Flights with children

[ruben38]

Hi all,

I have been accumulating quite a lot of Qantas points through credit cards etc. and am thinking of taking the family to Fiji later in the year. It would be 2 adults and 3 kids.

One thing I have noticed when experimenting with booking dates, is that when you book with points, the kids bookings are exactly the same number of points as the adults. But when you book with cash, the children's flights are significantly less than the adult flights.

So the question is obviously - can I maximise the use of points by booking for myself and my wife on points, while paying cash for the kids' flights?

I know most people on here seem to use the points for business class flights but we don't have anywhere near enough points to do that for the whole family.


Thanks

 

[ashleyn]

You would struggle to get 5 award seats on the same flight anyway so paying for the kids would probably work.

 

[RAM]

There is nothing to stop you booking adults as rewards and children by cash (theoretically).

However, as your children's booking will show them as travelling without any adults - you may have some minor complications.

BTW - there is a special at Coles starting tomorrow (March 2) for Flight Centre $100 gift cards. Bit complex but...

Buy one $100 FC gc at cost of $104.95 and get a FREE $10 Coles Myer gc. Limit 1 $10 Coles Myer gc per transaction.

So, you'd need to pick a quiet time tomorrow night (before the FC gcs all disappear like happened with a better version of this offer at Woolworths late last year) to go and purchase them.

Even better if you can get the Coles gcs at a 5% discount beforehand (e-cards perhaps) from a number of sources (NRMA I think offers it but may need to do some quick research).

Why suggest FC? They beat any other quote by $1 or $5 depending on who you get - and I suspect it may be handy to have a TA to muck around with your children's booking.
Do some research tonight to see if it suits you.

Also, pay using a credit card that gives you points etc.

Have fun.

 

[ruben38]

Thanks for the help. I only just read this so missed out on the discounts etc. But this is a long-term thing anyway. Just seeing if it's possible. I only have around 250k Qantas points at the moment which isn't enough for the whole family to fly right now.

Can Travel Agents book reward seats? I have always thought you could only do those things online. I imagine having someone to assist with the fact that it looks like the kids are travelling alone would be useful.

There is nothing to stop you booking adults as rewards and children by cash (theoretically).

However, as your children's booking will show them as travelling without any adults - you may have some minor complications.

BTW - there is a special at Coles starting tomorrow (March 2) for Flight Centre $100 gift cards. Bit complex but...

Buy one $100 FC gc at cost of $104.95 and get a FREE $10 Coles Myer gc. Limit 1 $10 Coles Myer gc per transaction.

So, you'd need to pick a quiet time tomorrow night (before the FC gcs all disappear like happened with a better version of this offer at Woolworths late last year) to go and purchase them.

Even better if you can get the Coles gcs at a 5% discount beforehand (e-cards perhaps) from a number of sources (NRMA I think offers it but may need to do some quick research).

Why suggest FC? They beat any other quote by $1 or $5 depending on who you get - and I suspect it may be handy to have a TA to muck around with your children's booking.
Do some research tonight to see if it suits you.

Also, pay using a credit card that gives you points etc.

Have fun.