Originally Posted by
orbitmic
As a regular flyer from Europe to Australia/nz, I can only repeat what I say each time a new thread and permutation of the Oz/nz questions pop up. By my book it’s absolutely crazy to prioritise TP earning (whether bah double TPs or just one world) on such a trip.
Your TPs will literally cost you thousands more or downgrading to W or Y, whilst non ow airlines offer some returns from Europe to oz/nz in J for typically £2-2.5k per person with excellent comfort. To me, paying the same to fly W on ba or any other ow airline would be -with my apologies for sounding rude - utterly bonkers.
No offence taken.
We are based in the north of Scotland, so it's a bit of a hike to a big airport, so there's the added cost of parking a car for 3 weeks. It's actually cheaper hiring a car for two one day rentals than paying for parking.
Positioning for CDG for example requires a trip to EDI for a direct flight or changes at LHR or AMS, then the hotel
EDI - CDG is about GBP860 with AF (As a comparison, the Caledonian Sleeper and Eurostar to CDG comes in at GBP1500)
Overnight hotel with breakfast GBP220 per night.
So that 's an extra GBP 1300 on top of the cost of the flight, this is still cheaper than BA (out in J and back in Y with a stop over is GBP13K)
I've found CDG - SYD in J with CZ for GBP 11K, it's the same for VN - though out in PE and back in J is only (only!) GBP 8,000 it does give food for thought.
I've previously shared that one of my children has ASD, which poses challenges during travel transitions. This is our primary concern – whether they can cope with all the changes, security procedures, and navigating buses. We do our best to minimize these experiences as much as we can. The flip side to the coin is they are absolutely amazed and besotted by planes (especially Concorde (we've spent hours at East Fortune) and double decker planes) and they really enjoy flying, constantly asking when we're going on a plane again.
As for TP - through work I make about 3000 each year, I was going to try for GGL, as I'd qualify for the renewal each year, it's the initial 5000 that I'd struggle to get - is that worth the extra money, I guess that's a decision for me to make.