Warren, New Jersey; Newark, NJ; New York City, NY- Multiple questions about travel experiences

[rainbowgirl]

Did you take into account the Fare rules/type on the points earn?

Sorry Denali, I confess I don't know enough about points and status to understand this question. The fares are economy and based on me (and all other family members) being bronze members. I saw the option to move bronze to silver but I didn't play with this setting. That's one of the reasons I can't work out the correct earn for the LAX EWR flight on Alaska Airlines segment.

 

[Denali]

Im not familiar with the QF earn tables but each ticket has a Fare rule/code to represent Discount Economy, Economy, Flexi Economy ect and there are different points earn, depending on what type of ticket bucket you bought from.

Frequent Flyer - Flying Qantas and Partner Airlines - Flying with Qantas & Jetstar - Earning Qantas Points

Your estimate might be right, I just wanted to make sure youre looking at the right earns before you get excited about spending them.

 

[rainbowgirl]

I'm not sure which of the Economy types I had a quote for. I think I used a search setting which said lowest priced flights. I didn't tick the option which said flexi fares, so I've got either Discount Economy or Economy I guess. I'll check the link later in the day. Thanks for your thoughts.

 

[rainbowgirl]

I just checked my screen shot of the flight list and the tickets are listed as Economy. (proposed tickets at least, nothing has been booked)

 

[QF WP]

What @Denali was meaning is that there are different fare types under the heading Economy. In this case, yours are likely to be Discount Economy and have a fare type known as Economy Sale. The booking class (a series of letters and/or numbers) will starting with either E, N, O or Q. See here for further edification: Frequent Flyer - Flying Qantas and Partner Airlines - Flying with Qantas & Jetstar - Earning Qantas Points

 

[rainbowgirl]

What @Denali was meaning is that there are different fare types under the heading Economy. In this case, yours are likely to be Discount Economy and have a fare type known as Economy Sale. The booking class (a series of letters and/or numbers) will starting with either E, N, O or Q. See here for further edification: Frequent Flyer - Flying Qantas and Partner Airlines - Flying with Qantas & Jetstar - Earning Qantas Points

Thanks for the clarification.

 

[drron]

It is likely your fares are discount economy.The Alaska flight if it has a QF number on the ticket earns the same as if it was on QF.
The bad news a flight from MEL-JFK on QF in discount economy will only get you 6200 points and 70 SCs-that is one way.

 

[rainbowgirl]

It is likely your fares are discount economy.The Alaska flight if it has a QF number on the ticket earns the same as if it was on QF.
The bad news a flight from MEL-JFK on QF in discount economy will only get you 6200 points and 70 SCs-that is one way.

That's okay. The points are a bonus in this situation. The main thing is keeping the cost of the airfare down. What services do we lose by taking discount economy?

 

[rainbowgirl]

Okay, discount economy 12,400 QFF points and 140 status points each. Probably enough to go one way to Sydney but not return. The points would still be useful for us but as I mentioned, this trip isn't about the points. I'll still be able to use the points for something and I'll be able to move them around the accounts.

 

[drron]

You don't lose any services just get a cheaper fare and less points.

 

[JessicaTam]

I don't know what charges we would have to pay on top of this. Do you still have to pay for headphones for the in flight entertainment?

Neither QF or VA charge extra for items on AU -> US flights. So headphones, meals, snacks and soft drinks/alcohol are included.

 

[rainbowgirl]

Neither QF or VA charge extra for items on AU -> US flights. So headphones, meals, snacks and soft drinks/alcohol are included.

That's great. We may end up on VA. Good thing about the soft drinks. I think I'll need at least one can of Coke or Pepsi to get me through the long trip.

What are your thoughts on Delta for the domestic USA flights?

 

[JessicaTam]

That's great. We may end up on VA. Good thing about the soft drinks. I think I'll need at least one can of Coke or Pepsi to get me through the long trip.

What are your thoughts on Delta for the domestic USA flights?

I haven't flown Delta.

Paging @serfty to the white courtesy phone.

 

[Denali]

Delta is a warhorse, it gets you and Ive had no complaints. Ive flown both Y and J (they call it F) with them, it does the job and the SCs & points can be processed to your VA account for aussie use/pooling.

As they have more flights on regular routes, I prefer them as they give me a Plan B and C in case of delay or missed flight.

Be sure to check their F prices as well, sometimes the F price is really close to the Y price and worth it as you get extra luggage, snack/meal on board ect.

 

[QF WP]

@rainbowgirl , I'm about to fly them on LAX/SEA and GEG/SEA/LAX on a range of aircraft types, so will be posting my thoughts in a TR that I'll be doing. If I had an issue with them, I wouldn't be flying with them - or subjecting my wife and kids either. Full service (to my mind) is the only way to go, I have no desire to use USA LCC's.

Details about Delta here: DELTA AIR LINES Travel with Delta Air Lines and set your Velocity Points flying

Regarding the calculation of status credits and points, check that the fare class meets the earning eligibility:
https://velocityfrequentflyer.com/content/Info/StatusEarnFareClass/

VA International Long-haul: Elevate/Getaway fares are the following classes: S, T, Q, V, N. E, L, G
Delta Air Lines (DL) Discount Economy: L, U, T, X, V, E, S, H, Q, K

So only book fares starting with those letters.

Then use the mileage calculator for each flight:
https://velocityfrequentflyer.com/content/Earn/Airlines/mileage-calculator/

and finally check this page to to see the amount of status credits earned for each flight: Earn Tables

The second table is for VA International flights and the 3rd table is for DL flights.

Finally, the importance of family pooling here: TAKE ADVANTAGE OF VELOCITY'S UNIQUE FAMILY BENEFITS (how do you think I retain Gold every year and sometimes get Platinum )

 

[Denali]

I will also say that I priced VA for SYD-LAX-ATL-SCL return and it was like $14K pp and priced Delta and came in approx $5.5K per person (SYD-LAX was VA metal), so try the Delta site for aussie depature and if you can, get VA operated flight departing Aust.

 

[QF WP]

I'll agree with @Denali, we found the same thing. Our TA (an AFF'er) found that the DL codeshare for the VA flights BNE/LAX/BNE was cheaper. Tacked on some internal flights and no trouble getting seating on the VA flights (using the DL website).

 

[Flying_man]

This is LONG way to go for SHORT trip. Why not request boss to allow ADDITIONAL time off?

 

[rainbowgirl]

This is LONG way to go for SHORT trip. Why not request boss to allow ADDITIONAL time off?

At this stage the longest we can take is 2 weeks. It's going to be difficult to convince the boss to let us take even that time off. This trip literally hasn't gotten off the ground yet. There are lots of circumstances going against us at the moment, but this thread is one of the things helping us to get things to go the way we want.

 

[rainbowgirl]

It's been an extremely hectic last 2 weeks for all of us. There have been multiple end of school term activities, heaps of driving across town for a musical theatre activity, volunteer work and a house, 2 kids and a husband to look after. Things have slowed down a bit now, the extended family on Mr Rainbow's side are back from overseas.

Mr Rainbow hasn't wanted to discuss travel plans and has been caught up in work related issues and taxes.

I finally put together a plan with costings for the proposed trip including flights, taxis, documentation, travel insurance, accommodation and several attractions per location. After reading it together and discussing other information needed, Mr Rainbow has now agreed to ask for annual leave for the trip. I don't know what our chances are given the staff movements and deadlines at his workplace at the moment.

We started talking about mobile phones and data plans at the end of our travel discussion. Mr Rainbow is under the impression we would need either new phones or new antennas for the United States. I want a separate mobile phone while I'm travelling with a new number. I don't want to take my existing phone overseas. My current smartphone is more like a dumb phone with a camera at the moment and it will be a long time before we get it fixed. My plan is to take photos and post them to AFF while still on holiday and then do the rest of the trip report when we get back. We'll probably get a USA data and calls pack (or whatever the term is) and then I'd get a short term recharge when I got the phone back here so I could upload photos. Similar to the Mildura report where I used a combination of my PC and smartphone to do the trip report.

Short question: do we need new smart phones for the USA?