Using Miles - Qantas vs Continental

[tatty]

All I want to do is use my frequent flyer miles to go somewhere warm and sunny with a beach between the months of June and September. Not much to ask? Too much for Qantas. I plug in every option for Fiji, Nauru and Bali and I either get nothing or business one way and economy the other (no good for two of us).

So, I try my Continental Airmiles - Cairns to Guam(stopover for shopping) and to Palau. Continenal have Easypass rewards which means if all the frequent flyer seats are gone you can pay double miles and get a seat. I ended up paying 12500 miles one way and 25000 coming back for a ticket valued at $1500 US for mid-June trip.

The only way to use Qantas miles seems to be to book 11 months in advance . The scheme is just too inflexible. When you can book a flight, its hardly worth it because its a red-e-deal fare and you still end up paying the taxes.

So how does one use these miles?!!!!??

 

[rosesplus]

What about Vanuatu, Qantas offers award econ for 30K on a Air Vanuatu codeshare? They just cancelled J class awards but they have availability in both June and July (I booked yesterday) in econ.

Its a great destination that leaves Fiji for dead!!

 

[tatty]

I assume you need to call Qantas to book FF on Air Vanuatu as it doesn't appear as a destination when booking online? Sounds like a good deal for some winter sun.

 

[rosesplus]

Yes you have to ring (before 25/5, after that date it's 36K miles), it's paper ticketed.Watch the flight times as some of the flights arrive at midnight.

 

[JakDac]

Can Qantas ff miles go to Continental ?

Can Qantas ff miles go to Continental ?

 

[tatty]

"Can Qantas ff miles go to Continental ?'

Last time I checked I could use Continental miles to fly from North America to Australia on Qantas, but not from Australia to America (great!). As for transferring miles between programs, I don't think so. It's not easy using Continental miles in Australia but there are some partners - Korean, Eva and Continental Micronesia from Cairns. Air France is a partner too but they wouldn't allow Sydney to Paris using miles.

I guess my main point of the post was that Continental have a better system for using airmiles - ie, pay double miles and you have more choice of flights/seats. I wish qantas would do something similar

 

[NM]

Of course one of the reasons you can't find anything available on Qantas is because every other FF member has been cashing in the FF points for flights before the May 25th devaluation deadline. That means that all the seats to popular places at the popular time are well and truely gone. And of course everyone from south of Tweed Heads wants to find a warm beach between June and September!

Things might be different next year when people are rebuilding their FF accounts after the May 25th looting process. But then many reward flights will cost more points.