sparkswillfly

Hi all,

I've got a really healthly BA mile balance of 130,000 and an active partner flight whch I'm really keen to take advantage of.

I was hoping to get out to Adelaide next year with my wife, my 21 year oldf step son and my 6 year old daughter but there are so many variables in working out how to use my points most wisely that I'm very confused.

If I may, I'd like to ask a few questions:

Is it better to use the points to upgrade us all and just pay for all the basic flights?

When do the flights for next year to Oz become available, is there a magic time when all the flights get issued?

Will the points take me all the way to Adelaide, I don't see that option?

Can I combine things like:

Me - use points
Wife - partner flight
Son - use points
Daughter - pay full price


Many many thanks to anyone who can help me understand this a little better!


Mark

Sixth Freedom

Welcome to FT tindalm. ^

I am not really the expert in burning miles and I am sure someone else will be along shortly.

However normally we consider on this board that the best use of miles is to pay for World Traveller Plus (BA's premium economy) and upgrade to Club World (BA's business class), which will be 25k miles each way (50k miles return) to Oz.

It is also stated regularly that redemption seats to Australia in CW are jolly hard to find.

binman

I have a million miles and happy to go First or Club. In a year I have not been able to locate 2 seats on any flight to or from OZ on BA. There are single seats but then the returns are useless unless you are able to stay months.
I wrote to BA as I spent 6 hours one day looking at every cabin for a year in advance. I found 26 m class 23 wt+ 6 Club and just 3 First in 12 month period. BA redemtion opportunities are very few and far between and they could not care less. I got the usual corporate clap trap repsonse about thousands taking advantage of redemtion opportunities with actually answering my questions about OZ. It is ludicrous that they share ervenue and costs with QF on the JSA but not mileage redemption on an equal basis.

uk1

You need to break down your search into the segments ie lhr>sin, sin>syd, syd>sin, sin>lhr. There IS availibility and you'll find many F options for two so long as you're prepared to be flexible. Haven't been following C so can't comment on that.

BD1959

You also need to consider *when* you're flying. Beginning/end of school holidays quickly dry up redemption availability on the legs into Oz - and this isn't always easy to ascertain since the different States have differing school calendars ... usually offset by a week so that can, in effect, make a 3 week "mini-blackout" period.

I faced something similar toward the end of last year, wanting J redemption UK-OZ at the end of September. Plenty of BA availability as far as the US and SE Asia, just couldn't find anything into Oz. Luckily, QF then announced that the long awaited DFW-BNE/SYD flights were going on sale and J redemption opened (aided by an email alert from EF) on this route so was able to book LHR-DFW on BA then DFW-BNE-MEL on QF.

You need to:

1) Get in early with respect to booking award flights - usually close to the 350-ish first availability window

2) Sit with the route maps of the two networks and plan individual segments when through availability is gone

Obviously, if you are set on F redemptions, this becomes harder to source the more QF remove it from their network ... and particularly on those more "exotic" routes away from the prime SYD/MEL-LHR, SYD/MEL-LAX flagship routes.

BD

toothpick

I'd like to do a MFU from WT+ to Oz next year - what are the school holiday timeframes to avoid?

LCY8737

One way to increase your chances is by booking tickets individually, that way you can make use of single seats becoming available, either as mileage redemption seats or for cash upgrades in manage my booking. This will require regular checks for availability over the coming months. But please be aware that this might end in you not being able to sit together as upgrades might clear for some of you and not for others (might be a big problem with your 6 year old).

BD1959

Google is your friend: Australian School Holidays 2010 - 2012

Be aware: the dates provided are for Government Schools, by State. Private Schools will typically close up to 1 week earlier and return up to 1 week later.

BD

Greenpen

And the British school holidays will also have an impact.

uk1

My post was to explain how to use the BA search engine to produce all availibility. The OP said there was none. There is in fact quite a lot - so long as "you're prepared to be flexible" as I said in my post.

binman

[QUOTE=uk1;16453291]My post was to explain how to use the BA search engine to produce all availibility. The OP said there was none. There is in fact quite a lot -

binman

What I said was that there was no useful availability. I need to travel with my wife and I have over a million miles most of which is due to flying. I am unable to obtain 2 seats together on 1 flight as per BA requirement for using a 2 4 1 voucher. Indeed I have yet to find a day when i can get two seats on different flights. Stopping in SIN, BKK or both is an option, but even that did not help. In any event I do not wnat to be there for week in either direction and this the extent of the availabiltiy if traveling alone. using QF is an option but at a far higher redemption rate. In my experience they too restrict availability to 1 seat at a time also and BA vouchers do not apply.

firstclasslad

I thought Gold’s can book any class even when no availability’s showing for double the miles? So 600k per person in F LHR-SYD

uk1

Actually you didn't say that at all ..... you said there was no availibility unless you "stayed there for months". I was simply trying to help you.

There's a fair amount of availibility for two people traveling to Oz in F using your 241 without having to stay in SIN for weeks or SYD for months. I was explaining how to find it and clearly you aren't following my suggestion otherwise you'd see the same availibility I can see.

I have exactly the flights you're seeking Q1-2012. Until a few weeks ago I was checking to see if I could improve them slightly. I've just re-checked and the availibility is much the same.

James_G

Apologies for the slight thread hijack but are you all using BA.com to check availability? Or are you using a dedicated tool like KVS?

Thanks