Trip planning - Oz to Germany

[medhead]

Hi all
Well I'm planning a special trip to celebrate a new decade in my life for next year. It is going to be a pretty straight forward trip. But involving some luxury, for me, and some firsts. the firsts being international J and the F lounge, I'll make platinum by then if all goes to plan.

I want to get to Munich in march next year for only about a week or so. The plan at this stage is to do ADL-xSYD-FRA-xSIN-ADL on an award with QF. It'll be a train from FRA to munich. Awards are available still in march.

The only alternatives that I can think of are using CX or JAL, as they might fly into MUC, but I can't find any such flights to MUC. Otherwise, something like emirates who do fly to MUC, but I don't really want to spend the cash.

Or perhaps I could wait to see if jetstar are any use by then, but then I'd miss J awards.

Anyway, I do realise that it is a pretty simple trip plan and I think I've got the best option that will see me in J, and the F lounge with the slight inconvenience of having to catch a train for a few hours. However, I was wondering if anyone had any better suggestions that might see me landing in MUC instead. Basically a bit of a reality check on my thought process, if you like.

cheers

 

[anat0l]

Heh...when I saw this new thread alert on Twitter, I thought someone else was the OP... (that someone knows who he is and if he knows better he would start a similar thread or tack onto this one! )

Anyway....first a few questions/considerations:

• You're wanting to fly J, I assume, and not really F (points cost).
• Unless you fly BA Kangaroo sectors, all other BA sectors will cause a "break" in pricing due to BA awards now being Partner awards, not "basic" awards. Partner awards are also applicable when flying any other oneworld carrier (and some others).
• Do you want to avoid LHR? This could mean no A380 (but see next question)
• Do you mind flying in Skyslopes, i.e. 747-400 J, or would you much rather prefer A380 J with Skybed Mk II (but see previous question)?
• Most non-QF awards can't be booked online and must be booked by calling QF and stumping up the booking fee.

All this considered, it can be a bit difficult locating award availability, and more so unless you were a WP right now. I'm having difficulty getting availability for 388 on QF31 as it is. Plenty of availability on any 744 routings or a mix of 388 and 744 routings.

There are no oneworld options to fly from Asia to MUC. Only plausible options to connect to MUC via oneworld from Asia are via LHR (standard approach - BA) and HEL (AY, from another AY flight from Asia). So your options are pretty much those or your suggested approach (where flying to FRA you have many oneworld options, including QF, albeit only 2-class 744).

Your proposed option of taking a train from FRA to MUC (or even a shorthaul flight) isn't really such a bad idea - it won't be a stifling journey by any means and can be quite relaxing after all that flying.

Unless you keep completely to QF metal for your award, you may want to consider the oneworld Classic awards if you would like to do some extra flying, because the points cost might be quite similar.

 

[medhead]

thanks for the advice it gives me a fair bit to think about and check out.

to answer your questions:
Yes it is J due to the points cost. As it is I've got to beg or borrow a heap of family points. I also like flying into FRA, and I'm pretty sure that is only a 2 class 747.
I didn't really consider the BA option as I thought that I'd need 2 other OW world carriers to get the points break. So that is another thing I need to look into.
747 vs A380. I basically was avoiding LHR because I didn't think I'd have a chance to find an award for march at this stage. As you say that kind of rules out the A380. Skyslope are luxury for me compared to my usually flying experience. i.e. I was pretty excited last week in starclass to NRT. I'd also love to try upstairs on the 747. Again I need to do some more research into this.

I do like the train FRA to MUC. It gives me a chance to enjoy a nice Weissbier and since this trip is about the beer, and seeing my brother, it's all good. Mum has also done both the flight and the train and she reckons that it is as quick or quicker on the train.

Overall, you've given me a few things I never thought about. Especially to look into the oneworld award options. I was leaning towards an ASA due to the points earning, but I won't need the SC so that is a minor consideration. I'm not stuck to QF metal at all. AFF has made me really want to try a number of other airlines. Thanks.

Ohh and anyone else is welcome to add to this thread if it helps their planning.

Heh...when I saw this new thread alert on Twitter, I thought someone else was the OP... (that someone knows who he is and if he knows better he would start a similar thread or tack onto this one! )

Anyway....first a few questions/considerations:

• You're wanting to fly J, I assume, and not really F (points cost).
• Unless you fly BA Kangaroo sectors, all other BA sectors will cause a "break" in pricing due to BA awards now being Partner awards, not "basic" awards. Partner awards are also applicable when flying any other oneworld carrier (and some others).
• Do you want to avoid LHR? This could mean no A380 (but see next question)
• Do you mind flying in Skyslopes, i.e. 747-400 J, or would you much rather prefer A380 J with Skybed Mk II (but see previous question)?
• Most non-QF awards can't be booked online and must be booked by calling QF and stumping up the booking fee.

All this considered, it can be a bit difficult locating award availability, and more so unless you were a WP right now. I'm having difficulty getting availability for 388 on QF31 as it is. Plenty of availability on any 744 routings or a mix of 388 and 744 routings.

There are no oneworld options to fly from Asia to MUC. Only plausible options to connect to MUC via oneworld from Asia are via LHR (standard approach - BA) and HEL (AY, from another AY flight from Asia). So your options are pretty much those or your suggested approach (where flying to FRA you have many oneworld options, including QF, albeit only 2-class 744).

Your proposed option of taking a train from FRA to MUC (or even a shorthaul flight) isn't really such a bad idea - it won't be a stifling journey by any means and can be quite relaxing after all that flying.

Unless you keep completely to QF metal for your award, you may want to consider the oneworld Classic awards if you would like to do some extra flying, because the points cost might be quite similar.

 

[Fantic125]

I would certainly train it from Frankfurt to Munich. Much more fun.
The Company I work for has its head office in Aalen, and it's much easier to fly into FRA, train to Stuttgart, then to Aalen.
Also, Stuttgart has the best selection of weissbier!
(For dark's, Flensburger Dunkel is my choice!).

 

[Katie]

I've only ever done the train to Munich, and would do it in a heart-beat for travel within Germany. The ICEs are great; I haven't even been on one since 2003, but my experiences in 97-98 and 03 were all great.

 

[medhead]

Thanks guys. I also love the ICE's, especially in first being able to order a beer and sit back and relax. I've done this in 2005 and 2007.

My plans have changed slightly thanks to the advice. I checked out partner award options via both LHR or HKG in either direction (using BA and CX) or just using BA and the points jumped up higher to 280000 or more. So I had a look at the points tables and turns out the routes just get into the zone 10. So basically IMO it is a waste to pay the points when only travelling a distance at the low end of that zone. A QF only award is 256000.

In terms of route I can see an option available from MEL on QF9 operated by a 380. So that's the first option to experience the 380 to SIN and also get on the 747, hopefully up top.

thanks so much for all the help.

 

[medhead]

An update:

I have finally booked the flights for this trip today. Only about 5 months in advance. I ended up getting a JASA SIN-FRA return as there was availability and I only had enough points for that, without begging or family transfers. Today have paid for ADL-SYD-SIN return in Y. All with QF. I didn't take the direct SQ option or QF or JQ via MEL as I thought that it would be best to get onto QF5/6 in each direction to make sure I make the connection in SIN.

You might have noticed me whinging about the difficulties of booking the ADL-xSYD-SIN return trip due to the absolute coughpiness of the QF online booking engine. The main issue was that I could only get my preferred flights using multi city booking which was only spitting out O when I wanted more flexible fares. Anyway, I ended up booking with a major TA chain and ended up saving myself the $60 assistance fee that a QF telephone booking wanted to charge.

This will also be my first F lounge visit and I've made sure I have a good 4 hours in transit, even with the terminal transfer.

I plan to end up in Munich for the StarkBeirFest. There aren't many good links on this but here is one, Munich Strong Beer Festival - Starkbierfest There was also great news last weekend. The beirfest is actually related to Lent, so the dates move every year with Easter. This year is was early March but next year Easter is late April. Because of this I had to book the JASA without really knowing when the dates with about a 5 week window for a 2 week festival. :shock: Anyway the great news is that I nailed it with the festival starting 3 days before I leave and ending 3 days after I return.

I'm not exactly sure about how I'll get from FRA to Munich as my brother is talking about driving down to pick me up. But the fall back will be the train. That's about the update, next step is to find the best lounge option in FRA for a WP.

Thanks everyone for the help.

 

[RB]

.I found this site that gives a bit of a summary of beer festivals that are on in different parts of europe
Beer festivals at popular European destinations - Munich beer festival - Travel packages & deals

 

[medhead]

Thanks mate. I'll check it out.