Best way to travel J using points MEL-FCO

[melbkate]

Hi all - I am looking at flights for next year for 2 - dep mid April - ret early June. Am lowly bronze. Heaps of J and F seats esp on EK legs.

Question is what is better value reward seat or fare plus upgrade?

Out of pocket on return J award is 275000 pts plus $1302 each! Economy 120000 plus $556

Paying for economy seat around $1800. Then try and get upgrade but really confused with points required and whether it is worth the risk of not getting it.

Happy to fly economy on the shorter leg each way too. Any advice welcome! Kate

 

[clifford]

If it were me, I'd look at flying MEL-BKK in economy (paid QF/JQ or QF award), and BKK-FCO in business (on QR for 78,000 points pp each way and approx $250-300 in "taxes", etc, each way).

Probably the least cost option, and IMO, QR business on the 787 and 77W/380 is pretty much the best available, certainly better than EK. I've recently booked a similar trip myself.

 

[melbkate]

Would never have thought of going via BKK thanks will have a look at it.

 

[Limewood]

or go via HKG.

 

[Assassin]

If you want to use QFF points to upgrade you need to book paid economy seats on a QF operated flight (so your only option to Europe is via London) in a fare class that is upgradeable (generally Sale fares are excluded). At that point you can go in the upgrade lottery for the upgrade. If you use points for direct reward redemption you have many choices - QF, Emirates, Qatar, Cathay, BA, JAL, to name a few.

Given you want to fly J, I think booking J reward seats would be the best value unless you are happy with a cheap Y ticket to or from Asia and then connect to a J seat- options would include BKK (EK), HKG (Cathay, BA), SIN (BA), TYO (JAL).

It all depends on how many points you have to play with and how much cash you are willing to pay. I would look on-line at what award options are available as well as calling Qantas to see what options they have - for example, JAL availability is not shown on-line.

Also, if you can't get flights to / from FCO look at alternatives - notably Milan, but also perhaps Zurich and Geneva. Often you can get a cheap connecting flight or even a train to access the award flight.

 

[melbkate]

Thanks for the detailed info Assassin! That's so helpful.

I was shocked that the out of pocket costs on reward more than doubles for J. I naively thought the 'taxes' would be the same no matter what class. Made me think twice about booking J reward seat.

 

[Assassin]

I know, it's ridiculous but still better than paying for an expensive Y fare, putting in for the upgrade only to see it not come through and sitting in Y for 24 hours feeling sorry for yourself....

 

[CaptJCool]

I discovered thru a friend of mine that booking the highest priced Flexi fare meant two things.

1. The points to upgrade was half that of the points needed if booking a cheaper Flexi fare
2. Status appears to only go so far; what you pay for the ticket can stick you higher up the upgrade lottery

but as others have said; even then it's no guarantee of getting an upgrade

 

[cjd600]

Thanks for the detailed info Assassin! That's so helpful.

I was shocked that the out of pocket costs on reward more than doubles for J. I naively thought the 'taxes' would be the same no matter what class. Made me think twice about booking J reward seat.

You will likely find the 'out of pockets' much more agreeable on CX than QF (or QR, BA, EK), albeit costing slightly more points

 

[melbkate]

Oh ok thanks cjd600 - most of the seats available are EK I'll compare. I really resent paying so much for an award seat!

 

[cjd600]

Oh ok thanks cjd600 - most of the seats available are EK I'll compare. I really resent paying so much for an award seat!

No worries.
May need to 'force' the CX flights to show up, ie search multi-city through HKG (MEL-HKG then HKG-FCO), as if you search MEL-FCO the Qantas site will usually only bring up QF/EF options

 

[Aus ATC]

May need to 'force' the CX flights to show up, ie search multi-city through HKG (MEL-HKG then HKG-FCO), as if you search MEL-FCO the Qantas site will usually only bring up QF/EF options

You may find with CX you have to stopover in HKG for >24 hours as the individual segments MEL-HKG and HKG-FCO may be available, but not as a MEL-HKG-FCO transit. HKG not a bad place for a quick stopover.

 

[randomtraveller]

I too am a lowly bronze member and have only once tried for an upgrade - and got it. However I like to know that I'm definitely booked in business class so always use points rather than hoping for an upgrade. My husband and I flew to Rome last year business class on points - I didn't want to go via Dubai so we flew Mel-HKK on QF and HKK - Rome on Cathay. We did have a 6 hour stopover in Hong Kong but the Qantas lounge is very good and you would have access to that flying in business. The total taxes we paid were $1200. We flew home from the USA DFW - SYD - MEL and I can't remember the taxes we paid for that but they can't have been over the top.

 

[travelislife]

Not taxes. Fuel surcharges. The travelling public has been brain washed in to these being called taxes!

 

[randomtraveller]

Not taxes. Fuel surcharges. The travelling public has been brain washed in to these being called taxes!

True - but I still felt $600 each was OK. It was a lot less than flying via Dubai - that would have doubled the charges.

 

[Allegro Vivace]

I have booked 2 rewards seats on CX for return flights SYD/HKG/ MXP for next year , in J class

As we want to stop in HKG on the return from Milan, we booked as separate sectors-which cost more points, than if we had booked SYD/HKG/MXP as direct flights

The Sydney /HKG sector has us arriving in HKG AT 17.50.and the HKG / MXP flight departs at 0:100 , which means a lengthy wait in HKG -the cost of the taxes etc was HKD 1,253.

I then discovered after contacting Marco Polo club, that you can contact them about multi stop over itineraries see below


''Thank you for contacting The Marco Polo Club Service Centre.

This is to explain that an Asia Miles award ticket allows a maximum of two stopovers, two transfers or one open-jaw at either the origin, en-route or turnaround point on most airline partners.

110,000 Asia Miles per person are required to redeem a Round trip Economy Class award ticket between Sydney and Milan via Hong Kong. In addition, approximately HKD1,140 per passenger for the airport and security taxes will be required. The amount of the taxes will be confirmed at time of ticket issuance, subject to the prevailing rate of exchange and will be shown on the e-Ticket.

At the moment, award redemptions for multi-stopover itineraries are not available online. Therefore, please send us the following information so we may assist you further:

- preferred travel dates
- local contact details to notify you any schedule changes prior to departure
- passenger?s name (which must match with the names shown on the
passports)
- your date of birth (DD/MM) for membership verification.

On another note, although flights may be redeemed using Asia Miles, payment is still required for departure taxes and other airport or government handling fees. Therefore, we require your credit card details (card number, expiry date, security code and exact cardholder?s name) for these charges only when/if the flights are confirmed.


Kind regards

Regina Li
Customer Relations Executive
Reservations & Ticketing
The Marco Polo Club Service Centre "

If you plan to contact Marco Polo, it can take up to 24 hours before receiving a reply by e-mail. Telephone contacting can occassionally be a lengthy process.

The number of points required were fewer than with QF.

The advantage of flying CX is that you avoid Heathrow, and fly direct from HKG to MXP

Cheers

 

[sng1971]

Don't forget to consider other Asian ports like SIN or DPS.

There are 2 Business flights DPS-DBX-FCO departing on Wed April 12 with Emirates - 192,000 points total for 2. Not sure of the "taxes" as I didn't have enough points to continue my dummy booking. Then just look for a cheap Jetstar flight to DPS. And you can get a little Bali stopover as well.

 

[thehound]

I have booked 2 rewards seats on CX for return flights SYD/HKG/ MXP for next year , in J class

As we want to stop in HKG on the return from Milan, we booked as separate sectors-which cost more points, than if we had booked SYD/HKG/MXP as direct flights

The Sydney /HKG sector has us arriving in HKG AT 17.50.and the HKG / MXP flight departs at 0:100 , which means a lengthy wait in HKG -the cost of the taxes etc was HKD 1,253.

I then discovered after contacting Marco Polo club, that you can contact them about multi stop over itineraries see below


''Thank you for contacting The Marco Polo Club Service Centre.

This is to explain that an Asia Miles award ticket allows a maximum of two stopovers, two transfers or one open-jaw at either the origin, en-route or turnaround point on most airline partners.

110,000 Asia Miles per person are required to redeem a Round trip Economy Class award ticket between Sydney and Milan via Hong Kong. In addition, approximately HKD1,140 per passenger for the airport and security taxes will be required. The amount of the taxes will be confirmed at time of ticket issuance, subject to the prevailing rate of exchange and will be shown on the e-Ticket.

At the moment, award redemptions for multi-stopover itineraries are not available online. Therefore, please send us the following information so we may assist you further:

- preferred travel dates
- local contact details to notify you any schedule changes prior to departure
- passenger?s name (which must match with the names shown on the
passports)
- your date of birth (DD/MM) for membership verification.

On another note, although flights may be redeemed using Asia Miles, payment is still required for departure taxes and other airport or government handling fees. Therefore, we require your credit card details (card number, expiry date, security code and exact cardholder?s name) for these charges only when/if the flights are confirmed.


Kind regards

Regina Li
Customer Relations Executive
Reservations & Ticketing
The Marco Polo Club Service Centre "

If you plan to contact Marco Polo, it can take up to 24 hours before receiving a reply by e-mail. Telephone contacting can occassionally be a lengthy process.

The number of points required were fewer than with QF.

The advantage of flying CX is that you avoid Heathrow, and fly direct from HKG to MXP

Cheers

This is all assuming that the OP has Asia Miles, or a way to get them. I note that she never mentioned explicitly what points she does have (looks like Qantas from the searches though).

Melbkate - do you already have QFF points, or do you have points sitting on a credit card like Amex Platinum that you're planning to transfer to a FF program?

 

[Allegro Vivace]

My Asia Miles were transferredfrom my Amex account

 

[mel1]

We just cannot cope with the idea of not having a confirmed J seat, so we ALWAYS get J award, bugger the taxes. Means we need to plan a long way ahead, but we have managed to do that for quite a few years now. Both Qantas and now using Singapore a lot, transferring Amex points. MUCH better value on the Singapore saver points if you get in early enough (not great connections, but we don't mind that, either)....