Sydney Hotels on Priceline

[Globaliser]

We have saved up American points and are trying to book our air on Quantas, but they are slow in posting their award seats with American.

You may find that there will simply be none. One of the issues with trying to book award travel on Qantas is that Qantas' systems allow you to book 355 days before travel. However, many other airlines' systems (including, I believe, AA) only allow booking 330 days before travel. So Qantas frequent flyers in effect get 25 days of priority booking. Often, that is enough to clean out completely the award availability for the high demand flights, so that there is nothing left by the time the other airlines' systems allow you to book.

 

I hope that that you are luckier than that, but my advice to you is to make sure that you have a plan B in place (with timescales for triggering it) in case you never get any award seats through AA. Relying on getting an award seat is always risky until the moment you actually get your hands on them.

[Emma Chisit]

BTW, there's no u in QANTAS. ;-)

 

 

That U in QANTAS is tricky isn't it, one really wants to add it after the Q. QANTAS is an acronym for Queensland and Northern Territory Aerial Services Ltd. (Maybe it should really be QANTASL.) Started in 1920 in Winton in my home state of Queensland . Their first "fleet" was two World War I surplus biplanes.

[kenish]

We have saved up American points and are trying to book our air on Quantas, but they are slow in posting their award seats with American. I am calling on an almost daily basis so that I can grab a couple. That is step one. We then plan to book a 4 night stay on Heron Island for some world class snorkeling-then on to Sydney. I am raring to book,but I'd best wait before booking on a non-refundable site like Priceline. I am drooling over the $122/price. I understand that the Marriott is a really great place to stay. Then I have to look for a hotel for 2 or 3 nights in Auckland. I understand Auckland hotels aren't listed on Priceline. Does anyone have suggestions on how to book there? Karen;):o:)

 

We are going on our first trip Down Under in June. Thanks to these boards, I went to the Qantas website and registered in their frequent flyer program. It will then allow you to look at award seats. There are a few quirks but play with it for 30 minutes and you will get the hang of it. The important tip is whatever Qantas shows is a pretty good mirror of inventory available to AAdvantage. Even though it was only 4.5 months in advance there were plenty of Y seats. (Through pure serendipity we scored F seats!)

 

The award allows one stopover at a US or Australia gateway. For example if your itenerary is DFW-LAX-SYD-CNS-BNE-SFO-DFW you can break your trip in LAX, SYD, BNE, or SFO. The rules also allow open jaw iteneraries too. In this example the award could be DFW-LAX-SYD (stopover)-CNS x BNE-SFO-DFW. You would buy CNS-BNE flight on your own but Qantas, Virgin Blue, and Jetstar compete heavily and there are frequent fare sales. (Virgin Blue has daily "specials" from 7-8pm PDT). On Qantas' website, go to their Australian site to see domestic fares.

 

There is a fare war going on and the West Coast to Australia is about $800 RT right now so do the math to see if you want to fly using miles or money.

 

For hotels, a great site is www.lastminute.com.au It will list hotels and sorted by rating or price. Several other sites like www.wotif.com.au are for bookings inside of 2 weeks but may give you a sense for price.

 

Last thing I found...you will pay WAY less by booking on Australian websites and paying in AUD. I feel the AUD will get stronger against the USD, so I asked hotels to charge my card immediately instead of waiting until my visit.

 

Hope these tips and links help!

[maclady]

We are going on our first trip Down Under in June. Thanks to these boards, I went to the Qantas website and registered in their frequent flyer program. It will then allow you to look at award seats. There are a few quirks but play with it for 30 minutes and you will get the hang of it. The important tip is whatever Qantas shows is a pretty good mirror of inventory available to AAdvantage. Even though it was only 4.5 months in advance there were plenty of Y seats. (Through pure serendipity we scored F seats!)

 

The award allows one stopover at a US or Australia gateway. For example if your itenerary is DFW-LAX-SYD-CNS-BNE-SFO-DFW you can break your trip in LAX, SYD, BNE, or SFO. The rules also allow open jaw iteneraries too. In this example the award could be DFW-LAX-SYD (stopover)-CNS x BNE-SFO-DFW. You would buy CNS-BNE flight on your own but Qantas, Virgin Blue, and Jetstar compete heavily and there are frequent fare sales. (Virgin Blue has daily "specials" from 7-8pm PDT). On Qantas' website, go to their Australian site to see domestic fares.

 

There is a fare war going on and the West Coast to Australia is about $800 RT right now so do the math to see if you want to fly using miles or money.

 

For hotels, a great site is www.lastminute.com.au It will list hotels and sorted by rating or price. Several other sites like www.wotif.com.au are for bookings inside of 2 weeks but may give you a sense for price.

 

Last thing I found...you will pay WAY less by booking on Australian websites and paying in AUD. I feel the AUD will get stronger against the USD, so I asked hotels to charge my card immediately instead of waiting until my visit.

 

Hope these tips and links help!

 

Now that I know how to spell Qantas,I registered in their frequent flyer program. I found they had some seats available ,so I kept calling American until they got into their system. So we are booked on LA-BrisbaneGladstone. We are on our own nickel for Gladstone-Sydney Qantas has not loaded any trans-pacific seats into the system for February, so we have booked Auckland to LA on January 31st, We are on a 5 day hold,when we will have to rebook. I am calling everyday hoping for the February seats, We are booked on coach,so my next mission will be to find business class seats. Qantas seems to give out very few of them initially-then slowly trickles out a few more as time goes by. Using miles for business is a real bargain since those seats go for about $16,000 apiece round-trip. ,So we will be gambling a bit. I would hate to spend 75000 points apiece for $800 seats-but who knows if that will be available nest year. January is high season,too. I want to get our air pinned down ASAP so I can start trying for hotels in Brisbane,Sydney and Auckland. I get progressively more excited about this trip. We just saw IMAX 3D Under the Sea,much of which was filmed on the Great Barrier Reef. The prospect of staying on an island right on the Reef is thrilling! Karen:);)

[kenish]

maclady- Hope the seats open up which should be any day with the 330-day window. I'm also glad that passing on the tip about registering for Qantas' FF program to look at availability paid off. It did for us; our seats in F normally go for $27k US. We will probably share the F cabin with an AIG or Chrysler exec who can't fly in their Gulfstream V anymore!

[maclady]

We have frequent flyer Qantas seats LA_Brisbane to Gladstone to get us to Heron Island from the 21st-25th then on to Sydney for 3 days, onto the ship and then flying back from Auckland on February 12th . They are coach seats,but we will keep trying to get business,and hopefully will get lucky along the way. Our trip is complicated enough,that even if there are great fare deals we would still end up with fairly pricey tickets,and January is high season. Anyway now we can start making more plans. I think that I will have a try at the Harbour Marriott on Priceline. Karen:):o;)

[Emma Chisit]

We have frequent flyer Qantas seats LA_Brisbane to Gladstone

Congrats on the Quantas (whoops Qantas :D) frequent flyer seats - not always easy to get. Wishing you success with getting the upgrade.

[maclady]

We just booked 3 nights at the Sydney Harbour Mariott for $130/night on Priceline. I had decided that $130 was my limit for now.I've been going up by $2 increments from $120,and I fonally got it. I will keep calling American to try for the business class seats,and we would actually like our flight to Brisbane a day or two earlier to see Brisbane. But things are starting to take shape. It is starting to become real Karen;):o:)

[Pjholt130]

Hi

I was wondering how the hotel rates are in November. I was planning on trying to go on priceline for the Marriot. Any suggestions how close I should start to get a good price.

[jestley]

Hi,

I have booked the Harbour Marriott and the Manly pacific for Jan 2010, I have booked with www.austravel.com a specialist TA in the UK, I had to ring them to get prices,( they have a freephone number) I got 3nights for the price of 4 at the Marriott working out at £106 per night( approx $156US). For the Manly Pacific they were £120 cheaper than the hotels direct prepaid non refundable deal. I have only paid a deposit and have to pay balance in October, also the booking was held for 3days for me to make my mind up.. Their cancellation policy is similar to booking a package holiday, non refundable deposit etc. We are travelling with our daughter and wanted assurances that the room would sleep us all. IMHO they are definately worth getting a price off.

Jo:)

[WAVTAM]

Oct will be are third Sydney trip. Always have used Priceline and always get the Marriott Hotel. Price this time was $127. We are using V Australia to fly this time as compared to Qantas. Price RT was $605 /pp. WAVTAM

[jestley]

Am I right in thinking that these great rates people are getting on priceline don't include the tax, which is around $18 per night?

Jo:)

[Globaliser]

When you succeed in a Priceline bid at whatever figure, Priceline then adds some charges and taxes to it. I don't know whether all the figures above include those charges and taxes; most Priceline "winning bid" figures I've seen exclude them.

 

However, once you've paid them to Priceline, I believe that there is nothing more to pay to the hotel for your basic accommodation.

[The_Big_M]

When you succeed in a Priceline bid at whatever figure, Priceline then adds some charges and taxes to it. I don't know whether all the figures above include those charges and taxes; most Priceline "winning bid" figures I've seen exclude them.

 

Yes, Priceline adds their charges on after the headline or bid price (depending how purchased). The initial prices are always round dollar amounts, whereas the final price charged allows cents, so I'd say the figures given throughout this thread don't include the extra charges. These charges also include an extra fee to Priceline, so would not be comparable to seeing the same dollar rate charged (excluding tax) on a hotel web site.

 

However, once you've paid them to Priceline, I believe that there is nothing more to pay to the hotel for your basic accommodation.

 

That's often true, but some hotels also charge compulsory "resort fees" which are not apparent at the time of bidding. There may also be parking fees, although the latter wouldn't apply if you weren't bringing a vehicle.

[maclady]

Priceline adds taxes and fees. That came to about $18/night. So we are paying under$150 per night for a five star hotel in high season. If we were booking for the fall,I would probably start about $100-$110,and go up a couple of dollars everyday until it is accepted. I have seen some relly low bids get accepted on Priceline. We are about to embark on a Caribbean cruise,and people have been getting the Hyatt in Miami for $55. In a soft economy,who knows. It doesn't hurt to start low. Priceline doesn't get insulted. Still trying for business on Qantas, That was a great tip about the Qantas frequent flyer website. We have a little flexibility on dates,.I wouldn't mind a day or two extra at the beginning or end of the trip. I think about those wonderful bed seats in Business class-and I wil persist. Karen

[MMDown Under]

We are going on our first trip Down Under in June. Thanks to these boards, I went to the Qantas website and registered in their frequent flyer program. It will then allow you to look at award seats. There are a few quirks but play with it for 30 minutes and you will get the hang of it. The important tip is whatever Qantas shows is a pretty good mirror of inventory available to AAdvantage. Even though it was only 4.5 months in advance there were plenty of Y seats. (Through pure serendipity we scored F seats!)

 

The award allows one stopover at a US or Australia gateway. For example if your itenerary is DFW-LAX-SYD-CNS-BNE-SFO-DFW you can break your trip in LAX, SYD, BNE, or SFO. The rules also allow open jaw iteneraries too. In this example the award could be DFW-LAX-SYD (stopover)-CNS x BNE-SFO-DFW. You would buy CNS-BNE flight on your own but Qantas, Virgin Blue, and Jetstar compete heavily and there are frequent fare sales. (Virgin Blue has daily "specials" from 7-8pm PDT). On Qantas' website, go to their Australian site to see domestic fares.

 

There is a fare war going on and the West Coast to Australia is about $800 RT right now so do the math to see if you want to fly using miles or money.

 

For hotels, a great site is www.lastminute.com.au It will list hotels and sorted by rating or price. Several other sites like www.wotif.com.au are for bookings inside of 2 weeks but may give you a sense for price.

 

Last thing I found...you will pay WAY less by booking on Australian websites and paying in AUD. I feel the AUD will get stronger against the USD, so I asked hotels to charge my card immediately instead of waiting until my visit.

 

Hope these tips and links help!

 

This is excellent advice.

 

Just remember that the US$ is still worth a lot more in Australia, so when you enquire on Australian websites the rates are in Australian dollars.

 

($100 Aus = $73.26 US today's currency conversion)

 

Just a reminder also that there is no hotel tax in Australia, so any charges are booking agency charges or hotel charges.

[Australian family]

Another good thing to do when trying to book an award seat is to look at where the option is to book the first one is Qantas & Partner Classic Award - which the system deflauts to, which is only frequent flyer seats which book out quick, then there is the Qantas Any Seat Award, which gives you access to commercial seats to use your points, and the other interesting thing is that you can also pay a portion of this booking if you don't have enough points, or you can use your points to pay taxes, but with the Qantas & Partner Classic Award you have to pay the taxes for an international booking.

[Cinder Again]

Another tip about Priceline is that they have inventory listed for a price, other than the better known "name your own price". We were in Sydney for 4 days January 2009, and on the Priceline web site, was able to book the Sir Stamford Hotel in Circular Quay, for around $125 US a night. I had read really good reviews for the hotel on Trip Advisor, so decided to book it. It was in a perfect location, and was a smaller "boutique" hotel 5 minutes walk from the ferries, and Opera house, and directly across the street from the botanic garden. It was fun to stay in a lesser known hotel; not one of the known American chain hotels for a more authentic travel experience. They were so nice, and the room was really lovely, with a huge marble bathroom. They let us check in at 8:00 a.m. after our long flight, and that was worth a million bucks after flying all night! Then they let us check out late so we could watch the Superbowl on TV before we boarded our cruise ship.