Are Qantas Frequent Fliers being penalised by One World Airlines

[Beasley]

I have been watching redemption availabilities from Spain to Australia over the past few months with the intention of booking business class seats for my wife and I in September 2019. Disturbingly, I have noticed a massive decline in the redemption opportunities in the past 8 weeks …… and I am beginning to wonder if Qantas Frequent Fliers are being penalised or restricted by other airlines in the One World group for Qantas not being an equal player?

Up until six weeks ago, there were plenty of redemption seats back to Australia on Emirates and Qatar but never any seats on Qantas. Now, Qatar and Emirates appear to have turned off their avails from their hubs in Dohar and Dubai to Australia … although there are plenty of avails from Spain to those hubs. A similar situation with Singapore and Kuala Lumpur with plenty of avails from Spain to those hubs but nothing ongoing to Australia.

I have also noticed some differences between award avails through the QFF website and what is showing to be available through BA, AAdvantage and Award Nexus. For example, through AAdvantage I could see QR redemptions from Dohar to Sydney but not available on QFF, plus yesterday I found QR flights from Barcelona to Singapore on the BA site and Award Nexus, but the same flights could not be seen on the QFF site. I also spoke to Qantas through the chat window and the operator said the leg was not available … which I know is completely incorrect because QFF redemptions on the same legs are available at a later time.

Booking redemption flights on previous holidays was never too difficult, especially I had done my homework and knew when the 11 month pre-flight window opened. But this year it has been extremely frustrating.

So, having the frustration of poor redemption options rattling around in my head for a few weeks, I am wondering if maybe this is an issue caused by Qantas? Maybe the other airlines in One World have become aware that Qantas offer very limited premium seat redemptions and they are no longer prepared to carry the load for Qantas Frequent Fliers.

Cathay Pacific is an example because they were previously very good for finding redemptions but they made a monumental change to their program earlier in the year and J has completely dried up and PE extremely limited. And in recent months both QR & EK have pulled in their award opportunities as described earlier.

Ultimately, we are continually bombarded by Qantas to participate in their frequent flier program …. but I feel they are now not delivering on the redemption promises which they promote.

 

[ellen10]

When trying to book my return flights from Spain to Australia, in October in J, there was no flight offerings. I had to do a booking via Singapore. When looking at a multi booking I could see availability but, although I could see QR flights via Doha to Australia I could not book them because of a married segment.
I read somewhere on AFF that QF are not offering any J returns to and from London at all, (not for me as a silver, maybe for higher status).
When I finally did my final booking over the phone the operator said she had 3 previous people looking for CX flights and she could not find anything available for them.

 

[Duffa]

Qantas is a dog of a FF program.
I only participate because banks are giving away silly amounts of bonus sign-up points for free or almost free.
I now have no expectation of EVER finding a QF premium flight but I do see enough One World availability to dissuade me from complete abandonment. e.g MEL - LON is showing plenty of J availability for next October

 

[TonyHancock]

I would say that Qantas Frequent Fliers are being penalised by QF for flying other Oneworld airlines.....although that is not directly related to the OP's comment. I agree with @Duffa QFF is a dog of a FF program - sadly, dependent upon travel patterns, there isn't a lot of choice for many.

 

[pyffii]

I was in the Picos Spain in July and got up tat 3.00am to book LIS-LHR-HND-SYD-MEL-NRT ( 2 x J seats ) all through Qantas and had no issues at all with availability...But then again I was lucky as the LIS-LHR had been available for 30 days before the long hauls became available and I was fussy with times as I wanted the 11.00am flight to London Heathrow.

 

[benjy]

I currently have ticketed HEL > (QR304) DOH x (QR904) MEL J seats on QR for May next year but need to change the dates to further in the year. Availability for the segments together for these sectors for any date has completely dried up.

I can see QR304 available for some days but QR904 is non existent. Guess will have to keep waiting and searching putting up with Qantas search engine

 

[Beasley]

I think I will book and secure the J seats from Barcelona through to Singapore on either EK or QR now and then take my chances at picking the onward awards seats through to MEL or SYD later in the year .... if and when they become available.

If worst comes to worst ...... I buy seats from Singapore to Australia.

 

[downgraded]

I would say that Qantas Frequent Fliers are being penalised by QF for flying other Oneworld airlines.....although that is not directly related to the OP's comment. I agree with @Duffa QFF is a dog of a FF program - sadly, dependent upon travel patterns, there isn't a lot of choice for many.

Just had a QFF survey that covered availability, QF tax etc and I ended up giving them very low ratings across most of their questions for the these very reasons. Becoming a worthless programme for me.

 

[jase05]

I don’t even bother wasting my time looking anymore. I find it much easier to get to make our own way to HKG and use our points from there. Normally plenty of reward flights available and plenty of availability for as late as next day

 

[cjd600]

My homework over 9+ months was showing up to 7 (!!!) J seats LHR-JFK on AA most days, at release date, and available for a while after.
Last month or two, its dried up to absolutely zero.

 

[ozbeachbabe]

I'm amazed that ppl still prefer to fly ex LHR or LGW and pay hundreds of dollars more in APD charges when they could fly ex Europe instead.

 

[downgraded]

I'm amazed that ppl still prefer to fly ex LHR or LGW and pay hundreds of dollars more in APD charges when they could fly ex Europe instead.

But when London's your destination....

 

[ozbeachbabe]

But when London's your destination....

Once you've finished whatever has brought you to London you still have to option of flying on a cheap ticket or using miles to fly ex UK to position somewhere in Europe then commence the return journey from there, particularly when travelling in premium cabins. It doesn't matter if you fly into LHR or LGW but definitely worth doing a comparison with eg SYD/LHR/SYD vs SYD/LHR-ZRH/SYD or similar.

 

[Duffa]

Once you've finished whatever has brought you to London you still have to option of flying on a cheap ticket or using miles to fly ex UK to position somewhere in Europe then commence the return journey from there, particularly when travelling in premium cabins. It doesn't matter if you fly into LHR or LGW but definitely worth doing a comparison with eg SYD/LHR/SYD vs SYD/LHR-ZRH/SYD or similar.

Exactly what I do! Always position to Europe or even Dublin to get back to Oz

 

[Mattg]

Ultimately, we are continually bombarded by Qantas to participate in their frequent flier program …. but I feel they are now not delivering on the redemption promises which they promote.

You're not wrong.

So many Aussies just blindly collect Qantas points when the reality is, there are so many better redemption options with Star Alliance and SkyTeam airlines. Why not vote with your feet?

I realise that doesn't help you with your upcoming trip, but in the long term I'd say you'd probably be better off earning elsewhere.

BTW, if you're ever stuck trying to find Oneworld award availability from Europe to Australia, don't forget about Royal Jordanian via Amman (to Bangkok, KL or Hong Kong). There are 2x business award seats almost every day.

 

[trippin_the_rift]

If airlines have no award availability, it generally means one of four things

1) There is no availability! Flight booked out in those fare classes, and revenue management is not willing to sell more seats to the FFP or other partners. This means the airline is successfully selling cash seats.

2) Availability to that partner (eg: BA giving award seats to QFF) is restricted, or QFF has exhausted their allocation or QFF pays less for award seats, and thus BA is turning the tap off to QFF.

3) Airline thinks you will pay cash for the seat. Different airlines/loyalty programs have varying models, but I assure you it's very real that airlines know when you have high propensity to book a cash seat versus use points.

4) Other commercial problems which may cause one or both parties to be restricting availability (eg: SQ and UA)

Ultimately all of this boils down to a few key questions.
i) Is Qantas Loyalty able to keep the 'premium cabin dream' alive for 10M+ members who, appear to have virtually unlimited numbers of points?
ii) Does Qantas Loyalty pay other airlines enough per seat to ensure there are higher numbers of award seats available for members?
iii) Would you receive better availability by moving the business to another FFP?

According to one of the latest QF reports I read - less than 30% of all points redemptions are made for flights. Whereas, 10 years ago, this figure was likely closer to 90%.

The FF game may look the same now as it did in the past, but it's different to what it was 10 years ago, 5 years ago, and heck - even 12 months ago.

I expect the industry to continue evolving, and that means the game of securing biz/first class seats to becoming increasingly more difficult for your average frequent flyer member.

The easiest solution? Switch to a non-sophisticated frequent flyer program. RJ is one as mentioned above.

 

[Pushka]

But when London's your destination....

Train.

 

[amaroo]

Status related issue? I've recently booked multiply F / J flights on a mixture of OW airlines to and from Euro using QFFP without issue.

 

[am0985]

Emirates aren't OW so I would be very surprised if they're coordinating things with the other OW airlines.

My personal (and maybe somewhat optimistic) theory is that maybe they have restricted availability times to 297 days prior similar to how Qantas have limited it to their non Gold/Platinum flyers - I assume they release similar availability to Emirates/OW partners as they do to Bronze/Silver members. Certainly Qantas higher status flyers wouldnt be expected to access Emirates/OW awards any better than Bronze/Silver.

Indeed there seems to be one solitary First award DXB to Sydney for one pax on 27th August for the first time in weeks, and this certainly wasnt there before as I've been checking. If they are doing this, then Aug availability may be poor anyway in line with Northern Hemisphere summer holidays.

297 days from today is the 29th August, so we will see if anything shows up for September 2019 in the next few weeks.

I don't think this is a unified strategy either way, as Perth availability for Emirates flights in first/business is quite good in late August, though nothing in September for First/Business I can see. Plenty for Economy. East Coast availability is very poor though.

 

[amaroo]

Maybe try some other options.... I can see availability right up to the end of Sept.