Save me some legwork please!

[vetrade]

Heading to JNB from MEL for our son's wedding - departing 26 Dec 16 and returning around 4-7 Jan 17.
I'll be stumping up for 4 pax in J so hopefully someone who travels that way regularly can advise on best value options.

Best I've come up with is Skyscanner MEL - PER - JNB on VA/SAA booked as a VA codeshare at $4163 return.
Strangely the return PER - JNB leg by itself on the same SAA flight priced up at $5635.

What say the gurus? TIA.

 

[ozbeachbabe]

Do any of the 4 travellers going have ff points to burn? If so, with whom? Have you got any points warehouse with a cc company that can be transferred to various ff programs

 

[vetrade]

Do any of the 4 travellers going have ff points to burn? If so, with whom? Have you got any points warehouse with a cc company that can be transferred to various ff programs

Have 1M VFF points and approx 200K QF but there didn't seem to be any award availability to use those VA points on SAA or even SIN. Generally we feel we get the best value from our points on RTW fares so I was thinking it would be a bit of a waste to burn them on a trip that's only 7 - 10 days long. Would have been much better if we had been given more warning of the date but they have work friends coming from multiple countries so they just decided the Xmas - NY break would suit most people best.

 

[Mattg]

If you don't mind leaving Melbourne on the evening of 25 December, you should be able to get award availability to JNB using VA to PER and SA onwards to JNB. I can see 4x J awards from PER to JNB departing at 23:45 on 25/12 (arriving 26/12). There are also 4x VA J awards on the 17:35 departure from MEL-PER on 25/12. There is also a 20:35 departure that would get you to PER in time, but without 4x J award seats. (Note that I can't see any PER-JNB availability on the VA website so you'll have to call up.)

I can't see any award availability for the return flights. However, a paid SQ J ticket from JNB to MEL (via SIN) costs under $2,400 each. That's with an A350 from JNB-SIN and an A380 from SIN to MEL. Emirates is also around that price, but the flying time would be a little bit longer.

 

[vetrade]

Thanks Mattg – I wanted to check I hadn’t missed a viable option but your comments pretty well confirm what I thought, even though I was hoping a fresh set of eyes would turn up something I’d missed. Unfortunately a Dec 25[SUP]th[/SUP] departure isn’t an option – wife needs to cover for some staff she has previously agreed to give that day off. So it has to be 26[SUP]th[/SUP] or 27[SUP]th[/SUP].
I reckon I’ll just lock in the MEL – PER – JNB VA/SAA option before they go.
Appreciate you putting in the time.

 

[ozbeachbabe]

Have 1M VFF points and approx 200K QF but there didn't seem to be any award availability to use those VA points on SAA or even SIN. Generally we feel we get the best value from our points on RTW fares so I was thinking it would be a bit of a waste to burn them on a trip that's only 7 - 10 days long. Would have been much better if we had been given more warning of the date but they have work friends coming from multiple countries so they just decided the Xmas - NY break would suit most people best.

You could use QF points to fly on CX749 HKG/JNB 2350/0645+1 which has award seats in both PE & J ex HKG on Tue 27 Dec for 75K & 92K respectively plus taxes of HKD330.00 (approx AUD56.00) which are the same regardless of class travelled. There is only PE available on Mon 26 Dec CX749.

You could always purchase a separate ticket on CX MEL/HKG/MEL and even with the new OW interlining rules CX could still through check you from MEL to JNB on two separate tickets as the first is a paid ticket and the second an award ticket.

I can't see any award availability for the return flights. However, a paid SQ J ticket from JNB to MEL (via SIN) costs under $2,400 each. That's with an A350 from JNB-SIN and an A380 from SIN to MEL. Emirates is also around that price, but the flying time would be a little bit longer.

That's a great idea so the OP could always nest the HKG/MEL leg of the paid ticket and choose a date for a separate trip to HKG then just do a one way award flight MEL/HKG to position.

To summarise:

South Africa trip Dec/Jan
MEL/HKG 26 or 27 Dec outbound leg of a paid ticket MEL/HKG/MEL in whY
HKG/JNB 26 or 27 Dec one way Classic/Partner award using QF points to travel on CX in PE or J
JNB/SIN/MEL one way paid J fare on SQ as per Mattg's suggestion above

Separate HKG trip future date
MEL/HKG tbc one way award to position eg wedding anniversary, milestone birthday
HKG/MEL tbc return leg of MEL/HKG/MEL ticket (outbound flight would be 26 or 27 Dec) you would need to know the date at the time of booking to minimise any change fees etc.

The reason I suggested purchasing a return MEL/HKG/MEL ticket on CX is that there may not be a lot of difference for a one way paid fare. If you didn't mind flying whY on the shorter flights MEL/HKG vv then do the long haul ex HKG/JNB in PE or J.

 

[vetrade]

I can see your train of thought, ozbeachbabe, but the paid fares from MEL – PER – JNB are still stacking up best at around $4200 pp. Firstly PE with QF for HKG – JNB is 75K points pp so for 4 of us I’d need 300K points in total, which I don’t have ATM.

Plus, QF (and VA via SIN) are both $4K or more just for the MEL – HKG – MEL J return and the cheapest CX is offering is $5900! For the same money we can get the full MEL –PER - JNB trip in J, save quite a bit of travel time and the process would be much simpler. Air Asia is the cheapest with MEL - HKG return via KUL but even they’re $2800 which I don't think is good value. Plus we normally only ever travel as a couple these days so with 4 of us on this trip we’d only be able to use 2 of the "spare" 4 HKG – MEL legs in the future.

I guess if we were travelling any time of year other than just after Xmas we could find much better prices (especially because we routinely plan our trips much further in advance) but on this occasion the decision regarding dates was not our prerogative.

Regarding your edit re whY; we only fly short interstate trips in Y these days. Up to about 15 years ago we coped (under sufferance!) with longer Y trips but now that we’re that bit older my wife doesn’t travel at all well in cramped conditions so to make sure we enjoy our trips if it's not J we stay home.