choosethedrew

Hi all,

I have been investigating a trip to Aus in 2019 and we would like to do something like the following:

Day 1: IST/ATH>LHR
Day 2: LHR>PER
Day 5: PER>BNE>HTI
Day 8: HTI>MEL
Day 11: MEL>SYD
Day 14: SYD>PER>LHR
Day 16: LHR >ATH/IST

Although we live in London, we have figured out that it's far cheaper to start our ticket in ATH/IST so will fly there / back on a separate ticket.

However I have found this nasty little rule in all QF I and D class fares (essentially the only ones we can afford):

Category 8: Stopover restrictions2 STOPOVERS PERMITTED IN EACH DIRECTION LIMITED TO 1 FREE AND 1 AT USD 75.00. NONE IN AUSTRALIA. NOTE - STOPOVERS PERMITTED ONLY AT TRANSFER POINTS SHOWN ON THE ROUTE MAP.

Does QF really prevent stopovers in Australia on all discounted business class fares? It seems mad as I'd imagine most would want to do this? I have tried Norway and Sweden as starting points and this clause exists there as well.

Grateful for any guidance ^

Dave Noble

Looking at the routing rules, even if stopovers were allowed, that routing would not be permitted . Given that it states no stopovers permitted in Australia, none is permitted. If you wanted less than 24 hours in Perth, you could do IST-SYD r/t with a < 24 hour stay in Perth

It is a roundtrip ticket that QF is selling, not a tour australia journey . You could do something like IST-PER / SYD-IST and then buy the domestic sectors

Are you sure that you want a 6000 mile detour by doing LHR-IST-LHR at the begining and end?

choosethedrew

Dave Noble

Not querying the logic of getting a fare from there , just the sanity of the routing. QF's rules would allow for travel IST-DXB-PER for example and avoid the 3000 miles detour - and of course other airlines have similar fares or a fair bit lower fares ( EK can be GBP600 cheaper).

You are not going to get a r/t fare that will allow a tour of Australia without buying a much more expensive ticket such as an around the world ticket

choosethedrew

Sorry, should've mentioned that as a total avgeek I want to do the LHR - PER nonstop!

If I did an INCEU28 fare with BA / CX it would allow more stopovers in Aus than the QF I / D class fare, I may not be able to get to HTI but it would allow stopovers in a way the Qantas fare doesn't.

Globaliser

Don't get too hung up on the Australian domestic flights. In many cases, using Avios for these is a very good value way to spend them.

Dave Noble

The routing would allow, from what I can see, 1 connection in Australia - a stopover would cost EUR100 each and the fare is about GBP700 higher

With 1 connection, that would allow 1 stopover each way for approximately GBP900 more than the QF fare and about GBP1500 more than the EK fare

luftaom

A little aside from your original question about stopovers - I wonder if your Australian schedule is a little ambitious.

Day 1: IST/ATH>LHR
Day 2: LHR>PER
Day 5: PER>BNE>HTI
Day 8: HTI>MEL
Day 11: MEL>SYD
Day 14: SYD>PER>LHR
Day 16: LHR >ATH/IST

This means that:

• You will arrive early afternoon day 3. With the amount of travelling you have done in the couple of days before that - I don't realistically see you being up for much on that afternoon.
• Unless you take the redeye (which you may need to do given the connections to HTI), day 5 is going to be travelling - which leaves you with effectively just day 4 in Perth.
• That gives you just days 6 and 7 on HTI.
• HTI to MEL will take at least 5 hours (connecting in BNE). So you will have 2.5 days in MEL.
• Then assuming you get a morning MEL-SYD it gives you effectively 3 days in Sydney.
• That's effectively just 8.5 days of non-travelling holiday. Now I'm all for some crazy routings (LHR to SYD via MAN ORD MCI DFW ABQ and LAX anyone?) - but I wonder if you are trying to squeeze just too much in.
• My suggestion would be to drop one of PER, MEL or SYD (I assume HTI is really where you want to go).

If you are ok dropping Perth and are trying to squeeze the most out of the ex EU fares (and in light of the stopover rules discussed above) - what about trying an open jaw something like: ATH-LHR-PER-BNE-HTI [o/j] MEL-SYD-PER-LHR-ATH? Given the limited flights into HTI you will probably need to overnight connect on the east coast - there's a noon BNE-HTI or a 10am SYD-HTI. Then use some Avios for say HTI-SYD (which is really good value in J) and then Avios or cash for SYD-MEL.

Dave Noble

QF doesn't have a fare published for ATH-HTI, so would have to be ATH-BNE with an HTI fare added on. MEL-SYD-PER-LHR would not work since only 1 connection within Australia is permitted on the routing rules

number_6

You could buy IST-PER and a separate "walkabout" pass to tour Oz, there may be some fare combination that suits you. Very flexible with the pass but PER may not be much cheaper than MEL or SYD. https://www.qantas.com/travel/airlin...out-pass/be/en

choosethedrew

Thanks for this and all of the other great replies here

I admit it's packing in a lot to 16 days but I don't think we can take any longer than this off work, maybe we will look at book-ending some weekends to get a few more days. However I think there's a direct HTI - MEL flight now which will help in a small way.

If we had to drop one centre than it would probably be PER, but we have never been to WA before so want to see Quokkas and the Margaret River wine tour. We have to do MEL as I know people there and we just love SYD so can't drop that, so it boils down to aforementioned WA tour vs. Hamilton Island, as both are new to us. Which would others choose, if they had to choose one? *Edited to add* This will probably be February or March so the weather would be rather better in WA??

Globaliser

What do you want to do on Hamilton Island (or nearby)? That will be a large part of the answer to this question.

choosethedrew

Whitehaven beach / bush walking / snorkelling, and chill on the beach.

luftaom

Spanner being thrown in the works here... To be honest - I'd personally keep both Perth and Hamilton Island and drop Sydney.

Re Perth. Rottnest Island is great. You should absolutely do that - but it's not something you can do in half a day ... it's a full day thing. It's also a fair drive from Perth to the Margaret River so even if you go on a tour with someone else driving it's a very long day. So I think that you need at (the very) least two clear days in Perth and even then that is pushing it a bit. There are midnight redeyes out of Perth to the east coast - but I don't think that it would be that much fun to be on a full day tour somewhere - getting back into the city mid evening and then have to get on a midnight redeye. The trick with Perth is that the timezone and distance to the east coast means that it's a balancing act between getting on a plane at an unsociable hour or losing a fair chunk of your day (e.g. the 945am out of Perth doesn't get into Sydney until just before 4pm).

Your idea of what you want to do on HTI is spot on.

If you do drop Sydney - I'd be inclined to investigate a routing like (and as was clear from above - I'm not up to speed on the fare rules).

ATH-LHR-MEL (i.e. go straight through to Melbourne and make that your first stop).
separate cash/Avios MEL-HTI and then again HTI-PER
PER-LHR-ATH
although the big downside of this is that you wind up paying for the trans continental flights which could otherwise have been included in your ex ATH. If you keep PER, I don't see a way around this.