US Airways Dividend Miles (Pre-FlightFund Merger) - -IF- you were bored AND had the time...

would you fly SEA-PHL/CLT/PIT-LAX on US in F to connect onward w/ QF as part of a Business/First award ticket?

-OR-

would you just pay for you own way down to LAX and save 10+ hours of flying.

remember- you have both boredom AND time!

These are the problems in my life that I need resolution on! http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif

I would ABSOLUTELY do it. Some wine, some food, a few movies, a good book.....nice way to relax.

10 hours, 10 schmours... http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif

fly through PIT and get a McDonald's meal on the house! http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif

What do you mean by get a McDonalds meal on the house?

I would not do that if I had all the time in the world. What if any of the segments in your SEA-PIT/PHL/CLT-LAX flights get delayed/cancelled to the point you *MISS* your QF flight?

Do it through PHL. See how long it takes for the Airbus-qualified jetway driver to show up. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif

If those flight earned miles, I would do it in a heartbeat!

But such is not the case, and I would pay my way to LAX.

Will they let you have stopovers?

Of course, if you had booked them in the first place you could have free stopovers now anyway with all the schedule changes they did ... I'm staying overnight in LA on my way back from AKL now and flying a 767 back LAX-CLT which works out pretty well anyway!

Can you wait for UA award redemption and just fly SEA-LAX?

Either way, SEA-LAX just isn't that much $$$..

Sure, you may have time, but LAX-SYD is a long flight. I wouldn't want to add flight time beforehand, even if I was bored.

At least until I have reliable access to FT in the air.

I would do it.

fan 'o chex,

I don't think you have a choice. Most transpac Q flights leave LAX between 1930 and 2200. In order to make a legal connection for an international flight, you would need to be on the 0915 PIT-LAX (or the 0945 PHL-LAX). Anything later from the east coast wouldn't work. Note that if you are on one of these flights, you will have a 6-8 hour layover in LAX (guess you could drink the F lounge dry).

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by BillMorrow:
fan 'o chex,

I don't think you have a choice. Most transpac Q flights leave LAX between 1930 and 2200. In order to make a legal connection for an international flight, you would need to be on the 0915 PIT-LAX (or the 0945 PHL-LAX). Anything later from the east coast wouldn't work. Note that if you are on one of these flights, you will have a 6-8 hour layover in LAX (guess you could drink the F lounge dry).</font>

I don't think this is true. Qantas flights leave LAX between 10 pm and midnight (except the AKL flight which leaves slightly earlier...) I think you could easily take the 5/6 pm flight to LAX from any of the hubs and be very much on time.

"Qantas flights leave LAX between 10 pm and midnight"

Your're right. He could do this with the early am flight. Of course this would push his total travel time out to about 30 hours and he won't club access in PIT. Wait, wait... an even better idea. If he really wanted to increase his travel time, he could catch the previous evening's 'red eye' out of SEA. Arriving in PIT, he could then catch the AM flight and be in LAX by noon. Then he could have a full 12 hours to spend in the JAL lounge at LAX. Of course, he'd better be in F as the J lounge is revolting (http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/Forum39/HTML/000941.html).

When you are on a very long itinerary like he is anticipating, it gets mind numbing. Also, you are usually worthless for at least a day after arrival. I went on such a trip last year to AKL via HKG on Cathay, I wouldn't do it again. I was in F and Cathay's service lived up to its famous reputation and the Wing and Pier lounges were tremendous. However, the total amount of travel time was a real grind.

[This message has been edited by BillMorrow (edited 11-13-2002).]

I say go for it if you can allow yourself plenty of connection time in LAX...wouldn't want to miss your connection!

I think chex knows to connect in PIT or CLT rather than PHL, and it's VERY unlikely he'd miss the connections that way.

He's probably also a RCC member which would give him USClub access throughout, FWIW.

It is a long itinerary, but I've done worse. This summer I did BOM-BKK (TG) on an overnight flight connecting BKK-NRT-SFO-ORD-PHL on UA, in one long stretch. Not too bad actually as long as it's all upgraded.

[This message has been edited by kv99 (edited 11-13-2002).]

Everyone who thinks I should fly two transcons to get to LAX from SEA just for fun are complete nuts!!! http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif

Even if it is in confirmed F, I'm still not that crazy!!! http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/eek.gif

I know someone who used Dividend Miles for QF First Class award originating in DEN, and flew to LAX via CLT. But keep in mind that DEN-LAX fares are generally a lot more expensive than SEA-LAX.

I have an award ticket PIT-LAX-SYD (but I'm actually starting in PIT http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif) early next year. I am taking the 6pm flight out of PIT, which arrives into LAX 8pm, and then taking the midnight flight out of LAX to SYD. So faxochex could easily take that flight, and take the 730a -240pm flight from SEA-PIT. I'm sure similar alternatives exist for CLT, and if he feels lucky (punk) then PHL too.

As per my comment about the meal, just an offer to chexfan for some high falooting dinner.

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by pitflyer:
As per my comment about the meal, just an offer to chexfan for some high falooting dinner.</font>Please let the record show, that I have zero outstanding bets with pitflyer... my name ain't geo! http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/biggrin.gif

As a parent of a child, if I was alone I would do it. The piece and quiet would be welcome. The catch-22 is that I would not be allowed to do it.

Now if I was single and w/o child I would only do it if a) there were good movies I wanted to see or b) I wanted to drink my way across the globe or c) I took a girl who ......... (inset your thought here).

Second thought. Does QF still fly out of NY on the US award????

New York (JFK) is still a gateway for Q awards.

[This message has been edited by BillMorrow (edited 11-14-2002).]

Chexfan, geo1004 told me that you were good for his debts. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif