150 Status Credits required in 6 weeks - living in London!

[JMac79]

Hi everyone,

I relocated to London half way through 2014 and am now flying Qantas a lot less, unfortunately. I am now 150 SC short of retaining Gold which I highly value for the business travel I do, as well as travel with my young family, etc. My renewal date is Feb 28 and I have well and truly accured the required 4 QF sectors for the year.

Does anyone know if there is a way of achieving this, from London, without a trip back to Australia?

Thank you!

 

[Anna]

You can earn SCs on any Oneworld airline. From London, BA would offer you the most routes I suspect. Be sure to check the SC partner earning table for the fare class you book.

 

[AustraliaPoochie]

Since Jul though, earn points on partners like BA and others, for QF SCs, have gone down. Practically loose the former SC earn by half.
There is no cheap way to get that, if you had needed less points, there could be cheap ways.
Only thing I can think of, and please don't bite me, plus the other half wont like it, is for you to fly one or even maybe a return trip from LHR to DXB with QF in J, or one way F, one way J.
QF now has a mileage calculator that can tell you how many SCs you will earn.
Edit: LHR - DXB return (one way rigidJ, gives you 100, and one way PE gives you 60). Has to be a QF A380 though, (after Jul 14 changes).
LHR - GLA earns you 50 SCs with BA in F, 3 trips and its 150 (after Jul 14 changes).

 

[markis10]

Since Jul though, earn points on partners like BA and others, for QF SCs, have gone down. Practically loose the former SC earn by half.
There is no cheap way to get that, if you had needed less points, there could be cheap ways.
Only thing I can think of, and please don't bite me, plus the other half wont like it, is for you to fly one or even maybe a return trip from LHR to DXB with QF in J, or one way F, one way J.
QF now has a mileage calculator that can tell you how many SCs you will earn.

There are some cheap ways to get the required SCs, and it's not true that the SCs for partners have halved in all cases. Please try to post accurate information. I am sure our knowledgable London based members will chime in with some tips, possibly euro J

 

[cmon0005]

LHR-DXB in QF Y+ return(100SC's), I know its almost a 7 hour flight but might be a good excuse for a weekend away in Dubai/Abu Dhabi and if you need QF ~ it might be helpful. Otherwise maybe a flight on QR?

 

[FromTheRail]

try some of these to see what you would earn on Qantas, I'm guessing a tried to AMS and JER will be happening soon

BA Tier Point Runs | 2015 master thread - FlyerTalk Forums

Also look at Malta, its a great place to visit

 

[Aus ATC]

I was looking at LHR - ATH return in J with BA which can be had for GBP440 around the end of January as a day trip (or overnight if you prefer). Should be 80 SCs each way as great circle mapper shows it as 1510 miles - and would therefore meet your requirement, but the QF earning points calculator conveniently declares it to be 1500 miles and therefore only 60SC each way!!

A better alternative therefore is LHR-IST for around the same price - again a day trip if you want it, but this time QF credits with the correct distance and 80SC each way in J.

 

[dajop]

If looking at BA and J in Europe you really want to find a cheap fare that is more than 250 miles. AMS, CDG and BRU no good for that.

 

[funkyr]

Hi everyone,

I relocated to London half way through 2014 and am now flying Qantas a lot less, unfortunately. I am now 150 SC short of retaining Gold which I highly value for the business travel I do, as well as travel with my young family, etc. My renewal date is Feb 28 and I have well and truly accured the required 4 QF sectors for the year.

Does anyone know if there is a way of achieving this, from London, without a trip back to Australia?

Thank you!

I used to live in London so can add my 2 cents. BA or Iberia to Spain are the best carriers for you.

1) The best bet is to go for European J flights on BA when on sale.

2) The cheapest way (but riskiest) is to book a BA eurotraveller flight (econ) on a route that has lots of flights (eg Frankfurt, Paris etc) and once it's been booked quite often when you manage your booking online you get given an option to upgrade to business for money which is usually GBP79 1-way. This will net you 40 SC points a flight. You would need to do 2 of these return flights.

3) Do a long haul flight (check the ticket selling class if in economy) or go club world. NYC is sometimes quite cheap as BA has stacks of London - New York flights. Leaving from a non UK airport in J is even cheaper sometimes (eg AMS-JFK via London is way cheaper than LHR-JFK).

A bit off topic but if you're in London for a while consider joining BA executive club and getting the BA AMEX card. Once you spend a certain amount (depending on the type of card) you can earn a 2-for-1 redemption voucher when booking a flight on avios points. Eg if you have enough BA points to book a LHR-SYD in F on points, you get another ticket for a partner on the same flight for free.

 

[tyrolean]

If looking at BA and J in Europe you really want to find a cheap fare that is more than 250 miles. AMS, CDG and BRU no good for that.

There are some destinations that are over 750 Miles and they yield 60SCs in J:

LIS or MAD come to my mind.

LHR-MAD-LHR yields 120 SCs in J (you need to put a sunday night into the flight to get the cheap fares).

LHR-LIS-LHR yield 30 SCs in Discount Y.

Or:

LHR-MAD (BA) + MAD-MUC-MAD (IB) + MAD-LHR = Spend a weekend in MUC (or anywhere else in a same distance): Yields 150 SCs.

 

[tyrolean]

2) The cheapest way (but riskiest) is to book a BA eurotraveller flight (econ) on a route that has lots of flights (eg Frankfurt, Paris etc) and once it's been booked quite often when you manage your booking online you get given an option to upgrade to business for money which is usually GBP79 1-way. This will net you 40 SC points a flight. You would need to do 2 of these return flights.

Option 2 became very unattractive. In former times those cash upgrades booked into I or R Class.
Now they book into "U" Class, which is the award class.
The availability was reduced dramatically with that and there are big fears that you only get the Discount Y SCs!

I only had one flight in "U" and it luckily was credited with Business SCs. I decided for myself not to use the cash upgrades in purpose of SC earning any more! Crossover ticketing does the trick.

 

[RichardMEL]

My first thought is if relocation to LHR is for the medium+ term then the QF~ comes into play in terms of status. Not for this year, but further on so may be worth going with BAEC or similar as a medium/longer term plan. Of course if returning to oz in the next 18 months or so it may be worth to stick with QF. just a thought

 

[Sumnerned]

How about giving your family the trip of a lifetime with a BA Club Europe ski holiday at the Kapinski in Bulgaria. You get 120SC's, the rest is noise.

 

[QPProletarian]

The BA / AA sales ex LHR over Xmas were the best... £1000 return anywhere in their network except AUS basically ...

I got onto the party late, but still managed to get 520 SC for £1250 and received an op-up J->F on YYZ-LHR.

 

[amaroo]

I was looking at LHR - ATH return in J with BA which can be had for GBP440 around the end of January as a day trip (or overnight if you prefer). Should be 80 SCs each way as great circle mapper shows it as 1510 miles - and would therefore meet your requirement, but the QF earning points calculator conveniently declares it to be 1500 miles and therefore only 60SC each way!!

A better alternative therefore is LHR-IST for around the same price - again a day trip if you want it, but this time QF credits with the correct distance and 80SC each way in J.

We're doing LHR-ATH ... IST-LHR in April. QF have short sheeted the milage on the ATH at least they will pay 80SC for IST-LHR. FWIW we paid £487pp back in June.

 

[Reggie]

My first thought is if relocation to LHR is for the medium+ term then the QF~ comes into play in terms of status. Not for this year, but further on so may be worth going with BAEC or similar as a medium/longer term plan. Of course if returning to oz in the next 18 months or so it may be worth to stick with QF. just a thought

What would you think of 2yrs relocation to MAN as a QF LTG? Stay with QF or join BAEC but use QF for lounge and other benefits, or won't this work?

 

[RichardMEL]

What would you think of 2yrs relocation to MAN as a QF LTG? Stay with QF or join BAEC but use QF for lounge and other benefits, or won't this work?

Well just an opinion with others way more versed in this sort of thing than me but it's an interesting question. Would QF Gold (congrats on LTG ) status still get BA lounge access if credited to another FFP? We know that, for example in CBR, QF has cracked down if FF status/number on BP does not match credentials used for lounge access, but that just may be QF.

As for 2 years... given LTG I'd probably stick with QF, though my question is, if one has LTG and doesn't manage to fly the 4 QF~ sectors, do you still remain Gold status for a membership year, or does LTG override the 4~? (I would suspect yes, but unsure). in that case, your need to continue QF sectors would be minimal though if going to retain/make WP, the 4~ could come into play (I am not yet LTG.. ask me in a week lol). If it was *me* that is where I would be focusing... I mean 2 years is not such a long time to be away from oz, though who knows what the future holds.. it may not be worth investing in another FFP during that time, depending on potential future use.

I'd probably stick with QF or depending on planned flights consider the best prospects over the next few years mixed with the goals.. seems once you hit LTG with QF, there are no further longer term goals there (at least currently!) and that may well also factor into future plans (as I understand BA has lifetime OWE status, depending on how insane one's travels will be).

It may even be worth looking to a status match to say LH or similar for euro flying and look to Star or Skyteam - again may depend on planned trips an personal goals/requirements.

Anyway I'm sure those more familiar with the LTG situation and BA lounge access/flying etc can give a better and more accurate answer.

whatever one choses - best wishes for the relocation up North!

 

[funkyr]

What would you think of 2yrs relocation to MAN as a QF LTG? Stay with QF or join BAEC but use QF for lounge and other benefits, or won't this work?

2yrs I would stick to QF. Yes you will get more Avios as a BAEC rather than QFF points on BA flights but for 2 years it's probably not worth the change. The only thing I will add is that I was BAEC Gold for 2 years and got upgraded way more often than I have as a WP.

 

[Mattg]

There are already some good suggestions on this thread, but just to point out another option, LAN has a FRA-MAD tag flight and you can often get relatively cheap seats on it. Over the 750 mile mark too.

 

[JohnK]

Since Jul though, earn points on partners like BA and others, for QF SCs, have gone down. Practically loose the former SC earn by half.

SC earn has not gone down on all partners/routes and has certainly not halved. Some yes....