QF early-2017 award availability - restricted to elite status holders?

[Doctore1003]

This is to carry on the recent discussion in the Oneworld Award thread about whether there has been a change in the way QF is managing visibility of / access to international J award seats on its own flights. Recent experiences suggest a big difference in the visibility of J award seats in Feb 2017 depending on your status, with lots available for gold but almost nothing for bronze.

Would be very interested in other people's experiences and opinions on whether this is a glitch or temporary measure, or if it suggests a new approach by QF in how it manages J awards in relation to customer status.

It's been noticed there is a much starker shift in availability for Feb 17 compared to what we are used to, and the question is whether there has been a change of policy.

 

[trippin_the_rift]

Far as I'm aware there has ALWAYS been greater inventory access for Gold and above.
And to be frank - I think its a good thing

 

[Doctore1003]

i think what's been noticed is a much starker shift in availability for next Feb compared to what we are used to, and the question is whether there has been a change of policy.

 

[trippin_the_rift]

Far as I'm aware there has ALWAYS been greater inventory access for Gold and above.
And to be frank - I think its a good thing

And while I don't know the inner workings of the QF system - other Oneworld airlines have more sophisticated ways to track loyalty whereby you will see greater levels of inventory availability based on either one of two metrics

1) You have mid tier level status or higher (ie: gold)
2) You have generated more than $xx_xx in revenue for the airline/ffp (eg: you may be base level but you've sent 5million CC miles into the program this year)

Moving forward from an alliance perspective I expect Oneworld DRD will be updated to reflect differentiated award pricing which will allow for greater flexibility and enhanced profitability for all carriers; while genuinely protecting the premium customers who maintain top status/send millions of miles into the program

 

[BD1959]

As posted elsewhere, I've done side-by-side searches for myself (WP) and Mrs BD (NB) with no variance in results ... was almost disappointed when I hit WP that there was no discernible benefit.

Doctore1003: care to throw some dates/routes and I'll again see whether there's a difference in search results.

Regards,

BD

 

[Doctore1003]

As posted elsewhere, I've done side-by-side searches for myself (WP) and Mrs BD (NB) with no variance in results ... was almost disappointed when I hit WP that there was no discernible benefit.

Doctore1003: care to throw some dates/routes and I'll again see whether there's a difference in search results.

Regards,

BD

Hi BD, thanks. Two routes are SIN-BNE and MEL-SIN next February. No Qantas J award availability at all if you are NB (there are a couple of EK options). Someone who was Gold said they saw a lot of QF J options.

 

[BD1959]

Hi BD, thanks. Two routes are SIN-BNE and MEL-SIN next February. No Qantas J award availability at all if you are NB (there are a couple of EK options). Someone who was Gold said they saw a lot of QF J options.

Hi Doctore1003,

I eat my words!!

My WP search is showing lots of QF J (including QF52 on the 14th and 15th Feb, lots of options via QF6 too) whereas Mrs BD is only seeing EK at the beginning and end of the month.

That "someone who was Gold" wouldn't happen to be a relative who could book for you?

Regards,

 

[Doctore1003]

Hi Doctore1003,

I eat my words!!

My WP search is showing lots of QF J (including QF52 on the 14th and 15th Feb, lots of options via QF6 too) whereas Mrs BD is only seeing EK at the beginning and end of the month.

That "someone who was Gold" wouldn't happen to be a relative who could book for you?

Regards,

Thanks BD! I'm actually a couple of months away from booking still so will have to figure out a way by then.

I'm really interested to know if this marks a shift in QF policy about how it manages the release of award seats.

I actually agree with trippin_the_rift that it's a good thing elite members have preferential access. I'll be gold by the end of this year myself.

 

[BD1959]

Here's the detail of differences.

Mrs BD (Bronze):



Me (Platinum):



Regards,

BD

 

[Coley]

Here's the detail of differences.

Mrs BD (Bronze):


Me (Platinum):

Regards,

BD

BD if you click into those couple of dates that are available (using bronze QFF) you'll see that they are partner airline flights, not QF.

Doing my own investigation (of around 10 routes so far), I have found that there is no QF J availability on any international sector in 2017.

 

[BD1959]

BD if you click into those couple of dates that are available (using bronze QFF) you'll see that they are partner airline flights, not QF.

As noted in my response in post #7.

Regards,

BD

 

[Coley]

Seems like there may have been a policy change in award flight availability. There were plenty of available flights in 2017 on a lot of different routes on Thursday however over the weekend they just vanished. Not sure if it is a coincidence that it was at around the same time that point upgrades were announced. I have been monitoring routes intensely as I have a couple of 280k OW redemptions coming up.

I find it quite concerning that there is literally no QF J availability on any international sector in 2017 for Bronze QFF.

 

[sanne]

Here's the detail of differences.

Mrs BD (Bronze):

View attachment 66553

Me (Platinum):

View attachment 66554

Regards,

BD

I am the 'Gold" poster from the other post. I can see what Platinum is seeing.

 

[drron]

In past years there has been very little difference in QF J awards when using mrsdrron's WP account or my NB or PS account.I get the same results as above now for Feb 17 SIN-BNE WP v PS.

 

[Doctore1003]

Thanks for the info. Would be interested to hear if anyone has noticed similar changes on USA routes or other Asian / EU routes.

 

[muppet]

..... <snip>

I actually agree with trippin_the_rift that it's a good thing elite members have preferential access. I'll be gold by the end of this year myself. </snip>

I disagree. As a WP I benefit but it's quite unfair to issues billions of points to non status holders and offering them no meaningful opportunity to redeem them. (We all know Y awards are no better than paying cash)

The current system of offering WP (and SG if they want to) access to more seats if there's plenty of seats works fine.

It's probably also blocking access to OW partners - then it's a slippery slope - QF have already devalued points earning and status earning with OW partners - we could lose OW benefits when other carriers follow QFs lead.

 

[N860CR]

Interesting. I'm down to Q club NB now that I fly TG or SQ. Had no issues booking SYD-JNB-SYD for next January

 

[drron]

Just following up.Using mrsdrron's QF WP account classic J awards to SIN available most days on QF BNE,SYD,MEL- SIN last week of Jan 2017 and first few days of Feb.
Using my AA account absolutely no availability on the QF flights.Used to see at least some.
Looks like OW is not high on the QF agenda.

 

[andye]

Maybe they are 'automating' the WP request to release seats-would be interesting to see if that gets more difficult

 

[exceladdict]

I wonder if this is just a deliberate online exclusion or bug (like the suspected prior QR J invisibility) vs an actual policy change (i.e. calling up might reveal additional seats).

Anyone with EF or similar care to compare?