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I hope you stay well on your trip! If you aren't already a member, I suggest joining us at the FlyerTalk forums, it would be very useful to a regular traveler like yourself.
Emirates flights are always new, clean and modern, but my Emirates reward miles have been the most useless. Does Cathay Pacific cover BRU-DXB? If DXB isn't just a stopover, have you tried Cathay on the DXB-SYD route? If it is a stopover, how about Singapore Airlines instead?
I stay religiously with oneworld and Star Alliance flights, which allows me to cluster all my reward miles with AA, Asiana (reaches lifetime status quickly), UA (better than Asiana in the longer term for lifetime status), which multiplies my reward miles faster and gets access to practically all of the first class lounges. This has been very useful - I traded 1.6 million miles for my last 3 trips to HKG, NRT and CDG instead of spending $10k+ per ticket:
And I could hop into both the Cathay and British Airways 1st class lounges on an American Airlines flight (this was Heathrow T3):
There's other useful tricks that I've picked up from FlyerTalk. I used to pay 2x as much for a standard hotel room, until I learned how to take advantage of upgrades and corporate travel plans. For instance, the Presidential Suite at the Park Hyatt Tokyo is always reserved for their top clients and had an air of mystery around it since I could never book it. With the right relationships for my corporate account, it now shows up in my search at about 1/2 to 2/3 the usual price:
I appreciate a lot the input and your experience shared
My flight into Sydney was not rational,
it was pushed off several times (too many stake-holders) and finally it was a last-minute scramble to get on a flight, booked the hotel even the night before...
Been to Australia before :
- Malaysia with stop-over in Kuala Lumpur : absolutely horrible (it even seems today's, plains are 1/2 empty due to the two disasters that have costed them a lot of business on Asia routes, they are loosing lots of $ per day)
- KLM (while i loved KLM before the merge with Air France), i was stuck on a flight once in Singapore were the ongoing leg was cancelled, finally landed in France and traveled with the TGV to Brussels (last 2 weeks Air France was out of service due to union strikes, so not an option)
- Qantas excellent service, no comment
- Flew Singapore Airlines also a couple times, excellent service
For info : the Emirates is code-shared with Qantas (Emirates executes)
BA British Airways for me is an absolute NO WAY
I think they lost my luggage on EVERY SINGLE flight i took with them, they are horrible
so on critical short flights i avoid them
and in the current Islamic State setting, UK airports are to be avoided
Same goes for TAP (i flew business bxl-lisbon-sao paulo round with them)
upon arrival they cut me off from the connection to bxl, because of late arrival
reason : late arrival, no time for luggage, passenger can not fly without luggage
i get a rebooked on the afternoon flight
walking in the airport, I see my original bxl flight is delayed, no way, with nice arguments to get on
upon arrival on the new flight in the evening in bxl , my luggage is missing
i go to baggage claim, yeah no problem man, it arrived this morning !
i have written a vitriolic letter to TAP
can't complain about delays, they don't care, but the security procedure is criminal
they are in current terrorist times, the most dangerous airline, avoid !
I agree with you on the strategy to concentrate miles, i have been flying Cathay before on HK and still have my frequent flyer account.
I have been locally active for the last 7 years with limited travel, but a more intense/rough travel period is anounced, i take away from this discussion to get my act together on the airline families and cluster the flights around some of the groups.
From Brussels (my starting base) SN airlines and Lufthansa is covering most of Europe.
Over the next months I will see where HQ will sent me to... will keep you posted on some of the very nice trips
Wow, your experience with BA sounds horrible. I don't ever bring more than a single carry-on luggage (saves time) regardless of the trip, so I've not had to deal with luggage loss; it's been a good lifehack and I recommend it.
I've heard bad things about TAP as well, I've flown them only once when I missed one of my flights to Lisbon and had no alternative. It wasn't bad, but thanks for sharing.
I had the same approach on my trip to Dubai/Australia, travelling light, a small roller with clothes and small back-pack with laptop - tablet, charger (which "stricto-senso" was already to heavy). I waffled myself through check-in in Brussels, but at the gate they had a kind of piranha woman, who wanted to put my trolley in the cargo, one single piece was the rule. So i told her, my back pack (small one) goes into the trolley, is that ok ? she said yes (it didn't comply with the weight) but i escaped like that. I put my back-pack into the trolley, so i had one single piece...
On the way back, i checked my trolley into cargo, and then i saw all these guys with multiple pieces.. grrrrrrrrrrrrrrr
Leaving from Brussels with Emirates is very strict ! no tolerance
Coming back, it is much more relaxed
I had once the opposite, being able to waffle myself out of trouble going from EU to Africa
and got penalized coming back from Dakar to Brussels big time..
I can for sure start a thread on over-weight discussion only.. travelling...
Coming back from brasil with 24 cans of Guarana in cary-on luggage, TODAY : no way !!!
upon transit in Amsterdam : the least : interesting conversation !!
Coming back from Prague to Belgium, with some bottles and a large Russian dictionary (> 3kgs)
Prague : UK -> ok, i told the check-in lady, the guy next to me, was at least 30kg heavier
i'm slim and my Russian dictionary is not 30kgs, she asked me a few times : "i beg you pardon"
finally she laughed, let me go, i'm not going to stall that plane with my dictionary...
unfortunately the transit in UK, in Luthon, with a big African mama at the counter
i paid , the dictionary very very expensive...
as i couldn't waffle myself out with a joke :-(((
bottom line, i would say
be nice
be gently, be gentleman, and you get much further and airline people are nicer..
don't yell, don't shout
be nice, try to understand and be creative
