Hi, lifetime gold FF here. My daughter is travelling to Europe and when Qantas released some classic rewards flights to London I snapped one up for her using my points.
Good job!
One way, thinking I could just add the return flight when she had the cash (yes I could have paid, but she is wanting to 'adult'). She now has the money so I tried to book the return leg only to find you end up on the UK site - and the ticket price is $1900 (only $1307 if I had booked both ways).
A return ticket is an economy ticket whereas a one-way ticket is a business ticket. And no I'm not referring to the class of service, I am referring to the market the airlines are discriminating their pricing towards. Leisure travellers almost always book return tickets because they have specific times they can be on vacation. Business travellers book one-ways since they don't know when they'll return or where they are heading to next and need flexibility. If you dig into the tickets booked you will discover that despite the one-way ticket costing more it will have more benefits over a return ticket such as the accrual of additional status credits and refunds/changes being considerably less than the leisure "saver" return fare.
I contacted the Qantas thinking they could book the London to Perth from the Australian site (in other words charge me $1307 plus $77 booking fee instead of $1900).
Generally speaking, the point of ticketing will be the origin of the ticket issue. So if you book a ticket originating in the US you will have a US point of sale whereas if it were originating from London, the UK would be the point of sale. There are ways around this, such as using an online travel agency like Expedia. Additionally point of sale sometimes (but not always) has an impact on the price you see. I've seen itineraries where it was virtually identical (minus very minor differences in currency exchange rates) whereas others the ticket was nearly half the cost having the point of sale be somewhere else.
Will point of sale make a difference here? No. The fact of the matter is $1900 AUD seems reasonable for a one-way fare on Qantas. As others have pointed out you would be well served to look at other airline options which may provide better routings or service.
Another thing to realize with the UK, which others have pointed out is that departing from a UK airport there is an air passenger duty (APD) which you may have to pay. If booking a return ticket or upgrading cabins, generally speaking the airline eats the cost (they do this by reducing the base fare by an amount equivalent to the APD). On business one-way fares like this, however, the airline is likely to pass that cost onto you.
How wrong was I! Apparently 'the terms and conditions of the classic reward fare doesn't allow it'. Even though one can't book return seats when classic reward seats first open up - because the return date isn't available!
So I think my options are:
1) Cancel classic reward flight and pay $2400 return
2) Pay the $1900 to get her home
What would you do?
Second question if I may - as a Gold FF I can choose seats closer to the front. Got her perfect seat on the Classic reward. If I cancel the reward seat can I book through my FF account (I will not be travelling) but in her name so better choice of seats?
Thank you for your advice, while a lifetime Gold member almost all of my travel has been the cheapest flight of the day in economy for work over the past 20 years - so not experienced at maximising the benefits of membership
Is there a specific reason why you want her to fly Qantas or OneWorld? Unless she has special status conferred to her (which from my reading she doesn't) and isn't planning on earning Qantas Frequent Flyer status, I fail to see the reason of staying loyal to them for this trip. And I can say this as a Qantas Platinum who from time to time will fly outside of the alliance if the price is right. For instance, back in April I booked round the world in business class for $3200 CAD with Air Canada flying their partners (Etihad, Virgin Australia, TAP Air Portugal and Asiana). I'll take that any day than spending a comparable amount flying Qantas or BA in coach.
What I would probably do is simply look at what the one way fares are from London back to Australia on Google flights and choose whichever is the cheapest and provides the best routing. I'm seeing $1100 AUD one-way from LHR to SYD (on some dates even less on AI). As some posters have mentioned, it is possible to fly somewhere else in Europe thereby bypassing the APD. However you have to determine whether the hassle of having to catch that additional flight/train ride makes sense. For me CDG is a non-starter because are you getting for that hassle is a reduction in the APD. Other cities in Europe (notably DUB, ARN) are notoriously cheap when it comes to international fares.
-RooFlyer88
