Darwin to Tokyo - best flight? Best airline?

[cwliew]

I will be flying darwin to tokyo in january next year, and don't know what airline to fly.
Qantas have some flights from darwin through sydney to tokyo. The FF points required for a business ticket from sydney is about 220K.
I have lots of points.
Jetstar have a flight from darw - cairn - tokyo which is only 144K but I hate jetstar...(Am sitting here in darwin after just hearing that my flight is delayed by half an hour - no surprises there)

JAL don't really have ay good options. Only flights leaving from brisbane or sydne for about 1700 dollars. in discount economy.

Do you know any other airlines that fly to japan from Darwin/Sydney/Brisbane/Cairns/Adelaide?

Not really sure what to to do. Feel like buying an economy ticket and upgrading using points which always seems to me to be the most cost effective way to do things, but I've flown mainly domestic and haven't had the pleasure of being in the international upgrade pool...

I am a gold FF if that makes any difference.

I don't want to fly economy...have a rule about that and international flights

Thanks!

 

[BlueAU]

What about JAL business using points? Ring Qantas 13 13 13 and ask them to quote you availability, points and taxes required. Usually a little more than QF..

 

[cwliew]

What is JAL business compared to QF? I am sure I read somewhere that QF has the worlds best first classs and Singair has the best business class. Obviously up for debate, but they must be good anyway.

Have only eer flown JAL a long time ago as a teen, and it was fine, in eco...

How soon do you think I'd need to book the flights using points? I knd of only want to book in dec. But that is flexible if required.

 

[Brisbane Flyer]

Using points via JAL is quite expensive in terms of burn....I did a check on points required for a QF award on JAL for NRT to SIN, and well, it was expensive....used UA miles instead, got NRT to SIN for 40k pts + $42.50 tax.
Wont be asking my mate for a trip report because I don't care how his $42.50 flight was...

 

[markis10]

QF across to CNS and then CX, seems silly to go backwards to Sydney and at least its a 6Am start however a stopover will be required in HKG and flights are not on everyday. I would probably grab one of the Jetstar cheapies to SIN and then use points from there, plenty of options ex SIN, however travel in January with points might be hard to book.

 

[ike]

Air Niugini flys CNS POM onto NRT, I think you could use FF pts with them.
Went with Air Nuigini BNE to NRT via POM once. Was good service fare was good.
But i think only fly to NRT from POM on Saturdays.

 

[browski]

Recently, I think we had a similar thread investigating DRW-Sapporo options.

Anyway, Ex-Cairns, I've often used the Continental Micronesia option to Guam and then onto Tokyo. The connections are fantastic in both directions.

3 points to note however.

1. Guam is essentially the LOTFAP, so prepare for medieval secutity; even in transit.
2. CNS-GUM only fly twice per week.
3. The return flight into CNS arrives arount midnight, and connections from CNS to anywhere at that time of night appear non-existant.

Technically you could also fly JAL, Northwest, (and maybe?) Delta on the GUM-NRT-GUM sectors.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

F

What is JAL business compared to QF? I am sure I read somewhere that QF has the worlds best first classs and Singair has the best business class. Obviously up for debate, but they must be good anyway.

Qantas the best First Class? Errr - not likely (but it all depends on the particular survey the airline chooses to quote you).

Contenders in front of QF would be Swiss, Cathay and Singapore Airlines.

 

[cwliew]

Thankyou for all your help so far. I'm thinking through Singapore more so now. Or else was going to back to adelaide instead first and then go so I can travel with my friends.

Was thinking perhaps going JAL, but haven't heard much from anyone about their business class etc.

The other option I may have - is that some of my credit cards, I was sure, had 2 for 1 business class seats available with the card if booked through the credit cards travel program.

I thought my CBA platinum had it, but am not sure. Does anyone here know which credit cards may have this? I tried looking for it on the CBA website, but its not listed there.

 

[cwliew]

OK so for anyone that cares:

CBA platinum cards still offer companion airfares, but only on certain airlines. In fact, you can still do it with qantas. However, the downside is that you need to buy a FULL PRICED ticket
So for J to tokyo, would cost 9K to get there and back with codeshare with Qantas. So 4500 each. I guess that's not too bad.
The other options (As I ahve now decided to leave ex adelaide so I can pick up all my snowboarding gear) were to fly Singair, for about 6K which was probably the best deal here, especially because 1 flight in each leg was going to be onboard the A380...which = awesomebusiness class!

At the end of the day, we have decidedto fly CX.
Tickets are 5K return and has an overnighter in HK on the way there.
Now I'm not sure if that gives you any discounts etc on hotels for the night, but we don't particularly mind as we'l spend a night in HK on the way to tokyo.

So the flight leaves adelaide at 12pm ad gets to Tokyo at 2pm the following day, wit a stopover in mebourne (1 hr) and hongkong
Return flight leaves Tokyo at 1830 and gets back to adelaide at around 1030 or something I believe.

Well, hope that helps someone.
From what I can tell, companion airfares on credit cards are still worth it - not really sure of the implications wth SC etc, but only really possibly save you 10% on each ticket.
Now if you did that once every year, it would probably pay for itself every year...

As fart as CX goes - I've read that they have very antisocial business class seats in their herringbone pattern, so will take some photos and post a trip report back here at some stage.

Eitherway, the CX business class seats are FULLY FLAT which is coooool...whilst the Qantas ones are skybeds only, and recline to something like 10 degrees or close to that.
Singair on the a380would be the best for sure...but if only they were part of the one world alliance!

I WOULD change my airline loyalty group, but will be platinum by the end of this trip which will "force" me to keep using OW alliance airlines esp because most of my travel is domestic.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

As fart as CX goes - I've read that they have very antisocial business class seats in their herringbone pattern, so will take some photos and post a trip report back here at some stage.

Eitherway, the CX business class seats are FULLY FLAT which is coooool...whilst the Qantas ones are skybeds only, and recline to something like 10 degrees or close to that.

Thanks for the update!

You are correct that the CX arrangement IS anti-social in J.

However - in my opinion the full-flat more than makes up for that. I can't sleep on my back (for which sloping seats are ok) - and can't find a comfortable position on the skybed mk 1 - whereas with CX I found it to be perfect - nice and soft.

CX AVOD is also far superior to QF AVOD (barring the A380). And I think the service probably wins out too (I've had enough of the friendly 'g'day' for a while )

There are no jammies given out on CX J - so take a pair of your own or try ebay for some QF ones You do get a duvet.

In terms of seat choice, most coupes I suspect would take the A and D seat (or whatever the middle seat is designated), but I'm not sure if this makes much of a difference in being able to try and see each other (talking is not possible).

On the A330 ex Australia the K seats are very private with a lot less traffic. A couple of seats there side by side would be a good choice (eg 18K and 19K), and you can sort of talk to each other in the take-off and landing positions.