Advise - Qantas MEL LA NY SF MEL flight

y_owez on 13/05/2018 - 10:23

Hello all,
Firstly , apologies if this is not the right place to ask .

I am planning a solo trip end August - early September for 2 weeks.

I would like to go to Sab Francisco, Los Angeles and NY.

I prefer direct for the international leg and I think it's best to do Melbourne to LA and then SF to Melbourne as multi stop.

As it is a special holiday :) I would like to try business class once or at least premium economy ( I think best if it's the Melbourne to LA as it is longer)

The price I got in Qantas is around 1240 aud for economy sale ( I think)

I also have about 200k Qantas points and also theAMEX 450 dollars Qantas flight ( expiring October this year and would be bonus if can clear this off)

Need some advise from the gurus here on how to utilise best.

Should I just go on Qantas and upgrade? Haven't done before and don't know the protocol

Much appreciated!!!

Travel

Comments

  • Dont Care on 13/05/2018 - 10:44
    +2

    This is not the right place to ask

    • Ten on 13/05/2018 - 11:02
      +8

      But I want to go to Sab Francisco

      • Flying Ace on 13/05/2018 - 19:23
        +1

        Just be sure to wear some flowers in your hair

  • dracothraxus on 13/05/2018 - 11:15

    Upgrades at Qantas are not approved / denied until shortly before the trip… and unless you have good status (Gold or better gives you some chance) if you want guarantees you're better off doing a reward booking but availability at that time will be tough. You could also try repositioning from your city to a city where reward bookings are more available. 200k points should be about enough for a return in business for one person, check the calculator.

    Also check the plane - older Qantas planes to LAX in business class are not that much better than premium economy in a new plane or newly refurbished plane. You can find all this information on australian business traveller, points hacks etc… websites.

    • y_owez on 13/05/2018 - 13:25

      Hi there
      Much appreciated for the explanation.
      Good point on the older planes!

    • y_owez on 13/05/2018 - 15:48

      Hi there
      Much appreciated for the explanation.
      Good point on the older planes!

  • barbarella on 13/05/2018 - 11:49

    2 weeks is not enough to do all this…better to spend maybe a week in LA and a week in San Fran…or 2 weeks in NY

    • starspawn on 14/05/2018 - 10:11

      No way, 1 week in NY is plenty of time.

      5 days SF

      5 Days LA

      The rest in NY

      • onggie on 15/05/2018 - 08:40
        +1

        I have spent over 2.5 weeks over two trips to NYC and it's not enough. I'm about to book another week in NYC for this year.

    • try2bhelpful on 14/05/2018 - 11:15

      Been to New York a couple of times; I would think a week is NY is more than enough. Go to a show, eat out at some restaurants, take in some galleries and the hop on / hop off. We went prior to 911 and got to the top of the crown in the statue of liberty. Interesting but it was a 2 hour verticle queue for 5 minutes of looking out across the skyline. The top of the twin towers was a great view, so prob worth doing the replacement and the empire state building at night is worthwhile.

      • y_owez on 14/05/2018 - 13:11

        Much appreciated
        Yes- probably about 5-6 days in NY
        And split the rest between San Fran and Los Angeles

        Will lose about a day just traveling from east coast and back t

  • Donaldhump on 13/05/2018 - 15:30

    fly economy and save the points, just get drunk or take sleeping pills.

    you can book flights on AA using qantas points for your SF-NY and LA-NY legs, and it will only cost $5 a leg for about 20000-30000 points.

    for the record mel-lax is shorter than mel-sfo, correct me if i'm wrong.

    for the record i find LA not that great, id do sab francisco and New York only. but that's my opinion

    • y_owez on 13/05/2018 - 15:53

      Thanks for that!
      Didn't know about booking AA with Qantas points - that is Definitely gonna help

      And you're right too about the duration - I just assumed cause LA is further it's longer?

      I know it's pretty tight to do all of them in 2 weeks, but just wanna see which are I like.more and maybe in the future will come back

      Thanks again!

      • Donaldhump on 13/05/2018 - 18:47

        You right sfo is closer

        Book aa flights through qantas website, there is a crap tick box somewhere from memory

    • try2bhelpful on 14/05/2018 - 09:13

      +1 on LA not being great. I would fly into San Francisco, spend about 4 days there, drive down to LA going via the aquarium at Monterey and Yosemite then fly straight to NY. Spend sometime there then fly back to LA for a couple of days then fly home. Look into internal US flights, they can be quite cheap if you look.

      • y_owez on 14/05/2018 - 13:12

        Yea most probably fly domestic
        Prices around 250-300 for each leg
        Don’t think wanna be driving solo on the other side of the road !
        Done it in Hawaii but that’s more cruisey i would think

  • Eeples on 13/05/2018 - 21:30

    Book a return to SFO. Then try and pick up a cheap return to nyc on South-West (brief stop over most likely in denver…. but bound to be cheaper). Split your time between those two cities.

    The best thing about LA imo is the train to San Diego. (Maybe on your next trip…. then walk to Mexico; or fly to los Cabos or san Lucas or to Cancun and then to Cuba… <—— I like this trip better).

  • jjayoen on 13/05/2018 - 23:07

    I did a similar multi city trip booked all through Qantas but also involved stopping through Europe before America. Things which might be useful to know:

    • Someone mentioned to consider the aircraft - this is important however QF from Australia to LAX/SFO are flown on either the A380, B747, or on B787. All of these in business class have flat beds so the business experience will be comparable on all (some may dispute various layouts, and extra space etc.)

    • If you book a multi city trip through Qantas and book LA to NY or return, you'll likely fly on QF12 which is likely to be a highly empty flight which if you aren't booked in business, you'll likely get a row of seats to yourself or at least some space between you and your neighbours. AFAIK this is only available if you book a multi city trip on a single Qantas itinerary.

    • I took a gamble when I booked my flights and paid with cash and opted in for the upgrade from LAX to MEL. This didn't work out as I was flying the B787 which is a tiny plane and was fully booked. Couldn't even secure a premium economy upgrade (which is an option when requesting an upgrade to business). In the future, I'd try and book a classic business rewards flight directly rather than attempting the upgrade lottery. As someone mentions earlier, Qantas uses some funky algorithm to prioritise international upgrades and unless you're high up in QFF status, you're not likely to win.

    Hope some of that helps

    • y_owez on 14/05/2018 - 14:05

      Hi
      Thanks for that

      The second point was a new news to me

      Yes - I’ve been reading about try not to “hope” for an upgrade - especially I’m just a bronze member too lol

  • theoracle30 on 14/05/2018 - 11:33

    Melbourne to San Francisco (via Sydney) on Wed 29 August is available in Qantas Business Class for 96,000 points. This is rare availability so I would book it ASAP if you wanted it. Your domestic connecting flight MEL-SYD would also be in Business.

    You could fly return SFO to Melbourne in Economy on Thu 13 Sep (for example - many other dates have Economy availability)

    Total cost for one way Business and one way Economy is 141,000 Qantas points and $678 in taxes.

    • y_owez on 14/05/2018 - 13:05

      Yea - so far ive been avoiding melbourne to san Francisco because of the connecting flight, where as san fran to Melbourne is direct
      Hence why I thought melbourne yo los angeles was better.

      But you’re saying that business class is rare availability makes me wonder .

      I didn try to quote everything and it was 2.5k roughly including the internal flights
      Where if I did it separately with economy international with qantas and separate domestic in the states , came around 2 k

      So best if I split the booking ?

      • theoracle30 on 14/05/2018 - 13:12

        If you want to fly Business, then yes it's best to split the bookings.

        I think you've got enough points to cover the internal USA flights too.

        Maybe book the MEL-xSYD-SFO and SFO-MEL flights now as one booking, then book the internal flights as another booking?

        • y_owez on 14/05/2018 - 13:16

          Yes I should have enough points -260k

          Maybe it’s more worth it paying cash for domestic flights rather than using my points on the qantas web.

          Seems like booking domestic on qantas is eating a lot points

          Don’t think I can use points on American airline website itself right

        • theoracle30 on 14/05/2018 - 13:18

          @y_owez: No you'll have to use your Qantas points through the Qantas website, not AA.

          If you give me rough dates and the origin/destination of your internal flights, I can help you figure out if it's worth using points or not.

        • y_owez on 14/05/2018 - 14:04

          @BL5965:

          THANKS SO MUCH!!!

          posted on the forum as well.

          Dates are flexible +-2 days

          Melbourne to USA - preferably at night if its weekdays , so I dont have to waste 1 day annual leave.

          Cities:
          SF , LA , NY.

          I would like to be in NY around 7-9 September.

          Plan in mind

          Melbourne > LA 30/8
          SF > Melbourne 13/9
          Cost 1240 aud

          LA > NY 4/9 : 280 AUD ( from memory )
          NY > SF 10/9 : 200 + AUD ( Domestic total was 500 aud from roughly quote )

          At first I didnt want to to Melbourne to SF because there is no direct flight, but now seems like better option?
          then I will need to swap things around

          I dont mind paying domestic cash if I have too, + the international and conversion fees

          I also have the AMEX 450 aud qantas card credit if it helps?

  • y_owez on 14/05/2018 - 13:50

    edit

  • Eeples on 15/05/2018 - 16:36

    https://www.ozbargain.com.au/node/378248

    MEL<->SFO $700.

    • y_owez on 15/05/2018 - 20:13

      Thatnks
      But looking for Qantas

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