Should I fly a with a random cheap carrier, or Qantas?

[lano]

What are peoples opinions on whether to pay more for a full-service, well known airline (read: Qantas); or pay less for a less well known airline (read: Royal Brunei, Korean Air, Air China, Southern China Air, etc)

Backstory:
I'm looking for flights to London (/Paris) in mid-Sept, returning mid-Oct for 2 people. I've done some research and can get flights with various random carriers for between $1600 --> $1800 return, but the cheapest Qantas flights for the same time I've been able to find are about $2100, with the first leg by Jetstar to Singapore.

If I DID go Qantas I'd want an upgradeable fare class as by that time I'll be Gold with about 160,000 points to splurge, but the classes for that price were Q and O class fares which I understand aren't upgradable. However, I do notice that I'll be on the A380 between Singapore and London though

So, what should I do?

1. Cheap fare with random carrier?
2. Moderate fare on Qantas with no chance of an upgrade?
3. Expensive fare on Qantas with a chance of an upgrade?

What are peoples thoughts and experiences?

 

[Robert K]

if you are poor, go with cheap fare.
if you aren't poor, go with moderate fare.
if you are rich. go with expensive fare.

 

[eastwest101]

Do you want to fly Y, Y+ or J? I am assuming Y so would check out seat pitches if personal comfort is important to you. Will SC's be important to you? I would closely look at best connections (least transit time) and visa requirements (if any) unless you do want to overnight or break the journey in South Korea, maybe China could have a longer connection time? Some others have said good stuff about Air China, Southern China has had mixed reports. Royal Brunei has been tried by a few people here so may be worth a look at what they offer. You can search the discussion boards for other peoples trip reports on various airlines here that may be helpful.

 

[lano]

@Pu Koh: I could afford the expensive fare, or I could spend that money when I'm over there. I'm trying to find out if it's worth spending the extra $$ on the flights or not.

@eastwest:
I'm not really worried about personal comfort, I'm 6'4" (194 cm) and I've happily crammed myself into a Y seat over there and back a few times.
I'm taking my father along with me which is the reason I'd want to upclass if possible, as he's the same height as me but older and less flexible
Status credits: Nope, don't care. Not going to get past gold this year.
Transit time: Mostly equal, not particularly interested in stopovers but don't care either way.
I'll look for trip reports for those airlines, thanks

 

[wingspan]

One of the benefits of Royal Brunei is that they don't serve alcohol on their flights - so you have less of a chance of getting a drunken planemate seated nearby!

 

[Isochronous]

What are peoples opinions on whether to pay more for a full-service, well known airline (read: Qantas); or pay less for a less well known airline (read: Royal Brunei, Korean Air, Air China, Southern China Air, etc)

Backstory:
I'm looking for flights to London (/Paris) in mid-Sept, returning mid-Oct for 2 people. I've done some research and can get flights with various random carriers for between $1600 --> $1800 return, but the cheapest Qantas flights for the same time I've been able to find are about $2100, with the first leg by Jetstar to Singapore.

If I DID go Qantas I'd want an upgradeable fare class as by that time I'll be Gold with about 160,000 points to splurge, but the classes for that price were Q and O class fares which I understand aren't upgradable. However, I do notice that I'll be on the A380 between Singapore and London though

So, what should I do?

1. Cheap fare with random carrier?
2. Moderate fare on Qantas with no chance of an upgrade?
3. Expensive fare on Qantas with a chance of an upgrade?

What are peoples thoughts and experiences?

Korean will probably be the best value, especially since they give you a hotel room in Seoul as part of the ticket if you time it so the connecting flight is the next day. Why pay more for Qantas when you have to fly so far on the Deathstar? Wouldn't touch a Chinese carrier.

 

[Moopere]

What are peoples opinions on whether to pay more for a full-service, well known airline (read: Qantas); or pay less for a less well known airline (read: Royal Brunei, Korean Air, Air China, Southern China Air, etc)

I'd be cautious of all the airlines you mentioned except perhaps BI. I'm off to CDG next year and will almost certainly be flying AY. QF too expensive and I won't touch JQ even for a relatively short leg. QR also does a decent flight at a decent price.

I never pay for "chances" of anything. Raffles don't excite me. I _do_ pay more for tickets when its _my choice_ to upgrade and thats the option I want to exercise.

 

[amaroo]

Hell yes, pick the one that doesn't serve alcohol & do a TR - I'd like to know how boring and painful a 20 odd hour flight can really be

 

[Sprucegoose]

If you go el cheapo, don't complain if things go wrong.

 

[drewbles]

@eastwest:
I'm not really worried about personal comfort, I'm 6'4" (194 cm) and I've happily crammed myself into a Y seat over there and back a few times.

Please to be advising how on earth you do this (as i'm 6'4" and i've effectively sworn off all Y travel entirely now, it's Y+ at minimum or nothing).

Look at JAL and see if they have some good Y+ deals still. They did with an overnight in TOK (hotel included) which may be a nice way to break up a trip, and see something a bit different.

I can highly recommend QR whY too although when I travelled with a friend, we took a punt and booked the aisle and window seat both ways, and ended up having the middle seat empty (that was from MEL to DOH, but DOH to BRU was on their older A330's which was not nearly as nice).

 

[lano]

If you go el cheapo, don't complain if things go wrong.

The only times I've had trouble on flights were with Qantas and Finnair ;-)


Thanks everyone for your opinions and suggestions. Please keep them coming

 

[lano]

Please to be advising how on earth you do this (as i'm 6'4" and i've effectively sworn off all Y travel entirely now, it's Y+ at minimum or nothing). .

Practice. I fly somewhere between 4 & 6 times a month, 1/2 on Q400's and 1/2 on Cityflyers between Brisbane and Melbourne. My company only pays for the cheapest possible fare, it took me a year to convince them that I should fly on Qantas rather than Virgin, Jetstar or *shudder* Tiger!

 

[drewbles]

Practice. I fly somewhere between 4 & 6 times a month, 1/2 on Q400's and 1/2 on Cityflyers between Brisbane and Melbourne. My company only pays for the cheapest possible fare, it took me a year to convince them that I should fly on Qantas rather than Virgin, Jetstar or *shudder* Tiger!

I don't accept practice as any substitution for my sanity I've done over 129k BIS miles this year so far and there is just no way I can do it for long haul. Domestic I'll deal with it (although being from PER I do burn my 4 free J upgrades on DJ quite readily).

 

[travelislife]

US dividend miles, sale currently on, go in J for just a little more than your Qantas Y ticket.

 

[JohnK]

Do you care about QFF points?

If I was going to London on Qantas as a Platinum I would be earning ~40,000 QFF points which to me are worth ~AUD1,000 and about 25% of the way to a Oneworld award. As a bronze one would earn ~20,000 QFF points.

If Qantas airfare was $2,100 and other airfare was $1,800 then the saving would not be enough to make up for QFF points, seat selection, lounge access etc.

And another silly example from recent research on Scoot airfares to SIN. If I was to use Scoot to get to SIN with checked luggage, golf clubs, seat selection etc the airfare was >$500. For a couple hundred more I could get there on Qantas with lots of goodies included. If I going there for the weekend though it may well be a different story.

 

[Alanslegal]

US dividend miles, sale currently on, go in J for just a little more than your Qantas Y ticket.

And to follow this idea, it would cost approx. $2.8K to get to Paris return flying confirmed business class.

 

[scaredeycat]

If you fly Finnair, the legs to Singapore will probably be on Qantas metal (A380, depending on departure point). AY seem to have competitive J fares but I have no idea re Y or Y+.

 

[leemin]

And to follow this idea, it would cost approx. $2.8K to get to Paris return flying confirmed business class.

Is that price calculated on buying the necessary points?

 

[lano]

@drewbles: Yeah, I think you do more long haul than I do, thankfully most of my flights are less that 2.5 hours......
@JohnK: I don't care about the points but you have a good point about all the other benefits, I'll have a think about that.
@scaredeycat: Yeah, last time I flew Cathy to HK then Finnair onwards, but had Qantas between HK and Melbourne on the way back.

 

[extracta]

Seeing that you are going to be SG anyway I would get the cheapest QF flight I could get and then pay for the exit row seats.

You get more leg room than in J and have the ability to easily stand up and walk around at any time and IMHO they are great value.