Aaah, the joys of online QFF award bookings

[dajop]

Just love it!

1) SIN-HKG (just checking to see if could a get a CX flight) No CX availability but, I could redeem an award SIN-MEL-BNE-HKG. Can confirm CX still not being shown online, as later checked via telephone and wide open on all flights.

2) MEL-LHR. No availablity at all on or near my chosen date. However piece together MEL-SYD and SYD-LHR it was fine. SYD-LHR was actually SYD-BKK (BA)-LHR(QF), so I assume the system not smart enough to piece together QF->BA->QF. Also noted availability in Y+ and F on QF through service (QF31 IIRC), but without Y+ or F on the short domestic sector it does not pick these up.

Just a reminder that sometimes need to think of all possible combinations before giving up!

 

[JohnK]

Yes one learns the quirks in the QFF award booking engine when booking Oneworld Awards. Look for all possible combinations you are aware of before finalising an itinerary.

A classic example was finding availability YYZ-ATH on a certain date. The YYZ-LHR flights had no availability so I was not shown any other alternatives as the award booking engine would only look at direct connections to JFK, ORD and then show flights to LHR and then ATH from there.

After searching possible flights from USA to LHR I found availability from IAD-LHR so I separated the booking to YYZ-ORD-STL-IAD and then IAD-LHR and then LHR-ATH. So where I could not get YYZ-ATH originally I managed to find it although it is admittedly the long way but we had to leave that day instead of wasting another night in YYZ.

 

[Geejun]

I have a friend that works at Qantas corporate and he said that it is a little bit of a scam. You get 1/5 of the flights online compared to the flights they can get on their system. But the real scam is you pay a "consultant" $60 for the privilege of booking your flight face to face or $25 over the phone.