Thanks BC, that's a load off my mind! How do I find out which layout will be on the flight on 4th April?

Currently shows 9F cabin = new F suites! Only downside (depending on how you feel about your wife!) is really only 3EF even remotely works for a couple (both already taken but could be by you??). Otherwise you won't see each other for 9 hours!

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?...7952292&type=1

It probably is us, as we booked the seats from two separate Dividend Miles accounts and then called Thai to ensure that they knew we were travelling together. The Thai booking lady was saying about seats not being together except for one pair, so hopefully those are the ones we're in.

This may be of interest to some:
http://www.ozbargain.com.au/node/87343

For anyone that is sitting on a stash of these LifeMiles have just changed some of the numbers here although there has been no official communication about it. Nothing too drastic...most one way business awards have increased by 2.5k miles and F class by 5k miles. Hopefully these increases don't become a regular feature...although this program has a lot of loopholes and is being heavily exploited by a lot of people out there...they are probably wondering why they aren't making any money!

Moving slightly off topic, this post got me thinking.

If Nicky had, or could have obtained, BA Avios, she could have redeemed them for a Qantas flight on the Sunday. It would have taken 7,500 Avios + £18.90 and there was and is a flight available PHE to PER at 19.25. If you have use of a UK address (as far as I know membership of BA's Executive Club is not available to Australians), you can buy Avios at £16 per 1,000 plus a fee of £30. So Nicky could have bought 8,000 Avios and got her flight for (£16 x 8,000/1,000 + £30 + £18.90 =) £176.90 or say A$270 (with 500 Avios left over for next time!). That's a saving of A$559 or 67%.

So if you need an internal Aussie flight on Qantas that is silly expensive, check this out first!

Yes this is good advice louie...I think you did a separate post on it once? For anyone that's interested in stock piling Avios for QF domestic flights bear in mind that there are purchase limits per calendar year (Jan - Dec)...so if you bought 24k now you could buy another 24k in Jan and then nothing until Jan 2014. They do occasionally run promo offers upto about 50% extra free as well.

Just used dividend miles and flown first class from Sydney to the UK via Bangkok & Munich.
One thing to say it was fantastic Thai Airways first class is amazing, the service food, Alcohol, were Brilliant, The Royal Thai First Class Loung in Bangkok is great superb food and service , the Free Massages were great, even collected from the Plane on a little Vehicle and taken to the Arrivals hall, However the Air New Zealand lounge, at Sydney Airport is only average but still better than the normal departure gates, the beds on the flights were great even free Pajamas and slippers for those that wanted them, I must say this was money well spent, thanks once again BC

Great to hear James. I thought you were going to the UK?

That's what he said, "to the UK".

I really liked Thai first class too, I went BA first class a couple of months later and Thai left BA standing.

Me again. SO the silly season is almost over so I figure its time to start seriously planning a trip to Ireland, so the oldies (& extended family) can meet the newest addition to the clan. Hoping to go end of May/early June.

Travelling from Melbourne to Dublin - will most likely need to do a stop over in BKK for a night or two with the little one on the way there and back. Hubby has announced that he'd like us to also 'stop over' for a few days in Florence/Pisa or Bologna on the way there. Despite the headache I think will be involved in routing flights from BKK - DUB through any of those places, am I right in saying that we couldn't do a few days stop over if we've already stopped in BKK with the bubs?

Hope this makes sense?

ETA: Will also need to top up my account - any predictions about sales coming up soon?

Nice to see good reports of Thai First Class as we will be using it for our flights in April/May.

Yes - only one stopover (ie > 24 hours) is allowed with US Airways.

That's what I thought - thanks Louie

Is it one stop over per direction? Again, just thinking of bubs needing a 'break' on the journey.

I have another question -

I know Aer Lingus is not part of Star Alliance, but they do codeshare with United, Thai and SQ. Does this codeshare mean that I can potentially end up on an Aer Lingus flight into Ireland using my US Airways points?

I only ask as Aer Lingus would get me into SNN or ORK, both of which are way more convenient than DUB - especially with a little one.