Is A380 F worth the effort?

[sparoz]

My personal experience was with a close-in booking (couple of weeks out if I remember correctly). e.g. there are 2 Apartments on tonights A380 out of Sydney but that's probably a bit close in for most people . There are a few Apartments during the last week of Feb.

Status doesn't come into as far as I know. Find the flight on Etihad website, call AA or Virgin and give them the details....

Now do I want to go to AUH for the weekend tonight now that I know there are a couple of Apartments.....

I shall keep it in mind, I don't mind last minutes deal. We are fortunate to able to just leave on short notice. I will be looking for my next trip . Pity I have to pay for this one.

 

[esseeeayeenn]

My personal experience was with a close-in booking (couple of weeks out if I remember correctly). e.g. there are 2 Apartments on tonights A380 out of Sydney but that's probably a bit close in for most people . There are a few Apartments during the last week of Feb.

Status doesn't come into as far as I know. Find the flight on Etihad website, call AA or Virgin and give them the details....

Now do I want to go to AUH for the weekend tonight now that I know there are a couple of Apartments.....

No one in all of recorded history has ever wanted to go to AUH for the weekend.

 

[get me outta here]

I am in a few weeks, actually it's 3 days 4 nights, does that count as a first?

No one in all of recorded history has ever wanted to go to AUH for the weekend.

 

[LittleFokker]

But...but... but IT'S. IN. AN. APARTMENT...

 

[esseeeayeenn]

The apartments are fabulous.
AUH is a hell hole.

 

[uiopui]

Hey guys, i got 2x F MEL-AUH on the A380 (AA 60Kx2)

Im in a similar situation where im just trying to suss out how people get on from AUH to Europe for instance which is where i plan to stop initially.

Do you guys have any tips or tricks (revenue or points based) to get onwards to Europe?

At the moment i can only see Wizz air or Pegasus (both not ideal) but on the otherside any Qantas redemptions have pretty large taxes. I have plenty or Qantas, Velocity and Amex points.

Any tricks you guys use or do you just add the 30/40K for another Etihad redemption?

Just out of curiosity, if i go for 40K AA Etihad first, have any of you been able to route in a slightly round about way to get on the A380 for instance? Ie AUH - LHR - Somewhere in Europe like Athens? Any experience doing this? Im just torn as i know if i get a return paid flight from AUH to europe i could then use 30K/45k AA to get to Japan for instance on Qatar or Etihad in business/first.

Anyways it would be great to hear how others approach this

 

[esseeeayeenn]

At the moment EY only fly the A380 to LHR, JFK and SYD.
They are adding MEL and will shortly add CDG.
The flights to and from LHR are usually sold out.
The F suites on the A340 or B777 between AUH and CDG are very nice though and the in flight service is as good as on the A380.
Dedicated first FA and a chef who will cook you pretty much anything for which he has the ingredients, any time you want it.

 

[boomy]

They are adding MEL and will shortly add CDG.

Do you know how soon? I have a couple of departures from CDG this year and so far all on B777.

The flights to and from LHR are usually sold out.

From my experience availability on AUH-LHR is not bad, even on A380 but vv is a bit more challenging.

 

[scottz95]

Hey guys, i got 2x F MEL-AUH on the A380 (AA 60Kx2)

Im in a similar situation where im just trying to suss out how people get on from AUH to Europe for instance which is where i plan to stop initially.

Do you guys have any tips or tricks (revenue or points based) to get onwards to Europe?

At the moment i can only see Wizz air or Pegasus (both not ideal) but on the otherside any Qantas redemptions have pretty large taxes. I have plenty or Qantas, Velocity and Amex points.

Any tricks you guys use or do you just add the 30/40K for another Etihad redemption?

Just out of curiosity, if i go for 40K AA Etihad first, have any of you been able to route in a slightly round about way to get on the A380 for instance? Ie AUH - LHR - Somewhere in Europe like Athens? Any experience doing this? Im just torn as i know if i get a return paid flight from AUH to europe i could then use 30K/45k AA to get to Japan for instance on Qatar or Etihad in business/first.

Anyways it would be great to hear how others approach this

Using AA, it can be done. You just need to make sure thatEtihad doesnt show any award space on direct flights to Athens as AA tries to ensure the most direct routing only. To be clear, you will want to try and book AirBerlin or FinnAir as your preferred carrier on the intra-Europe flights, not because they are better but Iberia/BA charge a small fortune in "fuel taxes" on award bookings that AA passes on. If all else fails, then book Iberia before BA as they traditionally charge less.

 

[esseeeayeenn]

Do you know how soon? I have a couple of departures from CDG this year and so far all on B777.



From my experience availability on AUH-LHR is not bad, even on A380 but vv is a bit more challenging.

I will find out and revert to you.

 

[Beta4Me]

I've just booked 2 pax in F and 7 pax in J (yes, that's right, seven!) on the A380 for MEL-AUH-BOM on 27-28/12/16. For the record, I paid 435,000 AA miles + $AU$702.54 taxes.

We're continuing on a BOM-CMB on 9W J/Y (revenue tickets). Then, we'll go back the same way (hopefully) once seats open up.

First time on an A380, first time on Etihad, seventh first class fight. I'm stoked!

FYI, between Christmas and New Year most A380 flights I've looked at (for a few different countries) appear to have numerous business class seats available. One had have at least 22 J award seats: I only know that because I had the 7 seats I ticketed, plus a previous 6 pax one on hold and checked online for 9 seats at the same time--all available!

 

[boomy]

I've just booked 2 pax in F and 7 pax in J (yes, that's right, seven!) on the A380 for MEL-AUH-BOM on 27-28/12/16. For the record, I paid 435,000 AA miles + $AU$702.54 taxes.

That's an impressive availability for an equally impressive A380 J product and also low taxes.

 

[boomy]

Another option for flying to EU and trying different A380 products on the way is MEL-AUH-DOH-CDG on EY/QR F for 100K + $117.

 

[Pleb Status]

Does anybody know if AA will let you combine a domestic QF BNE-MEL J fare into a EY MEL-AUH-LHR F Apartment fare for the same 80k redemption rate? Or is the QF fare an additional 17.5k?

 

[smit0847]

At the moment EY only fly the A380 to LHR, JFK and SYD.
They are adding MEL and will shortly add CDG.
The flights to and from LHR are usually sold out.
The F suites on the A340 or B777 between AUH and CDG are very nice though and the in flight service is as good as on the A380.
Dedicated first FA and a chef who will cook you pretty much anything for which he has the ingredients, any time you want it.

CDG? Don't you mean BOM?

 

[boomy]

Does anybody know if AA will let you combine a domestic QF BNE-MEL J fare into a EY MEL-AUH-LHR F Apartment fare for the same 80k redemption rate? Or is the QF fare an additional 17.5k?

MEL-AUH-LHR on EY are two separate flights (unlike QF9) therefore priced as two awards:
MEL-AUH 60K in F
AUH-LHR 40K in F

You can add domestic connection on QF J and pay only the taxes. You can also add intra-euro connection (depends on distance).

 

[scottz95]

MEL-AUH-LHR on EY are two separate flights (unlike QF9) therefore priced as two awards:
MEL-AUH 60K in F
AUH-LHR 40K in F

You can add domestic connection on QF J and pay only the taxes. You can also add intra-euro connection (depends on distance).

Speaking from experience on this, AAgents tend to charge you a $150US fee for what is being proposed as you are effectively changing your departure/arrival point. If it was just routing change and already had the QF ticket on it such as MEL-SYD-AUH becoming MEL-BNE-AUH that would be fine but if its not on the original booking, theres a $150US fee on it.

They also charge this fee when you change or add in a OW carrier into an Etihad booking. For example, if you were flying SYD-AUH-DOH on one award all on Etihad and the AUH-DOH opened up on Qatar, you would need to cope the fee for it.

 

[Pleb Status]

MEL-AUH-LHR on EY are two separate flights (unlike QF9) therefore priced as two awards:
MEL-AUH 60K in F
AUH-LHR 40K in F

You can add domestic connection on QF J and pay only the taxes. You can also add intra-euro connection (depends on distance).

Thanks boomy.

I called AA this morning and found this out the hard way. It appears that all EY flights must be broken in AUH, so this issue makes the EY redemption value not as good as could otherwise be expected.

Also, AA were unable to obtain the Apartment award seat showing as available on the EY website.

In the end, they were able to dig up a QF BNE-MEL-DXB-LHR fare in J for me which was 60k and AUD91.10. This J seat was not available on the QF or AA websites which was interesting.

 

[scottz95]

Thanks boomy.

This J seat was not available on the QF or AA websites which was interesting.

Cross your fingers that it tickets. Theres been reports recently (see Qantas Denied American Award Seats - Any Recourse? - One Mile at a Time ) that AA has been able to see QF availability which QF doesnt show. They'll book it but wont let it be ticketed. If its not ticketed with 48 hours, make sure to call them to find out whats happening.

 

[esseeeayeenn]

CDG? Don't you mean BOM?

Internal notices had said CDG but you're right they're adding BOM first.
CDG will have to wait for another aircraft.