Travel Thread

Yes that’s very similar to what we did.

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Have flown to Europe probably 3 times with Qatar in cattle class. Little if any difference between them and Emirates imo.
You’ll love Sicily and Malta

Are Cathay One World?. My mate is in Sydney so we fly in and out of Sydney.

Last year flew Emirates…Warsaw to Dubai was Boeing, Dubai to Sydney A380…maybe have been 777, wasn’t 747. No comparison, asyou said, and both in Business.

2016 in Dubai…such a long way between terminals, but last year, same terminal. Lounge was pretty good. I’ll mention the Doha lounge to the agent.

Just hoping Insight don’t bugger it up again and give us doubles, rather than twins. We were very clear we did not want doubles. Bugger it up turned out right.

I’ve been pretty happy with Emirates so might stick to them.

Don’t mind short flights in economy…but wouldn’t want more than 2 hours. Right knee gets too painful.

Also would consider flying into Switzerland and training it to Rome, maybe via Cinque Terre.

Emirates only fly the A380 and 777 to Australia. The 777 seats are not fully lie down and are uncomfortable. Adelaide only gets the 777 so we fly to Melbourne or Sydney to get the A380. Emirates also provide a free chauffeur for business class at departure and arrival. Emirates are not in One world but are a Qantas partner hence the points and credits. Just make sure it’s booked with a QF number not EK if you want full points and credits. Cathay are One World and are good. I’ve seen Cathay advertising business to Europe for about $5k, Qatar about $6k and Emirates about $8k at the moment I think. All connect into Rome

Sorry…I said it had to be allied to Qantas to someone and they said OneWorld. We do everything through Qantas, so get the QF and the limos. Non-conditional.

Therefore ignore Qatar.

Qatar is one world also.
One world consists of:
American Airlines
British Airways
Cathay Pacific
Finnair
LATAM
Qantas
Qatar
Sri Lankan Airlines
Malaysia Airlines
Iberia
Royal Jordanian
Japan Airlines
S7
In addition to that Qantas has special partnerships with Emirates.
All of those airlines get Qantas points and allow Qantas lounge access, priority boarding, seating etc. Emirates/Qantas is the only one currently running the chauffeur service

Just got our boarding call. Virgin have quite possibly the best business class product going around. Guaranteed a good 4-6 sleep on the way home tonight

And we are delayed. Sitting on the tarmac and still able to get internet. Back in Melbourne at 8am tomorrow.

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Flown QATAR many times to Europe. Same quality as Emirates, major plus is great connections so in my bed in Zurich hours before if flew with anyone else. Lounge in Doha quite good but as stopover is usually only about one hour it is not that relevant.

QATAR were always cheaper than QANTAS/Emirates and while chauffeur pickup is good, we now use a local guy in Melbourne and arrange the same where necessary. Still works out cheaper.

Aceman is correct about those 777 seats; flat they are not !

@Gnik, we are about to do a JP trip:
5 nights Tokyo (arrive Narita)
4 nights Kyoto
5 nights Osaka (fly home)
with a few day trips (Nara, Nagoya etc) in there.
The number crunching we did showed a 7 day JR Pass just wasn’t worth it. It was costing the same as the buying the tickets individually.
In our case though there’s really only one longish trip (Tok -> Kyo). For you, it may well be different.

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I think our trip from Kyoto to Kii Tanabe has made the pass worthwhile.

I thought Doha’s 1C lounge is pretty ordinary. Emirates’ in Dubai is the clear best of any I have been to. Even their BC lounge is better than most airlines’ 1C lounges.

The Business Class in Dubai is good enough for my tastes.

The important thing about choice of airlines is that we must get QFF points.

Both Airlines will get you Qantas points however the earn rate on Emirates is better.
Just off the top of my head the one way earns are:
Qatar, MEL-DOH-FCO 10,000 points plus 140 status credits.
Emirates, MEL-DXB-FCO 18,000 points plus 280 SC’s as minimum on business sale price. Can earn slightly more if just regular business fare.
Just need to make sure all legs on Emirates are booked with a QF number not EK number. I’ve seen some TA’s accidentally book it all with EK numbers on Emirates website as it can be slightly cheaper but you get almost zero earn

Let us know how you go with the deer in Nara. One bit me on the ■■■■ and ate my map when I didn’t give it any crackers!!!

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My wife was bitten on the upper thigh there by a deer which thought she had food in the pocket of her jeans.

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Yeah, I’ve read the deer can be a bit demanding these days…

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Fricken aggressive. They’re all over the place too, in the park, in the temple, on the road.

Anyway, there was some very cool temples there so it was all worth while.

I’m Nara I had one of the funniest experiences of our trip, trying to explain to the hotel restaurant staff that I would not be eating breakfast, so my daughter would be using the breakfast voucher instead of me. It was like a real life Japanese rendition of some twisted Fawlty Towers skit. (Didn’t mention the war tho…)

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There’s a whole industry built on hiring deer suits to lonely japanese men.

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