*** Last minute Oz flights advice sought (Apr-end or May-start, ’25) ***
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Many thanks for reading this, first of all — very much appreciated! 🙂
My Aussie wife unexpectedly needs to return to Oz for a couple of weeks at the end of April/beginning of May because of her elderly mother, who lives in ADL.
Before we have to resort to ludicrous cash prices (CX PE = £3K!), would anyone possibly be able to recommend any ways to achieve this via airmiles or, indeed, paying cash at a reasonably agreeable rate (J would be preferable, notwithstanding beggars and choosers)?
I appreciate that not much may be possible, but any advice would be greatly appreciated. For what it’s worth, I have 156K AA miles to use, though little is showing up on routes to Oz.
Many thanks once again.
Have a look at the flights on this site https://www.fly4free.com/?s=australia
Make sure you avoid Easter. Search also NZ and possibly find another way across the Tasman
Y may be reachable but very unsure how far those AA miles will take you in higher classes.
See if Virgin Australia’s flights via Doha which are operated by Qatar aircraft and crew, are offering anything reasonable for cash.
On cash searches and particularly in Y, nearer the flight date some ok fares might come up, I do remember SkyTeam snd Air NZ had them. Perhaps check for soon dates now just to see if there’s a pattern.
You could also see if there are cheapish one way fares in either direction – Air NZ was offering some to Lon/Europe. You could then look at using miles for the other leg. As an Oz citizen she will be allowed to board the plane on a one way ticket if it comes to it snd sort out a return later. Seasonality for that is in your favour at this time of year compared to earlier.
QF does Rome which is easy enough to reach from the UK – they may have reasonably priced capacity if they are not too full if they’re running now.
I just received this by email. https://www.fly4free.com/flight-deals/europe/flights-from-vienna-to-singapore-and-kuala-lumpur/
It prompted me to do a skycanner search and it came up with the following:
545 euro from vienna to KUL
30th April, Manchester-Doha-Adelaide, book via the AA website 85k AA miles and under £300 TFCs which is pretty insane.
Leave MAN 8.15am, into ADL 3pm on May 1st.
As your wife presumably has no visa concerns, book the outbound now then worry about the return later?
And coming back, Friday 16th, AA have a seat showing ADL-KUL-DOH in J, 80k miles and £80. It’s an overnight stop at KUL and you still need to get back to London from Doha but there’s lots of economy award availability showing, so AA may be able to do a split fare type thing and something better might come up nearer to departure.
Bill — many thanks for this. Much obliged.
Have a look at the flights on this site https://www.fly4free.com/?s=australia
Lady London — many thanks indeed for this. Excellent tips, especially the Virgin Australia (Qatar) one — thank you. 🙂
Also, thank you for the great reminder regarding seats opening up close to the departure date. Rome is also a very interesting tidbit — very much appreciated.
Make sure you avoid Easter. Search also NZ and possibly find another way across the Tasman
Y may be reachable but very unsure how far those AA miles will take you in higher classes.
See if Virgin Australia’s flights via Doha which are operated by Qatar aircraft and crew, are offering anything reasonable for cash.
On cash searches and particularly in Y, nearer the flight date some ok fares might come up, I do remember SkyTeam snd Air NZ had them. Perhaps check for soon dates now just to see if there’s a pattern.
You could also see if there are cheapish one way fares in either direction – Air NZ was offering some to Lon/Europe. You could then look at using miles for the other leg. As an Oz citizen she will be allowed to board the plane on a one way ticket if it comes to it snd sort out a return later. Seasonality for that is in your favour at this time of year compared to earlier.
QF does Rome which is easy enough to reach from the UK – they may have reasonably priced capacity if they are not too full if they’re running now.
The real Swiss Tony — thanks so much for both replies: I have just held both on AA, Tony! 🙂 I will await my wife’s reaction… hopefully positive! 🙂
30th April, Manchester-Doha-Adelaide, book via the AA website 85k AA miles and under £300 TFCs which is pretty insane.
Leave MAN 8.15am, into ADL 3pm on May 1st.
As your wife presumably has no visa concerns, book the outbound now then worry about the return later?
Pleased to be of help. I should have said, I couldn’t see anything out of London that had a sensible connection – the Manchester option seemed better than a couple of days in Doha!
The real Swiss Tony — a very big help, Tony! Thank you. 🙂
The real Swiss Tony
Just to follow on from the above and now having booked 3 x QR flights for my wife — thank you so much everyone (above!) 🙂 — would anyone possibly know about U fare bucket business class flights on QR?
Basically, yesterday I booked 3 x separate, long-haul QR flights for my wife using AA miles. I have just used the QR locator numbers (provided by AA) for each flight on both the Qatar website and app: on the website, there is no obvious hyperlink to choose/change your seat and, in the app, seat selection is there, but when you attempt to go through to the “seat map is loading…” section, an error is then thrown up.
I just wondered if there was another way to select a seat? Or, possibly, is free seat selection withheld from “U” fare bucket Business class tickets? (I don’t know what “U” refers to: Lite, Classic, Comfort, Elite?)
Any advice would be gratefully received.
All the best.
U on QR is similar to BA and is reward/redemption or upgrade business class, so is outside the standard Qatar fare family buckets. It does give lounge access.
JDB — many thanks for providing this information. It’s most useful.
U on QR is similar to BA and is reward/redemption or upgrade business class, so is outside the standard Qatar fare family buckets. It does give lounge access.
This week I booked Avios redemptions on QR through QR which were ticketed in U and was able to select seats for free straight away.
I wonder if the flights haven’t been ticketed yet? That might be why the seat map doesn’t work. As noted elsewhere I’ve had no problems either reserving QR business seats on award bookings made both on the BA and QR websites.
Keep an eye in this however and if no change by Monday, get on the phone to AA to chase up the ticketing.
Man of Kent — that’s a very helpful datapoint and very reassuring. Thank you! 🙂
This week I booked Avios redemptions on QR through QR which were ticketed in U and was able to select seats for free straight away.
Tony — that sounds like the likely cause, I imagine. Thank you. I’ll be patient and if nothing changes, I’ll chase AA. Thanks so much again.
I wonder if the flights haven’t been ticketed yet? That might be why the seat map doesn’t work. As noted elsewhere I’ve had no problems either reserving QR business seats on award bookings made both on the BA and QR websites.
Keep an eye in this however and if no change by Monday, get on the phone to AA to chase up the ticketing.
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