Extra Fees on QANTAS & when to buy tickets.

[tommelbourne]

Hey there,

I'm new to both international travel and also the QFF system, so please bear with my no doubt basic questions!

I'm looking at travelling with my wife to London in December 2012. A long way off, yes, but I'm keen to think about it now in the hope of saving some $$.

2 questions:

- In the QFF system there is a lot of talk about 'extra fees and taxes' which need to be paid on top of the Points that you spend on a flight. However, it seems quite difficult to determine exactly how much these extra fees would amount to. Does anybody know roughly how much these extra fees are for a pair of one-way flights to London from Sydney?

- When is the best time to buy tickets (so as to get them at the cheapest possible price)? Should I buy them as far out as I can? Or wait until a month before I want to leave? Or even closer to the departure date? We would be leaving about 1 week before Christmas, so would that mean the tickets are likely to sell out?

Thanks,

- Tom

 

[JohnK]

Welcome to AFF tommelbourne!

Firstly your question about award flights using QFF points and taxes and surcharges. If you make a dummy booking via the QFF award booking this should give you the total taxes and surcharges required for all travellers before confirming the booking/payment.

Secondly when it comes to booking airfares ex-Australia for peak travel then there will hardly ever be specials on offer for these travel periods. If you want to go a week before Christmas the cheap(er) airfares are going to sell out quickly so probably best to book as eary as possible. The same advice goes for award flights as well at peak travel times.

 

[Cocitus23]

Welcome tommelbourne.

I gather that you intend to obtain these tickets with points. In that case, I would particularly endorse JohnK's last comment, concerning the need to get in early for a peak season such as pre-Christmas. In my experience, bookings are available about 11 months ahead of time. Check by playing with the calendar on the booking page.

What I am not sure of is whether you have to wait until bookings open up for your return date rather than your departure date. My fear then would be that the available seats would already be taken by those with short duration itineraries. Maybe you can get around this problem by a phone reservation rather than using the web.

I'm sure that others could give more definitive advice, for both of us.

Cocitus23.

 

[tommelbourne]

Thanks JohnK and Cocitus23!

I currently don't have enough points to complete the dummy booking, so cannot use this method myself. Does anybody out there care to check for me how much the extra fees would be for a Classic Reward flight in late-ish December?

Also, I just noticed that there are very few flights with Classic Rewards seats available for this December. Is that because all these seats have already been booked? Or is it because Qantas simply doesn't offer any Classic Rewards seats for the peak period before Christmas?

 

[JohnK]

Christmas time as mentioned earlier is peak travel season. Qantas does release award sets around these dates however most classic award seats would be booked as soon as they became available.

As a Platinum I can see 2 award seats one way MEL-LHR direct flight on 24 December requiring 128,000 QFF points and $728.14 in taxes and surcharges.

There are also award seats for 2 people on 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 26, 27, 29, 30, 31 December 2011 however I am not sure of the routing. If you are not seeing this availability it could be because Qantas reserves some additional award seats in economy for Platinum and Gold.

 

[JetLagged]

As a Platinum I can see 2 award seats one way MEL-LHR direct flight on 24 December requiring 128,000 QFF points and $728.14 in taxes and surcharges.

And a goodly chunk of that huge tax bill is due to the cost of arriving and departing from Heathrow Airport! Plus fuel surcharges, etc etc etc

 

[JohnK]

And a goodly chunk of that huge tax bill is due to the cost of arriving and departing from Heathrow Airport! Plus fuel surcharges, etc etc etc

There is no Heathrow airport departure in that fuel and surcharge quote as it was a one-way award arriving into Hethrow for 2 people.

P.S The taxes and fuel surcharges do look very high and if fuel surcharges are ~$145 per person for one-way Australia-Europe and the departure tax makes up ~$76 that still does not account for ~$400 in the above quote for taxes and fuel surcharges....

 

[serfty]

For a revenue booking, the

currently for 081- (Qantas) issued tickets on MEL-LHR in Economy, one way are:

QF YQ surcharge (YQ)                            AU$290.00
QF YR surcharge (YR)                             AU$30.00
Australian Safety & Security Surcharge (WG)       AU$3.98
Australian Int'l Passenger Service Charge (WY)   AU$13.69
Australian Passenger Movement Charge (AU)        AU$47.00

Total:                                          AU$384.67

They should be no different for an award booking.

 

[Robmn]

If you are travelling to LHR return FF have a look at the alternatives it may save you points.

A couple of years a go we travelled to our primary goal LHR return. Looking at the point situation found it about 10000points less to travel around the world and in turn have breaks in HongKong and NewYork on the way.

SYD - HKG - LHR - JFK - SYD. Although the JFK - SYD leg was long we had excess seats from JKF to LAX which enabled a good sleep. Qantas to HKG, Cathay BKK, BA to LHR, BA to JFK, Qantas SYD.

Use the FF calculator and book early. I think my flight was near 12 mths in advance.

r

 

[JohnK]

For a revenue booking, the

currently for 081- (Qantas) issued tickets on MEL-LHR in Economy, one way are:

QF YQ surcharge (YQ)                            AU$290.00

They should be no different for an award booking.

Wow! One-way only? The article I was reading stated $290 fuel surcharges for return trip.

 

[Muriel]

Hey there,

I'm new to both international travel and also the QFF system, so please bear with my no doubt basic questions!

I'm looking at travelling with my wife to London in December 2012. A long way off, yes, but I'm keen to think about it now in the hope of saving some $$.

2 questions:

- In the QFF system there is a lot of talk about 'extra fees and taxes' which need to be paid on top of the Points that you spend on a flight. However, it seems quite difficult to determine exactly how much these extra fees would amount to. Does anybody know roughly how much these extra fees are for a pair of one-way flights to London from Sydney?

- When is the best time to buy tickets (so as to get them at the cheapest possible price)? Should I buy them as far out as I can? Or wait until a month before I want to leave? Or even closer to the departure date? We would be leaving about 1 week before Christmas, so would that mean the tickets are likely to sell out?

Thanks,

- Tom

Hi Tom,

We travelled to Europe using points in 2008 and were lucky to get 2 business class seats nearly 12 months prior. However we have noticed since that time, even booking that far ahead, they usually only offer 1 seat (presumably they hope you will purchase another for your partner). However, if you are happy to travel with one of their partner airlines - which we have also done and found them to be excellent - you will have a better chance. We flew Cathay Pacific to Hong Kong then British Airways to London. Give it a go and ALWAYS book as far in advance as you are able. Otherwise, sad to say, you might have little chance of getting a seat on Qantas at any time - let alone any of the peak periods such as christmas.

Also give a thought to purchasing your main flights on a special with other airlines, and using your points for connecting flights. We flew London to Edinburgh on Qantas points and Vienna to London. Good luck and happy holidays. Muriel

 

[oz_mark]

Wow! One-way only? The article I was reading stated $290 fuel surcharges for return trip.

The recent history of Fuel Surcharges:

pre 19 Feb $95 one way
from 19 Feb $145 one way
from 17 Mar $190 one way
from 28 Apr $290 one way

(Was looking for their 2008 peak and looks to be around $210)

$290 return was true between 19Feb and 17Mar

 

[JohnK]

$290 return was true between 19Feb and 17Mar

Silly me must have clicked on the wrong article. Still a very steep increase!

(Was looking for their 2008 peak and looks to be around $210)

That is interesting indeed. I wonder how quickly they will drop the current fuel surcharge increases when crude oil drops?

 

[grussellt]

Hey there,



I'm looking at travelling with my wife to London in December 2012. A long way off, yes, but I'm keen to think about it now in the hope of saving some $$. ...

Another choice for a trip to the UK is to go via LAX. There are not many options left in December but there is still availability on December 7. For 64000pts you must choose AA (BA will always cost more). The trip is a bit longer but the fees, etc are only (!) $251. You will have to book as a multi-city award and at this stage you may have to select routes via ORD/BOS/JFK but the points cost is the same. Check layover and connection times carefully.

It will be also be worthwhile looking at prices for a one-way ticket home. They are rarely cheap and a return wont cost a lot more'if you can use the aditional SYD-LHR within 12 months.

N.B. If you try a multi-city booking via SIN/HKG/BKK you will see aditional routes with a slightly longer layover but plenty of choice. The fees/charges won't leave a lot of change out of $400.

 

[extracta]

Silly me must have clicked on the wrong article. Still a very steep increase!


That is interesting indeed. I wonder how quickly they will drop the current fuel surcharge increases when crude oil drops?

In 2008 the A$ was a lot lower. The increased A$ should offset the oil price somewhat.

They are using the increased surcharge as a cash grab.

 

[JohnK]

They are using the increased surcharge as a cash grab.

I think most on AFF know that trick.

P.S How much is the price of crude? I believe the price of oil is only marginally over USD100 when in 2008 it was >USD140. And as you said in AUD the price of oil would be a lot cheaper today due to the generous exchange rate.

I have no sympathy for airlines or the clowns that run them....

 

[tommelbourne]

Thanks folks. Your info has been helpful.

It seems like many of you are saying that I would be better off exploring the possibility of travelling with one of QANTAS' partner airlines, because I may get a better deal. Is this correct? If so, how do I go about using my points to pay for a flight on a different airline?

 

[Muriel]

Thanks folks. Your info has been helpful.

It seems like many of you are saying that I would be better off exploring the possibility of travelling with one of QANTAS' partner airlines, because I may get a better deal. Is this correct? If so, how do I go about using my points to pay for a flight on a different airline?

Great to hear your getting lots of helpful advice Tom

When we booked London to Edinburgh and Vienna to London with BA, we did it through Qantas before leaving Australia. It only took 8000 points London-Edin and 16,000 each for Vienna to London Business class. We flew business class because of the increased luggage by the end of our trip!

For our coming trip to USA, we did try to use Qantas and Virgin points BUT they wanted around 45,000 (one way) for a flight lasting just over an hour. Or 98,000 business class. We gave it a miss and booked Southwest Airlines for each of our 3 flights in America. They are a well recognised airline in the States and having flown with them on our last trip there, found them to be excellent. Especially the leg room and the fun/friendly/professional staff. They are well priced too. Look for their "special" rates.

 

[JohnK]

It seems like many of you are saying that I would be better off exploring the possibility of travelling with one of QANTAS' partner airlines, because I may get a better deal. Is this correct? If so, how do I go about using my points to pay for a flight on a different airline?

In economy? Stick with QF as they are the best in Oneworld alliance by far.

Anyway partner awards (unless it is BA to SIN/BKK and LHR) cost more.

 

[grussellt]

Thanks folks. Your info has been helpful.

It seems like many of you are saying that I would be better off exploring the possibility of travelling with one of QANTAS' partner airlines, because I may get a better deal. Is this correct? If so, how do I go about using my points to pay for a flight on a different airline?

You can still find availability on QF if you search SYD-SIN and SIN-LHR as a multi-city trip and choose the best combination. I wouldn't wait much longer. Availability via BKK and HKG has been almost exhausted after December 8. Some choices will include BA/CX which you can still choose but it will cost you extra points.