Business Class Seats on A380 on Points

[travelislife]

FYI I have recently booked 4 seats on Qatar airways in Bus class to Rome. I had to fly out of Adelaide, instead of Brisbane as bizarrely the FF flight from Brisbane, (which goes via Adelaide, so it is the same flight from there), did not show availability at the front end. It was about 360 days out, and yes, the flights only showed up on the calendar on the 2nd page.....

What do you mean same flight via Brisbane?

You should be able to add Qantas seats from BNE-ADL (maybe 2 in business and 2 in economy if there isn't enough availability).

 

[travelislife]

There has to be better solutions than to split up the family.

There is no way on earth I would want to send my wife and daughter, or even the wife on another flight
just to get business class.

why do they have to make it so hard. 363 days what a long time to book ahead too.

has anyone had normal experiences booking say 3 people into business for international flight
6 months or so before travel ?

Such a shame they make it so difficult hey.

I don't agree with this, they don't make it difficult, it is purely supply and demand. 6 months may be possible for off peak travel but that is pushing it. If you want to give yourself the best chance possible you need to be looking 12 months out.

It is possible to book 4 people in business class on the same plane, you just have to be strategic about it. Fly on non peak days. Set up Expert Flyer alerts, etc. It is definitely possible. Seems easier on CX than QF though.

 

[apj01]

I always just book to another Euro city and then just get a cheap internal flight to London or use the train. I find that there are more seats to other capital cities and the taxes etc are considerably cheaper than for London, which pay for the internal flights.

 

[Jo145]

why do they have to make it so hard. 363 days what a long time to book ahead too.

has anyone had normal experiences booking say 3 people into business for international flight
6 months or so before travel ?

Such a shame they make it so difficult hey.

Don't think of it as a bad thing to book so far in advance - think of the fun you can have anticipating the flight and making plans for your trip!! Or is it just me, not a regular flyer, who thinks this?

 

[Portsoft]

Hi Ricky,
I don't like your chances on Emirates last september I tried to get a seat going from Perth to Amman and then from Nairobi - Perth - for april this year .I couldn't get anything close to the dates I needed to fly.
The Qantas phone booking person suggested Qatar and I got all the seats I needed. Service and food in Business is outstanding on Qatar and the seats are a little wider as well and have 78" pitch.
The only catch is that they cost more points than Emirates .. so if you can't Emirates try Qatar

 

[amaroo]

CX has been good for us. Take a look at this thread http://www.australianfrequentflyer....s/family-trip-split-bookings-worth-65358.html

 

[beaglex]

FYI I have recently booked 4 seats on Qatar airways in Bus class to Rome. I had to fly out of Adelaide, instead of Brisbane as bizarrely the FF flight from Brisbane, (which goes via Adelaide, so it is the same flight from there), did not show availability at the front end. It was about 360 days out, and yes, the flights only showed up on the calendar on the 2nd page.....

scoutg, your recent Qatar Business class booking was this with Qantas points? If yes how did you do the booking?

 

[travelislife]

scoutg, your recent Qatar Business class booking was this with Qantas points? If yes how did you do the booking?

Can be done on QF website or over the phone. Their seats appear to become available around the 360 day mark.

 

[beaglex]

Can be done on QF website or over the phone. Their seats appear to become available around the 360 day mark.

Thanks travelislife.

 

[coco50]

Last year my wife and I travelled RTW on points. We are both QP Silver. Here are the sectors and classes of travel:

SYD - DXB F (QF)
QXB - LHR F (BA)
MXP - MAD J (IB)
MAD - LHR J (BA)
LHR - DFW PE (BA)
DFW - SAF Y (AA)
SAF - LAX Y (AA)
LAX - SAN Y (AA)
SAN - LAX Y (AA)
LAX - HNL Y (AA)
HNL - LAX Y (AA)
HNL - SYD J (QF)

The only reason that we got these flights is that we booked sectors as soon as they opened (353 days prior) My TA liaised with QFF and the QFF people were great. The sectors between DFW,SAF, LAX, SAN, LAX, HNL and LAX we paid for. Flying first class from Sydney to London via Dubai was a real experience. Pehaps the most comfortable leg was the last - LAX - SYD in J upstairs on a QF 747. Key point: work out your itinerary and book as soon as the sectors open.

 

[Quickstatus]

Last year my wife and I travelled RTW on points. We are both QP Silver. Here are the sectors and classes of travel:

SYD - DXB F (QF)
QXB - LHR F (BA)
MXP - MAD J (IB)
MAD - LHR J (BA)
LHR - DFW PE (BA)
DFW - SAF Y (AA)
SAF - LAX Y (AA)
LAX - SAN Y (AA)
SAN - LAX Y (AA)
LAX - HNL Y (AA)
HNL - LAX Y (AA)
HNL - SYD J (QF)

The only reason that we got these flights is that we booked sectors as soon as they opened (353 days prior) My TA liaised with QFF and the QFF people were great. The sectors between DFW,SAF, LAX, SAN, LAX, HNL and LAX we paid for. Flying first class from Sydney to London via Dubai was a real experience. Pehaps the most comfortable leg was the last - LAX - SYD in J upstairs on a QF 747. Key point: work out your itinerary and book as soon as the sectors open.

Phenomenal Coco50 what was the total points consumption?

 

[Franky]

I always just book to another Euro city and then just get a cheap internal flight to London or use the train. I find that there are more seats to other capital cities and the taxes etc are considerably cheaper than for London, which pay for the internal flights.

Exactly what we do, most places in Western Europe are a short flight apart, or better, and the trains and their connections are also excellent.

 

[travelislife]

Last year my wife and I travelled RTW on points. We are both QP Silver. Here are the sectors and classes of travel:

SYD - DXB F (QF)
QXB - LHR F (BA)
MXP - MAD J (IB)
MAD - LHR J (BA)
LHR - DFW PE (BA)
DFW - SAF Y (AA)
SAF - LAX Y (AA)
LAX - SAN Y (AA)
SAN - LAX Y (AA)
LAX - HNL Y (AA)
HNL - LAX Y (AA)
HNL - SYD J (QF)

The only reason that we got these flights is that we booked sectors as soon as they opened (353 days prior) My TA liaised with QFF and the QFF people were great. The sectors between DFW,SAF, LAX, SAN, LAX, HNL and LAX we paid for. Flying first class from Sydney to London via Dubai was a real experience. Pehaps the most comfortable leg was the last - LAX - SYD in J upstairs on a QF 747. Key point: work out your itinerary and book as soon as the sectors open.

Huh!? You itinerary says you went via HNL but you said the best bit was LAX-SYD?

 

[stroudie]

I believe for these airlines you have to call Qantas to book as they can't be booked online. You can check availability first through Expert Flyer or the British Airways online booking engine.

Hi, just did a dummy booking with Qantas; Syd/London on 7/5/2017, this is as far as it goes. How do you then book the return leg ? Do I need to wait until 353 days out from my return journey ? eg. 2 separate one way flights ?
As mentioned earlier, I am a novice at this, please be gentle
Stroudie.

 

[travelislife]

Hi, just did a dummy booking with Qantas; Syd/London on 7/5/2017, this is as far as it goes. How do you then book the return leg ? Do I need to wait until 353 days out from my return journey ? eg. 2 separate one way flights ?
As mentioned earlier, I am a novice at this, please be gentle
Stroudie.

Yep. Book as two one ways. If you wait for the return to show you might lose the outbound.

Some people have found the charges can be higher sometimes with this. So you can call up and add the return flight if you prefer it that way.

 

[coco50]

Phenomenal Coco50 what was the total points consumption?

~ 800 000. Maybe I was a bit profligate with the use of points, but who cares. We had a good time and more importantly, comfortable travel. And we only spent about $6000 bucks on about $60 000 worth of travel.

 

[coco50]

Huh!? You itinerary says you went via HNL but you said the best bit was LAX-SYD?

Yep! Originally wanted to go LAX - HNL - SYD with HNL - SYD in J but it didn't work. I have a son living in LAX and they were moving and also expecting their first baby, so I didn't mind going back to LAX. The flight from LAX - SYD was as good as the A380 flight from SYD - DBX in terms of sleeping comfort and service.

 

[travelislife]

Yep! Originally wanted to go LAX - HNL - SYD with HNL - SYD in J but it didn't work. I have a son living in LAX and they were moving and also expecting their first baby, so I didn't mind going back to LAX. The flight from LAX - SYD was as good as the A380 flight from SYD - DBX in terms of sleeping comfort and service.

Okay so a bit confused, the itinerary you posted isn't actually what you flew?

 

[cjd600]

Okay so a bit confused, the itinerary you posted isn't actually what you flew?

He obviously meant LAX-SYD instead of HNL-SYD for the last flight...

 

[mviy]

~ 800 000. Maybe I was a bit profligate with the use of points, but who cares. We had a good time and more importantly, comfortable travel. And we only spent about $6000 bucks on about $60 000 worth of travel.

Great use of points. Much better than e.g. letting them expire (not that any regular on AFF would be likely to do that).