More Avios-earning Qatar deals inc Tokyo £1031, Jo’burg £932, Seoul £1083, Delhi £875

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• Adrian says:

  12 Jan12 January 08:31

  I’ve just booked OSL-AKL-CDG for £2980, for 2 of us, very happy, my wife has always wanted to go, so brownie points too!

  • AndyR says:

    12 Jan12 January 09:58

    What month was that Adrian? We are tempted to go in April but not sure about the weather. Anybody been before in April?

    • Clive says:

      12 Jan12 January 11:53

      We were in NZ for 6 weeks March-April last year. Weather was fine, bright and sunny (t-shirt and jeans weather), apart from a couple of periods of heavy rain at the south end of the south island. Take precautions against sand flies – they are mean biters! 🙂

    • Ro says:

      12 Jan12 January 12:55

      been in april too and agree with the above. generally pretty good but can be temperamental

      • Wayne Phillips says:

        12 Jan12 January 15:44

        I’m Kiwi.
        Rule #1 – It’s always crap on easter weekend or bank holidays. April 25th is Anzac (remembrance day)

        April is fine. Evenings will be cool down south. You’re likely to get some rain whatever you do, it’s an island like the UK and subject to maritime weather patterns

• mark says:

  12 Jan12 January 08:47

  If you don’t mind Y flights…. my 60 year old backpacking mother has booked flights to keep her QR status…
  MAN > GOI 485 pounds return (she had to fly on a set date)
  MAN > SGN 321 pounds return
  MAN > CRK 325 pounds return

  Once we used the code VISA to get 15% off the base ticket price, most of the times it’s cheaper to book through an online agent – even though you don’t get any bonus miles this way

  • Rob says:

    12 Jan12 January 09:10

    Wish my mum was like your mum …..

    • Brian says:

      12 Jan12 January 13:15

      You mean you wish she would be happy with Y flights? :))

• PC says:

  12 Jan12 January 08:50

  OT:Just out of curiosity, does amex insurance communicate with card services? I submitted a claim and only provided booking confirmations but not my amex statement to show the payments. After a few days the insurance asked me for proof of payment? Could they not have seen that from their end? (the booking confirmations also had the payments there but they said thats not a receipt). To me that provided unneccessary delay.

  • Alan says:

    12 Jan12 January 09:57

    I’d imagine it had gone through to their underwriters, who wouldn’t have access to account details?

  • the_real_a says:

    12 Jan12 January 14:14

    No the insurance is underwritten by AXA. Also, don’t forgot the total amount needs to be itemised, so a headline figure on your statement would not show what is contained within that amount.

• Damien says:

  12 Jan12 January 09:02

  How many Tier points do you get for the SOF to DOH flight?

  • Rob says:

    12 Jan12 January 09:12

    The link to the tier point calculator on ba.com is in our sidebar under Key BA Links.

    Alternatively, go to Great Circle Mapper online and type in SOF-DOH. If it comes up over 2,000 miles you get 140 tier points, otherwise 40.

  • AndyR says:

    12 Jan12 January 09:54

    140 TP’s, it’s just over a 2000 miles.

• AlexT says:

  12 Jan12 January 09:10

  The QR flights to SOF are usually operated with short-haul configured A320 aircraft and don’t have the lie-flat seats shown above. You’d have a recliner seat, which is perfectly comfortable for a flight that length…

  • Ro says:

    12 Jan12 January 13:00

    Some would argue a recliner seat is perfectly comfortable for a very long haul flight too 😉

• colinbj says:

  12 Jan12 January 09:11

  Qatar Sale – Helsinki – Bangkok for two £1,900 Not bad. Thanks guys

  • Rob says:

    12 Jan12 January 09:13

    I genuninely want to do Cairo to Cape Town in the Autumn because I think it would be a fantastic story for the site, but I cant get it to price. Jo’burg is possible but even I don’t want to do London Cairo Doha Jo’burg Cape Town!

    • VP says:

      12 Jan12 January 11:35

      I haven’t checked prices ex-Cairo in recent sale but after the egyptian currency devaluation was able to book Lxr-Doh-Bkk-Doh-Cai return for < 900GBP twith amex travel with the Doh-BKK sectors on A380 and outbound First and return in Business. (price was same starting from Cai but we used the occasion to do Nile cruise in Luxor). From memory, the premium for one way First was roughly GBP250-300 pp. While we have completed the first leg of the journey, (return leg in May as we were 'forced' to use Etihad A380 first on return, Bom-Auh-Lon in order to take advantage of Aadvatage prices pre devualuation incl chauffer transfer). All I can say is Qatars ground service at their hub and lounge (+amenity kits) and Etihads onboard hard product would be a very difficult combination to beat.

      • VP says:

        12 Jan12 January 11:41

        forgot to mention that stayed at a 5K hilton in Hurghada and got back 5K points after a small charge to room:) but won’t recommend it immediately as the whole hotel is undergoing renovation so pools are closed but the Hilton Luxor (no 1 on tripadvisor) was really nice. room rate $80 perday or 30K points so saved the points. As a Diamond got free airport transfers and nile facing room and buffet brekfast (no lounge)so can’t complain really.

    • Simmo says:

      12 Jan12 January 13:32

      I’ll do it for you Rob (if you are paying!) ha

    • Ian says:

      12 Jan12 January 16:46

      I saw Emirates First from Cairo to Cape Town for £1500 return which looks an incredible deal.

      I went for Paris to Joburg on Qatar in Feb for £1250 return including 787 and A380.

      CDG is so easy to get to from London, so it’s a winner compared to Stockholm or Pisa.

  • colinbj says:

    12 Jan12 January 09:19

    should have said business class 🙂

    • Rashad says:

      12 Jan12 January 10:25

      that is exactly how much i paid last year, you get to fly dreamliner and A380 🙂

• Diydegsy says:

  12 Jan12 January 11:36

  OT I have booked a 241 in business class to Kuala Lumpar Nov/Dec if available can I upgrade to first or is it not allowed, appreciate the help.

  • Rob says:

    12 Jan12 January 12:13

    If KL has First (does it?) and seats open up then, yes, you can upgrade by calling BA.

    • Diydegsy says:

      12 Jan12 January 12:51

      Thanks Rob, yes the BA flight is a 787.9 so first class is available so will keep an eye out to try and upgrade. Do you know if 1hour 50mins is enough turn around to catch a flight to Phuket as we don’t know KL airport at all?

      • Shaun M says:

        12 Jan12 January 15:37

        1hr 50mins transit time in KLIA is more than enough. The Phuket flight might be from the Satellite Terminal (C gates) so it’s from the same terminal that you are arriving at.

      • Axel Heyst says:

        12 Jan12 January 16:12

        If it’s KLIA your flight flies to Phuket from, you’ve got oodles of time

        If it is KLCC the cattle market / terminal which Air Asia uses without any dedicated check in desks you are doomed.

        • Genghis says:

          12 Jan12 January 16:26

          Thought Air Asia moved to one of the main terminals not too long ago?

      • CV3V says:

        12 Jan12 January 19:09

        the KL flight has First, 787-9 with 8 seats.

        You can book a flight to Phuket with MAS, this will fly out of KLIA satellite terminal. If its Air Asia then its over in KLIA2 (separate terminal / airport) and you will need to get the KLIA express train over to it. KLIA2 (the replacement for Low Cost Carrier Terminal) is a couple of years old and is ok (better than a lot of UK airports) but be prepared for an incredibly long walk if the gate is at the far end.

        When you arrive into KLIA as a First or Biz class passenger you can use the fast track immigration desks (they are to the left, orange carpet!). You just show boarding pass, no special invitation ticket. Likewise when exiting, look out for the signage.

      • CV3V says:

        12 Jan12 January 19:20

        Given than BA wont check your bags through to Phuket you are going to have to collect them? This means going from the satellite terminal (the international terminal) to the main building, clearing security etc etc. To then check in and head back to the satellite terminal (when the Phuket flight will leave from). In December, from exiting the BA flight to eventually clearing customs took me 50 mins – its a long trek, which you will then have to repeat in reverse to back to gate for HKT flight.

        I did a MAS flight from KUL to HKT in December and the check in queues were long, i was saved by being able to use the business class check in desk. Even with online check in there is no separate bag drop desk, you still have to ‘join the long queue’.

        So, if you are collecting your bags 1hr 50 mins will be tight, id say too tight.

        • Polly says:

          13 Jan13 January 00:28

          Diydegsy. I would say like CV3V that you won’t have enough time to turn around due to bags issue. We usually stay locally in the Concorde inn only £40 with a pool and nice breakfast, by KLIA2, shuttle bus back to KLIA, when connecting to HKT on MAS. Mainly due to delays inbound on the BA F flight. Just wouldn’t risk on out bound flight same day, especially in winter. Even using the biz check in it’s too tight.
          We are about to Cancel our 241 F to KUL now, having got our QR HEL HKT HEL flight finally booked. Our dates are in Nov.

• mark2 says:

  12 Jan12 January 12:13

  For anyone booking these flights to NZ (and no doubt many other countries) a lady at my wife’s Pilates class was fined NZ$4,000 when a sniffer dog found a tangerine in her baggage.

  • barry cutters says:

    12 Jan12 January 13:28

    sounds like a Chinese whisper . About 4 years ago a dog sniffed me by the baggage belt and they looked in my bag to find an apple , a banana, and a 12h old subway sandwich from LAX .
    I was told off but no fine

    • Wayne Phillips says:

      12 Jan12 January 15:47

      Fine more likely to be $400 than $4,000, they’re zero tolerance if you manage to make it past all the signs and disposal bins making it very clear you can’t bring things like that in.

      In the baggage hall is different.

      The beagles that do the sniffing are supercute

  • Alanr says:

    12 Jan12 January 16:03

    On arriving in MEL after a flight from LHR, a sniffer dog in the baggage hall found an apple in my bag that I’d forgotten about. It was confiscated, but no fine or telling off.

  • Alan says:

    17 Jan17 January 18:30

    Eek! I must admit I declared a Snickers bar just in case. They chuckled but agreed it was sensible to play it safe and declare and ask them!

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