1 million points on Bronze, hardly able to redeem intl tickets

[jasonfungsing]

I have more than 1 million points with Q, with bronze status. Whenever I want to redeem points with international routes in mind, hardly able to successfully redeem one. I know seats release around one year ahead. But in reality, it's hard to make a decision 360 days in advance. When I have a travel destination in mind 3 or 4 months ahead, I login Q website, hardly see any availabilities.

Is anyone having the same experiences? Any tips? Or should I register QC to get better availabilities?

 

[goldenhorn]

You have to get creative with itineraries and be flexible with dates.

If you're short on time, check out these guys:

Award Flight Assist - Frequent Flyer Solutions

Award Flight Assist is an Australian award booking service that can help you to redeem your frequent flyer points for travel.

frequentflyer.com.au

I've used them to find bookings for me and the service was brilliant. I never would have thought of the options they came up with - all flying in J.

 

[mviy]

For NB availability on QF might show up closer to 310 days out if I recall what I’ve read on AFF correctly. Availability on partner airlines is released at different times.

If an eligible family member has status that may help for finding points seats. Also willingness to fly partner airlines and look at a little more indirect routes can help.

Looking only 3 or 4 months out would be a problem even with status. Also with NB status you’re at the back of the queue for upgrades.

 

[Hillbilly64]

I have brozne..and as above you need to be a bit creative if you want J awards And sometimes do multiple searches.

We are heading to USA next year...and I've been keeping an eye to see how far ahead I have to book 291-330 seems to be average

From what I have seen we will be
EK BNE-SIN
CX SIN-SFO (via HKG)
Then SFO to HNL
And virgin pointd home with Hawaiian I hope (as I don't want to fly Jetstar or stop in fiji
Lots of options via Tokyo too.

Seems us low level flyers can only get economy award flights direct and you need to route with others....I also found if I searched better luck breaking up my searhcs

If I tried BNE-SIN (stop over) then SIN-SFO I couldn't bring up the CX flight if I went SIN-SFO in a search on its own it came up

 

[jase05]

We are a bit like you Jason, our holidays are often spur of the moment depending on work. Even as a WP and now a SG I have trouble finding much only 3-4 months out. Plenty of award seats from Asia normally so I just find it easier to head to an Asian port on a cheap ticket and then go from there. CGK especially has good award availability normally and we have even got seats a few days out recently.

 

[kamchatsky]

Unfortunately unless you are QFF Gold status or above, you will have slim pickings of award seats. I was on the same boat as you until I became QFF Gold, and then I can see lots more award availability.

 

[jase05]

As SG for example I can see no J award seats from MEL or SYD to JFK in May at all yet using CGK there is availability nearly every day this week and for the rest of May with CX and EK with even some EK F still available this week. In May for the return journey there is good availability on CX, JL, EK and even QR. Having a quick look and Europe is similar

 

[Hillbilly64]

Thread jacking - but thanks never considered those options.

 

[Saltywings]

NB only see reward seats appear on QF's award calendar 297 days in advance. But yes, that doesn't have anything to do with your searches 3-4 months in advance.

I'm also NB and yeah, finding seats is a pain - but you'll find this isn't uncommon, especially if you're booking that 'soon'. As an aside, shoutouts to KF for being one of the rare exceptions to the rule.

I think it really depends on where you want to go. US and Europe are super difficult. Personally, I visit Japan quite regularly, and am almost always able to get J seats once I allow myself a little bit of flexibility. As others have said, rule #1: be flexible. Rule #2: see rule #1.

 

[blu]

I know seats release around one year ahead.

There are 11 million members, it's very competitve.
Maybe plan a trip like the following (it does not have to be RTW):

How to fly around the world in Business Class with Qantas Points

We show you how to redeem Qantas Points for round-the-world tickets in Business, by using Qantas' oneworld Classic Flight Rewards.

www.pointhacks.com.au

 

[knightfall88]

I have more than 1 million points with Q, with bronze status. Whenever I want to redeem points with international routes in mind, hardly able to successfully redeem one. I know seats release around one year ahead. But in reality, it's hard to make a decision 360 days in advance. When I have a travel destination in mind 3 or 4 months ahead, I login Q website, hardly see any availabilities.

Is anyone having the same experiences? Any tips? Or should I register QC to get better availabilities?

I know where you are coming from, I recently understood how horrible it is to book anything on Qantas.

Another poster mentioned this but partner airlines shouldn't have any restrictions on what flights you can see when you are bronze so check those out.

Also try using the JAL or BA search engine, you may find more flights which you can call up Qantas and ask about booking.

 

[Nerdnotgeek]

Im in a similar situation , I want to fly J , MEL to LAX with partner , sometime late next year. Would I be better off.. a) getting QC membership or b) Award Flight Assist ? Im guessing the second cant help much if seats arent available , but are more available to QC members ?

 

[Saltywings]

Im in a similar situation , I want to fly J , MEL to LAX with partner , sometime late next year. Would I be better off.. a) getting QC membership or b) Award Flight Assist ? Im guessing the second cant help much if seats arent available , but are more available to QC members ?

For something like MEL -> LAX, which is a very premium route, I would hazard a guess that QC would improve your chances only marginally, such that the money you'd spend on QC (presuming you can't derive much value out of it without improving your chances of an upgrade) would not be worth it.

 

[RichardMEL]

For MEL-LAX also consider options like FJ via NAN (they are bringing a new J class onto their 350's) or even TN via AKL as options, or CX via HKG. You may need to be creative. Other ideas could be to look to awards to SFO also and then just zip down from there.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

I have more than 1 million points with Q, with bronze status. Whenever I want to redeem points with international routes in mind, hardly able to successfully redeem one. I know seats release around one year ahead. But in reality, it's hard to make a decision 360 days in advance. When I have a travel destination in mind 3 or 4 months ahead, I login Q website, hardly see any availabilities.

Is anyone having the same experiences? Any tips? Or should I register QC to get better availabilities?

As other have said, you may need to get creative. The QF booking tool doesn't show all options.

To get to Europe, for example, you may wish to use the multi-city tool to fly Australia to Bali or Singapore on Qantas (or even jetstar) and then fly Emirates first from there, via Dubia, to your choice of European destination (or even the states).

Even getting Australia to Bali or Singapore you have options - for example you can fly via MEL, SYD, PER or BNE. And so on. (Other options to look at might be via Jakarta, or Manila.)

Just beware that the multi-city tool won't allow you to book more than two separate flight sectors on one day. So MEL-PER-SIN-DXB all on the same day might come up with an error. The call centre will book this for you waiving the fee.

 

[jasonfungsing]

Thanks for all the replies. As quite a few said, creative is most important(if I can reach GOLD).

Just wondering,
- Does QC get better availabilities?
- How can I search availability on partner airlines and book with QF points? For example, alternate routes for SYD-LAX can be CX SYD-HKG-LAX. In this case, how can I search the CX availability and book with my QF points?

 

[MEL_Traveller]

- How can I search availability on partner airlines and book with QF points? For example, alternate routes for SYD-LAX can be CX SYD-HKG-LAX. In this case, how can I search the CX availability and book with my QF points?

For free you can use a variety of tools... American Airlines, British Airways, Japan Airlines (the latter showing the best 'true' availability, without phantom results). you can also use Alaska Airlines for JAL availability ex Asia to USA. Qantas will show results for some airlines. I use a combination of all of those to find the flights I want, but use QF for Emirates availability.

CX is notoriously hard to find these days since they revamped their program. Many single sector flights simply aren't available, they have been 'marrried' with flights beyond hong kong (For example SYD-HKG won't show, but SYD-HKG-TPE will yield results).

While gold status is helpful, I wouldn't be going out of my way to get it just for availability. I can normally find something as a bronze using itineraries that are outside the normal SYD-LHR or SYD-LAX on QF.

 

[jasonfungsing]

For free you can use a variety of tools... American Airlines, British Airways, Japan Airlines (the latter showing the best 'true' availability, without phantom results). you can also use Alaska Airlines for JAL availability ex Asia to USA. Qantas will show results for some airlines. I use a combination of all of those to find the flights I want, but use QF for Emirates availability.

CX is notoriously hard to find these days since they revamped their program. Many single sector flights simply aren't available, they have been 'marrried' with flights beyond hong kong (For example SYD-HKG won't show, but SYD-HKG-TPE will yield results).

So if I understand it correctly, taking SYD-LAX as an example, I can go to CX website check for SYD-HKG and HKG-LAX. If both are available, I should then call Qantas Call Centre to book those two CX legs with QF points?

 

[p--and--t]

I have more than 1 million points with Q, with bronze status. Whenever I want to redeem points with international routes in mind, hardly able to successfully redeem one. I know seats release around one year ahead. But in reality, it's hard to make a decision 360 days in advance. When I have a travel destination in mind 3 or 4 months ahead, I login Q website, hardly see any availabilities.

Is anyone having the same experiences? Any tips? Or should I register QC to get better availabilities?

My partner and I are Bronze. I understand it can be daunting but don't give up - it can be done

We each flew last year on an 280K award redemption booking 6 months in advance. Our itinerary took us to Asia , Africa, Europe and USA in a RTW circuit on 5 airlines

I can only echo the advice given above be flexible and think out of the box

Have a good read of the wiki on AFF as there is a goldmine of advice and members are only too willing to help with suggestions if you get stuck.

https://www.australianfrequentflyer.com.au/community/threads/oneworld-award-140k-280k-420k-planning-the-definitive-thread.8228/

My tips to find availability is to :

• try using the oneworld planner for alternative routes for getting to your destinations
• register on the BA site and look for reward seats there - seems to be the most reliable
• be flexible with dates and allow slack in the timetable to move a day or two either side of your ideal dates
• think out of the box for alternative routes e.g. If you live in Melbourne and there are no seats to xx_ - look from Brisbane to xx_ and Perth to xx_ etc etc. You can always get a connecting domestic flight. Example - we needed to get travel Melbourne to Nairobi at the start of our trip but actually travelled Mel-Bne-Hkg-Doh-Nbo (roundabout but a few extra hours in the air being pampered in Business class)

 

[MEL_Traveller]

So if I understand it correctly, taking SYD-LAX as an example, I can go to CX website check for SYD-HKG and HKG-LAX. If both are available, I should then call Qantas Call Centre to book those two CX legs with QF points?

You may find it hard to find SYD-HKG by itself. Or HKG-LAX. But you might find SYD-LAX (via HKG). Individual sectors originating or terminating in HKG are becoming increasingly hard to find as they have been 'married' with other sectors continuing on. CX is doing this to protect revenue for pax seeking to just go to HKG.