a million points to europe? one way?? [Anyseat Award]

[Mesana]

Logged in today to try and book a one way flight from paris to adelaide. we have 300k + points and figured it'd be about the 100-200k points mark for business.

under "where can you go" it says 128,000 points for one way Paris to Adelaide.

when we go to book a flight it says 1,010,000 points required or 128,000 plus 4500 euros.

Does this seem wrong to anyone else? the flight i wanted was more than 3 months away, so this seems a bit off, considering my folks both flew business return to the US on QFF and they certainly didn't have 1 million let alone 4 million plus points in the account.

any ideas?

 

[Danger UXB]

I guess you are on the QFF website and it sounds like you are looking at the "any seat award" . To get the 128K plus taxes fare you need to look under the "qantas and partner classic award" but 3 months away is pretty soon and premium award seats are rare even 11 1/2 months in advance so be prepared to be disappointed (i couldn't see anything before Jan 2010) but good luck and happy searching
Cheers Danger UXB

 

[lovetravellingoz]

I assume it is a QFF Award.
In QFF there is the choice of Anytime Awards and Classic awards.

Classic have fixed point costs, are cheaper but with less availability and particularly in J ad F classes.

The points you mentioned would be in the Anytime Award.

For Classic you would often have to book well in advance on popular routes and for busy times of year.

 

[dajop]

Mesana, welcome to AFF.

What you are seeing is probably correct - for Qantas Anyseat awards.

To get the 128,000 pts you need to ensure you select Qantas & Partner Classic Award.

Having said that you may indeed find it challenging to get availability for the time frame suggested, especially in business class. Typically availability is better for long timeframes (almost 12mths away) or for getting close to travel (< 1 month). Also you may find you have to try and select another city that QF actually flies to (such as London or Frankfurt) back to Adelaide as the restrictive factor may be Paris to London. Same at the other end (it might be easier just to get to to Melbourne or Sydney, for example).

Another thing I suggest is calling Qantas, as for some partner airlines (in this case Cathay Pacific) availability does not come up online (with partners other than QF, BA & AA this will cost 142,500 pts each instead of 128,000 pts).

 

[Mesana]

so...a million sounds right to you guys? it's showing 98k for one way economy.

seeing as this is for work and i do have some funding to cover costs, perhaps it is more worth my while to simply try to book a QF that can be upgraded to business for about 96k points? and then request the upgrade and have a chance at business?

anyone know how likely an upgrade would be?

 

[Mesana]

also, changing the date to 12 months from now is still giving me a quote of 880k points for one way.

so is that normal too?

 

[dajop]

so...a million sounds right to you guys? it's showing 98k for one way economy.

Have you tried using the classic award selection? What you are getting is the anyseat award selection. Also, I strongly suggest you call Qantas, the online tool will not always come up with the best option, for example it won't show Paris-Hong Kong-Adelaide on Cathay Pacific.

 

[oz_mark]

also, changing the date to 12 months from now is still giving me a quote of 880k points for one way.

so is that normal too?

Make sure you have selected "Qantas & Partner Classic Award" as your Award Type. If you choose Qantas Any Seat Award you will get the results you are quoting.

 

[medhead]

simply try to book a QF that can be upgraded to business for about 96k points? and then request the upgrade and have a chance at business?

anyone know how likely an upgrade would be?

also I'm pretty sure award seats can not be upgraded on QF

 

[Mesana]

i mean like buy a seat then upgrade. not buy a points seat and upgrade.

 

[lovetravellingoz]

also, changing the date to 12 months from now is still giving me a quote of 880k points for one way.

so is that normal too?

With Anyseat the price varies. It is often considerably more an in many cases ridiculously so. Someties it can be not too bad.

Basically supply and de,and. So for high demand popular routes it will be on the expensive side.


Some people have even spotted Anyseat Fares at less points than Classic...but this may well have been aberations rather than deliberate.

I certainly would not pay a million points.

 

[medhead]

i mean like buy a seat then upgrade. not buy a points seat and upgrade.

opps
note to self, don't try reading AFF and watch tour de france

 

[NM]

Try calling Qantas FF and asking about using Cathay Pacific for a business class award around the dates you want to travel. CX awards do not show on-line at Qantas FF web site and in my experience are more readily available than Qantas and BA award seats.

 

[Mesana]

all good advice. thanks folks.

will look into the cathay pacific flights. otherwise work will just pay for the flights, and ill try for an upgrade to business

 

[Evan]

all good advice. thanks folks.

will look into the cathay pacific flights. otherwise work will just pay for the flights, and ill try for an upgrade to business

Please take note you can ONLY upgrade (With QFF points) on QF operated flights with a ticket booked on a QF flight number.... So you could not do ADL-SIN-CDG and get an upgrade all the way through because SIN-SDG is an AF code share. You would need to so something like ADL-SIN-LHR-CDG and hope to get an upgrade on the QF segments ADL-SIN-LHR, the BA or AF flight LHR-CDG will never be upgradeable.

 

[dajop]

Please take note you can ONLY upgrade (With QFF points) on QF operated flights with a ticket booked on a QF flight number....

This is very true and good advice. It's also important that you need to be booked in an upgradeable fare class, which are typically not the cheapest fare available (not sure about one way fares). Clicking on the fare rules if booking on the Qantas website will indicate if the fare is upgradeable or not. If booking through Travel agent, I think the rule of thumb is that N, O, E & Q fares are not upgradeable.

 

[Mesana]

yes i believe my travel agent had some S class seats available which were still about the 2k mark for the return trip and were upgradeable

 

[Maca44]

In your initial post you say, "when we go to book" so I assume there are two of you travelling and if you intend trying to upgrade your tix to J Class, I hope you have 'Status' with QF because if don't have any status you might have better luck with lotto. I have previously purchased three long haul upgradable tickets in Y (SYD-SFO and SFO-SYD) with the intention of upgrading to business class, but missed out on each occasion as those with higher status naturally got them. So, even if you do purchase such a fare, you might still miss out on the upgrade. If wrong and you are travelling alone you might have a better chance.

 

[Mesana]

I am flying over with someone and she is going back a few days before me. so just me on the leg home which is what i am going to request the upgrade for.

 

[Evan]

I am flying over with someone and she is going back a few days before me. so just me on the leg home which is what i am going to request the upgrade for.

Then maybe you can get your travel agent to look at booking via BA (or maybe TA's can do this also) because BA will allow mixed class bookings, ie you may only have to pay for S class on the way back not the way there also, if you book via QF website it forces the same fare class both ways. (Hence often BA tickets are cheaper for the same return trip than QF). But the BA ticket must be on the QF flight number and not the BA code share. In any case the TA should be able to sort this out easily.