Trip in April - any tips for SCs?

[Katie]

Hi,

We are considering a family trip (me, Mr Katie, and Little Miss 3) to London to visit a rellie, CDG for a conference, then coming home via DFW for another conference.
Contemplating leaving Aus on 9 April - conference in Paris starts on 15 April, and the one in Dallas on 2 May. Between the Paris and Dallas conferences, we might stay in France or might visit a friend in Ireland. Mr Katie is keen on the ANZAC day dawn service in Villiers-Bretonneux (again! did it in 2008); I'm not so keen on doing it again with Little Miss 3, so would do something else with her, either in France or back in London or Ireland.
So, rough route we're considering, with me as QP PS and Mr Katie as QP NB:
BNE-(via SYD for the A380??) - LHR-CDG-LHR-DFW-LAX-(SYD)-BNE.

Probably in Y or Y+ (if Y+, we'd go through SYD to get the Y+ seats for Aus-Asia), on QF, BA (ex-LHR), and AA (DFW-LAX).

Any tips, tricks, thoughts, recommendations re status credits and travel/flights?

This trip should have me keep PS - am currently at 200 SCs.

Thanks!

 

[drewbles]

Hi,

We are considering a family trip (me, Mr Katie, and Little Miss 3) to London to visit a rellie, CDG for a conference, then coming home via DFW for another conference.
Contemplating leaving Aus on 9 April - conference in Paris starts on 15 April, and the one in Dallas on 2 May. Between the Paris and Dallas conferences, we might stay in France or might visit a friend in Ireland. Mr Katie is keen on the ANZAC day dawn service in Villiers-Bretonneux (again! did it in 2008); I'm not so keen on doing it again with Little Miss 3, so would do something else with her, either in France or back in London or Ireland.
So, rough route we're considering, with me as QP PS and Mr Katie as QP NB:
BNE-(via SYD for the A380??) - LHR-CDG-LHR-DFW-LAX-(SYD)-BNE.

Probably in Y or Y+ (if Y+, we'd go through SYD to get the Y+ seats for Aus-Asia), on QF, BA (ex-LHR), and AA (DFW-LAX).

Any tips, tricks, thoughts, recommendations re status credits and travel/flights?

This trip should have me keep PS - am currently at 200 SCs.

Thanks!

With that sort of itinerary, in Y+ you'll easily get more than 150 SC's (heck a mel-syd-lax return in discount Y gives you 110).

With some careful planning and flights within the USA, you could easily be pushing SG.

There are others on here that are more knowledgeable on the EU side of flying. I'm best with the US part, although DFW-LAX is not one of the 'cheap' fares usually (can you fly into ONT airport just outside of Los Angeles?). You may find a cheap YUP, or "Instant Upgrade" as the booking site calls them, for DFW-ONT, giving you F status credits for a very reasonable price. This may help as well. The golden rule in the US for earning SC's is "why travel direct, when you can connect'. Take flights that connect at Hubs (STL or DFW) before onward to your final destination. Also, look for the YUP's. Full fare economy that books instantly into First class, netting you more SC's.

serfty will no doubt jump in and post the links for this for you (I don't have them at hand!)

 

[samh004]

BNE-(via SYD for the A380??)

With what looks like 2 major delays on the QF A380 already this year, you might want to give yourself enough time to connect incase they have more such problems in April.

 

[simongr]

I am not sure I would factor in potential A380 delays to an itinerary given that the delays have been significant but isolated. What extra time would you factor in? 8 hours? 12 hours? 24 hours?

Also if the delay is the fault of the airline and you are on a single itinerary you are protected for connections (i.e no loss of ticket but a potential for missed meetings etc.)

S

 

[serfty]

That itinerary seems a candidate for a LONE4's with appropriate Y+ upgrades.

If a LONE4 there is ample opportunity to flesh out additional travel.

 

[medhead]

One small modification to get more SC is to not use a through flight SYD-LHR, but to book onto different flights from SYD-SIN and SIN-LHR.

Or you could do BNE-SIN, SIN-LHR, but of course the extra SC gained by splitting Oz-LHR flight is cancelled out by not flying BNE-SYD. Also, I realise you want to A380, but I'd suggest that you could connect to it in SIN, afterall SIN-LHR is the long leg were you definitely want the A380.

If it we me, I'd eurostar london to paris. But that loses SC. I might even fly into FRA and train to Paris from there. I had a great half day in Karlsruhe last time I did that.

 

[Katie]

With what looks like 2 major delays on the QF A380 already this year, you might want to give yourself enough time to connect incase they have more such problems in April.

Well ... on our flight last year BNE-SYD-HNL-return, I thought I'd given us plenty of time with 2-3 hours from landing in Sydney to taking off for Honolulu ... and then our domestic flight take-off was aborted just as the nose was going up, and we ended up catching a new plane down, and running through domestic to the international terminal. So I'm a bit jaded about allowing enough time between flights (one the one PNR) now.

Jaded-ness aside, given we're travelling with a 3yo, I try to pad our connections because we can't bolt through Sydney domestic at the pace we used to before Miss 3. Unless she's on her Dad's shoulders!

 

[Alanslegal]

As Serfty suggests, a LONE4 looks like a do-er.

Now if you chose this route *pun intended it will open alot of potential extra flights for that SC chasing. It may not be plenty of SC's in Y but at least it is something versus nothing I suppose.

Also you need to factor whether or not you have the time and more importantly, willing to take additional flights in Y.

At present you are looking at this:-

BNE-(via SYD for the A380??) - LHR-CDG-LHR-DFW-LAX-(SYD)-BNE.

With one extra flight;

BNE-SYD-LHR-CDG-LHR-DFW-LAX-JFK-SYD-BNE you would get an extra 40sc ...... if you add in more flights, you can earn more

Say you got a bit more keen and returned home via Asia, JFK-HKG-SIN-SYD-BNE and you get to fly the A380 again if you wish and earn 75sc more than the initial proposal. There are a whole bunch on routes you can choose, these are just simple ideas.

 

[Katie]

Thanks all for the tips. I'll have to be judicious in what kind of SCs we try to chase with a 3yo with us.

Can I mix a LONE4 with YUPs?

A LONE4 will give SCs at Discount Econ rates, yes? Except or unless we pay to upgrade to PE, where possible?

 

[dajop]

Thanks all for the tips. I'll have to be judicious in what kind of SCs we try to chase with a 3yo with us.

Can I mix a LONE4 with YUPs?

A LONE4 will give SCs at Discount Econ rates, yes? Except or unless we pay to upgrade to PE, where possible?

The only hitch is you are starting to look at some serious money with LONE4 + YUPs + PE upgrades.

LONE4 = $3699 + taxes. PE upgrades BNE-LHR/LAX-BNE will cost $1250 each. So it's suddenly a $5199+taxes fare. Then you have to add on cost of YUP's.

At this pricing it's almost in the realm of DONE3 ex Asia (but unfortunately not quite ) , but if I was paying that much money I'd seriously consider doing other options that include a fair slug of J class travel (however noting your desire for status). Examples I can think of are ..a Swiss/QF mixed RTW (best flights have for $4289 + taxes) where QF travel in Y and Swiss in Business... or there's a more expensive fare you can combine Lufthansa and QF all in business class.

 

[medhead]

Bearing in mind that the flights on Lufthansa and Swiss won't earn QF points.

I remember seeing something like a BA/QF mini RTW, perhaps that would be a better choice.

With a 3 yo, it is unlikely that the full 16 segments would be used. So some sort of more limited, but cheaper RTW might be better.

 

[Katie]

Bearing in mind that the flights on Lufthansa and Swiss won't earn QF points.

I remember seeing something like a BA/QF mini RTW, perhaps that would be a better choice.

With a 3 yo, it is unlikely that the full 16 segments would be used. So some sort of more limited, but cheaper RTW might be better.

Thanks, I had realised Lufthansa and Swiss aren't OW. I'll visit a travel agent and also get my SIL to give me an idea if there are any good prices out there/ mini RTWs or the like.