Budawang

Thanks bcworld, you're a champion!

United.com definitely shows more availability than AwardTravelr.com so I think I'll stick with that.

Budawang

Just booked SYD BKK LHR YUL (Montreal) in business class for next August with a two week stopover in Europe on the way back. Taxes are high going through London but the total cost works out about $2400 which is very little considering the huge distance of this trip. Amazing that they let me get away with the lower 110000 points required for North America.

BC was right, you must go through one of the European hubs to make this work. Availability was tight.

Only downsides is Thai are still listing their 747s on the SYD BKK legs - those seats are not comfortable - and there is an outbound 7.5 hour layover in London. Any recommendations for somewhere to crash (pardon the pun) near Heathrow?

I recommend the United Airlines booking tool.

bcworld

The A346 which will take you on to LHR (assuming there is nothing between BKK & LHR) has the exact same business seats as the TG 747s you will have travelled on.

Budawang

Hopefully Thai will have upgraded to the lie flat seats on all their planes by August.

bcworld

Not a chance. The A346 will eventually (soonish) be sold off so no chance of them being upgraded. Also they are half way through refitting some of the very old cabin 747s and they've installed the same angled lie flats as currently found on most of the 777s which are just a newer version of the current 747 / A346 seats. Personally I ( and a lot of other people ) found the older model better for sleeping on...it seems flatter. Your only hope of full lie flats would be a turnaround to put the A380 on LHR and I don't think that's going to happen. I like the A346 anyway and don't mind those seats.

Where is your EU stopover on the return by the way?

bcworld

If LifeMiles works for anyone and you are already registered they are running a 2 for 1 promo for the next few weeks:

https://www.lifemiles.com/eng/tra/pr...f.aspx?D=DOF22

Check out the program carefully before buying miles. It's great for Asia redemptions, but they don't do mixed class redemptions or stopovers.

jamesflorraine

Flying to the UK in just over 2 weeks, going Sydney, Bangkok, Bangkok, Munich, Munich Manchester, has anybody got any idea what my duty free allowance, in to the UK is, and where should we buy. Thank you

twitch1979

The HMRC website lists the allowance here

http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/customs/arriv...ingnoneu.htm#1

You will need to purchase in either Australia or Bangkok as once you land in Munich you are already in the EU and duty free does not exist.

The issue you will have is if you purchase liquids over 100ml in either Australia or Bangkok they are likely to be taken off you when you clear security at the next airport. Unless you have a stop over in either Bangkok or Munich where you could check them into your main luggage.

A little painful I know unless anyone else has had recent experiences with liquids over 100ml purchases duty free in the departure country ?

bcworld

Made a booking last night for next Sept: 2 in Business

MEL-SFO (1 night < 24hrs stop in Shanghai - Air China & Asiana flat beds)
JFK-MEL (JFK-VIE-BKK New Austrian Business Class, BKK-MEL old faithful TG!)

The return is a bit of a marathon - long daytime layover to have a look at Vienna, then we have an overnight stop at BKK and will book the airport Novotel.

110,000 miles + $188 tax + $50 fee pp.

twitch1979

That look like a nice little trip !

Re the New Austrian business seats, how can you tell which routes and aircrafts have been re fitted ?

bcworld

I think all long haul have them by May next year.

You can check specific flights before then here:

http://businessclass.austrian.com/en/index.html

Budawang

Great deal. I didnt realise you could go round the world for 110 000 - well done. Instead of the open jaw, could you have had NY (via SFO) as your destination then, say, a stopover in Vienna for 110 000? Seems too good to be true.

In the end I booked SYD-LAX-CHICAGO-MONTREAL with shortish transit times and then MONTREAL-CHICAGO-SFO (8 day stopover) then direct back to Sydney all on United business class in July and August. Took a lot of searching to find the availability, but I was tempted by the more reasonable travel times and sky high UK taxes going through LHR which were going to cost $600!

Looks like I'll have to wait until 2014 to visit Europe. Now got to decide whether I buy more points - got until 7 December for 2 for 1 deal.

Ben

bcworld

Well it's not really a RTW...a RTW actually priced as a RTW allows multiple stopovers.

As I intend to visit California, NY and places in between the open jaw was the best option. If you also wanted the European stop you'd have to fly into and out of the same US city with no other stopover. If you only wanted to visit one place or were happy to do a cross country trek to meet up with your original ticket it would be OK.

Oh this is such a quandary! Now my US account is depleted...so is my LifeMiles account (booked a recent redemption to Bali on SQ)...and I definitely want those AA miles too!

KJCherokee

Next year we are flying SYD-BKK-FCO first class with Thai on a 747 for the first leg (and the trip back). Just had a look on SeatGuru and it says that Thai have two layouts of 747, one of which says that the first class seats have "shared video" (the other one has "personal video"). Does anyone know which type will operate the SYD-BKK flight next April? Sharing a video screen with my wife is definitely not a good idea!

bcworld

Please, please, please give up on SeatGuru! It's a pile of sh!te, especially for info on TG aircraft!

TG actually currently has 3 747 layouts, none of which have shared PTVs in F! Perhaps in 5 or so years SG will have updated it's details but I wouldn't count on it!

As for the version you will be travelling on, it depends on which flight & which day. It will be scheduled as either a 10 seat F cabin or a 9 seat F cabin (new suites) which you won't see in SG. The 14 seat (old) F cabin should be gone by then. But it will remain on SG foreva!