QF or BA flight?

[manofham]

Hi

I'm trying to choose between a return from Auckland - Stockholm with either Qantas or BA.

Both airlines have same base fare of NZ$2,029. But due to differing fuel surcharges BA is $2,422 while Qantas is $2,606 all up.

I am a Qantas FF member so flying Qantas I get 1 point per mile but flying BA I will only get 0.25 points per mile (I'm gold so it will actually be 1.5 pts/mile on Q and 0.375 pts/mile on BA)

What I'd like to know is:
1. Is it worth paying the extra for Qantas points?
2. Am I correct in thinking that the points are based on the flight number on the ticket (QF vs BA) rather than who the plane belongs to? I.e. my Auckland to Sydney flight will be ticketed as BA even though it is a Qantas flight so will I only get 0.25 pts / mile?

Thanks, H

 

[Dave Noble]

On the Sydney to London flight you would earn full miles on BA, so the loss of points is only on the AKL-SYD flight and LHR-ARN , so not a major loss in points

Have you tried the AA site for a BA flight to LHR since AA does not charge the YQ fuel fines on BA

(I just saved AUD425 on a LHR-SYD r/t booking over the phone with AA on a QF fare for tomorrow thanks to their not charging fuel fines )

Dave

 

[serfty]

First, manofham, welcome to AFF.

Actually, you will get 1.5 QFF points per mile with BA on the Kangaroo Route (via BKK/SIN, not HKG) due to the JSA (Joint Services Agreement), so go BA all the way.

British Airways (BA) ...

*Exception: Travel in Discount Economy between:
- Adelaide, Brisbane, Darwin, Melbourne, Perth or Sydney and London or Frankfurt via Bangkok or Singapore
...
will earn a Base Rate of 1.

 

[manofham]

Thanks both for your help - greatly appreciated.

Rang up AA and got AKL - LHR return via Bangkok quote of $2,637. And that is without the extra cost of a LHR - ARN return.

Hence I think I'll go with the BA flights.

 

[JohnK]

I'm trying to choose between a return from Auckland - Stockholm with either Qantas or BA.

Both airlines have same base fare of NZ$2,029. But due to differing fuel surcharges BA is $2,422 while Qantas is $2,606 all up.

Rang up AA and got AKL - LHR return via Bangkok quote of $2,637. And that is without the extra cost of a LHR - ARN return.

No surprise that AA is more expensive on point to point return international airfares. Unless I am searching in the wrong areas.

A while back I looked at AA website for airfares SYD-SIN return or SYD-BKK return and they were pricing $200-$300 more than Qantas website.

Also looked at AA website for airfares in SE Asia on Finnair and they were more than double the price quoted on the Finnair website.

 

[Dave Noble]

Well, I just booked a K class London to Sydney ticket through AA office and it was about $420 ( i.e. the fuel surcharge amount ) cheaper than booking the same ticket through Qantas. On top of that , no fine for booking over the phone nor any $75 local service fines for the privilege of making the free changes to the ticket

Dave

 

[Dave Noble]

Thanks both for your help - greatly appreciated.

Rang up AA and got AKL - LHR return via Bangkok quote of $2,637. And that is without the extra cost of a LHR - ARN return.

Hence I think I'll go with the BA flights.

Do you actually want to go via BKK; have you looked at the price of going AKL-LAX-LHR-ARN rather than AKL-SYD-BKK-LHR-ARN. Same distance , but less flights so likely to be quicker journey

Dave

 

[JohnK]

Just some of my examples recently. Maybe I am looking in the wrong place!

Travelling SIN-SYD-SIN (QF32/QF31) 10 Jan - 04 Apr from QF website ~A$920 (SG$1081) from AA website ~A$1190 (US$909).

Travelling business class SIN-BKK-SIN (AY98/AY97) 27 Dec - 10 Jan from Finnair website ~A$560 (SG$657) from AA website ~A$1380 (US$1056).

 

[Dave Noble]

Just some of my examples recently. Maybe I am looking in the wrong place!

Travelling SIN-SYD-SIN (QF32/QF31) 10 Jan - 04 Apr from QF website ~A$920 (SG$1081) from AA website ~A$1190 (US$909).

Travelling business class SIN-BKK-SIN (AY98/AY97) 27 Dec - 10 Jan from Finnair website ~A$560 (SG$657) from AA website ~A$1380 (US$1056).

The QF fare for SIN-SYD r/t has a sales restriction that it can only be sold in Singapore



The AY DFLEX1 fare SIN-BKK r/t has a similar restriction, so again must ( for the ticket to be valid ) sold inside and tiketed inside Singapore

TICKETS MAY NOT BE ISSUED BY PTA. SITI TRANSACTIONS REQUIRED. 
EXTENSION OF TICKET VALIDITY IS NOT PERMITTED.

The AA site will only offer fares that can be sold in accordabce with the rules of the ticket and for business class SIN-BKK, the cheapest fare is the YY C fare .For SIN-SYD, the cheapest fare on QF that does not have a sales restriction is the HLEE1YSG fare ( though given the SG in the fare basis suggests that missing the restriction out was an oversight ). For anyone short on SCs, the HLEE1YSG fare is good in that taking a routing, say, of SIN-PER-MEL-SYD does give 65SCs each way for a total of 130SCs due to the full SC earning domestically compared to 60SCs total taking SIN-SYD on the cheap fare. Book it by phone and I suspect that the USD833 would drop to a base of Approx AUD874 plus taxes of AUD99 giving a total cost of AUD974 based on my experiences this week

Most fares internationally do not have sales restriction like that (though Singapore seems to revel in it) , but when they do , AA cannot offer them due to being in the US. It can also have benefits; I have used AA to buy fares from BA which have had a sales restriction of "may not be sold in the UK" and so not offered by the BA site



Dave

 

[Kiwi Flyer]

Yup. Also no AA codeshares since US doesn't have the right freedoms for flights between Asia and Australia.

 

[Febs]

Forgetting points and everything else, for me it'd be worth paying the extra few hundred for QANTAS just to avoid BA. I recently flew the Kangaroo Run on BA and had a shocking time, topped off by them losing my bags (my final destination was Stockholm too) for 3 days. SYD-LHR-ARN and they couldn't get the bags right.

Stick with QANTAS.

Cheers,
- Febs.

 

[Dave Noble]

Forgetting points and everything else, for me it'd be worth paying the extra few hundred for QANTAS just to avoid BA. I recently flew the Kangaroo Run on BA and had a shocking time, topped off by them losing my bags (my final destination was Stockholm too) for 3 days. SYD-LHR-ARN and they couldn't get the bags right.
- Febs.

Well, my experiences with BA are good and in many ways these days are better than Qantas methinks. Regardless, the OP's choice was between a QF flight number or a BA flight number on the same Qantas flight, so ( to me ) a no brainer to take the BA one

Dave

 

[Febs]

on the same Qantas flight

Oh, well in that case, fair enough.
Agreed that we all have different experiences, but I can only impart mine. I've been impressed with QANTAS on all my domestic and international flights. Maybe I've just been lucky.

Cheers,
- Febs.

 

[NM]

Forgetting points and everything else, for me it'd be worth paying the extra few hundred for QANTAS just to avoid BA. I recently flew the Kangaroo Run on BA and had a shocking time, topped off by them losing my bags (my final destination was Stockholm too) for 3 days. SYD-LHR-ARN and they couldn't get the bags right.

Stick with QANTAS.

And just how do you get to ARN with Qantas? As far as I am aware, the baggage handling at LHR (which is where I assume you bag went missing) for a QF arrival from SYD and BA departure to ARN would be by the exact same people with the exact same processes as if your arrival was on a BA flight. And you would still be dealing with the same BA baggage people to try to recover your delayed bag.

So for baggage handing at LHR purposes, there is no reason to choose QF over BA.

 

[Febs]

the baggage handling at LHR (which is where I assume you bag went missing) for a QF arrival from SYD and BA departure to ARN would be by the exact same people with the exact same processes as if your arrival was on a BA flight.

Be that as it may, I still believe some blame lies with BA:

- I arrived at LHR approximately 120 minutes late (arriving from SYD via BKK on a BA flight), and therefore missed my connection to ARN (unacceptable IMO - there was no adverse weather to cause iit). I went straight to the BA desk, told them I'd missed the flight, and asked what they could put me on. They waitlisted me on one flight (which I didn't get on), then waitlisted me on another much later flight (which I successfully got onto).
- Apparently, I was originally booked on an SAS flight, but was never told this.
- 3 days?? There are several LHR-ARN flights every day, how can my baggage go missing for 3 days??
- One bag arrived after two days. I asked for this bag to be sent to me. BA/their baggage handling agent refused, saying they would only send both bags at once. The other bag didn't arrive for another 24 hours. I needed this bag, so I took a 2 hour bus trip (each way) to ARN to pick it up myself. As OW Sapphire, I would've expected better. In the past I've had QF bend over backwards for me - yet BA couldn't even give me a bag I urgently needed.
- When I finally received my baggage, it had tags from SAS, Finnair and BA. Why did the bags need to take so many flights?

Sure, some of the above factors might have been the responsibility of a third-party, or may have been the same if I was travelling with QF, but as a customer, my discussions, phonecalls and all correspondence was with BA, so that's who I see as the responsible party.

It wasn't just the baggage situation either - it was the 2 hour delay, the shocking (and non-AVOD*) IFE, the whole seat allocation system, rude staff, I could go on.

Cheers,
- Febs.

* I've had several QF AVOD flights and have never experienced any problems or outages, so I'm a big AVOD fan.

 

[NM]

It wasn't just the baggage situation either - it was the 2 hour delay, the shocking (and non-AVOD*) IFE, the whole seat allocation system, rude staff, I could go on.

Your opinion of BA is formed by your experiences, and that is exactly as it should be.

However, I do not believe you would have had a different experience at LHR and ARN had it been a QF flight that was delayed by 2 hours causing the misconnect. The same people would have been managing (or perhaps mis-managing is a better term) the situation.

BA is not the only airline to experience delays that are not weather related. I have had my fare share on QF as well.

I would not choose QF over BA as a result of the baggage stuff-up or delayed arrival at LHR. But I would make my decision based on other factors you note such as staff attentiveness, IFE, seat allocation etc. And obviously QF is ahead in those areas based on your personal experience.

 

[JohnK]

As OW Sapphire, I would've expected better. In the past I've had QF bend over backwards for me - yet BA couldn't even give me a bag I urgently needed.

Without adding further fuel to the fire my experiences with BA have not been that bad but they couldn't care less about OW Sapphire status. As you mention QF has done more for me than I have ever expected from them.

- When I finally received my baggage, it had tags from SAS, Finnair and BA. Why did the bags need to take so many flights?

Your bags were trying to qualify for OW Emerald status!

 

[Dave Noble]

Without adding further fuel to the fire my experiences with BA have not been that bad but they couldn't care less about OW Sapphire status.

BA provide the level of service which they have committed to provide to OW Sapphire, which is all that can be expected

Dave

 

[JohnK]

BA provide the level of service which they have committed to provide to OW Sapphire, which is all that can be expected

Which to be fair is inferior to the level of service QF provides to Oneworld Sapphires, ala BA Silver, AA Platinum.

I did say that my experiences with BA were not that bad. Overall QF's economy product and service is superior to BA's economy product and service. As usual YMMV!

 

[thadocta]

Which to be fair is inferior to the level of service QF provides to Oneworld Sapphires, ala BA Silver, AA Platinum.

I did say that my experiences with BA were not that bad. Overall QF's economy product and service is superior to BA's economy product and service. As usual YMMV!

Of course - from my experience, everything about BA is that they do not care about the lower class cabins, if they could get rid of them, then they would.

Look at BAEC, where you do not gain anything unless in a very high paying WHY class, no RUBY level either, so your WHY passengers who travel a fair bit (but not a lot) get absolutely no benefits, and the whole thing with BA seems to be that they are a bunch of toffs (which is yet another reason why I like to fly on QF, with an Australian crew, this doesn't happen, no matter what class you are flying).

(Good Lord, JohnK, you and I seem to be agreeing - what is going on here??????)

Dave