Sydney reward flight

I wonder if anyone can help me work out the cheapest way to do this...

I'm moving to Sydney for a year or two, and I was planning on just booking a single upper class reward flight for 90,000 miles from London to Sydney.

But then, to cut a long story short, it will save me a lot of money from my visa arrangements if I have a return ticket or flexible return. This doesn't strictly have to be on the same ticket, I just need to show that I have already paid for my return journey before I arrive in Australia.

As I will most likely be there for well over a year, what is my best solution? I looked at buying another 50k miles for an economy return on top of my UC flight out, but this is almost another £800. I wasn't planning on parting with that much cash as I just wanted to use my miles.

Any suggestions would be much appreciated [y] N.B not bothered about class of flight etc on way back so long as I have something booked to show them, that isn't expensive to change the date on.

How about booking a totally flexible Y, then just canceling it for a full refund once you are down under. That way, you would only have the money outstanding for the amount of time it takes to process the refund.

Good idea - but it's still a lot of money and then a bit of a hassle to get it back.

How much would you say the cheapest upgradeable economy fare is around March? I'm thinking of using less miles (60k) to upgrade on the way out, and then I would have JUST enough miles to get a reward economy flight home with miles.

[preiffer]

Cheapest in March would be the following, PLUS taxes & fuel surcharge:

LJGBA VS L Round-Trip 870.00 (GBP)

Why don't you just redeem the miles for the return leg instead? You say you're likely to be in Australia for over a year so a return ticket will only be valid for a maximum of 12 months from the date of your outward journey. By redeeming miles for the return journey you also have the flexibilty of changing dates for a small fee, so you will be able to stay in Australia for longer than 12 months.


You can buy a one-way mileage-earning fare from LON-SYD for well less than £800 these days.

Thanks for the replies. Hmm I take it you can't have an upgradeable economy on the way out and a flexible on the way back all on the same ticket?

I've just had a look at Quantas and it looks like I can book a cheap £550 fare for some point in the future for the return, and then pay a £75 fee to change it when I'm living there until I need to come back. With the Virgin £870 fare, I expect there is a big change fee with the non-fexi (I had to pay £500 to change my flight coming back from Orlando) meaning in the long run I would pay around £1370 instead of the 90k miles outbound and Quantas return for around £550.

[preiffer]

Change details for an L in March:

PENALTY
ORIGINATING UNITED KINGDOM - CANCELLATIONS BEFORE DEPARTURE CHARGE GBP 200.00 FOR CANCEL/NO-SHOW/REFUND. WAIVED FOR ILLNESS OR DEATH OF PASSENGER OR FAMILY MEMBER. AFTER DEPARTURE TICKET IS NON-REFUNDABLE. WAIVED FOR ILLNESS OR DEATH OF PASSENGER OR FAMILY MEMBER. CHANGES CHARGE GBP 50.00 FOR REISSUE/REVALIDATION. ORIGINATING AUSTRALIA - CANCELLATIONS ANY TIME CHARGE AUD 330.00 FOR CANCEL/NO-SHOW/REFUND. WAIVED FOR ILLNESS OR DEATH OF PASSENGER OR FAMILY MEMBER. NOTE - WAIVER FOR ILLNESS ONLY APPLIES IN THE EVENT OF CERTIFIABLE HOSPITALIZATION. --- WAIVED FOR UPGRADE TO A HIGHER VS FARE ANY DIFFERENCE IN FARE MUST BE COLLECTED. ORIGINAL REFUND CONDITIONS APPLY TO ANY UPGRADED TICKET. --- CHARGES DO NOT APPLY TO AN INFANT PAYING 10 PCT. OF THE ADULT FARE. CHANGES CHANGES PERMITTED FOR REISSUE/REVALIDATION.