Sadly (for me) it is too late. I was thinking March 31st was the deadline. Oh well, its back on the HoKeY/ 40,000 mile circut for me to Paris

Now that it's too late, I WANT THE EXPERIENCE!!!

It looks like we may miss out on both counts--it's too late for the Concorde and First Class on QF for May doesn't look very likely. We have submitted four different date/itinerary ranges so far, and they have all come back with availability in Business but not First.

I finally told them any available date and routing between May 3 and May 28 would be OK, with a stay in Australia of approx. two weeks--just so it was in FC. So what do they do? Outbound on May 3, return on May 28 in business! I called back and told them this was not an option, and I could tell I was on the verge of getting a "difficult customer" note in my PNR. The agent told me that Qantas was pressuring them to "resolve" this reservation.

I was just thinking about forgetting the whole thing for May and putting in a request for next fall, when she told me that CO is thinking about discontinuing the QF First Class Reward because they have had so much trouble getting it.

So now we can't fly the Concorde and and we can't fly QF in FC, and our May vacation time is rapidly approaching. Any suggestions?

(Sorry, I didn't intend for this to turn into another tirade about CO and reward availability.)

mauld and Nightflyer,

If you have your heart set on a Concorde reward, you can still do it with Delta miles. In fact they require fewer miles than CO...only 160,000 miles per ticket. And if have an Amex Mileage Rewards account, you can exchange those points for Delta miles.

Nightflyer,

Another suggestion for Australia. Why not fly via Cairns...LAX-HNL-GUM-CNS? There's tons of things to do there...the Great Barrier Reef, the rainforest, the Kuranda Skyrail and Scenic Railroad, etc., etc., etc.

The biggest advantage is that this flight is on CO metal, so you have the choice of either buying the ticket with miles...80,000 for BF. Or, because it's CO metal, you can purchase an economy ticket, upgrade for 50,000 miles, and get 16,000 status miles for the trip, plus elite bonus miles. And the cheapest ticket (approx. $1,300 from LAX) is HoKeY upgradeable!

You can purchase a "Boomerang Pass" from QF for the CNS-SYD-CNS trip for approx. $300. However, you must buy it here in the States. You can't buy it over there! You can even get CO miles on QF. You just won't get status miles and elite bonus miles. And because it's a separate ticket, you don't have any stopover limitations in Cairns! And I believe CO will allow a stopover in HNL, but not GUM.


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"Read my lips! No more benefit cuts!"...Gordon Bethune

Does anyone know how long it takes to get checked baggage? I was told that I could put the standard-size Rollaboard in the overhead, but I don't know what my travel companions will be carrying...

Also, would the curvature of the earth be more visible from the north or south side of the plane (or neither)?