Travel Airlines, Flights, Airports and Frequent Flyer Programs

Hey guys, there's a heap of threads on travelling and locations but not many specifically on airlines and flights.

Everything from good/bad experiences, who you fly with, who you won't fly with, short haul, long haul, flight sales and discounts.

I'll kick it off by asking if anyone has ever got that elusive free upgrade to business class?

Have updated the thread title to include airports and frequent flyer program discussion.

Yep was upgraded from economy to Business for my flight back from Sydney after the game verses the Swans. Sat behind Kevin Andrews who'd just been sacked by Turnbull as defence Minister. Spent the entire flight drinking champagne thinking about the finals win over the Swans.

I'v also been upgraded from Business to 1st class internationally twice from Singapore to Melbourne on the new A380; pretty sweet.

Ive been a Qantas FF since 1996, mostly gold for most of the that time or platinum till recently when I started flying Singapore to Burma. Have been lucky enough to become lifetime Silver Qantas FF years ago and only another 2-3 years iíi become lifetime Gold if I go back to Qantas.

Next year im taking the family on a holiday to the US;

Qantas business class: Melbourne-> Sydney -> Hawaii -> Denver; then motorhome through Colorado, Montana, Kansas, Oregon & California then fly Qantas business class San Francisco to Australia.
 
Sep 14, 2003
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I have flown OS dozens of times, mainly to the USA and Canada. I have only ever flown QANTAS or Air New Zealand for this sector, but within the US have flown most of their domestic airlines. I have been upgraded to business class once, on a flight from Honolulu to LAX - it was tough to return to cattle class after that.

The worst/most uncomfortable airline I have flown with was on a flight from LAX to St Louis on Southwest. It was on an old McDonell Douglas DC-10 and I copped the center seat on the old 2-5-2 seat configuration (as seen below)...

2 5 2 seat configuration.jpg


The most interesting flight I have ever been on was a trip from Washington Dulles Airport to Toronto. It was on a Bombardier q200 with a capacity of about 40, but there were only about 10 passengers on board and felt like a VIP on my own private plane.
 
I'll kick it off by asking if anyone has ever got that elusive free upgrade to business class?

It may have only been from Rockhampton to Brisbane (and back) with Virgin but I managed to do it last month. Personally I often look to see if the row behind business on those planes are available as well, may not get the comfy seats but still get the leg room.


Hobart airport for me gets the title of worst although last year they were doing the usual upgrades so perhaps it will be better in a couple of weeks. Bad enough sitting in the terminal about as attractive as Avalon (the second worst, a tin shed on steroids) given no Virgin Lounge (lift your game lads, if Mackay and Alice Springs have one then surely Hobart can), worse when the WiFi WASN'T free.
 
Jul 7, 2012
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Hey guys, there's a heap of threads on travelling and locations but not many specifically on airlines and flights.

Everything from good/bad experiences, who you fly with, who you won't fly with, short haul, long haul, flight sales and discounts.

I'll kick it off by asking if anyone has ever got that elusive free upgrade to business class?

Have updated the thread title to include airports and frequent flyer program discussion.

I managed to be upgraded to business class halfway through a flight from Bangkok to Brunei as my tray table was being held up by duct tape. The tray fell about 10min before lunch so i didn't mention it until afterwards and I asked if they had any more tape so I could fix it. The flight attendant left for a minute and then came back and said 'come with me'. Was so nice in comparison to economy though I wish it had happened on the 2nd leg of the flight from Brunei to Melbourne as that was about 7 hours.

I think i've been quite lucky in the airlines I've flown with in that I haven't had too many issues with any of them. Internationally I've flown with Emirates, Air NZ, Singapore and Cathay and they've all been fantastic.
 

Silent Alarm

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Flew Lufthansa to Europe last December and they were the best airline I've experienced so far, an understated service and an economy class seat that didn't feel like a coffin. Cathay to HK is top notch as said above. Etihad was great for a quick flight to and from Europe, with the quick stopover in Abu Dhabi they can provide. Service is brilliant and but they service Australia with an older fleet of planes which turned the flight to a grind.
I booked with Lufthansa from Berlin to Melbourne. In the end it was just Berlin > Frankfurt with them, and then Frankfurt to BKK to Melbourne on Thai. Lufthansa was great – like a parody in how German they were... I had a lot of questions because I was leaving the Schengen from Frankfurt despite only having about 25 minutes between touch down and taking off there. They were great, really clear, quick, no fuffing around. Thai were pretty good too, the colours are pretty whacky and disorienting but they were decent.

Went Etihad from Melbs to Stockholm though and they were awesome. Getting Air Berlin from Berlin to STH was pretty weird too, and all their small domestic owned planes are apparently great service.

All in all, all were +++
 

Great8

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Anyone flown with Qatar Airways?
Starting from Adelaide in June next year and their prices don't look too bad to Europe.
Off to France for the Euro's with Cathay in June but heading back over with the wife in October for 4 weeks and looking at options
 

Speck

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Anyone flown with Qatar Airways?
Starting from Adelaide in June next year and their prices don't look too bad to Europe.
Off to France for the Euro's with Cathay in June but heading back over with the wife in October for 4 weeks and looking at options
Yep, return to Europe they were very good. Nothing to complain about whatsoever.
 
Feb 23, 2009
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Am flying Qatar in late April 2016 to Athens from Melb. Never flown with them before but the reviews and ratings are good, and they are often up there in the airline awards too. I also know people who will exclusively only fly with them so from everything I have read/heard I think theyre a great choice.
 

JG22

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Scoot airlines seems to be the absolute best value on the scene. Commonly flying $139 to Singapore and flights around Asia are of ease from their. Of course you don't get anything with.

Anyone flown with them
 

ash_1050

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Snagged $770 return flights from Europe to Melbourne with Qatar airways early next year. Flew Etihad last time and they were very decent, hoping Qatar is much the same.
 

Great8

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Picked up Business class Sydney to Manila return for $1350 on Philippine Airlines. Was very hesitant to fly with them again at first but they are reconfiguring all their aircrafts and the new seating will be rolled out on the Sydney to Manila leg by September. They already have a couple of birds kitted out and in operation already on other routes and the feedback has been fantastic so for that price I thought why not
 

ash_1050

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Seems incredibly cheap

That's why I booked it ;)

Where and how! I want to do that :eek:

Flying Istanbul>Doha>Melbourne out and then Melbourne>Doha>London back. Spotted it in the travelfree.info daily newsletter, a lot of good deals for Europe and Asia in there with the odd one for Australia.
 

BERT

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My last trip to the USA I had paid for an exit row seat but my entertainment system wasn't working so they upgraded me to premium.
 

chunkylover53

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Anyone going a US trip coming up go and see their Travel Agent (if they have one) about an American Airlines Airpass. Can do multiple cities throughout the US as well as Honolulu on the way home for less than $2k with all bags and s**t included (which is never the case for US flights). Sweet deal and get plenty of FF points for em too.
 

chunkylover53

Norm Smith Medallist
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What's the best frequent flyer program if your using a card to run a business and putting 40k a month through on it? Using the Qantas one ATM.
Probably Qantas, they have 60 odd other airlines where you can accrue points, and being based in Aus you're likely to use them more often than not.

If it's a lot of international stuff it's worth getting both a OneWorld Program and Star Alliance.
 
Probably Qantas, they have 60 odd other airlines where you can accrue points, and being based in Aus you're likely to use them more often than not.

If it's a lot of international stuff it's worth getting both a OneWorld Program and Star Alliance.
What airline in star alliance would you recommend

I've been looking into it for a while rather than handcuffing myself to qantas.
 
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