hmun01

Hi all,

Long term lurker here, I signed up just to ask this question. Sadly in this case some trawling didn't help. I've been living in Australia for the last 2 years and slowly losing my BA executive status. I've dropped down to Bronze just this month.

The GF and I have just bought some promo Qatar business class tickets for a visit back to the UK in August which could score us a tasty 600 tier points each with BA (this has to be a mistake...), this would normally be enough to get up to silver (allowing us lounge access on one world partner ticket) however we would additionally require 4x BA flights to a achieve this.

I've been searching the BA app for some codeshare flights in Australia. A few short hops to Brisbane or Melbourne would get us there however I can't find anything. I simply receive:

• British Airways does not have traffic rights to operate directly between these two cities.

​​​​​​Now I know for sure you can get code share flights in Australia. I've flown BA15 / BA16 between LHR and Sydney a few (too many) times that on landing in Sydney they always announce where and how to clear immigration and transfer to a BA domestic codeshare flight (presumably with Qantas).
Thing is I can't find these flights. BA, shut up and take my money!

The alternative is to sign up to Qatar and get on their lowest tier (silver) and just take the hit and say goodbye to BA. However if there's a way of getting my 4x BA flights in Australia I'd like to have a go at that, I don't fly anywhere near as much as I used to (thank god) but I do enjoy the lounges when I get out and about for leasure.

Sorry for the essay! Any input welcome.

Cheers,
Cris

bigjono

You can only fly the codeshares as an extension to a ba long haul flight, not on their own

WorldLux

You're probably better off flying 4 short-haul BA segments while visiting the UK. I doubt that you can book QF domestic flights under a BA codeshares. Hop over the channel to BRU, AMS, VIE, etc and collect the four segments.

I wouldn't switch over QR. Seems that awards are quite limited and that the customer service isn't great.

Even if you don't collect the 4 BA flights, you can still pool the miles in a Household account. The ~55k Avios you'll collect can be quite useful for domestic QF flights.

Personally, I'd stick with BAEC and try to get 4 segments while in Europe (provided you have the time for it). Alternatively, you still have the option of flying BA15/16 to/from SYD and connect to KUL or HKG on a BA codeshare. That's however more expensive than 2 BA short haul returns.

rapidex

You can also do 4 sectors on IB, such as LHR-MAD-VLC-MAD-LHR. Iberia flights count just the same.

subject2load

WorldLux

corporate-wage-slave

Welcome to Flyertalk Crispin Munns, welcome to the BA forum, it's good to see you here, and yes you have come to the right place. Hopefully we will see plenty more of you too.

With a few somewhat elusive exceptions, there are very few Codeshares which are standalone on BA. As mentioned by bigjono generally you have to bolt on another BA flight so MEL-SIN-LHR for example. What may help (typically if you were 1 flight short) is to buy that flight, fly the MEL-SIN sector now-ish and the SIN-LHR sector much later. The one exception that occasionally pops up here is a standalone KUL-HKG service on Cathay but Sold As BAnnnn but the fare buckets are not cheap for that arrangement.

Inside Europe it's a lot easier. In addition to the BA and IB options, there are standalone Codeshares on Vueling and Aer Lingus Sold As BAnnnn and some are relatively inexpensive. It's not the case today, but on many days the very cheapest BA qualifying flight is AMS-LTN on Vueling.

subject2load

libertyuk

Not the cheapest option, but you can always do a domestic BA codeshare connecting on BA 16 to SIN, e.g CBR-SYD-SIN-SYD-CBR and that's your four sectors. In fact you can even do it SIN-SYD-CBR with the last leg in QR with BA codeshare on it.

vitagen

i had the same issue and i'm flying BRS-DUB-LHR-MAN-LHR

you can only get the BA sectors if you tag it on a SYD-SIN sector unfortunately...

kyanar

This makes sense when you remember that people living in Australia aren't permitted to be BAEC members. If they discover your residential address is Australian, they will close your account and tell you to join QFF.

If they don't allow customers living in the country to join the FFP why would they have codeshares allowing customers there to get TP and Avios? It's pointless!

hmun01

Hi All,

Thanks for taking the time, that's pretty much everything I needed to know! So you can't get a codeshare in Aus without a long haul associated with the booking, which explains why I can't find these codeshare flights...

So if I wanted to get BA silver again the most cost efficient way would be to do a few hops back in Europe in August. Not sure how keen the other half would be but it's not entirely out of the question, we fly into Birmingham and fly out from Warsaw so there's at least one flight needed there which we haven't booked yet, I was thinking of booking that on points but might reconsider. In 3 weeks we need to bounce between Leeds, Bristol, London and Warsaw and I'm sure if I book now-ish it would be cheaper than the train in the UK. A plan is forming! We just need to decide if the occasional trip to the airport warrants going to all the trouble.

Off the back of this, if we decided not to do it, is it possible to move points between a Qatar FF account and a BA account? In a similar way to how you can move points between Avios.com and BA? That way we still have some perks with Qatar after my BA Bronze expires, however if there isn't a way of moving these points so we can eventually pool them with the rest of my points then there is limited appeal.

Mwenenzi

No. Generally ff points/avios/miles cannot be moved from 1 ffp to another.
The web site https://www.points.com/how-it-works/exchange-points/ has some (poor value) opportunities.
SQ & VA are a notable exception albeit at a loss in value (1:1.35).

Even transferring points/avios/miles from I person to another (in the same ffp) is not that common. Some ffp's allow with a fee, which can make the transfer very poor value/no value. Family pooling is also not the norm with ffp's but some have that good feature.

If you look in the QR forum there does seem to be ongoing problem with dealing with the ffp/getting awards/upgrades with points. QR has hard expiration 3 to 3.5 years after earning (on June 30 & Dec. 31); may be extended or resurrected for a fee. No expiration for Platinum members.
Often said the ME3 are good in the air but on the ground its buyer beware.

AA now does not have a 4 flight minimum. QF & BA(IB) have a 4[2] flight minimum.
Leeds-AMS(or other)-London would get 2 flights
What do you expect status will do for you?

hmun01

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nufnuf77