[JohnK]

Hi All,

This is my first post on this forum and would appreciate any help. Sorry for the long post.

I have been trying to redeem an award flight Sydney-Bangkok for a stay of around 12 days and have found this absolutely impossible. Why are Qantas making it so hard to redeem international award flights? Some people have been able to book these flights but I find it very hard to book 12 months in advance.

Anyway I think I have found a way around this but not sure if it is valid. I I can book an award flight Sydney-Singapore and then fly Finnair Singapore-Bangkok by paying for this flight out of my pocket and receiving status credits and ff points. SAS or Swiss flights Singapore-Bangkok do not earn status credits or ff points in SE Asia.

My dilemma is in order to fly Finnair to Bangkok I would need to arrive in Singapore at the latest around 20:00 on a Monday, Wednesday or Friday. That rules out the direct flights to Singapore from Sydney or Melbourne as they arrive too late. I have been able to find an available award seat via Brisbane that arrives in Singapore at 19:50 which would enable me to connect with Finnair and still arrive in Bangkok at 23:10.

The award flight program displays and allows this routing although I have not taken it through to the booking stage. The points needed for SYD-BNE-SIN-SYD is the same points SYD-SIN-SYD which the program has calculated at 50,000 points.

Does anyone see a problem with this booking? Has anyone had a similar experience? The rules are not that specific and I have found QFF staff not very helpful.

[thadocta]

Firstly, award flights are har to get to BKK because QF only has one flight a day, so they go quickly.

If routing via SIN and then onto Finnair, rather than pay for the SIN-BKK sector, why not just get a OW award and go all the way on points? Will cost you a bit extra in terms of points (but not much) and save you some dollars.

Dave

[JohnK]

Thanks Dave.

I would rather use my ff points for longer flights and pay for the shorter journeys. Before May 25 SIN-BKK with Finnair requires 25,000 points and after May 25 SIN-BKK it requires 24,000 points plus 2,500 points booking fee. If I pay for SIN-BKK it costs AUD$250 and I get 30 status credits plus close to 1800 ff points.

John

[NM]

Johnk, I think you may have misunderstood thadocta's suggestion. Rather than redeem a separate award for the AY flight SIN-BKK-SIN, you could consider changing the whole award to a single OneWorld Award. SYD-BNE-SIN-BKK-SIN-SYD is just under 10,000 miles, so fits into the current Zone 3 OneWorld Award category, whoch costs 70,000 points in economy.

After May 25th, a 10,000 mile OneWorld Awards will fit into the new Zone 6 and will cost 102,000 points! So if you want to use this, get in early.

But I understand your point that for a short hop like SIN-BKK-SIN (900 miles each way), it may be better to paid with real money rather than redeem an extra 20,000 points.

Also note there are some different rules with OneWorld Awards, such as not being able to make any changes once the flight flight has commenced.

[dajop]

QF codeshare on both the Swissair & Finnair flights. Can you get a redemption on the QF code? That would mean only using a QF redemption not the one world redemption - and therefore cost no more than just going to Singapore.

[JohnK]

Thanks guys,

I think I will redeem an award flight to Singapore and pay my way to Bangkok.

Trying to understand the rules and conditions of the ff program sometimes drives me up the wall. I think they intentionally make it more difficult to understand with every change.

And the staff at the ff contact centre......... don't get me started. I can ring on 3 different days and get 3 different interpretations of the conditions. Not very helpful.........

[NM]

Originally Posted by dajop

QF codeshare on both the Swissair & Finnair flights. Can you get a redemption on the QF code? That would mean only using a QF redemption not the one world redemption - and therefore cost no more than just going to Singapore.

No, QF FF Terms and Conditions section 13.3.7 states:

Originally Posted by www.qantas.com.au

13.3.7 Award Flights are not available on Codeshare Flights unless otherwise specified by Qantas. Award Flights must be booked using the airline designator of the operating carrier unless otherwise specified by Qantas.

And there is nothing that identifies that particular flight as an exception under section 13.3.7.

So the AY flight number must be used. That means it is a joint QF/AY award and that must come from the Partner Award Table. Before May 25th, the 10,000 mile Partner Award will cost 65,000 points. The OneWorld Award, costing 70,000 points, must use at least two non-QF OneWorld airlines. So that will require travel between SIN-SYD on BA to qualify. But it does permit a stopover in SIN and BNE since it includes up to 5 free stopovers.

[dajop]

Originally Posted by NM

No, QF FF Terms and Conditions section 13.3.7 states:

Oh well, just a thought. Also a shame that Jester Asia don't have the same arrangements withs QF as JQ do here in Australia - as JQ now fly SIN-BKK.

[Bob]

It may because I am WP, but I had little trouble last week getting two BNE BKK BNE award bookings for the last week in April. I had to be flexible within a couple of days for the outbound and return trips and go with CX via HKG one way and QF via SYD on the return. 70,000 points for each ticket.

[BBloke]

[quote="JohnK"]Thanks guys,

I think I will redeem an award flight to Singapore and pay my way to Bangkok.

Hi, I often do this trip (via Singapore to bkk) and have found it economical to travel with airasia.com at around $25AUD each way. They also have a connecting flight late at night. Its pain switching airlines but good value.