Flights to Australia in J – BA with Companion Voucher or QR

[chiraagnt]

Hi all,

I am currently trying to book a flight next year to Australia and have enough Avios for either flying BA to SYD using a Companion Voucher, or for two seats on QR via DOH.

While I think QR has a much better product than BA in J, I was curious what would be the recommended redemption here. The Companion Voucher will expire if not used by October next year, but wondering if the experience in QSuites outweighs the companion voucher!

Also wary of further devaluations from Avios (having seen what has happened over the past few months) so am keen to book a redemption in asap!

Thanks for your inputs, much appreciated!

[NorthernLass]

Depending on when you’re flying QR might only release “flexi” seats which require double avios so you might want to factor that in.

Also see some of the earlier discussions here about securing BA award seats to SYD as it’s one of the really tricky ones! There’s often extra availability from the regions.

[chiraagnt]

Thanks Northernlass!

Yes – aware that QR has only been releasing flexi seats annoyingly but really keen to try their QSuite product!

I guess for the BA award seats – I am happy to be up 360 days in advance to get them, but just wondering from a redemption perspective what makes more sense!

[yorkshireRich]

You could argue that it would be a great shame to see the companion voucher go to waste, especially as it’s more difficult to earn it now.
There will be different opinions and some would say just to fly Qatar, but as NL pointed out, is there even availability for a standard redemption on Qr? There is no guarantee you will get the Q suites either.
You may also want to factor in that some will say there a good chance you could be downgraded on Qatar (if you book on BA).

Though almost everyone will say that Qatar is vastly superior, it is still great to fly J, and you can use the Qatar lounge at Singapore.

[Matt]

Either will be absolutely fine. I would check how much it will cost in avios and cash for each option – if one option is massively cheaper than the other I would go for that, subject to availability. If they’re not too far apart then I’d pick QR if it’s available, and BA if I can’t get QR and BA is available.

[NorthernLass]

355 days out for BA!