What's the cheapest way to get a family of 5...

...one way to SYD in UC. [?]

At your disposal for this task you have the following;-

160,000 FC miles;
one companion voucher;
one upgrade from E to PE voucher;
4 vouchers worth 10% off list price (or 5,000 or so miles each - compensation for faulty IFE).

A nice puzzle for you gurus [|:)], but seriously I would appreciate your assistance and expertise. Travelling would be 2 Adults and 3 children, off to seek a new life Down Under. [y]

Originally posted by Halo
...one way to SYD in UC. [?]

At your disposal for this task you have the following;-

160,000 FC miles;
one companion voucher;
one upgrade from E to PE voucher;
4 vouchers worth 10% off list price (or 5,000 or so miles each - compensation for faulty IFE).

A nice puzzle for you gurus [|:)], but seriously I would appreciate your assistance and expertise. Travelling would be 2 Adults and 3 children, off to seek a new life Down Under. [y]

Another factor to throw in would be the flexibility of your plans, as the other side of the equations is the availability or reward seats.

Good plan though as a start of the new life. I hope it all comes together for you.

Paul

[preiffer]

Umm - are you looking for the CHEAPEST (really!) way there, or the BEST use of premium upgrades, etc - for the price?

ie: CHEAPEST way would be using all your miles for 1-way economy tickets, and then buying one.... [:w]

Originally posted by preiffer
Umm - are you looking for the CHEAPEST (really!) way there, or the BEST use of premium upgrades, etc - for the price?

ie: CHEAPEST way would be using all your miles for 1-way economy tickets, and then buying one.... [:w]

Looking for the cheapest way in Upper Class.

So it might, for example be to buy 1 UC ticket + use companion ticket for another; and to buy 3 PE tickets + use miles to upgrade to UC. Or would it be better to seek say 5 Z-fare UC seats (any tips?); or to buy seats in X?; or, or, or.... [?]

Another factor to throw in would be the flexibility of your plans, as the other side of the equations is the availability or reward seats.

Good plan though as a start of the new life. I hope it all comes together for you.

Paul

Thanks. Reasonably flexible at the moment - looking forward 8 or 9 mths. Reward availablity is an issue, so would appreciate feedback on this e.g if max 2 UC reward seats per flight, then we will have to factor in buying the other 3.

[preiffer]

Originally posted by Halo
Looking for the cheapest way in Upper Class.

Ah, bugger - apologies, I missed the bit in BOLD!

[:I]

The LHR-HKG sector of the flight is usually full, and reward seats in Upper can often be hard to come by on this route. I would guess that you won't find a flight with FIVE G's going.. 2 or 3 if you're lucky. You can check this for yourself on VA's website..

EDIT - yup, in the whole of 2007, there's only one date (9 May) which has 3 G seats still available on the HKG sector. A few more dates with 2 G seats.
So it looks like you have little choice but to buy 2 PE(W or S) seats or 2 Econ (Y, B or L) and upgrade them to G; and then buy 3 Z fares on the same flight. I don't know when the Z's become available, but if you don't nab the Gs soon, they'll be gone.

Originally posted by McCoy
The LHR-HKG sector of the flight is usually full, and reward seats in Upper can often be hard to come by on this route. I would guess that you won't find a flight with FIVE G's going.. 2 or 3 if you're lucky. You can check this for yourself on VA's website..

Slightly O/T, but how do you use the VA site to do this ?

Thx

Paul

p.s. please feel free to tell me to RTFM if it's blatantly obvious...

Originally posted by pjh
Slightly O/T, but how do you use the VA site to do this ?

It's quite simple.. you just try and make a reward booking, and if there's no dates available, it tells you to go forth...

>Log in with your flying club details
>Make a booking
Put in your origin/destination/blah blah, and remember to tick the "Spend Miles" box. If there are G seats available, it will continue and give you flight details and how many miles it wants to debit you.. if there aren't G seats available, the "computer says no"...

Or use pure miles for one of the passengers (90,000) and buy 20,000 miles to obtain another pure miles redemption for another passenger (assuming 2 Gs or more are available).Buying 20,000 miles will be cheaper than a one way Y/PE (which would still need to be upgraded).

Originally posted by McCoy

Originally posted by pjh
Slightly O/T, but how do you use the VA site to do this ?

It's quite simple.. you just try and make a reward booking, and if there's no dates available, it tells you to go forth...

>Log in with your flying club details
>Make a booking
Put in your origin/destination/blah blah, and remember to tick the "Spend Miles" box. If there are G seats available, it will continue and give you flight details and how many miles it wants to debit you.. if there aren't G seats available, the "computer says no"...

Thx...