Originally Posted by
TrojanHorse
I've spent some considerable time today, searching the CO board and old threads for flights to AU. I've input various destinations, dates etc to down under (actually I don't care where in AUS I go although Sydney would be nice)
What I'm wondering is:
1. Now that I've signed up for a QF account, whats the difference between an AUS/NZ account and a USA account
2. I know holiday times are tough, but say thanksgiving US, is that a tough AUS time to try for an award.
3. when I plug in certain US Points to AUS points, QF has a Y/J/F column but for the day I selected, do they have something like CO that is like a calendar as to when awards are available
4. Does it really matter what 48 Continental State USA destination that I start from? Or for the best results should I always use LAX?
5. Can you do BA Eastbound and say QF westbound or vice versa?
6. Which are the easiest cities during their summer to find J/F tickets too? I would guess sydney is out, but how about Perth?
7. Are stop-overs allowed?
8. I saw (on an older post) where it was stated that usually 2 F seats per flight are award, and I think it was 4J Seats per flight. Is that still true
1. US acount is free and AU/NZ account costs $$$. Just be thankful.
2. Thanksgiving shouldn't be any harder than any other day in particular.
3. No. Just keep plugging away. I would do searches for routes such as LAX-SYD/MEL/Brisbane/AKL, SFO-SYD/MEL/Brisbane, and JFK-SYD/MEL/Brisbane/AKL. 'Frequent Flyer Friend' software is an excellent choice for avoiding calling CSR every day.
4. I found searching from JFK a great start if you live anywhere on the East Coast. Not only is the flight the best possible trans-con flight around (in J/F especially), but award buckets are different even though it's the same flight from LAX onward. I think it's not on many radars so awards are a bit more available. Also, they attempt to fill up 107/108 as they are normally very empty on the JFK/LAX part. If you grab seats from LAX, you are forced to look for CO/DL availability to LAX (in F perhaps) which is another challenge to deal with and not nearly as nice as a QF plane in J/F
5. No QF (and CO/DL/NW(?)) all the way. Be careful. QF has a sub line called Jet Star that many of the QF domestic routes are being converted to. CO miles cannot be redemed for flights on Jet Star.
6. J/F is just as hard in any gateway city. It is competely random what could be available one day or one hour. You truly feel like you won a lottery when segments become available. domestic connections in AUS are not hard to come by and for $$, are relatively cheap if it comes to that. Just worry about flying into Australia any way possible. You will not have much choice on how, when, or where you get there saddly. It is not a fun process. Again, search out of JFK and you'll see different inventory.
7. Stop overs are allowed but only in SYD, MEL, or Brisbane... Perhaps LAX too if you connect through there. One open Jaw is allowed too which can be very handy in Australia if you want to travel. Internal flights are cheap.. If you want to visit NZ, you must fly into Auckland as other gateway cities are only serviced by JetStar now. I believe CHC still has one QF flight a day but it is very hard to get. As you can't backtrack with a stop over, you'd have to fly US-NZ-AUS-US or US-AUS-NZ-US. It get's complicated.
8. It is not true. It is a grab bag.. I've never seen more than 1 or 2 seats in J available myself personally.
A note about F rewards. F is not available on all QF trans pacific flights (and no domestic flights). If you book a F reward, you are forced into seeking out of less inventory on fewer routes. In addition, I'm not sure if you are allowed J seats on 2-class planes so need to seek RT F.. you can't do F one way and J the other on a F reward.
Be VERY flexible. And stay on top of things. If you find availability on a Trans Pacific segment, reserve it immediately and deal with other segments as they become available. Feel free to tell CSRs that you see availability on xxx flight, please confirm that you are not seeing things
QF rewards are the best use of onepass miles, but creating one burns the hell out of ya. It made me quite bitter at airline miles in general.