Sadly, Hawaii is a notoriously tricky destination to get to using Qantas Points.
Qantas used to rarely release premium award seats on its sole route between Sydney and Honolulu, but after upgrading to a bigger 747 on this route earlier this year, it finally began releasing award seats.
Qantas has extended its plans to operate a 747 to Honolulu until 29 August 2019, with lots of premium award seats available.
That means Qantas Frequent Flyer members can use their points to travel to Honolulu during the popular mid-year travel season.
You’ll need 72,000 Qantas Points in business class or 54,000 in premium economy for a one-way ticket ex-Sydney (potentially more if you’re connecting from another city), plus Qantas’ usual hefty taxes and fees.
This is a rare opportunity, so I expect the seats will be snapped up quickly.
If you’re interested, don’t delay booking!
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Singapore Airlines is renowned for offering some of the most stylish and comfortable experiences in the air, chief of which are its first class services onboard Boeing 777 and A380 aircraft.
On a recent trip from London to Melbourne via Singapore, I was able to try first class on a Boeing 777-300ER and an A380, both of which are seen in the skies over Australia.
The first flight from London to Singapore was on the 777-300ER and it certainly didn’t disappoint. With superb seats, dining and service, this was easily one of the most enjoyable flights I’ve ever taken.
Here’s a review of that journey.
Flight details
Route: London to Singapore
Flight number: SQ319
Departure: 8.50 pm
Arrival: 4.55 pm (+1)
Seat: 1C
Cost: 148,000 KrisFlyer miles + $420 for the entire LHR-SIN-MEL booking; LHR-SIN alone would cost 115k miles + $385
Check-in
Singapore Airlines operates from Terminal 2 at Heathrow Airport. Upon arriving, check-in was a breeze thanks to a dedicated desk for first class passengers. Add to that a fast track through security and no immigration exit controls, and the formalities were all over very quickly.
This was already the most pleasant experience I’ve ever had at the often-painful Heathrow airport, but then it got even better. Rather than make first class passengers endure a 10-15 minute walk to the lounge, Singapore Airlines has a ‘buggy’ on hand to whisk you through the terminal: warning lights, alarm and all!
Honestly, the embarrassment of every single person in the terminal staring at us was easily outweighed by the novelty and convenience.
The lounge
Singapore Airlines has separate lounges at Heathrow for business and first class passengers. Each space is elegantly appointed with similar decor, though the quality of dining and beverages goes up a notch for first class passengers – as you would expect.
I don’t find Singapore Airlines’ lounges very interesting from a design perspective, but they are very comfortable and the service is consistently top notch.
The first class lounge offered a wide range of seating options including lounge chairs, sofas, workstations and dining tables split into zones for dining, working and relaxing.
The dining options were a hot and cold buffet and an a la carte menu, both with a relatively limited range of options, though the quality was excellent.
There was a wide range of drinks available – including wine, beer and spirits – which you could help yourself to, though each time I tried a staff member would rush over to assist.
Wine station
When our flight was ready to board, a buggy was waiting to drive us to the gate … a 100 metres away! We made it there at the same time as the business class passengers who walked.
The cabin
Singapore Airlines recently refurbished its fleet of 777-300ERs, which now sport a small first class cabin with just one row of four seats arranged in a 1-2-1 layout.
Despite the lack of doors on the seats, they still felt private, thanks to all the space.
The cabin is separated from business class just behind by a wall.
I really like the decor of warm and neutral tones accentuated by mood lighting. It felt very soothing and looks super elegant.
There are two lavatories at the front of the cabin, which is very generous for just four passengers.
Two flight attendants serviced the cabin, which meant we basically had one each to ourselves. The service was excellent.
The seat
My partner and I had pre-selected the two middle seats, but since we were the only passengers in the cabin we had all four seats at our disposal.
The crew turned the empty window seats into our beds so we could use them at our leisure.
The very wide, leather-upholstered seats were extremely comfortable, with lots of storage space in small compartments and on or below the ottoman.
The seats recline, but not into bed mode: for that, the crew needs to ‘flip’ the seat over manually. That would be annoying if you want to alternate frequently between bed and seat mode.
The pillows and bedding were great for sleeping.
The seat in bed mode
The amenity kit and pyjamas
We were provided with stylish Lalique men’s amenity kits and comfortable pyjamas, slippers and socks.
The amenity kit included just a few items like lip balm, soap, body lotion and a scented candle (?). The ‘basics’ like a toothbrush were in the lavatories.
The gorgeous men’s amenity kit
The pyjamas were the most comfortable I’ve ever received from an airline.
Pyjamas, slippers and socks
The dining
Dinner was served shortly after take-off with no fewer than eight courses offered.
Dinner menu
It all began with the biggest canape I’ve ever seen …
Chicken and lamb satay canape
… followed by a choice of appetiser, where I opted for caviar.
Caviar appetiser
Next up was a delicious duck broth soup…
Duck broth soup
… followed by the salad course.
Salad
After that warm up, we made it to the main course.
Rather than choose off the menu for the main course, I pre-selected a dish via the Book the Cook service: an extensive selection of dishes that can be ordered online up to 24 hours before the flight.
Probably the most famous option is Lobster Thermidor, which I definitely wanted to try, and it was superb.
Lobster Thermidor main course
I was so full by this point but I couldn’t resist sampling the dessert and fruit selections (I skipped the cheese).
Coconut panna cotta dessert
Fruit course
A selection of snacks was available during the flight, and shortly before arriving in Singapore breakfast was served.
Snack and breakfast menu
Breakfast was a relatively simple three-course affair with fruit, an appetiser and a main course.
Breakfast fruit course
Breakfast appetiser: I opted for natural yoghurt
Breakfast main
The food throughout the flight was superb, and to top it off the selection of drinks included both Dom Perignon (2009) and Krug (2004) – both excellent drops – plus a wide selection of quality wines, cocktails, spirits and non-alcoholic beverages.
The entertainment
A good quality entertainment system offered up a selection of films, TV shows and other entertainment options that easily helped whittle the time away. It was all accessed via a remote control in the seat, which was very straightforward to use.
Entertainment screen
Summing up
The comfortable seats, sophisticated cabin, and top-notch dining, entertainment and service made this one of the most enjoyable flights I’ve ever taken.
Singapore Airlines’ reputation as one of the world’s premier carriers is well deserved.
I recently wrote about how Singapore Airlines has become my carrier of choice not only because of its great in-flight services, but also its large international network and very good award seat availability. My latest experiences with the carrier confirm that I made the right decision.
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Next week I’ll be flying from Kuala Lumpur to Melbourne in business class comfort and it will only cost me $1000 for the one-way trip.
The first leg from KL to Sydney will be in one of Malaysia Airlines’ brand new A350 business class beds, which I’m quite looking forward to trying – I do love the A350! – followed by a short hop to Melbourne in Qantas business class (on a Boeing 737 … meh).
When booking this trip a few weeks ago, I was very happy to see that an award seat was available at such short notice through Qantas.
But what I wasn’t very happy about was the cost: a whopping 81,000 Qantas Points plus $286 in taxes and fees.
Fortunately, since both Qantas and Malaysia Airlines are members of the oneworld alliance, I had an alternative and much cheaper way to book: using my stash of purchased American Airlines Aadvantage miles.
American Airlines is one of the few oneworld airlines that allows you to purchase frequent flyer miles at a decent cost.
Those miles are then redeemable for award seats in the usual way, including with partners like Qantas.
For my booking next week, the cost through American was 40,000 miles plus $70 in taxes and fees.
Taking into account what I paid for the miles, the total outlay was around $1000. That’s a lot less than the value of 81k Qantas Points plus $286 (at least to me!).
I always maintain a healthy balance of Aadvantage miles for occasions like this. Flying between Australia and Asia is one of the best uses of Aadvantage miles.
If you’re interested to know more, check out my guide for buying and using Aadvantage miles here.
American Airlines is running an attractive promotions on purchased miles until 15 December.
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The Moroccan airline Royal Air Maroc (RAM) announced today that it will join the global oneworld alliance, which counts Qantas as a member.
RAM is one of Africa’s leading and fastest growing airlines, and its membership of oneworld is expected to be implemented in mid-2020. The regional subsidiary Royal Air Maroc Express will also join as an affiliate member.
This is good news for Qantas Frequent Flyer members who will be able to earn and redeem points on RAM flights. Travellers in premium cabins and top tier status holders will also have access to the airline’s lounges no matter which oneworld airline they are flying with or their class of travel.
Royal Air Maroc will be oneworld’s first full member from Africa. It’s the largest unaligned carrier in Africa, with a transformational strategy well underway to develop it quickly into a truly global airline and the continent’s leader in terms of both size and quality.
RAM carried 7.3 million passengers last year on a fleet of 55 aircraft, centered on Boeing 737-800s and Embraer 190s on short to medium-haul routes, with Boeing 767 and Boeing 787-8s flying longhaul services. It receives its first 787-900s this month.
RAM’s network currently connects its Casablanca base with 94 destinations in 49 countries across Africa, Europe, the Middle East and North and South America, including oneworld hubs Doha, London Heathrow, Madrid, Moscow Domodedovo, New York JFK and Sao Paulo.
Fiji Airways begins flying as a oneworld connect partner
Fiji Airways starts flying as a oneworld connect partner from today, the first airline to link up to the alliance via this new membership platform.
From today, customers with Emerald, Sapphire or Ruby status in any oneworld member airline’s frequent flyer program can use priority check-in desks, where available, when flying in any cabin class on Fiji Airways, while customers with Emerald or Sapphire status will also be offered priority boarding when flying on Fiji Airways.
Additional oneworld connect customer benefits are being phased in between Fiji Airways and its four oneworld sponsors – American Airlines, British Airways, Cathay Pacific Airways and Qantas, as you can see below.
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Out of all the high value uses of Qantas Points I write about, my favourite is probably the ‘oneworld award’. It allows you to fly up to a whopping 35,000 miles with 5 stopovers, which is enough to take you round the world, at a cost of 280,000 Qantas Points in business class.
Since you can spend almost 280k points on a return business class fare to London or New York, flying much longer with 5 stopovers represents excellent value.
I’ve just booked the bulk of my next oneworld award itinerary for June to August 2019.
Taking off from my hometown of Melbourne, I’ll be stopping over in Los Angeles and Las Vegas (this is counted as as one stopover because I’ll make my own way between the two cities), New York, Singapore/Kuala Lumpur and Perth, with room to add one more stopover and 10k miles of travel, which I’ll organise later. It could be Tokyo, which I’m currently transiting through, or somewhere else.
The reason for booking these flights now, before my plans are finalised, is that it’s essential to secure seats on popular routes before they are snapped up. That’s especially the case for flights to and from Australia. NYC to Asia also often has limited availability.
I booked the Melbourne-LA flight a few months ago when seats were first released, and added all the other flights to the itinerary yesterday.
If the 280k point price cap wasn’t in place, this itinerary would already cost 376k points, and by the time I add more flights, it would be well over 400k points. Getting all this for 280k points – saving over 100k – is a great deal!
As a bonus, surcharges only come to $790 so far, since most of the flights are with lower-taxing airlines like American Airlines, Japan Airlines and Malaysia Airlines.
If you’d like to know more about the oneworld award and how to book, check out my detailed post here.
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Qantas has sent out a survey to some frequent flyer members asking for their opinion about possible changes to classic flight rewards that could see more sought-after business class seats becoming available.
Posted by user kpc on the Australian Frequent Flyer forum earlier today, the survey begins with the following statement:
“Qantas is considering making changes to our classic flight rewards in order to better address the needs of our customers. These changes will include changes to the number of points required to get to different destinations, as well as to the portion of cash required in addition to points (made up of Government tax, carrier charges, and fees).
These changes will help Qantas to increase the number of seats we can set aside for customers to redeem for a classic flight reward. The percentage of flights where a seat is available for a classic reward will also increase, depending on the route and cabin. A summary of the changes being considered is below (please note these are examples only).”
Here’s a photo of the examples provided.
The proposed changes to economy rewards are all positive, but economy seat availability has never been the main problem.
It’s in international business class where people experience the most frustration finding seats. Under the changes being considered, more points would be required for a reward booking but the cash component would fall. These changes cancel each other out if you value a point at around 1 cent, but I think that’s on the low side, so this is slightly negative for customers.
However, it’s the promise of “up to 10x” more business class award seats becoming available that really stands out. If that was actually delivered, then I think customers would be happy to absorb a slightly higher cost.
Without knowing any more details, I’m not going to get my hopes up.
Qantas is clearly aware that low availability of international business class reward seats is turning people off the frequent flyer program. If Qantas can permanently boost availability, it would no doubt increase member enthusiasm for the program as well.
I’m skeptical, but hopeful. Stay tuned for more details as they come to hand.
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Velocity Frequent Flyer has launched a Christmas promotion offering up to 10,000 bonus Velocity Points when you earn points with select Velocity partners by 8 January 2019.
The offer is tiered as follows:
earn 2,000 bonus points when you earn points with 3 partners
earn 5,000 bonus points when you earn points with 4 partners
earn 10,000 bonus points when you earn points with 5 partners.
Here are the participating partners:
Velocity eStore
flybuys
BP fuel
Virgin Wines
Wilson Parking
Skybus
Midas
Autobarn
Onsport
Sendle
There’s no minimum spend required, so you could easily make small purchases to qualify for this promotion.
You must activate this offer in your “My Velocity” dashboard (which you see upon logging into your Velocity account).
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