Booking award flights - disadvantages to booking individual sectors?

[jaseb]

Hi all

I have resigned to the fact that an OWA Explorer is too difficult to book for next European summer, so am planning on flying melb > europe > melb in business.

Is there any disadvantage to booking melb > europe outbound leg as soon as seats become available, and then a separate award booking for europe > melb return leg later on when seats open up, in terms of points or dollar costs?

Thanks

 

[jaseb]

To elaborate
We are 2pax with approx. 600k QFF points but no status.
Looking to fly Melbourne > Dubai > Europe late Aug/start Sept 2020 and return from Europe early-mid October 2020.

Cheers

 

[esseeeayeenn]

I can see no disadvantage whatsoever.
There is no difference in the number of points required and AFAIK no difference in the fees and charges either.
If there is any difference in these it should be minor.
Given you have no status I think it would be a good strategy to book each sector on the respective day it becomes available.
That way you maximise your chances of availability.
If I can make one suggestion, unless you particularly want to fly on EK metal, I would be open on the transit point.
There is often good award availability on CX to Europe via HKG.
I think one of the Chinese airlines is now an option as well, and availablity for them should be visible online.
There may be other options using MH or UL as well, although these aren't visible online (unless you have a BA or other OW FF account).
And of course QF now flies via SIN not DXB. Although that would mean an additional transit in LHR which can incurr a lot of fees and charges!

 

[jaseb]

I can see no disadvantage whatsoever.
There is no difference in the number of points required and AFAIK no difference in the fees and charges either.
If there is any difference in these it should be minor.
Given you have no status I think it would be a good strategy to book each sector on the respective day it becomes available.
That way you maximise your chances of availability.
If I can make one suggestion, unless you particularly want to fly on EK metal, I would be open on the transit point.
There is often good award availability on CX to Europe via HKG.
I think one of the Chinese airlines is now an option as well, and availablity for them should be visible online.
There may be other options using MH or UL as well, although these aren't visible online (unless you have a BA or other OW FF account).
And of course QF now flies via SIN not DXB. Although that would mean an additional transit in LHR which can incurr a lot of fees and charges!

Thanks for confirming. We are pretty set on flying the A380 - specifically Emirates but would consider QF or QR also (even if it means extra costs flying into LHR)

Again thanks for your input and I'll be keeping an eye on our outbound date(s) daily from here on in!
Cheers

 

[adenda]

Don't give up yet - seats for your travel times won't have been released yet. A quick check on QF site shows latest seats available to Doha for example (in QSuites!) around 15 August 2020.

 

[jaseb]

Don't give up yet - seats for your travel times won't have been released yet. A quick check on QF site shows latest seats available to Doha for example (in QSuites!) around 15 August 2020.

Damn. Latest I can see is 7 August 2020. I'm assuming because I'm a lowly Bronze?

 

[adenda]

Correction - flight from Melbourne to Doha quoted above is on A380 - so no Q Suites. The flight to look for is QR915 out of Adelaide on a A350-900 with a short connection from Melbourne - even paid for if necessary.

 

[RichardMEL]

I would go on QR tbh.

The EK bar is a bit of fun, but I find the EK J seats to be boxy and tight and the service and F&B to be so so.

but obviously you gotta go with what you can get when looking at points.

What is th emain reason to want to go on an A380?

 

[adenda]

Damn. Latest I can see is 7 August 2020. I'm assuming because I'm a lowly Bronze?
View attachment 183316

The Qantas website restricts you to selecting a date 353 days in the future in the date entry fields however if you proceed with the search clicking the Flexible with Dates option you will see a calendar of flights up to 15 August - which conforms to the advance booking period for other airlines such as Qatar (361 days)

 

[jaseb]

I would go on QR tbh.

The EK bar is a bit of fun, but I find the EK J seats to be boxy and tight and the service and F&B to be so so.

but obviously you gotta go with what you can get when looking at points.

What is th emain reason to want to go on an A380?

I didn't even consider the QSuites out of Adelaide - so I'll definitely put that up there as one of our preferences.
The A380... I dunno... I just... love it. I was lucky enough to fly SYD-CHC-SYD in F on the EK A380 earlier this year and it was just such a fantastic experience I've been dying to do it again (granted, I'll only be in J this time, but for someone who only ever gets to fly Y - it's still special!).

The Qantas website restricts you to selecting a date 353 days in the future in the date entry fields however if you proceed with the search clicking the Flexible with Dates option you will see a calendar of flights up to 15 August - which conforms to the advance booking period for other airlines such as Qatar (361 days)

Great tip (seriously, thankyou!)! And does it extend day by day (ie. today I can see out til the 15th Aug, so tomorrow I will be able to see out til the 16th Aug) or are they released in blocks?

 

[Matt_01]

To elaborate
We are 2pax with approx. 600k QFF points but no status.
Looking to fly Melbourne > Dubai > Europe late Aug/start Sept 2020 and return from Europe early-mid October 2020.

Cheers

You may be better off booking as 2 separate . I a not sure of the date however in mid Sep the QFF program changes come into effect when the number of points will go up and the taxes come down and if you believe the QF hype there should also be grater availability.

I would lock in the outbound when available, the return may be subject to the new changes.

I am also looking at travel over this time frame so I am also watching with interest.

 

[zenyattamondatta]

if you believe the QF hype there should also be grater availability.

Wouldn’t surprise me at all, they’re big on flogging kitchen utensils.

 

[Vic]

The disadvantage is that taxes and fees will be charged as per the origin of the flights. So for flights to the USA this does result in higher fees (in USD) for the award back from the USA, for example.

You should be able to book the first leg and then do a change to add in the return award (once you find it).

 

[RichardMEL]

re EK A380 - can understand enjoying the F experience (specially if you snagged a shower on trans-tas, which is unusual but not unheard of) but I would warn the J product is vastly different, and as I suggested... not the best J product out there IMO.

 

[esseeeayeenn]

re EK A380 - can understand enjoying the F experience (specially if you snagged a shower on trans-tas, which is unusual but not unheard of) but I would warn the J product is vastly different, and as I suggested... not the best J product out there IMO.

Hard agree.
The EK J seats are not leading class anymore.
And the food and beverage service is pretty poor, very much revolving around their chosen time to wheel the trolleys around, not tailored to the individual like other airlines. Actually more like QF now I think of it ...

 

[jaseb]

re EK A380 - can understand enjoying the F experience (specially if you snagged a shower on trans-tas, which is unusual but not unheard of) but I would warn the J product is vastly different, and as I suggested... not the best J product out there IMO.

Thanks Richard - will consider all of QR, QF (although prefer not to fly in/out LHR) and EK at this stage since they all operate A380 routes

Hard agree.
The EK J seats are not leading class anymore.
And the food and beverage service is pretty poor, very much revolving around their chosen time to wheel the trolleys around, not tailored to the individual like other airlines. Actually more like QF now I think of it ...

Personal preferences/experiences aside, is there a "generally accepted" ranking order of best long haul J carriers between Melbourne & Europe? Seems I was mistaken thinking EK was still considered as the leader in this space!

 

[RichardMEL]

Personal preferences/experiences aside, is there a "generally accepted" ranking order of best long haul J carriers between Melbourne & Europe? Seems I was mistaken thinking EK was still considered as the leader in this space!

Well aren't they ALL subjective in one way or another?

Seems QR have taken over the J mantle from just about every other airline - specially with the QSuites product, with SQ still high up there (obviously not an option with QF points).

While EK is 1-2-1 config on the 380 (note their 777's are worse) which is a bonus, the hardware is older and again a bit boxy as I have said.

CX could still be an option with the new catering options possibly being an improvement - their Zodiac J seats are good.

MH A330 J seats are... so so. Similar to EK in respect of being a little boxy, except the Throne seats (ie: 1K) which are nice.. but only for a solo pax.. a couple not so much. The A350 is a little better... but the soft product can be variable I think. Not horrible, but they're not SQ.

QF on the 380 2-2-2 skybeds would be among the worst hard product wise. 787 J seats much better. I would think a QF A330 or 787 connecting to say CX, EK or QR would not be horrible.

Avoid BA. Only the new A350-1000 J seats look decent and they are not coming anywhere near APAC anytime soon.

So very subjective though. You've been spoiled in EK F (as we all have )

 

[adenda]

I didn't even consider the QSuites out of Adelaide - so I'll definitely put that up there as one of our preferences.
The A380... I dunno... I just... love it. I was lucky enough to fly SYD-CHC-SYD in F on the EK A380 earlier this year and it was just such a fantastic experience I've been dying to do it again (granted, I'll only be in J this time, but for someone who only ever gets to fly Y - it's still special!).



Great tip (seriously, thankyou!)! And does it extend day by day (ie. today I can see out til the 15th Aug, so tomorrow I will be able to see out til the 16th Aug) or are they released in blocks?

It does - for example from my investigations when doing my booking I found that for American Airlines another day of seat availability appeared at around 3.00 pm each day. 3.00pm Melbourne time is midnight in Dallas-Fort Worth - AA's home base.

 

[jaseb]

Well aren't they ALL subjective in one way or another?

Seems QR have taken over the J mantle from just about every other airline - specially with the QSuites product, with SQ still high up there (obviously not an option with QF points).

While EK is 1-2-1 config on the 380 (note their 777's are worse) which is a bonus, the hardware is older and again a bit boxy as I have said.

CX could still be an option with the new catering options possibly being an improvement - their Zodiac J seats are good.

MH A330 J seats are... so so. Similar to EK in respect of being a little boxy, except the Throne seats (ie: 1K) which are nice.. but only for a solo pax.. a couple not so much. The A350 is a little better... but the soft product can be variable I think. Not horrible, but they're not SQ.

QF on the 380 2-2-2 skybeds would be among the worst hard product wise. 787 J seats much better. I would think a QF A330 or 787 connecting to say CX, EK or QR would not be horrible.

Avoid BA. Only the new A350-1000 J seats look decent and they are not coming anywhere near APAC anytime soon.

So very subjective though. You've been spoiled in EK F (as we all have )

Appreciate your detailedresponse! I'll be gunning hard for some QSuite seats next week with EK & non-Qsuite QR as the primary fallback.

 

[MathNerd]

if you believe the QF hype there should also be grater availability.

Freudian slip?

Wouldn’t surprise me at all, they’re big on flogging kitchen utensils.