Qantas or Singapore Airlines BNE - BKK regularly

[stan101]

It looks like I can get QF Gold in than 4.4 flights doing BNE > SYD > BKK with economy flex. Retaining gold is just under 4 flights and I bound to have a couple on internal flights during the year.

 

[stan101]

For the time being, fly AY's (Finnair) QF service in premY will earn a bit more status, so maybe for the time being, do that.

Au poochie, Do I book the AY (Finair) via QF site or Finn site?

And I appreciate you and all posters who have taken the time.

I'm also open to some creative flights to get me some QF status. BNE > Japan or Dubai > BKK if there is a deal of sorts.
I Think that although SQ is much nicer for me that than QF, QF will be easiest to attain and keep.

 

[AustraliaPoochie]

Book on the QF/QFF website.
You will earn the most QFF by having the QF3xx code, rather than the AY code,
If I were doing it, I would do the QF/QFF booking, and earn the most QFF SC for now.
Then, when QF starts its own flights, without premY, decide then, but keep with QF if you have to fly Y/subclass of Y.
Do not do DXB - BKK, as there is most likely no QF code on that EK flight, you will earn little QFF points on an EK flight #.
JL SYD - NRT/HND - BKK will be ok, as they are in OW, you will earn.
QF have their QFF points and QFF SC calculator.
The aim is to get to QFF SG, but at 4 flights in subclass of Y/or full Y, I don't think you will reach SG, maybe PS and a half.
PS as we call it, only gets one visit to a QF int lounge, but SG will give you a years of visit.
The idea is to get as much flights as you can with a QF flight number, better still if its on a QF plane too, but AY's service, with a QF flight number, can do, and EK with a QF flight number can do too.
Mind you, SQ is a great airline, but to get status, as I mention, you have to fly a lot, in a premium cabin all the time!
QF flex Y will earn more than disc Y, but in the end, its up to your finances, and who is paying.
QFF points need activity every 18 months, which for us in Aust is easy.
SQ miles have a life of 3 years, and they are strict about it, they have been extending the points live/life, but maybe in a few months, they will start bringing back the 3 years life of KF miles.
===
Once the AY flights with the QF flight number stops, you can still earn QFF points flying AY, but it will be less.
What QF wants, is you to fly either BNE - SYD - BKK, or BNE - SIN and then SIN - BKK with 3K.
Check the codes, there is a part of AFF that breaks down the meaning of the abbreviations.
Sorry for the waffly.

 

[stan101]

Book on the QF/QFF website.
You will earn the most QFF by having the QF3xx code, rather than the AY code,
If I were doing it, I would do the QF/QFF booking, and earn the most QFF SC for now.
Then, when QF starts its own flights, without premY, decide then, but keep with QF if you have to fly Y/subclass of Y.
Do not do DXB - BKK, as there is most likely no QF code on that EK flight, you will earn little QFF points on an EK flight #.
JL SYD - NRT/HND - BKK will be ok, as they are in OW, you will earn.
QF have their QFF points and QFF SC calculator.
The aim is to get to QFF SG, but at 4 flights in subclass of Y/or full Y, I don't think you will reach SG, maybe PS and a half.
PS as we call it, only gets one visit to a QF int lounge, but SG will give you a years of visit.
The idea is to get as much flights as you can with a QF flight number, better still if its on a QF plane too, but AY's service, with a QF flight number, can do, and EK with a QF flight number can do too.
Mind you, SQ is a great airline, but to get status, as I mention, you have to fly a lot, in a premium cabin all the time!
QF flex Y will earn more than disc Y, but in the end, its up to your finances, and who is paying.
QFF points need activity every 18 months, which for us in Aust is easy.
SQ miles have a life of 3 years, and they are strict about it, they have been extending the points live/life, but maybe in a few months, they will start bringing back the 3 years life of KF miles.
===
Once the AY flights with the QF flight number stops, you can still earn QFF points flying AY, but it will be less.
What QF wants, is you to fly either BNE - SYD - BKK, or BNE - SIN and then SIN - BKK with 3K.
Check the codes, there is a part of AFF that breaks down the meaning of the abbreviations.
Sorry for the waffly.

No waffling. This is all great info. I've just booked An economy flex BNE>SYD>BKK return and it is 160 status. I will take another in the new year. That will get me Silver. I'll see how it goes getting gold.

As an aside. If I book flights for others through my login and they do not have a FF number, do I get the points and status? That is a no.

 

[AustraliaPoochie]

If with QFF, and the other flyers are QFF members, they can join for free, and they are in your family, there is family transfer of points.
This would be important for eg, if family travel with children, and the children travel less often, the points earnt by the children can be done (transferred) via family transfer, in blocks of 5,000 QFF points.
I think status credits do not transfer tho, in relation to us on here, status credits are the important of the two.
===
Ah, just had a look see.
For SQ, by what I had just checked, if the flyer is a child, their KF miles can be transferred to parents, but no vice versa.

 

[bussyboy]

And be sure to join QBR and link flights if you hadn't already!

 

[Mattg]

If you're booking Singapore Airlines economy flex fares, you'd earn 180 status credits per round-trip by crediting to Velocity. You need 500 SCs to get Velocity Gold, so that's less than 3 round trips, although you'd also need 4 VA marketed flights. (You could get those by booking VA codeshares on SQ, but those aren't widely available. Otherwise, just book a couple of domestic trips on Virgin and you're there.)

You could also get KrisFlyer Gold status by getting the HSBC Star Alliance credit card.

 

[eastwest101]

If you're booking Singapore Airlines economy flex fares, you'd earn 180 status credits per round-trip by crediting to Velocity. You need 500 SCs to get Velocity Gold, so that's less than 3 round trips, although you'd also need 4 VA marketed flights. (You could get those by booking VA codeshares on SQ, but those aren't widely available. Otherwise, just book a couple of domestic trips on Virgin and you're there.)

You could also get KrisFlyer Gold status by getting the HSBC Star Alliance credit card.

Looks like the OP has their heart set on Qantas and their frequent flyer ecosystem, so might be redundant info here, but was going to suggest the same as Mattg to the OP, if they are flying Singapore Airlines and are an Australian resident, and are prepared to credit to Velocity then crediting to Virgin Velocity for SC earn and points totally make sense, just need a few VA domestic flights and they can get to Velocity Gold fairly quickly. Any Velocity family pooling would also get the OP up the Velocity status ladder a bit quicker if they have a partner or children that fly. If access to lounges is important (and probably is one of the real benefits of status on any airline) then the shortcut via the HSBC Star Alliance credit card might be worth a look, with that much domestic and international flying they should be aiming to achieve either Qantas Gold or Virgin Veloctity gold status as a bare minimum, by the first year of flying, if they are prepared to do it the "hard way" - bum in seat flying and status credit earn flying Flexible economy.

I think the OP might learn the hard way that the status credits required to get to Qantas OneWorld Gold are a higher bar to achieve than Gold Status with Velocity (booking either Singapore Airlines or Virgin codeshares), not to mention the fact that transiting in Singapore airport is about a million times better than the Domestic to international transits in Sydney airport. But I guess in their position they have to pick an alliance /airline combo first and then plan what works for them.

 

[drron]

If you're booking Singapore Airlines economy flex fares, you'd earn 180 status credits per round-trip by crediting to Velocity. You need 500 SCs to get Velocity Gold, so that's less than 3 round trips, although you'd also need 4 VA marketed flights. (You could get those by booking VA codeshares on SQ, but those aren't widely available. Otherwise, just book a couple of domestic trips on Virgin and you're there.)

You could also get KrisFlyer Gold status by getting the HSBC Star Alliance credit card.

Well the SQ SIN - BKK - SIN flights we have been on have all been VA codeshare flights so 4 return flights will get you enough VA segments for VA plat if you can get the extra 280 SCs. And as 1 trip drops off it would be replaced by your present trip so plat status as long as your 4 BKK trips a year continue.

And if you do family pooling and use VA for your Family domestic or vacation trips that shouldn’t be too hard. You would only have to do that for the first year.
Plus as VA plat you get lounge access on SQ and a few other airlines including QR.
On top of that Hilton Diamond or IHG plat status.

 

[dajop]

Divorcing from the FF ecosystems, transferring at SIN beats the transfer at SYD, but perhaps not for the QF->3K transfer which now involves a dreaded bus ride. SQ would also involve a later start to the day (9am for SQ via SIN vs 6am flight if you take QF via SYD). If you're an early bird, then the QF/SYD option is OK, if you're not a fan of early starts, the SQ option might be much better.

 

[AustraliaPoochie]

And be sure to join QBR and link flights if you hadn't already!

If he has a business or ABN that is.

 

[stan101]

If you're booking Singapore Airlines economy flex fares, you'd earn 180 status credits per round-trip by crediting to Velocity. You need 500 SCs to get Velocity Gold, so that's less than 3 round trips, although you'd also need 4 VA marketed flights. (You could get those by booking VA codeshares on SQ, but those aren't widely available. Otherwise, just book a couple of domestic trips on Virgin and you're there.)

You could also get KrisFlyer Gold status by getting the HSBC Star Alliance credit card.

Okay, so how would I ensure that I book VA Codeshare? Is there a documented method on this site somewhere? I've been searching but unable to find it.

 

[stm1sydney]

Given that Qantas is now cough, I'd be going all in with VA/Velocity, and flying SQ BNE-SIN-BKK, crediting points and status credits to Velocity. Will be Gold in no time (after also flying the min four VA sectors) and be able to use the SIN Krisflyer Gold lounge (which is now excellent, certainly better than say the QF SYDi J lounge), priority boarding/checkin etc.

 

[Mattg]

Okay, so how would I ensure that I book VA Codeshare? Is there a documented method on this site somewhere? I've been searching but unable to find it.

To book VA codeshares, you could book on the Virgin Australia website. However, only a small subset of Singapore Airlines fares are offered as VA codeshares - so this is unlikely to be practicable.

(See VA codeshares on Singapore Airlines)

 

[drron]

All the SQ we flew SIN-BKK and reverse had VA codeshares

 

[Mattg]

All the SQ we flew SIN-BKK and reverse had VA codeshares

Most of the flights have them, but trying to book them can prove challenging (and expensive). It's almost as if VA isn't trying to sell any, for some reason.

 

[AustraliaPoochie]

Maybe more so, its SQ that's to blame.
They are the operators of those flights, and VA can only sell code shares as to what SQ stipulates.
Of course, if VA was in *A, all SQ flights would earn VFF points and VFF SC.
If the seats are on the SQ website, (on the SIN - BKK flights or vv) but do not appear on the VA web site as a code share, then its SQ.
Guess VA burnt their bridges with SQ and (Air)NZ in the past, so now, even if there was money, those major members of *A can veto them (VA) joining *A.
===
Not ideal, but if you can see fares cheaper than the code shares, or that the seats appear on the SQ website, but not on the VA one, is to book the seat under KF, fly the flight, earn under KF and then transfer to VFF, yes, its quite a large loss, but overall, its cheaper than trying to find the elusive code share seats.
I did try a non code share flight, by putting my KF # onto a VAd flight booking, flew the flight, and the claim got declined, didn't make a fuss, but lesson learnt.

 

[stm1sydney]

ot ideal, but if you can see fares cheaper than the code shares, or that the seats appear on the SQ website, but not on the VA one, is to book the seat under KF, fly the flight, earn under KF and then transfer to VFF, yes, its quite a large loss, but overall, its cheaper than trying to find the elusive code share seats.

Can book on SQ website (thus, non-codeshare flights inclusive) and enter your VFF number for direct crediting of VFF points and status credits. No loss.

 

[AustraliaPoochie]

Ah, thought that it was mentioned the agreement with the 2 airlines were code shares only, when the SQ flight carried the VA flight number.
Thought that VA not being in *A might make it harder to earn VFF points and VFF SC if the flights were not code shares.
As mentioned above, long time back now, but I did try it as a non code share flight, and my claim got declined.
It didn't post to my KF account for a few days after the VAd flight I took, and I put in a claim, as mentioned got declined.
Maybe it was the difference in earning class, or the fact it wasn't a code share, but I didn't want to make a fuss.
It was a discY fare.

 

[dajop]

The value in the VA coded flights over SQ coded flights is counting towards VA sectors (the squiggles in Qantas speak) and status bonus.