hello everybody

[ctg]

Hi Everyone,

i live in sydney. I will be flying back and forth to the UK, so my interests are offers happenning on those flights each year. I will be travelling in September 2012 with child, sio will be looking into that as well. I am keen to learn about reward programmes, upgrades, lounges etc.

I also have a reasonably strong interest in aeroplanes, especially 747's, 380's, 777's etc. I like to watch air crash investigation sporadically!
Who doesn't? I occasionally frequent Charles Kingford Smith for some plane spotting!

Thanks,

Carlos

 

[Princess Fiona]

Welcome to AFF
You will certainly have a lot in common with our community

 

[straitman]

Hi Everyone,

i live in sydney. I will be flying back and forth to the UK, so my interests are offers happenning on those flights each year. I will be travelling in September 2012 with child, sio will be looking into that as well. I am keen to learn about reward programmes, upgrades, lounges etc.

I also have a reasonably strong interest in aeroplanes, especially 747's, 380's, 777's etc. I like to watch air crash investigation sporadically!
Who doesn't? I occasionally frequent Charles Kingford Smith for some plane spotting!

Thanks,

Carlos

Hi Carlos (ctg),

Welcome to AFF.

 

[JohnK]

Welcome to AFF ctg!

If you will be flying to the UK regularly and know your travel dates then it would be much cheaper to purchase airfares from the UK to Sydney and return. I have done this quite regularly for travel to SE Asia in the past 5-6 years.

 

[ctg]

Ok, how does that work? We will be flying back in September, for example. Should we go for a one way ticket from here, then buy open return in the UK? Right now, it is difficult to know when we will next be flying to the UK after Sept 2012. We will be flying once a year though...

 

[JohnK]

Generally this type of arrangement works better if you go at least once a year or at least go back in <12 months time. If you only go back once a year it is not going to work so well if you do not know return dates but even with change fees it should still be cheaper than buying a ticket from Australia.

Do some research and find out how much service fees and change fees are for tickets ex-UK. I have not seen the rules for QF airfares ex-UK but from memory QF airfares ex-Singapore generally have an $80 service fee and $60 change fee. Or is that the other way around?

Use points if you can on a one-way to UK and then purchase return airfares from the UK to Australia. The return date can be 6 months away and when you know the actual return date call and change the date and pay the change fee. Note the return date cannot be >12 months from the departure date. Should still work out cheaper even with the change fees.