V-Flyer

Mrs P is taking some time off work and plans to visit New Zealand for an organised tour, Australia (family in Cairns and Sydney), Hong Kong to meet me for a long weekend and then China for another organised tour before returning to London. Lucky woman!

Before phoning up VS for a lengthy call - can anyone share an experience of trying to get a ticket like this on VS (she is silver and has 10TPs to get gold). Ideally, we'd like PE or higher depending on cost of course. I'll ignore reward flights for the moment...

LHR-(SIN or HKG I guess)-AKL
SYD-HKG
PVG-LHR

Any advice? Should she book separate tickets for different segments? Will VS will sell her such a ticket, even if not flying on VS metal for all of it, etc. etc.

Stuart.

I have previously looked into the following routing when trying to work out how to get to CHC on mainly VS metal

LHR-HKG-SYD-CHC-SYD-HKG-LHR

I got a quote for the service through FC who were more than happy to tag on the SYD-CHC-SYD leg using NZ. So in answer to your question if you ring FC and state what you require they will create a trip for you. The routing you have asked for should be fairly easy, as after all VS partner both SQ and NZ (and have a close relationship with both).

Your best option for getting there on VS metal is clearly to get her to SYD on VS and then book NZ across the ditch on the same PNR.

The only other real option is to get her to go via SIN on SQ. Another option of course would be something along the lines of LHR-LAX(on VS), LAX-AKL-SYD on NZ then SYD-HKG on VS, HKG-PVG on CA then PVG-LHR on VS.

In fact thinking about it, considering that CA are also an FC Partner I would be surprised if VS could not book the whole trip you have requested.

Dont forget that she could fly AKL-CNS on NZ as well, and DJ flights now earn FC miles. So really she is in a great position to earn miles on all her flights.

Of course money may come down to be a factor, if VS quote you silly money for all the flights, it maybe cheaper to book certain sectors individually and just hand over the FC card for the miles at check in.

EDIT: Just thinking about it, maybe the Great Escapade RTW ticket may be an option also.

Thanks Will, looks like a lengthy call to FC is in order. RTW is definitely a possibility here I think.

Either way looks like she'll even get to Gold along the way and earn a good deal of miles

Last year I did a RTW on a Great Escapade ticket, and it proved excellent value compared to booking individual legs.
We were in J on every leg(no PE option available) and the fare came to approx £5500 inc. taxes (these vary on number of stops/destinations).
As mentioned previously, she would have to do the LHR-AKL via LAX
(LHR-LAX on VS if you want to maximise TP's, or with NZ for ease of connection, Business Premier is excellent, but no Clubhouse at heathrow)
The ticket is very flexible, You can travel up to 27000 miles with unlimited stops. There just have to be Z fares available in the cabin. You can even make changes to your itinery for free once you have commenced your journey. Having only 3 airlines to choose from sounds quite limiting, but SQ and NZ coverage in the Asia/Australasia region gives you plenty of options.
And NZ give you a Great amenity kit too, to keep all V Flyers Happy y)

Thanks for the replies. The route has changed yet again but the information was very useful. Looks like she is now doing a RTW with upgrades of segments to PE along the way. Very frustrating that whoever she spoke to at VAA couldn't "save" the itinerary - now she wants to make some modifications and book she has to go through the whole trip again (took an hour last time just to get a rough price - apparently the taxes are calculated after booking??)