Originally Posted by
Mwenenzi
FenleyG3 Welcome FT & MEL
How long will you be living in Australia? A few years or for ever?
Thanks for the info. We just got permanent residency so I expect we'll be here 2-3 years at least, maybe forever if all goes well.
Originally Posted by
Mwenenzi
For the Star flights Au Eu is this for cash or award flights? Au to Eu is a very comptetive route with a lot of airlines:- Asian, ME3 (EK QR EY), BA, QF and other airlines. Also Eithad EY is a partner of AA.
I was looking for Star flights from Au to Eu using cash, and was going through Google Flights, but kept getting no results or very expensive ones (maybe this is a limitation of Google Flights?). If there are other Star options I should consider, please let me know.
Originally Posted by
Mwenenzi
For awards QF is a very poor ffp. Look at
post 330.To me 1 AA mile is worth 2 QF points. They are not 1 to 1. QF has high cash co pay on awards, even if some cash co pays were reduced yesterday.
AA now flys LAX-SYD, so no need to fly QF or a AA codeshare. Anyway a AA codeshare on QF may cost more. Many to most QF economy flights do not earn 100% QF points. They get 100% QF status credits.
If you are not flying QF domestic much to me far better to go with AA. QF status (Gold-Plat) does have lounge entry in Aust & USA (although there are on going doubts with USA AA lounge entry) and other benefits. AA status does not get you AA domestic lounge access.
Virgin Australia is a partner of Delta
As of 1 January AA changed the way they handle partner flights, including Qantas, so that most economy seats now only get 25%-50% reward miles. I checked with a travel agent who said that the full fare economy seats that get 100% miles are typically ~$2k more, which would be out of my range. However, I went on Qantas and tried to book a mock reward ticket from MEL to MEM (the itinerary I'll need for the family trip back home). I had a terrible time finding available dates and when I finally did, it was going to take 110k miles (it didn't say what the taxes/fees would be). Whereas with AA and UA I can do MEL to MEM for 80k RT, and presumably cheaper taxes/fees. So maybe only earning .25-.5 AA reward miles per mile flown on QF is still a better bet than trying to build up QF miles, or at least nearly even. Do I understand that correctly? I just applied for the AMEX Qantas card with the 80k sign-up bonus, so I'll at least have some QF miles that way.
Thanks again!