FF miles and pricing
 

Looking to book 2 flights in Feb 13 from LHR to Melbourne Aus and try Premium Economy.
"Infrequent" Frequent Flyer and can scrape 42k miserable miles, Qantas PE averages £2640 and even knocking off all the miles still come out some £300 more expensive than cheapest (BA, flight is listed as a Qantas A380 flight ! or next I fancy flying with Qatar/Virgin,Singapore), even given that most say the Qantas PE experience is better/best, £300 premium on top of 100% hike from Eco` to PE is a big hole in our meagre budget.
Also been advised that looking for an upgrade from economy to PE using FF miles wouldnt happen since Feb is a busy time, yet.....if you look at Qantas`s own loadings chart on page 1,2 of the website, feb/march is a cheap time, doesnt cheap mean theyre not busy ?. Any help apreciated.

Welcome to the "joys" of trying to redeem tickets on QFF...:mad:

QF PE is not bad, but at that spend , I would be looking for a business class option on another carrier. At 2.6k, you should be able to find a business class fare if you are happy to take a shortish intra europe flight and start outside of UK

e.g. for GBP2632, Etihad business class is availble from Rome-Melbourne, just get a cheap economy flight to Rome and for pretty much the same price, can enjoy business class

If you can save GBP300 by booking BA and flying on the Qantas aeroplane , then that would be a much better option . You pay the lower BA fare and get the QF PE

I would not say that an upgrade would not happen, but it is a busy route and a good chance that it would not clear but 48k is not really enough points to do it anyway. An upgrade from discount economy to premium economy is 60k one way per person . You would have enough points to upgrade 1 way full economy to premium economy at 24k per person , but the full economy fare looks to be more than the cheapest BA Premium Economy fare

Again, if you don't mind a detour, BA from Amsterdam-Sydney is often a lot cheaper than London to Sydney and the price of a flight to get to AMS to start journey is low. If you do it right you can drop the LON-AMS flight at the end without much risk if it is a one off.

All the advice that Dave Noble has wriiten is completely correct and I would listen to it.
Just be aware you can book on ba.com using their cheaper pricing and still fly on the QF A380 in PE, it will just show a BA codeshare flight number.
As you have do not have QF status I would not bother trying to redeem the points, but you can keep them alive by credint the BA coded flight to QFF if you so desire.

The other option is to use two tickets.

PE (Y+) on BA to either SIN or HKG and a Y ticket from there to MEL.
Also useful to break up the journey with a night in a real bed.

YMMV as wandering is never a straight line

Fred

Diamond Club is still alive in *A until 31 May - £2640 would buy you business class via purchased miles (family accounts) and miles-plus-cash awards. Check out the BMI forum.

Or, start from somewhere on the continent, check the biz class fares from MXP (Milan), IST (Istanbul) and ATH (Athens)

Another option, buy separate sectors, to SIN on BA and a Jetstar biz class flight from SIN (Singapore) to MEL