Availability of Award Flights

[mtchairs]

Can anyone explain why this flight would be coming up as Premium Economy in the Select Flight screen but when you go to the Review screen you get this message "Note: Your flight from Sydney to London will be in Economy"? Is this just a bug? 96,000 points are still charged too?

Sydney to London
Flight Out From To Flight Departure
Terminal Travel
Class Baggage
Thu 23 Sep 10 15:30 Sydney 05:35
(Fri) London
(Heathrow)
BA16 1 Economy Checked:
2 pieces
Note: Your flight from Sydney to London will be in Economy

Key: = oneworld
Note: Qantas flights QF1 - QF399 depart from International Terminals. All other Qantas flights depart from Domestic Terminals.
Total Price
Points available: 177,145
Number of seats: 1
Points & Credit Card
Trip Price for - 1 x Adult: 96,000
Total Trip Price: 96,000
Points required: 96,000
Points balance after this booking: 81,145
Charges/taxes: $167.58 (AUD)

 

[grussellt]

If you want to fly that day try a multi-city on SYD-LAX and LAX-LHR (its via JFK) and it's available for 64000pts. Be quick! Flights are QF502/QF15/AA32/AA116.

 

[oz_mark]

Can anyone explain why this flight would be coming up as Premium Economy in the Select Flight screen but when you go to the Review screen you get this message "Note: Your flight from Sydney to London will be in Economy"? Is this just a bug? 96,000 points are still charged too?

Whatever the reason, I don't think I'd be paying those points for BA version of PE

 

[mtchairs]

I managed to get a Syd to LHR flight on BA for 64,000 points but haven't been able to find anything for the return flight thru Qantas.

I did find some Priority Award flights on the Cathay Asia Miles site. Is that something I can book if I ring Qantas? Does anyone know how many QFF points that would use up?


Thanks

mtchairs

 

[grussellt]

Try a return trip via the US. There is still some availability in September for LHR/LAX followed by LAX/SYD. Make sure you choose AA flights and preferably the ones that make the trip 64000pts only (e.g.via ORD)

 

[markis10]

There is no charge for ringing QF to check your options, the online engine only shows a small amount of the options available, and depending on your status you may not see flights that others see as being available.

 

[nlagalle]

ASAs can only be reduced to a minimum of the same number of points as required for the same classic award, or higher depending on the numbers of points required for the ASA. The amount of reduction available is probably a fixed percentage of the total, I haven't exactly checked that.

From the handful of searches I've done on ASA the points reduction seems to price at about 1.4 to 1.6 cents per point.

You can only reduce the points down to a classic award redemption. so mel-LHR might be 180,000 you can only reduce it to 128,000 as that is the classic award fee.

 

[markis10]

You can only reduce the points down to a classic award redemption. so mel-LHR might be 180,000 you can only reduce it to 128,000 as that is the classic award fee.

Not to be confused with pay with points which as no similar limitations, then again its pretty poor value.

 

[medhead]

You can only reduce the points down to a classic award redemption. so mel-LHR might be 180,000 you can only reduce it to 128,000 as that is the classic award fee.

Umm, yeah, that is what I wrote.

 

[markis10]

Umm, yeah, that is what I wrote.

Not quite, you said the amount of the reduction was probably a fixed percentage,

ASAs can only be reduced to a minimum of the same number of points as required for the same classic award, or higher depending on the numbers of points required for the ASA. The amount of reduction available is probably a fixed percentage of the total, I haven't exactly checked that.

From the handful of searches I've done on ASA the points reduction seems to price at about 1.4 to 1.6 cents per point.

when nlagalle was pointing out there is no fixed percentage, its always down to the classic level no matter what the total number of points are,

You can only reduce the points down to a classic award redemption. so mel-LHR might be 180,000 you can only reduce it to 128,000 as that is the classic award fee.

here are some examples to clear the confusion:

One of the better ASA redemptions

This one is not bad if you have the cash given the SC's, same starting and end point and same level the points are reduced to.

And finally from good to really bad, still starting in Adelaide and ending in Townsville and still reducing to the 24000 points, no percentage limit here!

 

[mtchairs]

I'm thinking of using an Any Seat Award on the return London - Syd flight on Oct 6 as I just haven't been able to find anything that doesn't have too many stopovers and take too long.

The lowest number of points I can find is 104,218 or if I reduce it down to the minimum of 64,000 points that would cost £269.10. What would you more experienced frequent flyers suggest is the optimum balance between points and payment by cc?

Thanks

mtchairs

 

[whereishome]

I'm thinking of using an Any Seat Award on the return London - Syd flight on Oct 6 as I just haven't been able to find anything that doesn't have too many stopovers and take too long.

The lowest number of points I can find is 104,218 or if I reduce it down to the minimum of 64,000 points that would cost £269.10. What would you more experienced frequent flyers suggest is the optimum balance between points and payment by cc?

Thanks

mtchairs

Depends on how many points you are willing to burn. Some people accrue points at insane rates so it's no trouble to drop loads for flights.

As for the choice of routes you have, reward seats are in a different fare bucket to regular seats. Any reward seats are few and you have to take what you can get. They are released 364 days before the flight so that's why the closer to your desired travel date you get, the less likely you are to find a flight.

 

[medhead]

Not quite, you said the amount of the reduction was probably a fixed percentage,

yes I did say that because at the time I wrote it I was doing lots of searches for ASA and recall seeing one that didn't go all the way back to the classic level on a route to Europe that was a full points cost of of 1m+ points. I couldn't reproduce that when replying mainly because the award search engine kept telling the entity was too large ???

I also said there are probably fixed percentages. So I wasn't definite on that point.

You'll also note that before talking about fixed percentages I wrote exactly the same thing. So perhaps the post could have focused on the probable fixed percentages issue like you have:

when nlagalle was pointing out there is no fixed percentage, its always down to the classic level no matter what the total number of points are,

edit: and now that the entities have got their weight back under control I can't reproduce the same thing. I can't only reiterate my use of the word probably in relation to fixed percentages, as an indication that I wasn't saying it was certain or saying the fixed percentage suggestion was anything more than a side issue.

 

[grussellt]

Another option is to simply buy a one-way ticket back from London. Until this week the cheapest fares back from LHR-SYD were $750-800 (booked up to 6 months ahead). Now the high season and shoulder fares are in operation it seems that one way fares in October are still $1000 but I would expect that to drop to around $800 (say 480GBP, although Cathay were selling at 440 for quite a while). I'm also looking for a flight back in early October so if you see anything good please let me know.