Sydney to Paris 2012

[colonel]

Hi All

New member and seeking advice.

I am a Gold Frequent Flyer and have 600,000 points. I am saving up to take my wife to Paris for a few weeeks mid 2012. We are leaving the kids behind, so need to minimise travel time as best we can to ensure maximum time in France.

I am looking to book Business Class Frequent Flyer return to get there and back, and would welcome any advice or tips from more experienced travellers.

I am not sure whether to book to Paris direct, or is there a benefit in booking to London and travelling to Paris by other means.??

Is it better to buy Economy and upgrade??

Any tips or advice would be warmly recieved.

Any accommodation tips in Paris would be great too.

Thanks in advance

Colonel

 

[futaris]

Welcome to AFF.

I'll assume you have QANTAS points.

282,500 QANTAS points (including booking fee) per person will get you a Oneworld award. This will allow you to fly to 5 destinations, using at least two oneworld airlines other than QANTAS.

If you don't book a oneworld award, you'll pay a lot more QANTAS points for the London - Paris leg. In this case, it's probably better to use the Eurostar. 256,000 QANTAS points should be enough for a return trip to London.

 

[colonel]

Thanks for the reply

My points are QANTAS points.

I am still a bit confused though. The Qantas booking site for Sydney-Paris shows direct with a stopover on Singapore. The second leg of the journey appears to be an Air France flight.

The Sydney-London looks like they are Qanats aircraft.

Is there any signifcant differnece in aircraft and quality to make it worthwhile going through London

Colonel

 

[futaris]

Singapore to Paris is a codeshare flight on a Air France plane. You won't be able to redeem QANTAS points on a codeshare, unless you redeem for an Any Seat Award, at a ridiculous rate.

e.g. SYD-SIN-CDG on QANTAS then Air France will cost at least ~230k QANTAS points in ECONOMY per person. You should be able to get SYD-HKG-CDG on Cathay Pacific for around 140-150k QFF points in Business oneway.

The pricing I quoted above was for a QANTAS Classic award.

Note that travelling from London, there are significant long-haul airport taxes (air passenger duty) which are more for Business Class, and increase depending on the distance that you fly. e.g. LHR-SIN-SYD oneway has around 270-300 GBP taxes in Economy and around 400 GBP taxes in Business or First.

You'll probably find that doing something like SYD-SIN-LHR-CDG-HKG-SYD is "cheaper" as a Oneworld award than doing a simple return as a QANTAS Classic award.

 

[JohnPhelan]

I would definitely fly QF to London and either fly or train to Paris. That will be the most efficient use of your points. And I wouldn't touch Air France!

 

[WindowSeat]

Correct me if I'm wrong but Cathay Pacific fly direct HKG>CDG, and should be able to use QF points for classic award on that leg via QF call centre (CX availability not shown online)?

 

[futaris]

While you can redeem for SYD-HKG-CDG-HKG-SYD all on Cathay Pacific as a Partner Classic Award, it will cost you about the same as a similar Oneworld award.

Frequent Flyer - Using Points - Qantas & Partner Classic Awards - Points Tables
Sydney to Paris is Zone 10 award, 139k each way in Business.

So 278k for a simple return fare on Cathay, without stopovers.

If you fly directly to London on British Airways or QANTAS, it will only cost 128k each way.

So 256k for a return fare on BA or QANTAS, without stopovers.

Or get a Oneworld award for 280k and get stopovers and/or visit a few more places on the way there / back. Plus you'll get better availability, since you can mix and match more airlines and dates...

 

[ellen10]

Hi Colonel

In 2009 I redeemed two award flights to Paris return. The flights were a mix of Qantas and BA. Our flights directed through Heathrow and all connections were good. We were very happy everything.

We stopped over in London on the way back. We did a multi-city booking

 

[medhead]

I think you've been given a few very good options. I like this one if just wanting to fly:

You'll probably find that doing something like SYD-SIN-LHR-CDG-HKG-SYD is "cheaper" as a Oneworld award than doing a simple return as a QANTAS Classic award.

However, I am very much a train person. If you wish to stick to Qantas only (big if) then there are a couple of train options. One is to flying into london and then eurostar it, this is a great service and I think it is only about 3 or 4 hours london to paris.

The other option is to fly to Frankfurt (also can be done only with QF) the advantage is that there might be more award availability for SYD to FRA. It is then about a 4 to 5 hour train journey to Paris. The route via Brussels to meet the eurostar/Thalys is quicker, or at about 5 hours you can go sort direct. I did this in 2007 and we initially had a direct train connection booked. However, we missed that with a 6 hour delay on QF5 and ended up doing FRA to Karlsruhe and then Karlsruhe to Paris. We had about 2 or 3 hours in Karlsruhe due to connection issues and have a late charge. But you know it was great! The kids checked out the Karlsruhe zoo and had a really good time and we had a very enjoyable and relaxing lunch in the town. If you have the time that type of thing is certainly worth the day trip.

Of course, I'll freely admit that the FRA option isn't the quickest to get to the city of light.

 

[Rebekkap]

I would definitely fly QF to London and either fly or train to Paris. That will be the most efficient use of your points. And I wouldn't touch Air France!

Why not? I've flown twice SIN-CDG on codeshare with AF, was fine both times - and the food on AF is a cut above Qantas IMO.

 

[grussellt]

It may seem a long way but you can also fly to Paris via the US for 128,000pts. SYD-LAX-JFK-CDG is one choice. You avoid Heathrow (but do get LAX and JFK). A quick trip to the Admirals Club for drinks and a shower makes the trip a lot easier. You must choose AA: it will be more points on BA.
An interesting one stop trip would be SYD-DFW-CDG - also 128000pts.

 

[futaris]

If you want to fly via the USA, good luck in getting two seats in Business transpacific on QANTAS (especially in peak time).

Note that you can only book AA flights 330 days in advance. QANTAS, Cathay Pacific, BA and JAL flights should be bookable 355 days in advance.

NB, the via DFW option is something like this:
QF7 SYD-DFW 14:25-13:50 - 15h25m flying
AA48 DFW-CDG 17:15-09:40 - 9h25m flying

3h25m connection time, which is well above the 1hr International-International Minimum Connection Time (MCT)...

24h50m flying via DFW isn't too bad, since it's 22h15m flying via HKG, ~23h flying via SIN/LHR. Incidentally AA48 arrives the same time as the first BA option.

 

[excell]

IMHO as my wife and son fly to Paris every year to see family the best option has always been.
SYD - LHR QF031(A380) then any BA or AF flight to CDG or ORY they fly pretty much every 25 mins. Eurostar is a great option as well.
Re Hotels check out Mr.&Mrs.Smith, Leading Hotels of the World, Small Luxary Hotels or Luxe city Guides there is plenty of choice and all sizes and budgets.
Hope this helps

 

[Jacques Vert]

An important Q: do you want to go to Paris only? Or do you have the time and inclination to visit other places?

If the latter, what would be your top 5 destinations?