanks for the tips re: RTW. I think I might be able to just make it to 560,000 points (currently at 546K) to get the award for 2 pax. Would this be logical then? SYD-->HKG --> TYO --> SFO / LAX --> NY --> LHR? I would look to pay for revenue flights out of hong kong back to cambodia / laos and vietnam and fly back to hong kong then on to tokyo. In the US i would look to drive to vegas and fly back to LAX then on to NY? the idea of being able to get a ticket back to sydney included does seem like excellent value!

 

[greenfish]

Good work Mattg and Computerjules

An alternative avoiding the overnight in CGK and avoiding some backtracking too:

There's availability SYD-xMEL-KUL (MH) on the 5th of April in J - and then LCC to wherever you want to go in SEA or carry on with MH to PNH, HAN, SGN (availability on all routes, but may need a KUL overnight stop)

There's good availability SGN-HKG on the 17th of May in J, some availability (1 seat) on PNH-HKG, good availability HAN-HKG too.

No problem HKG-NRT 20th of May in J either, more limited availability to HND.

Definitely look at mattg's suggestion of the 280000 J reward seat.

 

[Computerjules]

Great advice Mattg - that really completes the picture.

Sethur, the 280k that Mattg mentioned would be ideal if you can scrape the points together. If that's not possible, you might want to get a HKG-LAX-JFK one-way with JL/AA at around $3700, and tack on award flights around that. Save your points for the best value sectors, e.g. JFK-LHR.

 

[support]

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