I'm new to here,

I have 170,000 QFF points (bronze).

My daughter has the opportunity to go to LA (from Perth) on a group tour, I have to go also.

I want one more adult and one 13 year old to come. We can't afford the tour price .

Travel dates are not set but probably mid December 2012.

I don't know how big a risk it is to presume I can get my husband there on points. Considering I have to count the days prior to flight date and go online at exactly the right time, I'm worried 2 of us (paid) will get there and the other two wont.

I realise now I don't have to travel Qantas, I presume I can go Oneworld. Does that make it more feasible/possible considering I can choose from more flights?

I guess I'm asking is this a crazy pipe dream or is it do-able?

thanks.

The cheapest award flight will be via SYD, BNE or MEL. Other OW options are BA via LHR, CX via HKG or JL via NRT. All these will cost more points than the QF flights. You can do your research via the QF web site on whether you have enough points to cover your flights.

Award seats on QF trans Pacific seem relatively plentiful in whY. It is only the very desirable Biz or F seats that are in short supply. IMHO, you shouldn't have too much trouble in getting your lot to LAX if you can travel down the back of the plane .

I think it is not a pipe dream - but doable. Now, the only issue is mid December 2012. This is getting to peak season and you might be wise to target dates that are before the school holidays start. Then you have the drama of seeing flights open up (35x days prior and not knowling whether to get them or wait another day for the flight you really want).

I have never check Y award values, but from memory it is 48K points one-way PER-LAX as the cheapest option, so you need 192K points for 2 Y round-trip awards (or perhaps leave the son in the US as a one-way award?). So your first problem is determining whether you have enough points for what you want (and if not, how to get them or to change the award to something that you can afford). The cost of the award goes up with using different airlines such as CX, and routing via UK costs substantially more but might be a good option (better for easter US than for LAX).

Unfortunately, with a lack of direct PER-LAX QF flights, the OP will have to go PER-[MEL/SYD/BNE]-LAX, which moves it up to Zone 9 (56000 points one way), or 224,000 points in total for two pax (the OP says she has 170,000, making it 54,000 short).

There are several options I can think of:

1) Get another 54,000 points before the booking window (Dec 2011, assuming that the travel date of Dec 2012 is right and not a typo) - say 18 months from now, needing 3,000 points per month on average

2) Pay for a PER-[MEL/SYD/BNE]-PER domestic flight, and get two awards at 48,000 ow, or 192,000 points for both, return (about 22,000 points short - probably doable to collect in 18 months).

3) If really, really desperate on the points side, pay for a PER-NAN (Fiji) flight, and then get two awards from NAN-LAX at 36,000 ow, or 144,000 points for both, return.

Not sure what credit card the OP holds (from another thread the OP says she earns 2,500 points approx per month from ANZ Visa), but if the OP upgrades to an ANZ Platinum American Express, then there is a 10,000 bonus point offer, plus 1.5 QFF points per $1 spend at present vs the basic 0.5 QFF points per $1 on the basic ANZ Visa, which could quite quickly boost the point earning capacity.


Of course, this is all a very, very long time away, and one cannot discount the possibility of a change in the QFF program before then, which could devalue the points by changing the levels required for different awards.

wow you are all so helpful, i really appreciate it.

i'm starting to wonder if the American exp. card option is worth looking at. i avoid it at the moment because the interest rate is sooooo high! i currently have anz visa card.

of course, as you say, its so far away that things could have changed by then, that's my problem, I'm hinging my decision on what may or may not happen.

there are many more options than I imagined.

thank you everyone for your replies. I will digest all that information now. I think my first preference would be to make the extra points up and book both on the Qantas flight, then we can all be on the same plane.

thanks again, will digest it all...