In the past Qantas have not allowed award seats on codeshare flights (I dont know about this post Sept 15th when the rules changed). It needs to be on the carriers own metal. The only other Option seems to be a Oneworld award ticket or 2 award tickets.

Oz and John!!
I had a heap of flights booked pre sept 15.
whenever I have wanted to change them it is no problem.
I just changed a first class QF to BA .
the QF was N/A the B/A was not a problem!
as long as the flights were booked and ticketed pre sept 15!
I do not know what the scene is like post sept 15!

I'm not familiar with the QF program since I do most of my business with AA. However, I have gone to Australia twice in the last three years and plan to go again next year. As a consequence, I would like to get more familiar with the QF program.

Does the double miles program with Starwood have a termination date? Are there other ways to get QF miles without flying QF? Can you fly from the US to Australia on QF Miles? (I assume you can.) How many miles does it cost to go from LAX to SYD Business Class; how many First Class?

Thanks in advance for your input.

Norm Solomon

I've been researching this for a while (I mostly fly AA but will have 3+ paid F trips on QF this year and was debating putting the miles into AA or into QF's plan). At first glance the QF Frequent Flyer plan looked unattractive compared to AA (in general earn fewer miles and cost much more for similar awards), but there are some special features that make QF very attractive in some cases. It is NOT competitive with AA for your example (SYD-LAX point-to-point award), this would cost 160K miles on QF and 105K miles for AA (flying on the same QF operated plane!). HOWEVER, the QF award for 180K miles would let you do LAX-SYD-AKL-MEL-HKG-SYD-LAX, with stopovers at HKG and AKL (it is 10K miles extra per stopover, max 5 allowed). And that example is the LEAST of the interesting twists to the QF rules. Also award availability is much better for QF Platinum members than for AA EXP (enough so that I will credit my QF flights to QF and get Platinum status, instead of getting more miles crediting to AAdvantage).
The QF plan booklet that I received in the mail is seriously out of date and mis-states the plan rules -- you can read the real rules on the Qantas web site, start at http://www.qantas.com.au/fflyer/dyn/...ables#oneworld
Curiously enough the current terms are much better than my booklet describes. I'm afraid you'll have to examine how you will collect and spend miles before you can decide if it is a good plan. Any OneWorld flight can be credited to QF (but you must fly 4 paid QF flights per year to remain a plan member, though rumour has it that they look the other way on that condition). I'm considering crediting much of my AA travel to QF after reaching EXP as I think the QF plan might actually be better for my usage. I reached this conclusion with some amazement, as it really didn't look like a good plan. It is rife with inconsistancy, but once you understand the rules it is a good plan. And QF is a pretty good airline (at least for long-haul flights, I gather that the Australian flight situation is a bit of a shambles in the Ansett aftermath).

Thanks a million, number_6, for the fine update. I will click on the URL and get familiar with the QF rules.

The ability to get 2-1 Starwood conversion could be very interesting. I'm anxious to get more feedback on that.

The other thing to consider for those living in either North America or Europe is that Qantas FF members can earn points on both AA and BA on trans-Atlantic flights, and make redemptions on both, which is something which does not apply to either AA or BA members - this could be handy for those who need some flexibility.

Dave

I am new to QF but tried Award Flight Calculator from QF site and it said business is 220K with one free stopover for LAX-SYD-AKL-MEL-HKG-SYD-LAX. It would be 230K for two stopovers. How do you come up with 180K award? Beside, the whole trip is about 27K miles so it should belong to "17,501 - 30,000" category.

So what's the most creative routing you all can think of JFK-LHR? I'd like to redeem 250,000 points for the two of us, and I only really want to fly the Concorde once to say I've done it. Is there any flexibility in the rules here for some more flying on BA First? Thx.

There is a limit on what you can do. If you start in London and go to New York, you will be pretty much limited to flying back to London in 1st or Concorde.

If you start at JFK, you could fly to London and then on to somewhere within 1500ish miles from London, but this is going to be in Club Europe. You will have to go back to JFK , or least, the points calculation would be back to JFK. You don't have to fly Concorde both ways, you could fly the other leg in 1st.

Dave

Thanks for the above info, but can someone please confirm who I would need to speak to to get a Concorde reward flight? We tried the other day (in Australia, only speaking to the first point of contact) and were told that Concorde rewards were not allowed.

Regards

WG

They do seem to be unaware of this down there in Australia.

Rather than specifically asking for a Concorde flight, ask for availability in 1st class on BA1 ( LHR-JFK) or BA2 (JFK-LHR) . If Z class is available they will happily be able to book it for you. There isn't a special Concorde reward per se, you just book a 1st reward ticket on a flight that happens to be using the Concorde aircraft

Dave

This BA01 and BA02 seems like a rather large loophole in the QF program that I'm sure will be closing as soon as BA sees this sudden influx of Aussies on their planes.

Surely we should just book BA 1/2 tickets for March 2003, and then pay 2 500 points to have them change the dates when we decide to travel?
Regards,
Alex

I disagree, I don't believe it is an oversight and there is plenty of Concorde inventory available (rumor has it that the paid load is 20% so there are 80 available F seats on the average Concorde flight -- I suspect you'd need 20 747-400 flights to get 80 F award seats (I know some airlines allocate only *1* per flight for awards). Using Concorde is a great way for BA to consume miles (until the paid passengers return -- then the seats will become hard to get). Since BA did not get anti-trust with AA the great pool of AAdvantage miles isn't competing for these Concorde seats!

I wouldn't worry. Qantas staff in London I spoke to were fully aware that Concorde travel is allowed and is at the same rate as 1st class, which is pretty fair, since COncorde isn't that much more expensive to travel on than regular 1st class anyway.

I just think it is a case that the staff in Melbourne are less aware of it. There are no Concorde redemptions listed, but then are any of the other redemptions based on aircraft type?

Z is the OW booking class for 1st redemption travel. BA wouldn't have set Concorde up for Z without knowing

Availabilty for Concorde travel seems to be excellent. I had no problems getting travel for any of the dates I wanted.

If you are travelling during the Northern winter, there is another choice for Concorde travel. On saturdays, it does do LHR-BGI and BGI-LHR , so if Barbados appeals more than New York , that is an option. That still fits in the 125,000 points redemption category. Staying less than a week, then for 150,000, you can do LHR-BGI-JFK-LHR using BA/AA

Dave

Dave