[1Million+points?!?] Can someone shed some light on this QFF issue?

[tzamz]

I'm also new to this forum - so wanted to test the water around whether the below is normal.

I have been a QF FF for about 4 years now and I thought I finally had enough points for an international business seat. It's advertised everywhere throughout the Qantas website that a business seat in zone 10 is approx 128,000 points.

Then comes time to book, and I expected some discrepancy and fluctuation around the points required, but not quite as many as I saw - business seats were going for over a million points for just one seat.

This is my first time using points to book anything, and I'm starting to feel like accruing points was a massive waste of my time if one business seat is this far out of reach.

I emailed Qantas FF about it over a month ago and still haven't heard a peep.

Can anyone shed some light on if this is normal?

 

[Ansett]

I'm also new to this forum - so wanted to test the water around whether the below is normal.

I have been a QF FF for about 4 years now and I thought I finally had enough points for an international business seat. It's advertised everywhere throughout the Qantas website that a business seat in zone 10 is approx 128,000 points.

Then comes time to book, and I expected some discrepancy and fluctuation around the points required, but not quite as many as I saw - business seats were going for over a million points for just one seat.

This is my first time using points to book anything, and I'm starting to feel like accruing points was a massive waste of my time if one business seat is this far out of reach.

I emailed Qantas FF about it over a month ago and still haven't heard a peep.

Can anyone shed some light on if this is normal?

What you are looking at is not classic rewards. Search for seats using Classic rewards. If you search a paid fare and then press see points then you are using what is basically an Any Seat Reward and they are a horrendously expensive use of points.

 

[equus]

The 128,000 points is a Classic Award - needs U class inventory. What you are seeing is the "show price in points" for a Points+Pay, which will price whatever inventory is available, normally valuing points at a little under 0.7cents per point - so 1million points means that cash fare was around $7,000.

Typically, the value is in searching Classic Awards - but the availability on the other hand is low....

 

[serfty]

When searching you need to be logged in to a Frequent Flyer account and and select the "Search Classic Flight Rewards" checkbox.

 

[tzamz]

The 128,000 points is a Classic Award - needs U class inventory. What you are seeing is the "show price in points" for a Points+Pay, which will price whatever inventory is available, normally valuing points at a little under 0.7cents per point - so 1million points means that cash fare was around $7,000.

Typically, the value is in searching Classic Awards - but the availability on the other hand is low....

Thank you - no one at Qantas was willing to actually go through that and help me!

 

[Ansett]

When searching for a flight click on the use points button as per below. It is also much better if you use flexible dates to search by.

 

[tzamz]

got it - thanks everyone. Amazing that a bloody customer service chat agent wasn't able to just tell me this at the time.

 

[mviy]

You do need to look quite a long way out generally especially for the most popular routes e.g. to LHR, LAX. Seats are not released on every day and they can get snapped up very quickly.

If you don't have status then there may not be much if anything left when it comes time for the seats to open up to you to select.

For the best chance be flexible as to when you fly and be prepared to fly outside peak times.

 

[Flying mermaid]

got it - thanks everyone. Amazing that a bloody customer service chat agent wasn't able to just tell me this at the time.

That's why you should hang around here. People here know much more than the chat agents and you will learn a lot about how to maximise value. Don't be scared to ask questions as people are very helpful. E.g. If you can't find what you are looking for, they can give you other routes/carriers to try.

 

[tzamz]

You do need to look quite a long way out generally especially for the most popular routes e.g. to LHR, LAX. Seats are not released on every day and they can get snapped up very quickly.

If you don't have status then there may not be much if anything left when it comes time for the seats to open up to you to select.

For the best chance be flexible as to when you fly and be prepared to fly outside peak times.

actually I am looking at end of July next year and I'm already seeing some flights I want to book so this has helped me immensely! Thank you so so much!

 

[tzamz]

That's why you should hang around here. People here know much more than the chat agents and you will learn a lot about how to maximise value. Don't be scared to ask questions as people are very helpful. E.g. If you can't find what you are looking for, they can give you other routes/carriers to try.

I'm totally going to do some exploring around here!

This was frustrating me because we were saving all our points for our honeymoon so I would have been devastated if we couldn't fly business! (for once in our lives!!)

 

[Guvner]

Congratulations on your engagement.

 

[Flying mermaid]

I'm totally going to do some exploring around here!

This was frustrating me because we were saving all our points for our honeymoon so I would have been devastated if we couldn't fly business! (for once in our lives!!)

Congratulations and hope all goes well. My daughter married at Easter and I used my points to book J awards for them for their honeymoon in Canada. They really enjoyed it!

 

[JohnM]

Best to start looking daily about 355 days ahead and be ready to pounce immediately you see something that will meet your needs.

 

[snabbu]

got it - thanks everyone. Amazing that a bloody customer service chat agent wasn't able to just tell me this at the time.

You'll get better, faster and sometimes more accurate service here at AFF than you will by calling QF.

 

[Simo]

The best thing I can say is book it sooner rather than later for award seats. Yes point plus pay is very heavy on points but generally you will be able to get a seat and use your points.

 

[ashleyn]

As JohnM and other have said, once you see the seats you want, grab them as they will dissappear very quickly.

 

[love_the_life]

And another piece of advice is to book one way as soon as it comes up as by the time the return flights are released the first leg flights are likely to have gone. You need to be a bit flexible with timing and routes as well.
Hope it all works out for you.

 

[Flying mermaid]

And another piece of advice is to book one way as soon as it comes up as by the time the return flights are released the first leg flights are likely to have gone. You need to be a bit flexible with timing and routes as well.
Hope it all works out for you.

and an extension to that, you can also grab the main sector and then add on a sector. E,g. I needed to book lax-Mel-cbr for my daughter and her husband. I wanted to grab lax-Mel the day it was released, but because of time zones, Mel-cbr wasn't released yet. So I booked lax-Mel and then a few days later phoned up and asked them to add on the Mel-cbr to that. It cost a few dollars extra, but then they had J all the way. At the worst I could even have paid for an economy flight from Mel-cbr, although I was fairly sure there would be j awards for a domestic sector that far in advance. The important thing was to grab the international j awards as soon as they appeared,

 

[amaroo]

If you book award seats via assistance (ie, phone) a decent TA can add future bookings (revenue/award) at will.