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I’m trying to book flights to Australia in February, I’ve looked for upgrades to business class but can’t see any airlines that guarantee on booking. I don’t want to transfer the points and then they are stuck in the airline programme.
Otherwise do I use them for reward flights and pay the taxes? I’m struggling to check which is best. Any help would be greatly appreciated.Do you mean you are looking for business class award seats? As I’ve just pointed out to another reader, Australia is rather difficult to get award seats to at the moment because of pent up pandemic demand. You’d need to be on the ball at T-355 to book with BA, or try to find availability with QR on a date when they’re not charging double avios. Which airlines have you considered so far?
If you’re looking to upgrade with points, again you’re probably going to be dependent on seats becoming available for your dates. Apart from BA, I don;t know which airlines offer this.
How many travellers?
How many travellers?
2 of us
It’s an almost endlessly complex answer with so many airlines in play, so we can only answer what will mostly be right, not always.
Most of the time with most airlines you will be better off booking a reward seat and paying the charges rather than upgrading a cash ticket. Doing things this way also means that you will, at all times, hold an easily refundable/changeable ticket – something which itself has quite a lot of value.
BA will be about the toughtest airline to find availabilty on – not sure I’d even bother to try. The middle eastern carriers might be your best bet but don’t discount the various other Asia-based carriers too. Be prepared to be flexible both on travel dates and on which cities you arrive and depart from – and hunt all available options. e.g. Qatar departs from several cities in the UK.
Whilst Emirates don’t guarantee, they do offer upgrades for points, including at check in. Some saver fare buckets are non-upgradable. I booked a couple of fully flex tickets in economy with a view to upgrading them; when a full redemption became available I cancelled them online for a painless refund. They have an “auto upgrade” feature so you can lodge a request. Apparently upgrades are always available eventually unless the cabin you want to upgrade to is sold out. It used to be one cabin only for auto upgrades, I have no idea how this works now they have Premium Economy.
one mile at a time has a couple of articles on this topic.
Delta SkyMiles 90k +$355.46 per person
35h 50m – 1 stop
LHR – SGN – SYD
Thu, Feb 1 2024 11:00 am
London Heathrow (LHR)
12h 55m
Fri, Feb 2 2024 06:55 am
Tan Son Nhat Intl (SGN)
VN50 · Boeing 787
Business
Layover: Tan Son Nhat Intl (SGN) – 14h 35mFri, Feb 2 2024 09:30 pm
Tan Son Nhat Intl (SGN)
8h 20m
Sat, Feb 3 2024 09:50 am
Sydney Kingsford Smith Intl (SYD)
VN773 · Airbus A350-900
BusinessDelta SkyMiles 90k +$355.46 per person
35h 50m – 1 stop
LHR – SGN – SYD
Thu, Feb 1 2024 11:00 am
London Heathrow (LHR)
12h 55m
Fri, Feb 2 2024 06:55 am
Tan Son Nhat Intl (SGN)
VN50 · Boeing 787
Business
Layover: Tan Son Nhat Intl (SGN) – 14h 35mFri, Feb 2 2024 09:30 pm
Tan Son Nhat Intl (SGN)
8h 20m
Sat, Feb 3 2024 09:50 am
Sydney Kingsford Smith Intl (SYD)
VN773 · Airbus A350-900
BusinessThat’s a brilliant deal.
That’s one way and a 36 hour journey time (and two nights on a plane) to Sydney – is it really such a good deal?
A quick check on BA using a ‘new’ 241 voucher from the regions NCL-LHR-SYD (via SIN) in Feb is showing multiple availability on Feb 5th/6th/7th/8th/11th. and surprisingly return on the same route 26th-28th and 3rd of March.
The key is starting up in the loveliest part of the country and use of the 241 voucher.
Flights down under using Avios aren’t that difficult anymore IMO.
Thankyou, that’s really helpful. I will have a look at both options. I did see some seats with Singapore Airlines but using a lot of points.
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