I wanted to fly UK to Hong Kong in business. Stupid prices. Now I’m flying Istanbul to Hong Kong via Heathrow in business with Cathay for about 35% of the flight from Heathrow to Hong Kong direct. Even getting to Istanbul and a hotel costs are way cheaper than the direct flight from London. Crazy really! Money.
Money! Great video. This would also suggest Star Alliance is one of the better alliances. Avoid or minimise fuel surcharges using Virgin or Singapore and their partnerships with Star Alliance airlines. Good global coverage and you're covered domestically with Virgin too.
Money! Having just booked a complex Qantas/One World RTW ticket on points after a vast amount of research, I confirm virtually all of what you say. Emirates is a bit of a joke with exorbitant add ons and that's clearly why they have the most possible reward flights available. I couldn't use them anyway because they are a Qantas partner, but not in OneWorld alliance. As you said, FinAir is great but you should perhaps have mentioned that British Airways is a clear second to Emirates re taxes. Add this to constant use of LHR and their appeal abates significantly. That said, when I strugled to get a FinAir flight from Dublin to HKG or SIN, I bit the bullet and paid up to go BritAir in a 380 to SIN - just so I could drink in the upstairs bar!!! I encourage other flyers to simply put in the hard yards of research as there are undeniable big savings to be made if you get it right.
Hey buddy thanks for the great videos. Since you covered a lot of Qantas+Virgin can you also do a video for SIA and best strategy to accumulate Krisflyer?
What's with your map of Australia showing departure taxes? You've got Brisbane Airport up in the Whitsundays and you quote Perth as the cheapest but you have Melbourne shown as $21, a quarter of the Perth price. You also title Rome as Brussels a few minutes later before correcting it, Sweden isn't an airport and you show Paris as practically in the United Kingdom. Speaking of the UK how can the UK (also not an airport) charge $400+ to depart when there are hundreds of fares less than 10% of this price with discount carriers who don't use airports like LHR
I must be missing something...how come you can fly London to anywhere in Europe with Ryan air for 39 pounds?.....the associated fees you mention aren't charged with internal European flights?
Taxes and fees are calculated based on the distance travelled + cabin class. The example I was giving in the video was for a long-haul flight in business class to Dubai.
Hey mate, I did a video talking about the HSBC Premier Credit Card in my previous video here! - ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-hLX9aEjB7Vk.html
@@raymondla ok no problems, thought I was missing something. Thanks for the clarification, excellent work on your videos very informative. Can I request a video, are you able to advise what the impact to your credit file if you chase points by credit card sign up bonuses ? I've been reluctant to move that often because i've been worried about the impact to my credit rating.
Ive done quite a few videos on redeeming Amex points for flights, check out my AMEX playlist or start off with this video - ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-nb0_OcPZCys.html
Great video! Super informative. I'm looking at booking 2x business class flights to Europe in Sept 2025. I currently have credit card points and am debating whether to transfer them to Qantas FF or Velocity. Any suggestions?
Glad it was helpful! I'd actually first focus on finding the reward flights that you want based on the dates/destination that you're wanting to travel to. That will then determine which frequent flyer program you transfer to.
Money. Is ANA pronounced A.N.A? I had heard that about Emirates, but the amounts are really shocking. That last bit about Emirates is gold. I think flying out of Istanbul via Singapore and now Turkish is the go. Not sure who else is available from there to Aus?
Here’s a tip for oldies ,don’t watch this.If you wanna fly with inferior airlines to save a few bucks,stay tuned.He recommends not to fly with Emirates!!!! Spend the extra bucks and fly with a superior airline.
My goal for this video was to help people book cheaper airfares. There are plenty of great airlines that you can fly with that charge significantly lower carrier fees in comparison to Emirates. E.g. Singapore Airlines, Qatar, ANA just to name a few.
I’m a bit confused you say fly into London but depart from another country. Don’t I still have to fly out from London to get to that other country therefore paying the taxes and fees anyway.
@caroljordan4316 The distance traveled and cabin class you fly in will significantly affect the taxes and fees charged. A short-distance flight departing from the UK will have significantly lower fees than a flight back to Melbourne. Alternatively you could also just take the Eurostar to your next destination and skip flying altogether.
@@caroljordan4316You could get a train to Paris or Brussels or Amsterdam, or fly budget from UK to another European capital, before flying long haul. There are options but often; just not worth the hassle
Two things confuse me in that video: 1. If flying out of the UK cost $400 in fees, how do you explain companies like Ryanair and Easyjet that charge $50 for a flight to europe… 2. The argument that Emirates was the worst because they charged 450k point plus $7000 makes no sense, that was for a First Class ticket, not economy like everything else in that video you talked about, compare at least apples with apples. I regular look for Emirates rewards flights on the Qantas site and a return ticket to Europe is no more than 140k points with $200-300 in fees
Certainly happy to clarify mate. Firstly note that all calculations of the fees in the video were for a business class flight to Dubai as the final destination (which I mentioned in the video) 1. The distance traveled and cabin class you fly in will significantly affect the taxes and fees charged. A short-distance flight departing from the UK with Ryanair in economy will have significantly lower fees than a business class flight to Dubai. 2. I acknowledge that the example was for a first-class flight, it was just there to demonstrate how extreme the carrier charges can be with Emirates. If you can give me a specific example of you finding a reward flight to Europe with Emirates where you'd pay less than $300 in fees I'd like to see! I'm doing a quick search for Sydney -> Paris return on the 14th of Nov and I would be paying $476 in fees one way if I fly with Emirates, versus flying on the 13th of Nov with Qantas and only paying just $235 in fees. If you do a simple google search for 'Emirates high fuel surcharges' you'll see plenty of search results talking about how they've significantly increased their fees over the last few years.
