[mangrovejack]

Hi,

I want to go to Noumea in October this year for my wife's and I one year wedding anniversary. I've got just over 48,000 frequent flyer points.

I went to the Qantas website and the calculator said I'd need 24,000 points for a single return flight from Brisbane to Noumea. Now when I went to book the flight, the booking form listed only Brisbane to Port Vila and then Port Vila to Noumea. I would be fine with this except the total cost is then 36,000 points for one person return, and obviously I don't have enough points to cover two people.

So does anyone know why there isn't a direct flight available from Brisbane to Noumea (I've been told my the travel agent that there are flights), and also why can't I pick Port Vila as a destination?

Thanks.

[Mal]

Hi MangroveJack.

There are direct Qantas flights from Brisbane to Noumea, as well as Codeshare flights (ie flights with a Qantas number but actually flying on someone else's plane).

The direct flights with Qantas only seem to leave on Saturdays, and the flights with the partner airline ( AIRCALIN) run on Thursdays and Sundays.

There seems to be very limited award availability in October for Brisbane to Noumea. This is probably related to both the limited amounts of flights and perhaps a non-availability of award seats on the codeshare flight.

I did find one seat on a direct Qantas flight (Sat Oct 22 with a return on Sat 29 Oct). This doesn't help you much I am sure but it shows that some availability does exist.

The reason why the points jump to 36000 is because when multiple trips are booked on an award ticket, the flight "costs" are added together. You would also pay more in airport charges/taxes etc for this kind of situation.