What are the chances of ?

[bertoman]

Just wondering if someone out there could give an honest opinion on something. .....IN a couple of months I will have approx 200,000 points.

I would love to take the missus over on a little holiday to the US, but I hear that award flights are few and between to the US.

I only really want to go in October or Nov 06 which is the only time we will both have off work.

So ..If I have no chance of flying then...I am just going to redeem my CC points for cash and buy the air fares ..

Any punters out there had much experience on getting a flight the exact month they want to fly ????

Thanks again

Bertoman

 

[Mal]

Qantas open up award bookings around 365 days before.

This means that you won't have a chance to book your tix until around Oct this year.

Looking now at availability from Syd-Lax (a very popular route) for mid next year (summer in the US) I still see availability in Econ, Bus or First.

Econ will set you back around 100000 points per person.

I think you need to work out the dates you want to fly first, then keep an eye out on the Qantas site for when those dates are being offered.

If you said "I need to be in Ohio for a wedding on the 12 Oct and return on the 14th Oct" then I would think you have a lot less chance. However if you are flexible then I think you should be fine...

Jump in, make your bookings and you should get flights you want. One thing in your slight favour is that a lot of people "dumped" their points pre the May changes. It will take some months for these points to be re-earned...

 

[danielh]

It also helps to have some 'Status' for that additional flexibility and viewability of award seats.

Here is alink to what I did to get my preferred flights to LAX.

http://www.frequentflyer.com.au/discus/viewtopic.php?t=636

Basically, if you are a Silver or higher, you don't have to pay the 2,500 points penalty for changing DATES of your flight. Routing and Name changes will get you a penalty though.

Just book your flight about a year in advance with a return date a few days later.

Depending on when you want to come back, regularly log back to see availability for the preferred return date, if you see it then straight away change your existing award return to that date.

Most people simply wait until they can get both the away and return journey at the same time.

(These are also the people who complain about how they cannot get their preferred flights when booking a year in advance). HEHE.

Regards
Daniel

PS: Your 200,000 points will just be enough to take two people to LAX return (96,000 x 2). Just make sure you will definitely have the points allocated and available in your QFF by the right date or you will be like me and cut it a bit too fine resulting in paying $20 for 500 more points to get the 43 more points needed to get my two LAX tickets.

 

[bertoman]

Thanks for those helpful replies, guys. Just got a few more questions....

I have zero status ...therefore I guess I need to get in as early as possible.

Is the best way to book the fares online or by phone ????

Thanks again

bertoman

 

[danielh]

Probably the best and cheapest way is via the internet.

Just be prepared to be patient and probably make sure you have extra points lying around to pay for the flight changes.

Regards
Daniel

 

[dajop]

Is the best way to book the fares online or by phone ????

There is now an "assisted" award booking fee of 2,500 pts for bookings made over phone, so use less points to book online. But more convenient on the phone, depending on destination.

 

[raccoon111]

Upgrading to Business from Discount Economy

I'll be travelling from Melbourne to Singapore on Qantas in December.

I was thinking of trying for an upgrade to business from discount economy(class K). After saving up for quite some time, I'll finally have enough to lodge a request (40 000 pts).

I'm only a Bronze member . My date of travel is December 14, a Wednesday. What do you think my chances are? Should I even bother at all?

Would greatly appreciate advice from senior QFF members. Thanks!

 

[Kiwi Flyer]

Welcome to AFF bertoman

So ..If I have no chance of flying then...I am just going to redeem my CC points for cash and buy the air fares ..

Not sure what you mean by this. CC points can only be used to purchase stuff, or transfer to frequent flyer program. I dont know of any way to exchange the points for cash.

 

[Kiwi Flyer]

Re: Upgrading to Business from Discount Economy

Welcome to AFF raccoon111

Mid-week is probably the best chance. Also likely to be higher chance on flight that stops in SIN (as opposed to continues on to europe).

 

[raccoon111]

Thanks KiwiFlyer for your advice.

Btw, is there anything i can do the improve my chances, eg, submitting request as early as possible? I would really like to try out their new Spacebeds...

Cheers

 

[raccoon111]

Oops. SkyBed i mean...

 

[Mal]

Submit your request ASAP!

Upgrades are done on a spare capacity basis according to the following scheme.

Collect all upgrade requests for each tier level (Plat/Gold/Silver/Bronze)

Order these by the time that they were requested (earliest is highest in each categories queue).

If there is space, give upgrades to Plat members in order of their requests.
Etc etc etc until Bronze is upgraded.

 

[Guest]

only platinum can request award seats to be opened up if the website shows zero availability.

your best bet is to paypal me a few bucks, send me all your points and ill book the flights for you (im kidding...., but this may help you)

 

[AlwaysUpThere]

bertoman: consider the oneworld options available - once your points are in the Qantas FF account, you can book any oneworld airline. So, for your example, you can get to North America one stop with Cathay Pacific. So you can get to New York, LA, San Fran or Canada all one-stop.

It will cost a few more points (it always costs a few more points to travel another carrier than your "member carrier"), it will be a viable option.

I took my partner to the UK in business class in 2001 - I went earlier for work and she travelled on points later but QF would not release any seats (yes - there were empty seats on the particular flights we wanted). So, we booked CX on Qantas points. After sampling what CX had to offer, she won't travel QF where there's a CX option available!

 

[straitman]

bertoman: it always costs a few more pints to travel

I suppose it depends how thirst you are :!: