Ethiad Business Class using Velocity Points

[cjrrlr]

I recently booked 2 business class flights from Melbourne to London return using my Velocity points. The charge was 571,000 points plus $3,340 in Ethiad carrier charges. I am surprised by the high amount of the carrier charges. Is this a typical charge for this type of booking?

 

[jase05]

I recently booked 2 business class flights from Melbourne to London return using my Velocity points. The charge was 571,000 points plus $3,340 in Ethiad carrier charges. I am surprised by the high amount of the carrier charges. Is this a typical charge for this type of booking?

Yes, unfortunately. London is the worst place to depart from. Departing from other ports in Europe are generally around $400pp cheaper. Can pick up a cheap J fare from LHR to other ports for $200-300 which is usually our preference if you don’t mind a bit of messing around

 

[Happy Dude]

Plus EY have a hefty fee for pointy end redemptions on top of the actual taxes.

 

[jakeseven7]

Plus EY have a hefty fee for pointy end redemptions on top of the actual taxes.

Hefty is an understatement

 

[Duffa]

I recently booked 2 business class flights from Melbourne to London return using my Velocity points. The charge was 571,000 points plus $3,340 in Ethiad carrier charges. I am surprised by the high amount of the carrier charges. Is this a typical charge for this type of booking?

Etihad costs less points than Emirates but the surcharges are a lot higher. At the end of the day, for me, Etihad is only about $125 more expensive, one way J. At that price differential it really boils down to availability.

 

[AustraliaPoochie]

All UK airports charge what they call APD, google it.
Its like our PAX dep charge, $65 for all classes, departing Aust.
But the UK have got the money gouging down pat, its about GBP554 or so, under "higher rate" per person, for higher classes, departing any UK airport, to a rate band B country, ie, those outside the EU, when it was still a part of it.
Edit: Aud$1028.91 at current forex rates, x 2 is already Aud$2057.82!

 

[tinkybelle]

In UK WAS called luxury tax been around since 2000
germany not much better.
so you were able to actually find J.
I’ve been trying to find flights to ATH. Or. CDG. Never see anything

 

[clifford]

I’ve been trying to find flights to ATH. Or. CDG. Never see anything

Quite a bit of J availability to AUH.

I would (and will) book an award ticket to AUH and then use another airline to get to where I want to be in Europe. In my case this would be an award on *A (or even, heaven forbid a paid ticket).

Fairly straight forward if you're prepared to do the legwork.

 

[jase05]

In UK WAS called luxury tax been around since 2000
germany not much better.
so you were able to actually find J.
I’ve been trying to find flights to ATH. Or. CDG. Never see anything

I’ve been looking around October and good J availability availability to ATH and CDG from SYD or MEL. ATH actually falls into the lower mileage bracket so is 18k less in points.
If anyone is interested there is decent availability to JFK also and that act comes in at the same points as the majority of Europe but you get to enjoy J for 14hrs instead of 7hrs

 

[tinkybelle]

I was looking around early august these people want to get straight there

 

[jase05]

I was looking around early august these people want to get straight there

How many passengers?
2x J available MEL-ATH August 3rd, 7th, 10th
2x J available SYD-ATH August 4th, 8th

 

[Edge]

Has anyone ever seen 4 x J availability on one flight?

Got over 1m velocity points now and given LAX is off the agenda, Europe seems the best use (if possible).

 

[jase05]

Has anyone ever seen 4 x J availability on one flight?

Got over 1m velocity points now and given LAX is off the agenda, Europe seems the best use (if possible).

I’ve seen 3 but not 4.
If the US interests you the points cost for JFK is the same as say LHR, CDG and many other EU destinations.

 

[Edge]

LAX interests me. I guess we'll have to wait and see what availability is like with United?

 

[jase05]

LAX interests me. I guess we'll have to wait and see what availability is like with United?

HA had decent availability to LAX when I last looked as another option but yes for direct we will need to wait for UA

 

[Must...Fly!]

Just a heads up I recently had a flight cancelled BCN-AUH-MEL in March. Seems there are some schedule changes in the works for Etihad.

Check to see if your flights are still scheduled on the Etihad website. VA might be better than AAdvantage (who I booked through) but I didn't have any contact from them. Only EY because I went in and put my contact details in the EY website myself for this exact reason and got the cancellation notification.