Fly Qatar Airways business class to Auckland for £1,125

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• Ian says:

  8 May8 May 09:39

  When it says book by Monday, does that mean you can book on Monday? Or last chance to book is Sunday night?

  • Rob says:

    9 May9 May 09:44

    On Monday

• Trent says:

  8 May8 May 10:55

  That’s booked for Easter now. £1,060 / €1,342. Pisa to Auckland and Auckland to Berlin. Beautiful fare! I called Qatar and as the connection on the return is over 8 hours, the fare is eligible for a free overnight in a hotel on the airline. I’m not even going to New Zealand – I’m off to Sydney. Happily the LAN flight from Auckland to Sydney connects perfectly and there’s always Avios availability Business Class, so that’ll work out well. The return timing requires an overnight in Auckland, but that’s no big deal. It’s a lot of flying, but hey, someone has to do it. Thanks for the heads up!

  • Pascal says:

    8 May8 May 14:02

    Hey Trent! That syd connection sounds awesome. What’s the best way to book it with avios? We really want to connect to syd/Mel for a part of the holiday. Thanks!

    • Alan says:

      8 May8 May 14:25

      Remember you can also book on Qantas too, you just have to do it with BA over the phone as it’s run by a subsidiary.

      • Pascal says:

        8 May8 May 14:43

        Thanks Alan!
        I’ll check that out. Do you maybe know roughly the amount of avios/price? I think the interesting is possibly avoiding the biz on lan (despite it seems to be a nivr 787) for that “short” connection

        • Alan says:

          8 May8 May 14:50

          MEL-WLG was 40k Avios and £64 return when I went in October, booked on JetConnect by Qantas over the phone about a week before travel! Being in biz was also handy for getting through the immigration queues to leave Oz as they give you a Fasttrack ticket.

        • Pascal says:

          8 May8 May 15:02

          Thanks!

          Just got of the phone. In economy (seems to be Qantas):
          20k Avios and £90 return AKL-SYD

          Bit surprised by the higher costs, but 20k Avios sounds good.

        • Alan says:

          8 May8 May 15:41

          I’d imagine the difference is between AKL/SYD and WLG/MEL combination when it comes to airport taxes – in general on QF domestic/NZ flights there’s very little by way of surcharges.

          Good result getting that sorted for 20k Avios though 🙂

        • Trent says:

          8 May8 May 16:16

          I’m definitely taking LAN on the 787 from AKL to SYD, but I’m taking Qantas back as the timing is better for more time in the Qantas First Lounge.

      • Trent says:

        8 May8 May 16:14

        I didn’t know that, I had wondered why only the LAN availability showed! That’s good to know!

        • Alan says:

          8 May8 May 16:23

          Yes, there’s a glitch where JetConnect (NZ services) and QantasLink (Tassie and some other places) don’t show up on the BA booking engine. If you call them the agents can book if redemption seats available when checking via the QF website. Also if they can’t find seats despite them showing for QF then ask them to check each sector separately as that often seems to solve the problem (I had a year in Oz so am well versed in the ins-and-outs of the setup there!)

        • Lady London says:

          9 May9 May 16:17

          Don’t forget Virgin Australia also flies and a lot cheaper, some other types of miles can be used for them.

• Mapman says:

  8 May8 May 15:57

  Done the deal! PSA-AKL-FRA for a duo of *5th birthdays in April 2017. You can’t grumble at this, considering I booked three seats to Dusseldorf for a work trip a few days ago at £205 each. Makes this look rather good, whether dividing the total to give a per hour flying time cost, or a per mile cost. I have to say this is the furthest in advance I have ever booked flights. I must try not to fall under a bus between now and then… Curiously, the cost of returning to PSA was higher than going to FRA, Hats off to Rob for spreading the word on this remarkable deal. It makes last year’s BA F mistake fare look very tame in comparison. And I suspect that QR won’t renege on it, as did those nice people at Waterside.

  • harry says:

    8 May8 May 16:30

    Welcome to T-355 days 🙂

    Saves us a fortune.

• Gareth says:

  8 May8 May 18:41

  deleted me comment for pointing out someone beat you to the punch? that’s weak mate. Weak. Admit when someone finds a deal before you.

  • harry says:

    8 May8 May 18:58

    sure, I saw that, I feel your angst 🙂

    there are other ‘points blog people’ reading these boards, no point giving away the info from members, hence deletion is understandable – nice that HFP keeps an edge

    a ‘thanks to Gareth’ would no doubt have appeased you – but the info might have come from more than 1 HFP member – personally never bothered me to get a hat tip as I benefit in plenty of other ways more meaningful than that

    • Rob says:

      8 May8 May 22:18

      Anything that comes from just 1 person is usually acknowledged on the site, although some people specifically ask me not to name them. I am always grateful to readers who email me offers they see – if I don’t reply (as often happens due to the sheer volume these days, I am now over 1000 emails per week) then be sure that I did still read it.

  • JamesWag says:

    9 May9 May 11:24

    Chill out man.

• Justin Jenk says:

  8 May8 May 23:26

  Sorry

  But both Qatar and BA claim that the specoial BC fare to Auckland for £1900 is a R class ticket and does NOT accrue tier NOR avios points for BA Executive Club members!

  As a GOld member I have been on the phone with BA, Oneworld and Qatar for 4 hours today.

  If someone knows better please let me know

  Thanks

  • Alan says:

    9 May9 May 00:02

    R fares after 1st May are cleared marked on the website as earning so I don’t see how they can deny it?

  • mark says:

    9 May9 May 07:01

    http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/qatar-airways-privilege-club/1764023-r-class-has-anyone-bottomed-out-baec-values.html

  • Rob says:

    9 May9 May 08:57

    It is clear as day on ba.com (and all other oneworld partners) that R class bought after May 1st count. Why you would think anyone in the BA call centre would have the foggiest idea how this works is beyond me?! 🙂

    • JamesWag says:

      9 May9 May 11:20

      Ha Ha Ha Ha !!

• Mapman says:

  8 May8 May 23:45

  Justin

  The BA Avios/Tier Point page clearly shows R as an eligible fare for both Avios and TPs – although as the route from DOH-AKL doesn’t currently exist, it’s not discoverable via the search facility. However, since R fares are now definitely known to correctly credit TPs and Avios to BAEC, there should be no cause for concern. I’m certainly banking on my 600 TPs for the flights PSA-AKL-FRA next year.

  • Stu R says:

    9 May9 May 05:29

    If you visit the Avios flight calculator below, DOH – AKL is most definitely there showing 11,290 Avios and 160 TP’s in R on Qatar Airways. PSA – DOH is not in there yet though ….

    https://www.britishairways.com/travel/flight-calculator/execclub/_gf/en_gb

    We are booked thanks to this article, early March, PSA-AKL-PSA for £2249 …. nice!

• Polly says:

  9 May9 May 08:11

  Make sure you get to PSA the night before. Take no chances with such a long flight ahead! We always go the day before to either CPH or DUB. It’s just not worth the angst if you missed such a great flight. The is no insurance out there for that type of cover. It’s up to you to be there. Your normal travel insurance would cover accident or illness and not making a flight. Enjoy , what a bargain!

  • JamesWag says:

    9 May9 May 11:15

    It is very sensible to do that and so far I’ve dine that 90% of the times I’ve done an exEU or exCAI flight BUT it is annoying to add another £100 each way for hotels 🙁 just eats into the savings made.
    Sometimes the places are interesting, which is a nice little extra, but its at a financial cost 🙁

    • Polly says:

      9 May9 May 12:14

      I agree James, but a lot of those QR flights leave late evening, so you can actually risk going RFS that morning to Europe. Just store the cases at the airport and spend the day in a pretty city. We are actually doing that late oct on route to HKT. Taking a chance, as we usually go the night before. So yes we won’t have the hotel costs the night before on that trip. On return we think we will book kate afternoon so we can nip into Copenhagen for lunch.

  • Stu R says:

    9 May9 May 20:32

    Yep, already booked GLA-LHR-PSA and a hotel overnight in PSA …. soooo excited!

• Jon says:

  9 May9 May 10:13

  Thanks Raffles – great post and I’ve also taken advantage. FRA-AKL-PSA booked for next Easter for approx £1150 pp! Noticed that the cabin is pretty full going out – guessing there’ll be a few HFP readers on there with me!

  Just wondering if anyone else has had a payment verification email after the booking? Booked the flight last night (all ok – issued a ref. code etc) and had an email this morning asking for a scan of my passport and a credit card statement. It all seems legit, but I’ve not had a request like this before when booking a flight and I’m not exactly comfortable sending a CC statement via email. Anyone else experienced this and, if so, any idea what info off the statement they’re after in particular.

  Naturally I’ll be phoning them and will update this if/when I get a decent answer.

  • Trent says:

    9 May9 May 10:45

    Hello Jon, I also received the payment verification e-mail from QR asking for the card holders Passport to be scanned and a copy of the credit card statement. I sent off an e-mail to QR saying I would provide it but asked why this was required as I had never had this requirement in the past. No response as yet. However, I also received the mail, just so you know.

  • David says:

    9 May9 May 10:52

    Hi Jon
    I booked a ex-EU trip last year to Bali with Qatar after reading HfP. I had the same email and rang them and they said that they do random checks. I scanned and sent it the stuff to them by email and had a confirmation email within 24 hours to say everything was OK. I was told that if you don’t provide it, they will cancel the booking. Seemed a bit dubious but all worked out fine in the end. I assumed initially it might be because I was using a UK credit card but departing from Europe.

    • Trent says:

      9 May9 May 11:42

      I called QR there and what David says is true. She said it’s random checks and otherwise it is when the card does not match the passenger name. It’s a fraud prevention measure. The agent knew exactly what I was talking about as soon as I mentioned it.

  • Jon says:

    9 May9 May 13:38

    Awesome – thanks guys! I’ll send them off ASAP then, don’t want to get it cancelled!

    I suppose the transaction would look a bit suspect to be fair, so at least they’re checking these things. Rather have a small amount of hassle than someone able to use my card unhindered!

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