The Qantas Newbie Questions Thread

[Mwenenzi]

I'm flying to Dubai at the end of April and I have 2 questions. I booked with Qantas, but flying with Emirates, do I go to the QF desk to book in or EK? Also, the flight departs at 6am, what time do I need to check-in? On-line never works for me.

Check in with the operating airline
International flights require a document check.
For 06:00am guessing they say 3:00hrs before. With an EK flight will be a lot of passengers.. For me no later than 2:00hrs, but make your own choice.

 

[RooFlyer]

I'm flying to Dubai at the end of April and I have 2 questions. I booked with Qantas, but flying with Emirates, do I go to the QF desk to book in or EK? Also, the flight departs at 6am, what time do I need to check-in? On-line never works for me.

Check in with Emirates. If economy
I'd turn up about 4am. If a higher cabin, Id leave it half an hour more. At that hour, no about of lounge time would be good.

 

[SuePa]

For 06:00am guessing they say 3:00hrs before.

I'd turn up about 4am.

Thanks, that's what I thought.
Blerh, a very early morning to add to an already long trip, but it might help me nap a bit on my long economy flight.

 

[serfty]

Thanks, I suspected as much. Booked the ticket as P/E but bass strait leg obviously cant be anything but economy, however booking clearly highlighted the AA leg was in "economy". I'll ensure I dress nice and whisper about it being my honeymoon at check in ha ha

Have you select a seat on this flight yet? Edit:- I see your profle indicates Qantas Bronze.

 

[@WhiteboardKing]

Have you select a seat on this flight yet? Edit:- I see your profle indicates Qantas Bronze.

Seats selected for QF93/94 and have gone into AA and selected seats for the domestic codeshare flight.

 

[serfty]

Seats selected for QF93/94 and have gone into AA and selected seats for the domestic codeshare flight.

No worries. What sort of seat offerings did AA.com give you?

Do you know the fare bucket for the segment? You can see this on a Desktop manage booking screen, select "Flight Details". Beside Travel Class will be something like "Economy" and a single letter in brackets - your Premium Economy segments would be one of (W) (R) or (T).

 

[AustraliaPoochie]

For SuePa, what is airline code on the tix?
EK or QF.
Reason I ask, is that if your tix is an EK flight number, you earn few QFF points and no QFF SC, if the flight number is QF8xx_ then you will earn QFF points in the class of travel, and some QFF SC.
Even though you have booked with via QF, is it an EK flight number or a QF flight number.
Assume its from SYD?
What class of travel, I do realise you are a QFF NB.

 

[SuePa]

For SuePa, what is airline code on the tix?
EK or QF.
Reason I ask, is that if your tix is an EK flight number, you earn few QFF points and no QFF SC, if the flight number is QF8xx_ then you will earn QFF points in the class of travel, and some QFF SC.
Even though you have booked with via QF, is it an EK flight number or a QF flight number.
Assume its from SYD?
What class of travel, I do realise you are a QFF NB.

Yes, from Sydney. The tickets have QF numbers and I can see in my booking that I will get QFF SC and points.
I made it to Silver this year and I think this gives me enough SC to retain Silver, so long as the flights count, so I'm pretty happy (despite the long flights in Y).

 

[@WhiteboardKing]

No worries. What sort of seat offerings did AA.com give you?

Do you know the fare bucket for the segment? You can see this on a Desktop manage booking screen, select "Flight Details". Beside Travel Class will be something like "Economy" and a single letter in brackets - your Premium Economy segments would be one of (W) (R) or (T).

AA gave me selection of anything that was still available. The booking is Y. QF won't book greater then Y as a connector in a standard return trip search. I would have had to search J I suggest to have gotten a higher class with AA.

 

[jcwhizz]

I'm flying to Dubai at the end of April and I have 2 questions. I booked with Qantas, but flying with Emirates, do I go to the QF desk to book in or EK? Also, the flight departs at 6am, what time do I need to check-in? On-line never works for me.

Ouch… a 6 am start always stings - any idea why your online check-in doesn’t work - assume you have tried going through EK website / app before? Really would be worth seeing if you can sort this out via your travel agent or through a bit of investigation with EK (is your API filled in correctly?) as it will allow you to turn up a bit later particularly if you don’t have check-in bags….

 

[encryptededdy]

do I go to the QF desk to book in or EK

Check-in with the operating carrier (EK)

 

[SuePa]

Ouch… a 6 am start always stings - any idea why your online check-in doesn’t work - assume you have tried going through EK website / app before? Really would be worth seeing if you can sort this out via your travel agent or through a bit of investigation with EK (is your API filled in correctly?) as it will allow you to turn up a bit later particularly if you don’t have check-in bags….

I know, 6am departure !!
I haven't tried OLCI with this trip, I'm not going until April, but I will definitely try it before heading to the airport. I'm staying at Rydges, so I have considered taking my bag over and checking in, then going back to the hotel for a while. I'm going for about 6 weeks, so I will have a bag to check in.
Thanks everyone for your advice.

 

[Andykay]

Hello.

I'm very new to the world of FF. I'm going to start doing some credit card churning and I'm trying to work out my approach.

There's a thread on this forum about the recent difficulty of redeeming points for international business flights, owing to COVID etc. It sounds like this is particularly bad if your status is low. My partner and I only fly 3-4 times a year, so we're unlikely to be able to maintain anything above bronze.

One option for me is to get a business rewards account since I am a sole trader, and I think the business rewards pathway might be more viable for me, but I have a few questions about how that would work:

1) Your points earned for flights contribute to your Qantas business rewards level. Does this include things like double or triple points earned for flight purchases if you use an Amex or something with a similar offer? Or is it just the base level of points earned before Amex would double them?

2) Do the status levels in the Qantas business rewards program (eg level 2 or level 3) open up more Classic Reward Flights to be booked, much like being platinum on a personal QFF account does?

3) If I can get to 80,000 points, that unlocks level 3 in the business rewards and would allow me to give my personal QFF account gold status. When I was reading that aforementioned thread, it seemed to imply that platinum was sort of the minimum level where it became easier to find international business flights under Classic Rewards. Does gold status still offer a better selection?

Thanks for your help.

 

[RooFlyer]

Welcome to AFF @Andykay .

I’m sorry, I’m not going to address your particular queries except to say that yes Platinum by far gives you the best chance of securing Qantas award flights.

What I want to say is: are you determined to go down the Qantas frequent flyer path, If you are going to churn credit cards.? There are ones where allow you to accumulate points on programs like Singapore Airlines Krisflyer. There’s even a star alliance. branded card these days. See the thread on this.

Qantas frequent flyer is notoriously difficult to get flights to say North America or Europe in premium cabins, and this was a thing well before Covid. Even flights to places like Singapore. There are many people who have huge amount of points and simply unable to use them for booking in premium cabins.

So, before you commit to Qantas frequent flyer, just consider all the alternatives. This forum’s as sister website, Frequent Flyer Solutions can be of great help in looking at the alternatives to Qantas FF. At the very least, google that, have a look at it, maybe subscribe and check out some of the highly informative expert commentary, webinars etc.

 

[Andykay]

Welcome to AFF @Andykay .

I’m sorry, I’m not going to address your particular queries except to say that yes Platinum by far gives you the best chance of securing Qantas award flights.

What I want to say is: are you determined to go down the Qantas frequent flyer path, If you are going to churn credit cards.? There are ones where allow you to accumulate points on programs like Singapore Airlines Krisflyer. There’s even a star alliance. branded card these days. See the thread on this.

Qantas frequent flyer is notoriously difficult to get flights to say North America or Europe in premium cabins, and this was a thing well before Covid. Even flights to places like Singapore. There are many people who have huge amount of points and simply unable to use them for booking in premium cabins.

So, before you commit to Qantas frequent flyer, just consider all the alternatives. This forum’s as sister website, Frequent Flyer Solutions can be of great help in looking at the alternatives to Qantas FF. At the very least, google that, have a look at it, maybe subscribe and check out some of the highly informative expert commentary, webinars etc.

Thanks for the reply!

I'm certainly not attached to QFF specifically. I was weighing up Velocity vs Qantas. I know people like Krisflyer, but I hadn't seen many cards that offered those points and I was under the impression they expire fairly fast?

I'm basically just looking to make my yearly overseas trip to Japan/Europe/America with my partner more comfortable by hopefully upgrading our flights to business and getting lounge access without forking out huge money. A few bumps on some of the three or four domestic flights we probably take a year would be a bonus.

I will investigate. Thanks again for the reply.

 

[RichardMEL]

G'day AndyKay, @RooFlyer echoed my own thoughts. As a 3-4 time a year flyer, higher levels of status are unlikely (unless it's paid Business/First to London ).

My thought is something like Amex Memmbership Rewards - as a business owner Amex may probide some real flexibility to provide for transfer of points to other programs, or book with them (I don't use it so I'm not up on the details) - and I think Amex can be useful for business spend too.

You may find better value away frm QFF to be honest - but it may also depend on your specific travel patterns and requirements in the short/medium and maybe longer term also.

(also IIRC QBR "levels" provide no extra access to reward seats but I'm happy to be corrected on that).

 

[RooFlyer]

Some more for @Andykay

Credit Card Offers - HSBC Star Alliance Credit Card: Fast-Track to Star Alliance Gold Status

Fast track to Star Alliance Gold status with the HSBC Star Alliance credit card! Learn more and apply for this card: https://www.australianfrequentflyer.com.au/credit-cards/hsbc-star-alliance-card-guide/ What are the main benefits of this card? Signup bonus: Fast Track to Star Alliance Gold...

www.australianfrequentflyer.com.au

Note the Australian Frequent Flyer Gazette as another free resource - subscribe via links at the top of the AFF page

New HSBC Star Alliance Credit Card in Australia

Star Alliance is launching its own credit card in Australia. Photo: Star Alliance. A unique new Star Alliance-branded credit card has launched today in

www.australianfrequentflyer.com.au

If you are looking at Virgin, then know also that they are partners with (amongst others) SQ (with reciprocal points exchange ability) and Air Canada - the latter where you can buy points to supplement those earned by cards and when they have bonus offers, are good value.

BTW, its considered 'best practice' to warehouse points in bank/card schemes which offer multiple airline redemption options (AMEX is the best) and only redeem when you are ready to book on an award flight you have found.

 

[AustraliaPoochie]

On another thread someone mentioned he had enough money and documents, yet got declined.
Thread called (what cheeses me off).
Its the credit assessment that can be the hiccup.
You might meet 99.9% of the criteria but even not having a smallish debt can negate the application.

 

[BriarFlyer]

I'm basically just looking to make my yearly overseas trip to Japan/Europe/America with my partner more comfortable by hopefully upgrading our flights to business and getting lounge access without forking out huge money.

Hi @Andykay and welcome to AFF. Your goal of using points for upgrades may not be the best in your circumstances, especially with QFF where international upgrades are allocated according to status. If you're not flying enough to attain Gold or Platinum then your chances are ... well ... diminished.

You may be better served accumulating points for classic flight rewards, although you need to be flexible with dates and able to plan and book your trips well in advance (i.e. when the awards are first released.)

 

[jcwhizz]

Hi @Andykay

I think it’s going to be very hard to access any of the business award flights in the current climate unless you are Platinum.

Some of the credit cards will give you comp access to their lounges (eg AMEX) or vouchers that can be used in specific lounges when flying with that airline (eg Qantas club) - worth having if you have a long layover. Be aware though that use of these vouchers come with the caveat that there is the very real possibility of disappointment - as most airlines reserve the right to turn away “extras” if their lounges are particularly full.

With regards to the fare itself it’s worth remembering there are usually some extremely well priced discount business fares out there. Sometimes accessing these will involve quite circuitous (and longer) routes to your destination - however it may be acceptable (and fun), for example, to take a short(er) economy flight to a city / country where a much better business fare long haul to your desired final destination is available. A appropriately briefed travel agent is probably the easiest way to find these. This approach also will give you more status credits .

Alternatively if you want to get into the gory details yourself you could join an engine such as expertflyer, and use this tool to identify acceptable routes, fare class and seat availability for discount business (e.g. I class). This will require some considerable research, however!