From the ad - "This March, use 50% less Qantas Points on TripADeal bookings*, or use Point Plus Pay and make huge savings! Your dream destination has never been closer with Qantas Points at double their usual value across all of our incredible tours, cruises, hotel packages and experiences."
Might be some options available for someone out there, picked up this bargain from a comment from Slippery Otter
8 nights accommodation (at holiday inn tier, which is important to note as accommodation quality can be quite variable) plus return tickets for slightly less than 50k points per person does seem pretty good at 2c per point, arguably better than the $999 (no points option), which isn't too bad itself.
Itinerary seems acceptable for a whirlwind/first time experience, but would lack the free time/depth of a non-guided tour which some may prefer.
Here’s a tip - stop posting crap
Pretty sure it's an alt account for a mod, no way does it survive in anything like a sensible world otherwise
With questions like yours, nobody is obliged to provide a sensible answer.
@JohnHowardsEyebrows: It’s something my friends noticed during their trip. The tour guides demand tips at the end of the day. I am not sure why they couldn’t price these trips with Tips included . It leaves a bad taste when such things happen out of the expected itinerary . Sometimes people go with limited cash . Just saying.
Valid for just hotels? Had a look through but couldn’t find much, looks like normal points plus pay
For 'hotel packages' but not 'hotel stays'.
In other words they have packages of just accommodation without flights at specific places, eg 5/7/9 nights at resort X. Doesn't work for 'hotel stays' which is normal hotel booking.
Does anyone know how it works with young kids? Says valid for 8 years and over does that mean no option to book for kids under 8?
Like to know as well. I have a toddler how this twin share works.
The Antarctica trip looks too tempting.
700k points is 7k AUD. Never seen it below 15k AUD
Is this the..never get out the plane fly over? 50/50 share the window time with other passengers? Seems overrated.
That’s the Arctic, not the opposite or ‘Ant’-Arctic
@6079 Smith: My mistake is still definitely not a flyover.
https://www.tripadeal.com.au/deals/5157-highlights-of-antarc…
no, this is the cruise from South America but I did do the first commercial flight to South Pole via Chimu on a Qantas plane for 250k points(window seat) and that was 100% worth it for those points
Was 200k for two people when I booked and that was absolutely worth it.
One day Qantas might launch Melbourne to Rio flights and you'd get to fly over it while going somewhere. Some of the Melbourne/Sydney to Santiago flights currently can fly over the edges of antarctica depending on winds.
And the wind blows in opposite directions at the same time
I am considering rates from Ozbargain classifieds where 1c / point is the going rate so 700k points is 7k AUD
Qantas points sell for 1.3-1.4cpp lately
Great deal but how do you even get 700k points? So hard to accumulate them
You can buy points - but mainly people with high incomes spend $ via credit cards, apply for credit cards with point offers, etc…
You can get 700k in a year if you churn CCs and other things.
Two around the world's in Business..or 1 fly over Antarctica.. if it's cloudy..brutal!
@tunzafun001: RTW in business with Qantas points is pretty much impossible these days unless you're platinum and can get reward seats released. Maybe if travelling solo, but 2 or more is too hard.
It's hard enough just to get one international flight in business let alone put together an itinerary of a few flights plus meet the criteria of a RTW ticket.
@CheapBrah: Yeah, agree there (Especially if through the US…forgeeettaaaaa about it!) Have a mate with good status and Award seat subscription helps, and stay away from the usual routes.
I churn ~200k pts/yr. If I could convince partner to do the same easily accumulate that much in 2yrs.
My churn rate from last april to now is 486,986 points (mostly via credit cards) so if you time them properly and pay off quickly, its achievable in 1.5 year
Has anyone come back from the China Trip? Look like very good deal.
Would love to hear some reviews
Just back from the TripADeal China trip. We loved it.
We have about 8 couples waiting for us to report back and we are still in the process of doing that. Suffice to say that one couple is now picking convenient time for their trip and one is arguing about it, the wife may go with a GF. Rest we have not spoken to yet.
Out flights were with China Eastern, the only fault I could lay at them was that wife and I were not seated together on the first flight to Shanghai (we fixed that once at altitude) or the onbound flight to Beijing, on which I sat next to another TripADealer who may now be a friend for life. Meals were just fine and the ground service was comparable with Singapore Airlines. Very swift check-in, spotless airports.
One of our party had a suitcase damaged on the first flight. Our guide took her to baggage counter, explained what had happened and she was given a new suitcase, either one that someone else had lost and had been unclaimed or new/new. Amazing.
Bus first ride was about 45 minutes, hotel was fine. We were last to be checked in (a 10 minute process for all 32 of us) so as a courtesy, we were upgraded to a suite. Also, amazing.
Breakfasts were good. I had spicy beef noodle soup on 6 mornings, got a taste for it. There were freshly-made crepes, nice pastries, juices and cereals, as well as the usual local rice, congee etc. Tea was OK, coffee was average.
Yes, the hotels were in the burbs and the morning bus rides averaged about an hour but we got chatting with the group and the scenery was still pretty interesting. Plus on the Hangzhao-Suzhou-Shanghai bus, our driver kept an esky stocked so some of the guys enjoyed 10Y beers on the trips.
Yes, some of the tours were very sales oriented but the truth is, someone in the group bought something every time, whether it was jade, tea, Chinese medicine or silk. No high pressure sales stuff; Do you want to buy anything? No thanks. They moved on.
We came back with a silk doona (we were due to buy one anyway) and 2 pillows, very happy with the quality and price.
If the sales pitches were the cost of such an affordable trip, I'm happy with that balance.
The guides were fabulous, walking history teachers, very experienced and just nice people. There is a $12/day gratuity that is not mandatory but the backup they provide is worth way more than that. In our group one couple missed the first bus (slept in) and our guide sorted it by sending a Didi (Uber in China) on his personal account to catch them up (they paid him back). In another parallel group a passport got lost and someone missed a flight, it was quickly sorted out.
They also got us into the big attractions without queuing, which saved up about 90 mins at Tiananmen Square and The Great Wall. Some in the other groups complained about the gratuity but I am as cheap AF and would have paid them double that for the service and backup they offered.
Yep, there are lots of security cameras around but we never felt intimidated. When we got a day or an afternoon off we used the underground to get around, very similar to Singapore's or KL's and very cheap. Didi is easy, so long as you have the China version of the app (which still works in English).
The food was just great and very affordable. The second-best meal we had on the whole trip cost $6.50 for 2 of us, including beer, which is cheap (but wine is quite expensive). The most expensive was the Peking duck lunch that was an optional extra. I will remember it for the rest of my life.
Best advice I can offer is, BE PREPARED. Check your Visa applications 3 times, make sure your passports have 6 months on them. Work out your phone roaming/internet requirements. Figure out how much data you need and then double it, it's better to use that than to rely on the Wifi at the hotels. I came home with just 50mb of data and spent my last cash 30 minutes before the flight home.
Re money, most if the places want to take Alipay/WeChat pay so work out your apps well before you go. Almost no one takes CCs and the few that do charge a hefty fee. Re cash, avoid the Aussie banks like the plague, shop around for a better rate or take A$ and the guides can usually exchange it at a good rate.
You do need to be up for bus rides and walking on hard surfaces, so prepare for that. Just about everyone in our group raved about the trip. There were some in other groups that negged it but really, if you are going to complain that you can't get decent western food (you can) or that the locals do not understand you, maybe don't go to China in the first place.
We would go again in a heartbeat. If you do, I hope you have a great time.
Thanks for the review. Just curious what was the demographic like for the tour group? I imagine mostly older people?
Some older people, some not.
Youngest was a 23-25yo guy traveling with his parents. There were two GFs traveling together, I would say 25-28. A few 30-something couples and same for singles. About half couples were 50-60, one couple older than that again.
The good bit was, everyone got on, bonded as traveling 'family' pretty quickly. So if anyone needed cash, or panadol after a late night, the group stepped up.
We did hear that some of the other TAD groups were less like that, I guess we lucked out.
But the important part was, if anyone felt they were not up to travelling on a particular day or an afternoon, they sat out that bit.
@branners: Two GFs, hmm these two? https://youtu.be/kGIXWyw2-J4?si=opegDvCfmbCMGgvI
So is China not as bad or scary as the media & government makes it out to be?
@playbargain: Nope, that's not them. Though we did go to some of the spots they did; when they went to that Macca's in Beijing we went to the noodle place across the square and had what I can only describe as a sweet and sour lemon, pork and noodle soup (which was delicious). We did go to a McCafe but only for a coffee (which was quite good).
There are always going to be differences that the govt and the media focus on at their level and you have to be aware that you are not in a country like Australia. But in all honesty, I found the people to be just great. Once we mastered Google Translate, we found them to be kind and, mostly, interested in Australia.
Oh, one more thing; in the cities we went to anyway, the streets re so clean. I mean, Singapore clean. And even in the back streets, the public toilets are spotless, there are cleaners nearly everywhere. There were some squat toilets but, mostly, western ones were there as well.
@branners: I see, they must have gone with an earlier tour.
I noticed the cleanliness as well in all the China travel vlogs on YouTube. For a city with the population almost the same as Australia that's quite an achievement.
@nightelves: Apologies, I only just saw your comment. Here it is;
www.tripadeal.com.au/deals/4721-china-discovery
@playbargain: There's always going to be China bashing by the western media as only negative news are interesting news.
@playbargain: Just because a country is run by a dystopian government doesn't mean it's automatically not an enjoyable place to visit. Some people are distasteful enough to visit North Korea for crying out loud, and they also say nice things about their experience, quite aside from the troubles of the locals.
@JohnHowardsEyebrows: I've been watching a lot travel vlog on China recently. It looks to me that for a dystopian government they've done a pretty good job at improving the living standards for its citizens, including Xinjiang. Can't say the same about our own government. What stood out in all the videos I've seen so far is the night life over there, looks so much fun and safe. Living in Brisbane I can't say I'd feel safe going out after dark at all, how free are we really.
@playbargain: Ah yes, that old chestnut. Communists taking the brakes off in the 80s are somehow worthy of praise for allowing some of the poverty to be alleviated. If they were doing a better job than here, we wouldn't have so many of their citizens moving here.
Oh, and you may have missed the news a few weeks ago about the Chinese-Australian writer sentenced to death for merely speaking against the party. Nice system eh.
@playbargain: They improved the living standards in Xinjiang? I guess if you do enough ethnic cleansing there are more resources for others.
Have you considered that maybe the videos you are watching have an agenda?
After reading this review. I WILL DEFOS GO FOR THE TOUR. Thank you!!
Good news. I expect a FULL REPORT! lol
Have fun
Great review. Appreciate the time you spent writing it.
No problem. We did a LOT of homework before the trip and still messed up a few things, so more than happy to pass it on to other OzBs
Thanks for taking the time to write such a detailed review
Great review, thanks for sharing your experience. Are you able to indicate the kinds of timeframes for issuing plane tickets? Wondering how far out they'll provide flight details, to arrange status/lounge access etc.
Thanks so much for the review. Very glad to hear that you had such a good time!
How soon before departing did you get your flight details sent to you? (eg: day/time of departure/return)
I'll answer both JHE and MC in one go, if that suits.
We got out flight details about 6 weeks out, gave us plenty of time to arrange visas and so on. That process (in Melbourne) was easy too, but it did require 2 trips to the Visa centre, 7 days apart. Both were very quick and professional, and we got chatting to 2 blokes off on the same trip (different date) in the visa queue and then ran into them in Shanghai!
I did hear that a couple on another tour booked late and only got theirs 2 weeks out and one of the visas only came through on the morning of the flight. I would not risk that, if I could.
Long flights were on a 787-9, make a big difference with the pressurisation. Both about 85-90 percent full.
@branners: Thanks very much. Just asking because I'm in Brisbane, and tour flights are from Sydney. So would need to arrange flights to get there too!
@mc85: Yep, that was the case with some people on my trip, had return flights to and from BRI and ADE to organise.
BTW, the baggage allowance for CE was 23kg outbound and 23kg X 2 inbound so that would need to be taken into account on a connecting domestic flight
Only date available is June 6 (for the china 10 day trip 50,000 points) , or am I doing it wrong?
It looks like that's all that's left,
For the vin rouge lovers, you could consider buying 4 dozen bottles of Chockstone Shiraz (RRP $25-28) or mix and match your way to 50K bonus points.
e.g. 12k points per dozen plus CC points (more if a Qantas wine member) for the Shiraz. Pay $1344 for the holiday and come home to 48 bottles of wine that you've paid a tad over $7 a bottle for. ($1344-$999/48)
how long do qantas wine points take to be credited ?
also https://wine.qantas.com/p/lets-travel-shiraz-and-cabernet-qu… + https://wine.qantas.com/p/lets-travel-red-premium-dozen/MIX2… is ~$1092 for 2 mixed cases for 50K points
Ordered qantas wine today. Call operator said 2-3 business days for most orders. But the official email message says "up to 5 weeks".
Update for anyone interested.
If you make your order via phone call, Qantas wine might give you extra points. I got an extra 4k points for my $400 wine order.
I ordered my wine on the 13th of March. By the 15th, I've obtained my manual bonus points from the phone call and the first order bonus points. By the 20th, I've obtained my normal points from the actual wine purchase.
Have now booked a Taiwan trip with all the points I've accumulated over some years of churning for a final bill of $10! Great deal.
Seems too good to be true. Doubt Qantas will ever provide this kind of cash value again in future, so get on it.
Thanks Signed up for the Vietnam trip, including the extra day trips and Hao Long Bay was 250,000 points for 2 people. It seems to worth it and looks like retail value of 2points per $ spent.
Feeling like booking a big one as have 1M plus points, but don't wanna do it alone. Need to find a company now.
Nothing for people with kids under 4
Holy cow…The Yellowstone Alaska deal involves an average of 500km + driving per day. Some legs 800+km..
650km trip straight off the plane to your first hotel… no thanks!
Just back from the China $999 trip (Beijing-Suzhou-Hangzhou-Shanghai). My experience is as follows:
Day 1: 12pm fly from Syd - Shanghai, then Shanghai - Beijing with China Eastern Airline (2 meals provided from Syd - Shanghai flight), arrived in Shanghai airport around 12am. Then transfer to hotel at around 2am.
Day 2: 10am meet up at Lobby, follow tour group to visit Tiananmen and Forbidden City. Probably because we arrived late last night, we skipped the pearl factory visit in the morning. Finished Forbidden City at around 2.30pm, managed to get the passport back from tour guide to visit around the Beijing city by ourselves. Took cap go back hotel at around 9pm (ordered cap using Didi within the Alipay apps).
Day 3: Started a bit early in the morning 8am, followed tour to visit jade factory, then lunch (included), then head to Great Wall. Given 2 hours free time there to climb the wall. Finished at 3pm something, then managed to leave the tour and travel around city again. Great Wall is a bit far from city, so we followed the tour group to the starting point of the optional tour (which is inside the city) and started to travel around by ourselves. Took cap back to hotel costed around 50-60 RMB, paid with Alipay.
Day 4: Morning visited the Chinse Herbs place until 1pm then got 1.5 hour lunch time in one of the busiest walking street (Jingfu Street). Then followed tour bus to Hangzhou, arrived hotel around 7 or 8pm.
Day 5: Free day in Hangzhou, travelled around the city by ourselves.
Day 6: Visited the Tea House as per tour schedule, then afternoon went to Westlake in Hangzhou to take a boat around the lake. This Westlake boat is about 30 minutes, nothing much to see. Unable to sneak off from the tour, because have to follow the tour bus to Suzhou in the afternoon, arrived hotel around 7pm. Managed to walk around nearby the hotel at night, and bought some cheap stuff from Walmart.
Day 7: Visited "part of the Lingering Garden" in the morning. Then as per the tour schedule, visited to the Silk factory. Didn't join the optional tour, so they put us in a shopping centre to eat lunch, then visit to the Brick Museum in the afternoon (because Shanghai museum is closed the next day so replace with this), then followed tour bus to Shanghai, around 8pm arrived at hotel.
Day 8: Followed tour to visit The Bund in the city in the morning, about an hour drive from hotel to city. Then we told the tour guide, once we arrived at The Bund, we will travel the city by ourselves. Tour guide is okay with that, he collected the gratuity fees from us before we left the group. The rest of the group followed the tour to candy shops, then optional tour to visit three places in the city. We explored around the city, then went back to The Bund and see the night view before taking cap back to hotel, which cost around 100RMB.
Day 9: Free day as well as we did not join the optional tour. Met at 3pm in the hotel for bus transfer to airport, fly at 8pm from Shanghai back to Sydney.
Day 10: Arrived Sydney around 11am.
FYI:
Passports - collected by tour guide to check in the hotel each time, so basically you can get your passport back the next day after each hotel check-in.
Alipay - is convenient (linked it to Wise digital credit card) to pay vendors, order cap, order food delivery; so I don't use any cash at all during my whole trip.
Gratuity fees - $12 per day per person, total paid for 8 days $96. $48 collect by first tour guide on day 4, who didn't follow the trip to Hangzhou. Another $48 collected by second tour guide on day 8 who took care of us from Hangzhou, Suzhou and Shanghai. Paid with AUD or RMB.
Tour guide - first tour guide is very organized, friendly and funny, easy to negotiate to leave the tour. Second tour guide is a bit of the opposite, without clear instructions on the next day meeting time, impatient when some elder group members have questions.
Tour members - mostly are elder group from 40-70 yrs old. Only 4 mid 20s youngsters in my group, 40 people in total in a bus.
Hotels - all 4 stars, and good rooms and services (cost around 450 RMB each night on trip.com) Beyond my expectations as I have lived in 3 stars hotels in China, these 4 stars hotels provided are really really good, big rooms, only issue is they are a bit far from the city, so each time take cap from city to hotel about 30-40 minutes. But taking caps cost about 50-70 RMB each way in Beijing, Hangzhou and Suzhou; cost 100 RMB in Shanghai. Buffet breakfast provided, foods just okay, coffee is not good. I prefer the Moccona coffee sticks I bring with me.
Optional tours - Didn't join any, so can't provide comment on this. But feedback from the tour members, the Golden Mask and Chinese Acrobatic shows are good. The rests are just not worth it, as they said "should have travelled around city like you guys" after the shows.
Hope this helps if anyone consider going the China trip. Personally I think it's worth the money especially if this is your first time to China, and the schedule is not that rush and you get 4 star hotels and flight included. As we spent all day travelled around during free days, so the days which we can't escape from the tour and on the bus we just rest up, so the next free day we have full energy to explore around.
thank you very much for the very clear review
The China trip looks appealing.