Best way to fly business to Europe

[Bakks]

I'm a Gold FF with about 250k points. I'm going to Europe with the wife in July next year. Any advice on the best way to get an upgrade to business class? I don't have anywhere near enough points to point BC directly. Am I best off booking a flexible ticket and hoping for an upgrade the week before?

 

[offshore171]

Syd to LHR for example, late July, 2 ppl in J is 160k pts for a direct J booking.

Actually, scratch that - it's more like 250K, with Economy to SIN then J onwards (BA16)

If you want to try the upgrade approach, travel midweek if you can, and don't travel in the Australian school holidays unless you need to.

 

[decs]

Booking flexible would allow you to check flight loadings (EF) closer to departure and perhaps change to a lighter loaded flight.

Does anyone know if Flex-J upgrades have priority over Y-J? Or is it purely a first-come first-served kind of queue? I am thinking, for example, if 2x SGs put in upgrade requests, one booked in standard Y and requested earlier than the other who is booked in flexi-Y.

 

[grussellt]

I'm a Gold FF with about 250k points. I'm going to Europe with the wife in July next year. Any advice on the best way to get an upgrade to business class? I don't have anywhere near enough points to point BC directly. Am I best off booking a flexible ticket and hoping for an upgrade the week before?

I would book J awards right now (if still available) and buy some AA miles (see threads under AAdvantage) for a J return.

 

[BD1959]

You could get yourselves to BKK and back in J from SYD for 240k points and costing $1245.56 in fuel fines. That's with EK, for which there's limited availability in JUL/AUG.

From there you could consider a cheap J return to Europe or - as grussellt has suggested - purchase AA miles. Would depend on where you're looking to go in Europe with respect to costings etc.

Regards,

BD

 

[offshore171]

You could get yourselves to BKK and back in J from SYD for 240k points and costing $1245.56 in fuel fines. That's with EK, for which there's limited availability in JUL/AUG.

From there you could consider a cheap J return to Europe or - as grussellt has suggested - purchase AA miles. Would depend on where you're looking to go in Europe with respect to costings etc.

That's actually a pretty good suggestion. From BKK, you could take Finnair to Helsinki, which is a very good airport to use as a European hub. Finnair J is relatively cheap, provides OneWorld benefits and they will be running the new A350's by then.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

That's actually a pretty good suggestion. From BKK, you could take Finnair to Helsinki, which is a very good airport to use as a European hub. Finnair J is relatively cheap, provides OneWorld benefits and they will be running the new A350's by then.

from BKK either AY or UL. UL is usually pretty cheap in the AUD2000 range (return).

 

[PaulST]

from BKK either AY or UL. UL is usually pretty cheap in the AUD2000 range (return).

That's pretty good especially on an A350!

 

[MEL_Traveller]

That's pretty good especially on an A350!

UL is only A333s and 332s. Both offer full flats to Europe, but the 333s are new with herringbone arrangement.

 

[bryanjones]

UL is only A333s and 332s. Both offer full flats to Europe, but the 333s are new with herringbone arrangement.

I just booked CDG-BKK-CDG with UL one week before xmas, and return mid jan for 1450 EUR. Then BKK-SYD-BKK with united points of 70k + 140 taxes - one leg in business, the other first. Got to love the star alliance award availability on Thai.

I had a quite convoluted QFF business reward, that was lots of points plus around 900 CHF in taxes. But I wanted a few extra days back in Oz so couldnt resist the UL status credits for additional outlay and possibility to get a nicer QFF reward later on...

 

[bsb]

You have enough points to redeem J to BKK on QF from SYD or Pestar from MEL, have one night in Bangkok then UL to ROM J for $2200 rt. LHR and FRA a few hundred more. Very nice way to do it and UL you can even time it right and have a few hours in CMB at the beach in Negambo

 

[Bakks]

Thanks for the feedback all. It seems like a bit of an exercise to try to find good value BC / travel with points. The QFF site isn't very useful - it will say BC are unavailable, then follow the rabbit hole a bit further and they do seem to appear.

Cheapest option seems to be PER > BKK via HKG (with a 7 hour stopover) for 78k points +$222.84, then SriLankan BKK to ROM via CMB for ~$1,200. Fairly cheap, but a long transit time (leave Wednesday, arrive Saturday) and an overnight in BKK.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Thanks for the feedback all. It seems like a bit of an exercise to try to find good value BC / travel with points. The QFF site isn't very useful - it will say BC are unavailable, then follow the rabbit hole a bit further and they do seem to appear.

Save yourself some trouble! You can simply ring the Qantas call centre and ask them to search for flights

They'll search all the routes. Then you can go book it on line yourself (to save the assistance fee), or they'll book it for you (and may waive the fee).

The Qantas award tool is clunky, difficult to use, and almost without doubt, deliberately (given the length of time they've had to fix it) designed to withhold information/availability from us.

 

[Bakks]

Save yourself some trouble! You can simply ring the Qantas call centre and ask them to search for flights

They'll search all the routes. Then you can go book it on line yourself (to save the assistance fee), or they'll book it for you (and may waive the fee).

The Qantas award tool is clunky, difficult to use, and almost without doubt, deliberately (given the length of time they've had to fix it) designed to withhold information/availability from us.

Will do, thanks for the tip!