I'm planning to fly Canberra-Munich around Christmas/New Year next year to get my ski instructor qualification in Austria. I'm currently a self-funded QF PS and my status year coincides with a calendar year. After flying on a J award this year, I'm going to fly BA World Traveller Plus (can't go back to normal economy!).

The course will start on the afternoon of 3 Jan 2005, so that latest I can fly is probably 1 Jan. I've checked this year's prices and flights up to 31 Dec are around $350 more than 1 Jan.

With my bookings so far in 2004, I'll have at least 160 SCs before the trip. I've checked the points calculator and CBR-MEL-SIN-LHR-MUC return will give me 340 SCs. Silver status will give me an extra 5,698 FF points.

I'd like some advice from the more experienced FT contributors on when I should leave. Given the overall cost of the instructor course (around $8500), I'd like to minimise costs where possible. However, I'm likely to lose Silver status on 1 Jan, only to regain it after my flights. Are the 5,698 status bonus points worth the additional $350 for the airfare in December?

Also, how heavily booked would the flight be between Christmas and New Year, as opposed to flying on New Year's Day? Any tips on seat locations? I'm 185cm tall and prefer window seats. Would 17A/K or 29A/K be the best seats for my preference?

TIA

(typos edited)

[This message has been edited by Craigo (edited Dec 04, 2003).]

I'm sure a real expert will be along in a minute, but 5698 points for an extra $350 doesn't sound like a good deal to me. It takes 20000 points for the cheapest domestic award, so your $350 is getting you just over a quarter of an award.

Having said that, if the course starts on 3rd January I would be worried about leaving on 1st January. You will arrive on the 2nd and (presumably) have to start studying and/or exerting yourself (at altitude) the next day. If you can afford the extra accommodation costs it may be worth having a day or two to recover from the flight. Of course you may well be built of stronger stuff than I am!

Accommodation is not a problem as I've got friends who live at Grafing, around 40km south east of Munich (on the way to Saalbach, where the course starts). Altitude adjustment shouldn't be too much of a problem either, as the Austrian resorts are only 200-300m higher than Thredbo. From what I understand talking to Thredbo ski school (who run the course in partnership with the Austrian Bundessportheim), the first two days are acclimatisation anyway, as most of the Aussies fly in with Lauda on the morning of the first day of the course.

Thanks for the advice Alan.

"After flying on a J award this year, I'm going to fly BA World Traveller Plus (can't go back to normal economy!"

I would suggest that perhaps it would be a good time to leach off of the AA scheme by taking the Platinum Challenge. Your flight , if booked as a single flight # through to London will complete the challenge giving you both platinum , plus the bonus as if you were platinum plus a 10% bonus for WT+...Total mile earning approx 24,000 ro London. Same again for the return plus bonuses for trading in earned upgrade credits will easily get you to around 55,000 miles. AA Platinum status will also give you OW Lounge access ( being OW Sapphire ).

35k is enough for a business class return from anywhere in AU/NZ to anywhere else in AU/NZ and 20k is enough for an economy.

If you like window seats and are travelling on a flight with the single seat in front row of WT+, then the row immediately behind is v good for window seats.

Dave

Thanks for the advice Dave. Getting Platinum for one flight does sound very tempting. I've checked the timetable and the MEL-LHR sector is one flight number BA18.

To take the challenge do I have to have an AA account (likely) or can I do it on my QF account? Is booking early worthwhile, with regard to getting a good seat, or should I hold off and get an AA account to use with the booking?

Getting the additional points would be good. I'm already a QP member, so can access the lounges at the moment, although can I still do that with an AA number of my boarding pass?

Speaking of the QP, anyone travelling through SYD on Christmas Eve? I'm transferring from a Canberra flight to a Port Macquarie flight (arriving T3 at 1440 and departing T2 at 1540), so if anyone is at T2 that arvo, I'd like to say "G'day".

Cheers

Craig

"To take the challenge do I have to have an AA account (likely) or can I do it on my QF account? "

You will indeed need to have an AA account and collect the miles for the trip into the AA account to do the challenge

"Is booking early worthwhile, with regard to getting a good seat, or should I hold off and get an AA account to use with the booking?"

You can get an AA account in minutes just by going to www.aa.com and signing up. As far as getting a good seat in WT+, well, earlier the better I would say.

"Getting the additional points would be good. I'm already a QP member, so can access the lounges at the moment, although can I still do that with an AA number of my boarding pass?"

With QC membership you are allowed to use the lounge when travelling on BA or QF. The flight is a BA flight. It doesn't matter that your AA frequent flyer number is on your boarding pass; just show your QC card and walk in. The AA Platinum status wil give you enhanced lounge access since you will be able to use any OW lounge when travelling on any OW carrier plus take a guest with you.

"Speaking of the QP, anyone travelling through SYD on Christmas Eve? I'm transferring from a Canberra flight to a Port Macquarie flight (arriving T3 at 1440 and departing T2 at 1540), so if anyone is at T2 that arvo, I'd like to say "G'day"."

I might be there at that time depending on what I finally figure on doing for xmas

Dave

Thanks Dave . I've signed up for my AA account. Am I correct in thinking that I won't be able to transfer any AA points to my QF account, I'll have to book award flights through AA?

Hopefully I'll catch up with you (and others) on Christmas Eve in the T2 QP. Cheers.

"Am I correct in thinking that I won't be able to transfer any AA points to my QF account, I'll have to book award flights through AA?"

Indeed. On the plus side, award flights are much cheaper on AAs scheme

Dave

And if you care enough, there are ways to pick up AA miles on the internet for no more cost to you than a bit of time and effort (sure one cant get more than a few thousand a year - but it is better than nothing)

To start, you can get 5000 miles for staying 1 night at a Sheraton Hotel on a monday-friday at the moment

Dave

Not a really good way to look at it - taking a rocket bottom red e-deal SYD-MEL for example at $100, your 5000 points will cost you $500, so based on this it is quite good value.

Also, a lot of people don't use their points for award flights, rather for upgrades, so this would depend on what elevl of upgrade you are looking at.

Dave

Have you thought about doing a Finnair mixed class fare? Should be around $4k to do SYD-SIN in QF Y and then SIN-HEL-MUC in AY J. I think it's 3.5k to just do SIN-HEL in J and the rest in Y.

I have been to MUC a few times to snowboard Innsbruck. My favourite resort is the Stubai Glacier. It's a shame that no OW carrier flies into Innsbruck as the drive to and from MUC is a bit of a long one in bad weather or traffic.

Do BA still offer the free side trip to Europe when you purchase a WTP+ ticket?

I had a look at the Finnair mixed class option but it's around $1000 more than WT+. The Finnair/Qantas J fare is not a bad option if someone wants to fly Business Class though. My father and his wife are flying to Europe in May (QF MEL-SIN-CDG, AY MUC-HEL-BKK, QF BKK-SYD) in Business all the way, for $6370.

The Thredbo course is at Saalbach-Hinterglemm, Alpbach (near Woergl) and Ellmau (near Kufstein), so it's reasonably easy to get to from Munich. I haven't skied in Austria yet, but skied last year at L'Espace Killy (Val d'Isere and Tignes). Looking forward to it.

I think the side trip LHR-MUC is inclusive, as the WT+ fare covers a number of European cities in addition to London.

Have you thought of taking the train form Munich to Innsbruck? It is a very spectactular route down through the alps, and I immaging would be equally so in winter. They operate with the panarama coaches making for great views along the way.

Yes, you are right (as no-one reading this would be surprised to hear!) and I knew my first post was rather simplistic. I still think however that even though the cost of earning the points is lower than average, voluntarily spending an extra $350 just to earn around 5000 points seems unlikely to be a good idea. I can certainly see situations where it would be justified; you mentioned upgrades and that is a good example - if I were a few thousand points short of a SYD-LHR Economy to Business upgrade then $350 for 5000+ points would be an absolute bargain!

That's good to hear. As a long distance runner (not competitive - for fitness only) I have to be really careful not to overdo it after sitting in an Economy seat for 24 hours. It takes quite a while to get back to peak performance. Not sure if it is just the immobility or whether the cabin air also has some effect, but it is really noticeable.