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I’m looking to fly to Manila in October in business class, two people. No airline flies direct to my knowledge. I have c 200k Avios and 300k virgin miles plus two virgin upgrade or companion vouchers and 2 Barclays upgrade vouchers for BA.
Ideally I’d fly to a hub or a convenient halfway point with Virgin (India is about as far east as they go) so I can use a voucher and make use of points. Then use Qatar or Cathay with Avios points but I know I can’t use my BA vouchers here. I could do the first leg with BA but need more Avios.
I can’t see Qatar on seat spy, is there an easy way to see a calendar showing the cheapest Avios redemptions?
Any other tips how to best do this trip would be appreciated!
I’m looking to fly to Manila in October in business class, two people. No airline flies direct to my knowledge. I have c 200k Avios and 300k virgin miles plus two virgin upgrade or companion vouchers and 2 Barclays upgrade vouchers for BA.
Ideally I’d fly to a hub or a convenient halfway point with Virgin (India is about as far east as they go) so I can use a voucher and make use of points. Then use Qatar or Cathay with Avios points but I know I can’t use my BA vouchers here. I could do the first leg with BA but need more Avios.
I can’t see Qatar on seat spy, is there an easy way to see a calendar showing the cheapest Avios redemptions?
Any other tips how to best do this trip would be appreciated!
Phillipine Airlines used to fly direct but they stopped at the start of the pandemic and despite promising to restart from London, they haven’t. I think they do still fly direct from Frankfurt and Zurich tho so worth checking that
We are just flying via Sgp on Singapore Airlines as we wanted to go there anyway and had to go on specific dates
To be honest I think you’ll struggle to do anything with the vouchers that makes a lot of sense overall, especially since you’ll be responsible for making your onward connection so you’ll need to leave plenty of time. Even Cathay from Mumbai in business would require more Avios than you have.
The obvious answer would be Hong Kong and connect from there, however you’re likely to struggle to get any business class redemption availability on BA, and Virgin no longer flies there.
Whilst you don’t have enough Avios for a 2x straight Qatar redemptions (at least not without adding a lot of cash), your best bet may be to look at using Avios for upgrade on Qatar. The amount you need depends on the economy fare booked, and you may find that most cost-effective overall. It would need to be booked through Qatar direct, so you’d need a Qatar Privilege Club account, linked to your BA account.
Note that Qatar Avios upgraded business class bookings don’t qualify for lounge access (unless you have OneWorld status).
To be honest I think you’ll struggle to do anything with the vouchers that makes a lot of sense overall, especially since you’ll be responsible for making your onward connection so you’ll need to leave plenty of time. Even Cathay from Mumbai in business would require more Avios than you have.
The obvious answer would be Hong Kong and connect from there, however you’re likely to struggle to get any business class redemption availability on BA, and Virgin no longer flies there.
Whilst you don’t have enough Avios for a 2x straight Qatar redemptions (at least not without adding a lot of cash), your best bet may be to look at using Avios for upgrade on Qatar. The amount you need depends on the economy fare booked, and you may find that most cost-effective overall. It would need to be booked through Qatar direct, so you’d need a Qatar Privilege Club account, linked to your BA account.
Note that Qatar Avios upgraded business class bookings don’t qualify for lounge access (unless you have OneWorld status).
Thanks for this. I did try looking at the Qatar site but it said I didn’t have enough Avios when I was only trying to see the required amount for a reward flight. I’ll look into the cash economy booking and upgrade option. My accounts are linked so how can I see the cash plus Avios upgrade options on Qatars site? I could transfer all my Avios over to allow me to search but it seems odd I can’t just see the required amount without needing the Avios in my account.
It’s possible with another Amex companion the enhanced reward availability may help with a Hong Kong flight but my new year only starts Feb so I’ll need to spend £10k first.
This may be useful – select the upgrade and extra baggage tab:
https://www.qatarairways.com/en/Privilege-Club/qcalculator.html
108,000 Avios will upgrade a return Economy Comfort fare from London to Manila, which look like they’re going for around £1000 in October.
You’d obviously need to check business class redemption availability – if you go with this option it may be worth calling to see if they can book and upgrade for you at the same time.
..to find business class availability it’s probably easiest to check on ba.com (book with Avios) for the dates you want.
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