Originally Posted by
m0hamed
Hi,
I have 2 x award bookings using QF points for SYD-LHR in Business and AA miles for LHR-SYD in First.
We want to add LHR-BCN-MAD-LHR or LCY sectors in Business, however it appears that one way flights in Europe are expensive.
Options are:
1) Redeem AA miles for my partner and buy my flights, but 20k per sector seems steep;
2) Redeem AA points in Y
3) Book LHR-BCN and MAD-LHR/LCY which overcomes the one way pricing on ba.com, however BCN-MAD is still expensive;
4) Pay for the flights in Y given that they are so short; or
5) Purchase a Visit Europe fare.
Does anyone have experience of the Visit Europe fare? There's hardly any info on the qantas website. Any other suggestions?
From my experience there are a couple of suggestions / observations which may be of help to you:
1). Short haul business class within Europe is rarely worth the enormous extra $$ expense over Y class. It is nothing like the J class product we are accustomed to within AUS. I often have it included on return business class tickets that I purchase and my thought is always that I would not spend the extra money / points to buy a biz class sector within Europe. Legroom for these seats is often exactly the same as for Y class, or at least not much better. Emergency exit rows in the Y cabin have more leg space than regular J class seats. Catering would be negligible. As you would have lounge access on departure anyway, for the short sectors you have in mind it is absolutely not worth it.
2). The second thought I had related to converting your return business award reservations into a multi-airline oneworld reservation, which can include a number of European sectors for not many more points (we are doing this for a trip next year and from memory a J class return award Oz-LHR is 256k, wheras this oneworld multi ticket is 280k, and can include quite a few additional business class sectors. For others who may be interested the full itinerary must include at least 3 oneworld carriers, ie., QF, BA, IB).
However, re-reading your post it seems like you only have a one-way award booking via QF and the return via AA. Sorry about that.
Good luck.
tb