Help with planning reward trip for 2015

[sogg]

Hi Guys,
Im Currently Platinum but wont maintain by my review date which is December this year.

Im currently planning my holiday for next year to go to Greece with my Wife.
Looking at going towards the end of June and coming back end of July. As this is Summer i know availability will be low.

I have a couple of questions
1) I am wanting to go direct to Athens on the way over, but on my return i would like to stay in abu dhabi for a few nights before continuing back to Australia. Is this possible with a Reward ticket and is the points cost still the same?
2) As i am currently platinum am i able to exercise my Guaranteed international economy family trip benefit and just book the ticket before my review date? Or will i have to book tickets as soon as the dates become available on the website?

Thanks

 

[rtyuiop]

Are you looking for Y or a better class?

I believe if you split the trip in Abu Dhabi the flights will be separate, and a few more points compared to booking through the website - if you go through the website on VA codeshares, it seems to take it as one trip and calculate points accordingly. Or at least it did when I booked a similar trip a year or so ago. The call centre couldn't seem to do this, they insisted it had to be two separate PNRs, with all the issues stemming from that... But this was shortly after the sabre cutover, so maybe they've figured things out now!

 

[notzac]

Fare rules from a reward fare:

STOPOVERS

NO STOPOVERS PERMITTED ON THE PRICING UNIT.
NO STOPOVER OCCURS IF PASSENGER TAKES NEXT
AVAILABLE FLIGHT WITHIN SAME
A STOPOVER MAY NOT EXCEED SAME DAY.

So, no stopovers permitted - you'd need to book one ATH-AUH redemption and then one AUH-Australia redemption. Sorry, I don't know about the other question.

 

[sogg]

Are you looking for Y or a better class?

I believe if you split the trip in Abu Dhabi the flights will be separate, and a few more points compared to booking through the website - if you go through the website on VA codeshares, it seems to take it as one trip and calculate points accordingly. Or at least it did when I booked a similar trip a year or so ago. The call centre couldn't seem to do this, they insisted it had to be two separate PNRs, with all the issues stemming from that... But this was shortly after the sabre cutover, so maybe they've figured things out now!

Most likely Y.... Only have 290k points

Ok so i will have to book MEL-ATH on a rewards ticket and then ATH-AUH and then AUH-MEL on seperate tickets.
From reading the T&Cs for the plat guaranteed reward ticket i can only use it on the MEL-ATH as that is the flight that orginates from AUS?