charltonfan1

Don't fly Qantas very often so need some assistance

How do i find a fare for the following itinerary on ITAMatrix or Qantas.com:

• LHR-DXB - Premium Econ
• DXB-SYD - Business
• SYD-DXB - Business
• DXB-LHR - Premium Econ

Many thanks in advance

Dave Noble

You will need to find a Premium Economy r/t fare LHR-DXB and then a business return fare from DXB-SYD

If fares allow end on end ticketing, you should be able to get a travel agent to book as a single itinerary

This may well be more expensive than just buying a business class return ticket from London-Sydney. Perhaps try using ITA to look for business fares from places in Europe such as Amsterdan, Frankfurt and Rome

charltonfan1

Thanks.

I need stop overs on both directions in Dubai

Dave Noble

There are plenty of business class fares that would allow a stopover in each direction in Dubai. what does a business class r/t to Sydney price up with 2 stopovers ?

Again, you may be able to save a fair bit by starting elsewhere in Europe and just getting a cheap flight ot the start point

Etihad has a fare in business class which would cost £2,831.67 from london to Sydney with stopovers each way in the UAE inc bus from AUH-DXB

Pricing out LHR-DXB in PE, lowest far is on VS at GBP619 with BA close behind at GBP639. For a business r/t from DXB-SYD , looking at a fare of GBP2553 on EY. This is more expensive than the r/t from London all the way in business

charltonfan1

Thanks for the info. It is company policy on flight duration that is preventing me from flying business on the shorter leg

Globaliser

You'd need to search using the following advanced routing codes:-

LHR
QF / F BC=W|BC=R|BC=T
DXB

DXB
QF / F BC=J|BC=C|BC=D|BC=I
SYD

SYD
QF / F BC=J|BC=C|BC=D|BC=I
DXB

DXB
QF / F BC=W|BC=R|BC=T
LHR

But in fact it looks like there are no fares that will combine on a single ticket. Therefore to do this you will have to buy two separate tickets.

As Dave Noble says, you may find that this is more expensive than buying one LHR-SYD-LHR ticket in business class that allows stopovers in DXB in both directions.

Using random dates in May, a LHR-DXB-LHR in PE plus a DXB-SYD-DXB in business class theoretically starts from £670.57 + £3,363.20 = £4,013.77.

However, for the same dates a LHR-SYD-LHR business class fare with a stopover in both directions theoretically starts from only £3,611.77.

charltonfan1

Thank you. Need 3-4 days stopover on each way in DXB. Is this likely to be a problem and lead to separate RTN tickets being required?

Globaliser

I suspect that there simply aren't any PE and business fares that will combine, regardless of the length of stopover.

If you want to try it, the dates that I used were 1 May LHR-DXB (PE), 8 May DXB-SYD (business), 15 May SYD-DXB (business), 22 May DXB-LHR (PE). Untick the availability checker so that you are only looking at the lowest fare that theoretically exists. But ITA says no flights found, which is a pretty reliable indicator that there are no fares (or no fare combinations) that work for that proposed trip.

However, if you keep the dates but ask for business on all sectors, then you will see that £3,611.77 fare.

If company policy requires you to spend £400 more on two separate tickets, simply to make sure that you fly in a worse cabin on the shorter sectors, and does not allow exceptions for situations like this, it would seem not to be an entirely well thought-through policy. Much, of course, may depend on the exact fares actually available for your dates.

charltonfan1

Yes in that instance im hoping they would budge.

Sorry my question was concerning business on all flights.
Secondly do Qantas allow seat choice for Exec club bronze members booked in PE or Business?

serfty

Seat selection is complimentary for PE/J/F but they do have status based restrictions on what seats may be selected.

Globaliser

On that business class fare, it looks like there are no particular restrictions on stopovers at DXB. For the sort of trip that you're thinking of doing, they can be as short or as long as you like - without any need even to get into technical detail about what counts as a connection or what counts as a stopover.