Kiwi Flyer
Senior Member
- Joined
- Sep 24, 2004
- Posts
- 5,453
I needed to travel between NZ and Canada, preferably in business class. Round trip fares were too high, and I didn't have enough time to utilise a circle trip or RTW fare. So it would have to be an award.
QF wanted 168,000 points + a few hundred in "taxes" just to get to LAX, and I'd need quite a lot more to get the rest of the way. They also had very limited availability (unable to get preferred dates).
I checked AA and they want 125,000 points + small amount of "taxes", but I'd need to route through LAX and DFW - schedule timing was poor.
LH wanted 120,000 points + $200 in "taxes". Given LH earning rate for me is much higher than either AA or QF it was not a difficult decision. But what about availability? The longhaul legs over pacific had plenty of availability on NZ - a choice of 3 flights one way and 4 the other way, all on the preferred dates. The north american legs had very limited availability, but M&M worked hard on getting UA & AC to release a seat for me on flights that would work finally managing to do so a few days before departure. They even allowed me to travel in F on UA's 2-class flight (a rarity for FFPs of airlines which don't mislabel business as first).
In this example, *A came out a long way ahead of OW for award travel and reminded me just how poor value QFF now is for awards. I am more likely to want awards to north america than anywhere else (given the fare structures) and a QFF award, if I could have gotten it to work, would have required the earning from twice as many flights and a bigger cash outlay (in award "taxes" plus the need to purchase ticket for north american flights).
QF wanted 168,000 points + a few hundred in "taxes" just to get to LAX, and I'd need quite a lot more to get the rest of the way. They also had very limited availability (unable to get preferred dates).
I checked AA and they want 125,000 points + small amount of "taxes", but I'd need to route through LAX and DFW - schedule timing was poor.
LH wanted 120,000 points + $200 in "taxes". Given LH earning rate for me is much higher than either AA or QF it was not a difficult decision. But what about availability? The longhaul legs over pacific had plenty of availability on NZ - a choice of 3 flights one way and 4 the other way, all on the preferred dates. The north american legs had very limited availability, but M&M worked hard on getting UA & AC to release a seat for me on flights that would work finally managing to do so a few days before departure. They even allowed me to travel in F on UA's 2-class flight (a rarity for FFPs of airlines which don't mislabel business as first).
In this example, *A came out a long way ahead of OW for award travel and reminded me just how poor value QFF now is for awards. I am more likely to want awards to north america than anywhere else (given the fare structures) and a QFF award, if I could have gotten it to work, would have required the earning from twice as many flights and a bigger cash outlay (in award "taxes" plus the need to purchase ticket for north american flights).
