Qantas or BA

Legend100

I did try the search i promise....!

Going to book the flights tomorrow id say. Heading to Bangkok in September and then onto Sydney in November after doing asia for a while

Question is would you go with Quantas or BA?

I flew British Airways to America a few years ago and thought they were good but was wondering what peoples opinions are of Quantas. Only about 15 quid difference in the prices between the flights so price isnt an issue.

Thanks

The Sweeper

Qantas - register for frequent flyer points first. BA is a partner I think, but so is jetstar in Australia. The points you'll get for Ireland to Australia will set your collection up nicely.

sanbrafyffe

BA and quantas are the same company

Stinicker

I flew on both airlines last year and I found Qantas to be well ahead of British Airways, infact I found Qantas to be one of the better airlines I have flown with overall.

For flying to Bangkok two cheaper options would be Eva Air direct from London and Amsterdam and lastminute.com have some good enough fares with Aer Lingus to Amsterdam and China Airlines onward to Bangkok, both of which would be cheaper than BA or Qantas.

Both Eva Air and China Airlines are Taiwan based and have to route through Thailand as they are not allowed to fly over China due to the political situation between the PRC and the ROC (Taiwan). Eva air are supposed to be good with 777's wheras China Air have older 747's and apparently have no inflight entertainment on the 12 hour leg!:eek:

jackbhoy

sanbrafyffe wrote: »

BA and quantas are the same company

They're not, just have codeshare agreement same as Aer Lingus and BA.

If it's a straight choice between both then I'd have slight preference for Qantas ,their crew and food have been slightly better than BA on flights I've taken....

Slunk

Try Malaysian. Normally cheaper and i found them quite good. Only thing is the crucify you for overweight baggage

ellaq

I have booked Qantas flights home in the past only to find myself on a BA plane from Singapore to London. I have also heard good things about Malaysian. My favourites are Singapore airlines and Emirates.

ballooba

Qantas or BA? Kick in the face or kick in the balls? You should broaden your choices.

The Sweeper

Frequent flyer points, people! I never collected them, and have a friend who does... She travels more than I do, but I got her to talk me through the pros and cons. They'll stack up SLOOOOOWLY if you fly domestic once a year - but if you're doing the Ireland - Australia leg, plus return, and maybe doing some domestic flying while you're down here, you'll get back to Ireland with a whack of points which may be good for a free european flight, or (and this excites me more) an upgrade out of cattle class the next time you have to do a longhaul trek...

jank

sanbrafyffe wrote: »

BA and quantas are the same company

Nope they are most definately not although I think Qantas has been trying in recent years to be as **** as BA.
Qantas piss me off to no end. Arrogant staff who dont give a ****. Flew with them about 10 times last year.

BA avoid!

If you had to choose one it would be Qantas just because they have a newer fleet. If it were me it would be Eithad, Emirates or Singapore airlines. Best 3 in the world.

melb

The Sweeper wrote: »

Frequent flyer points, people! I never collected them, and have a friend who does... She travels more than I do, but I got her to talk me through the pros and cons. They'll stack up SLOOOOOWLY if you fly domestic once a year - but if you're doing the Ireland - Australia leg, plus return, and maybe doing some domestic flying while you're down here, you'll get back to Ireland with a whack of points which may be good for a free european flight, or (and this excites me more) an upgrade out of cattle class the next time you have to do a longhaul trek...

Would you not make up the price of that extra flight by using skyscanner and sites like that to get cheaper fares in the first place?

I've to go over and back early next year and should really look at these points. But not sure it would work out cheaper in the long run.

ballooba

Virgin have a far superior frequent flyer program.

melb

ballooba wrote: »

Virgin have a far superior frequent flyer program.

But does it work out cheaper going the frequent flyer route rather than the cheapest mix match online deal route?

sponge_bob

its all about getting from a-b imo, sure comfort and entertainment comes into it but price also plays a big part.
iam looking at flying 2 adults and 3 kids to perth early next year for a holiday, havn't booked anything yet but from what i seen ba,quantas are about 6keuros and malaysian have been as low as 4,700 but normally about 5k whenever i check. so for me it looks like a saving of roughly 1k:eek:, nothing to be sneezed at. so once the plane isn't a piece of junk and the airline is some way respectable with a bit of food and some inflight entertainment iam sure we can suffer the 30hr disscomfort so that we can include a stopover in malaysia or someplace for a few nights on the way home or even maybe take in a sydney leg aswell while we are there:D

The Sweeper

melb wrote: »

But does it work out cheaper going the frequent flyer route rather than the cheapest mix match online deal route?

That depends.

I've been here four and a half years, and in the last five years I've flown long-haul up and back, Australia to the UK / Ireland, nine separate flights. (Four returns, and the one-way that brought me down here.) On nearly all of those flights, I booked the cheapest possible flight.

I now realise that it takes me at least a week to physically recover from the 30+ hours I spend in pressured cabins with less than 1% humidity. I suffer back pain after flying, indigestion, swollen ankles. These are all related to being stuck sitting upright.

One of my return trips was booked with two days notice after my father died suddenly. I had no pricing options and simply chose the best available flight. If I had frequent flier miles, accrued on the previous seven long-haul flights (which would have been a healthy amount), I could have flown in greater comfort, which would have been nice given my state of mind. If I'd accrued points on those flights, I'd have flown for free a couple of times domestically.

I've flown, long haul:

China Eastern
Cathay Pacific
Malaysia Airlines
Etihad
Air France

The only flight dramatically cheaper than Qantas was China Eastern - and that, while an interesting life experience, isn't anything I'd ever do again. Edit to add I could have collected FFPs on the China Eastern and Cathay PAcific flights - they're qantas partners.

ballooba

melb wrote: »

But does it work out cheaper going the frequent flyer route rather than the cheapest mix match online deal route?

Some people I know will pick their airline solely on price and will happily take a longer journey on a less comfortable airline, even stopping over to save a few bob. That's an extreme.

I'm happy to pay a bit extra to get there in a reasonable length of time (32-34 hours absolute max), on a decent airline and if possible to earn points.

I went with Etihad most recently because I got a good deal and I could earn points with Virgin. I had been flying with Singapore until then and had built up a lot of points. From August I will be able to earn Virgin points on Singapore too.

ballooba

melb wrote: »

But does it work out cheaper going the frequent flyer route rather than the cheapest mix match online deal route?

Some people I know will pick their airline solely on price and will happily take a longer journey on a less comfortable airline, even stopping over to save a few bob. That's an extreme though.

I'm happy to pay a bit extra (10% maybe) to get there in a reasonable length of time (32-34 hours absolute max), on a decent airline and if possible to earn points.

I went with Etihad most recently because I got a good deal and I could earn points with Virgin. I had been flying with Singapore until then and had built up a lot of points. From August I will be able to earn Virgin points on Singapore too.

E.E.T

How does one register for FFP's? I'm already booked on Cathay Pacific, but for future reference kind of thing..

ballooba

You can still register after you book as far as I know. Qantas FF for Cathay. Qantas charge a joining fee though. Join online.

The Sweeper

With most FF programmes, you register online, you may have to pay a joining fee (I think Qantas is $80?) but that's not an annual fee. You'll get a FF card in the post.

There are also other ways to accrue points - for instance I get FF points for the money I spend at Safeway on my groceries. If I were to register for the Qantas credit card (not likely as I don't use a credit card) I could accrue points on that basis. When I shop at Safeway I get fuel rewards that allow me, for instance, 5 cents off a litre. I can opt to swap that discount for FFPs, so I go to the petrol station, fill up, present my discount, pay full price and get the points credited to my FF account.

There are also a number of restaurants where, on a night out, you can swipe your Qantas FFP card at the end of the night along with paying your bill, and you'll get points (3 for every $1 spent) credited to your account.

You need to accrue points whatever way you can, because you need a lot of points for them to be worth anything.

Edited to add a quick example of what I'm on about for anyone who's still confused:

A one-way economy flight on Qantas from London Heathrow to Melbourne would earn you just over 10,500 FFPs.

A one-way economy flight from Melbourne to cities including Adelaide, Sydney, Hobart and Brisbane costs 8,000 FFPs - and then you pay for the fees and taxes. If you want to buy a one-way economy flight outright, that's 11,000 FFPs.

A business class flight from Melbourne to London would cost 128,000 FFPs. However you can pay a basic flight cost and use your points to pay the upgrade. There are a lot of ways to redeem them.

A one-way economy domestic flight within Australia earns you about 850 FFPs, but they kindly apply a minimum bonus so you get 1,000 FFPs.

So in other words:

Register, fly from Ireland to Oz on Qantas, get 10,500 FFPs, do one, one-way internal flight, earn another 1,000 FFPs, and your next domestic flight should be free.