So im QANTAS plat but that will expire Mar 2020 with 346k points.
The wife and i want to go to sweden for a few weeks around june/july/aug 2020.
We are thinking of flying business class over there and just paying for economy return as a way to use up the points (as im no longer earning more QANTAS points with work)
We are open to ideas about flying via london or paris, amsterdam etc, and dont really care if we go via asia or somewhere in the ME as our transit stop.
I would like to try and book it whilst i still have platinum so that i can get a higher chance of securing the seats.
Any suggestions on the best routes or which airlines we should look at would be greatly appreciated.
I have never redeemed a flight with QANTAS before, and when i search there seems to be very limited availability, plus many of the flights are listed as business but when i check each leg, the majority of it is often only in economy.
Perhaps you might even consider flying economy return to Asia and then return business to Europe so you have the flat bed when you need it most if you can’t get more points.
Flights to Europe are quite hard to find in Business Class but it isn’t impossible. You just need a bit of flexibility. Since your dates are quite far in the schedule, you should have more luck searching for space the day the schedule opens (aka search for the latest date it allows you to book) since that’s when they release the space. As a Platnium you do have the advantage of seeing space before others and occasionally opening up award space on Qantas flights.
I would suggest looking at Emirates business class for the most direct and cost effective routing. Otherwise, you could consider other oneworld airlines like Cathay pacific and Qatar Airways.
Try searching for different city pairs not just to different places in Europe but start from various cities in Australia as well. Also, you could try searching from various points in Asia to Europe and complement it with a cheap economy flight between Aus and Asia.
It’s really just about exploring all the options available to you to use your points. This is the time to get your thinking cap on and think out of the box as to how you can travel to Sweden.
So after spending 6+ hrs (including talking to the very helpful staff at QANTAS) the following options seem best - but i could use some clarification or ideas please
QATAR: GOT-DOH-ADE (business) and onto melbourne (economy). 148k +$600 pp - bonus is that this includes the Qsuite on DOH-ADE
QATAR release seats 361 days in advance, but i can only seem to see them on the QANTAS website about 330 days in advance. Im supposed to be able to see them on the AA website 361 days in advance, but i can only see upto 328 days. Does anyone know how i can see these 361 day availabilities?
Emirates: I read on this website that its 128k QFF points to fly one way from mel to any european destination with emirates.
The closest i can find is
GOT-LON-DUB-SYD-MEL for 154k + $1k pp
So its only 6k more points pp, but also about $400 more pp, plus a longer flight with more stops and transfers.
Is there supposed to be a better/more direct flight? i thought there would be GOT-LON-DUB-MEL?
At this stage im most likely to go with QATAR as it seems like a better product, would love to hear ppls opinions if they have flown both or either.
the QANTAS reps were very helpful and requested to open up some flights (they succeeded on a few of them)
The best option they came up with was
GOT-DOH-SIN-MEL with QATAR and QANTAS for 152k points and about $800 pp.
I have flown on Qatar recently and I would say that they are better than Emirates. The dine on demand is really helpful to get over jetlag and catch up on sleep,etc.
Have you thought about applying for one or two credit cards? (one each) That could add circa 200,000 points to your account.
Realistically, it would take 2-3 months for the points to hit your QF account so you would be gambling availability against extra points. As per djtech’s suggestion,you could book the Asia-Europe now and wait until the points arrive for the Aus-Asia sectors (which are more readily available). Will cost more points though.
All that said, the QSuites look fantastic. I’d be sorely tempted to go with the routing suggested above.
