Hi All,

Here is my dilema. I will by flying the final legs of my OWE in November, routing NRT-HKG-SIN-MEL//SYD-LHR (final leg to DXB to follow in '05). Due to a new job, I have had to shorten the trip and change the dates. My original plan was to spend two days in MEL and a day in SYD before flying the QF 001 from SYD-LHR the next day. Unfortunately, my new travel dates correspond with a Spring festival in Melbourne that has both Starwood hotels booked solid. Since I need Starwood stays and do not want to stay elsewhere in MEL, I will not be spending time there and will just go for a two day stop in SYD (where I have been before). Anyway, my current itinerary has a surface segment between MEL and SYD as I did not want to burn a OWE segment on such a short flight. Now, I can get a fairly inexpensive flexible ticket on QF and make an immediate connection on arrival in MEL to SYD, or I can reroute myself to skip MEL altogether and just route SIN-SYD. Buying the separate QF ticket will be more expensive than the $75 reissue fee, but probably a lot less hassle as my OWE is handwritten.

What would you do, reroute the OWE and save some money or buy the separate ticket and avoid the reissue hassle?

Thanks!