How I flew in Emirates' first class A380 suite for just $400

The title is very misleading. It should be 'How I flew for $400 and a lot of Qantas points that cost thousands to get (potentially)'. 

144,000 QF points is a *lot* of points. Putting 'just 144000 points' makes it seem like it's easy to get for most. 

While I enjoy any article about First class flying, this isn't anything new really. It's mostly about the cabin and service, which has been written about to death over the years. 

Perhaps the article should have been more focused on how to maximise and use QF miles in the best way with EK flights. 

He has just used points and paid taxes. Not sure what the fuss is, other than an ad for his company.

Is this an article or an advert?

is that 144k miles one way?  I'd rather use 160k miles on SQ plus $1200 tax for business class return to london.  That's 4 flights (40+ hrs) vs 1 flight.  Sure you don't get the bar or shower but you get a seat that is the same size as EK first (double the size of EK's abysmal business class) and inflight service on par with EK first.

clickbait...ausbt is usually a little more discrete when publishing 'news', can't imagine anyone using this site not being aware of using points for flights so seems unlikely it's going to get the advertiser any additional custom.

I don't see what all the fuss is about. If you don't like the article, don't read it. I don't think anybody here is Mr Hui's audience as we are all very cluey when it comes to points but be realistic, if you are smart about using your credit cards for the things you would usually do such as shopping and paying bills, and taking advantage of sign-up deals and Qantas Acquire then earning QFF points is easy. Anyway, it's not like any of us pay to read ABT but seems a lot of people are quick to criticise even though the site has so many great articles for free. I think some people are just a bit 'precious'.

Haven't used this company nor am I affiliated with it, but perhaps the cynics here should give him more credit. This just points out a simple example, that granted most of the core readers probably know how to get. However, I have used a similar company recently to get me an insane deal on a paid fare that cost a share over 4k for return paid J tickets to Europe with QF/CX/AY that accrued enough status credits for me to retain platinum and my partner to jump to Gold. I think the haul was over 700 from memory.  I tried to replicate the prices he got, could not do it. So perhaps his company can do things for business travellers who rack up a ton of points and who simply aren't as savvy when it comes to redeeming them. 

Hi - thanks for reading.

The trip was a bit of fun to get me to my travel conference, where I was speaking about loyalty rewards - so the stage was set to use my own rewards points to make the trip.

Nothing better than to book redemptions to fly Emirates First and Etihad First to make the point!

The purpose of this post was to showcase how you can maximise your reward points to pay for business trips (where availability matches your travel dates), and save on a large travel cost and have a good experience.

To travel more comfortably and without the burden of the costs of premium travel.

Lets face it - if cost was not an issue, no one would be flying economy, and you would fly more often to visit customers/suppliers/family and friends.

Hence the real power of accumulating points to fly.

It's also a bit misleading to suggest a classic award will earn status credits and frequent flyer points: "My EK415 flight – which can also be booked as Qantas flight QF8415, to ensure you earn a full serve of frequent flyer points and status credits – left Sydney at 6am."

I honestly thought he found a loophole in the FF system and exploited it, only costing him $400 but I was proven wrong.

"Or it can cost you $400.12, if you're smart enough to use Qantas Frequent Flyer points."

If you're smart enough to not spend 144 freaking miles on a one-way flight between Sydney and Dubai where as like elchriss0 said you can rather spend 160K flying J (not Y but still) with SQ all the way to and back from London.

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I wasn't smart enough to use 144k QF points... I only used 60k AA miles + US$85.60 to redeem a MEL-SYD-DXB ticket, Qantas first class. And AA doesn't partner with Emirates.

Well, when Etihad's A380s start flying to Australia I could remain silly enough to use 60k AA miles for Etihad's SYD-AUH flights, and below $100 again...

$400 is just too much spending for an award ticket.

Some persons, such as myself, would look at something like this as a once in a life time opportunity. In January, my wife and I are flying from Rome to Perth,  first class, A380 all the way, at a COST of 144000 and $500.00 each. I consider this fantasic value and it will be a most likely the only time we will get to fly first class. So we blow some points, its well worth it to us.

i think this would have been a better and more interesting article if the writer had some clever way of maximising the points as i think was indicated by one other person. i don't know of the writer, but the way the piece has been written does not tell us anything new.

title is missleading definatley. It should atleats say somthing about ff points