Are Qantas/Jetstar going to stop flying to Honolulu?

[Annuity]

I can book frequent flyer seats to Honolulu virtually any time up until August 31, 2008 but there are no Qantas/Jetstar seats available from September 2008 onwards. I could even book return seats for November 2007 but nothing after from September 2008.

The staff at Qantas have no answers. Does anyone know what is going on?

 

[simongr]

There are paid seats available. You are obviously up against th 355 day rule for award redemptions so the furthest forward of any flight you could book would be around 5 Oct 2008.

I just tried a booking and was offered 3/10 Sep 2008 on QF3.

 

[Standby]

Pretty simple answer .QF ff on JQI system range is less than the 365 days
on QF mainline systems.
I have noticed that JQ/DJ,who use a system common with LCCs world wide called Navitaire has a system tange of no greater than 330 days..sometimes less..its almost like they dont know their schedule and with the delay of the 787 which they were getting first thats probobly the case

 

[Annuity]

Thank you for your responses. Qantas/Jetstar claim FF seats are released up to 353 days in advance. Whilst there are numerous seats available up to and including August 31, 2008 there no seats available after September 1, 2008 which is as of today 316 days out.

The two Qantas seats mentioned for September 3/10 can only be accessed by Gold FF members but if booked there would be no return flights available.

Try booking a seat from Sydney to Honolulu in August 2008 and then try to book a seat in September or October 2008.

My question remains why can’t I book a FF seat for any day after August 31, 2008 whereas I can book Jetstar seats on virtually any day/flight up until August 31, 2008?

Why have Qantas/Jetstar stopped releasing seats from Sydney to Honolulu from September 1, 2008? I doubt that the 787 would be the answer and we are now well past the 330 days.

 

[NM]

Firstly, people on this forum do not work for QF or JQ and hence can only speculate as to the reasons they think may be affecting the availability you are seeing. Only people who work in the relevant yield management departments of QF and JQ can answer your question definitively and they are unlikely to do so in a public forum.

Note also that QF FF program terms and conditions state the following:

13.2.3 Award Flights must be booked between 353 days and 24 hours before the scheduled departure. Award Flight bookings will not be accepted within 24 hours of scheduled departure. However, some regional and overseas locations may require booking up to 14 days or more in advance to facilitate the issuing and mailing of Award Flight tickets. Minimum booking times for departure ports are available on the Qantas Frequent Flyer website at qantas.com via a link titled "What can you book online?" Information on other ports is available by calling Qantas reservations.

Award bookings on Japan Airlines domestic itineraries can only be made two months prior to departure from 9.30am Japan time.

This in now was states that all award availability will be loaded into the systems exactly 353 days ahead. It just says that you can make award bookings up to 353 days ahead - pending availability of course.

Qantas FF seats can be booked only after the airline has loaded the availability into the systems and made it available to QF FF. In most cases, this is 353 days out for QF flights, and tends to be 330 days out for most partner airlines. For the purpose of QFF program, JQ is a partner airline. Note the specific mention that JL domestic awards are not loaded until the 2 month mark. Again this does not say they will be loaded exactly two months out, but that they won't be loaded until after the two month mark has passed.

All you can do it keep looking. Its quite possible that JQ may be loading their award seat availability only once per month. But again this is pure speculation. Perhaps the person responsible for doing that task is on leave for a few weeks and will catch up when they return. There are lots of possible explanations - none of which are likely to be verified here.

Note also that the second half of September and the beginning of October is school holiday period (the dates vary from state to state and cover about a 4 weeks period across Australia). It is also possible that JQ expects they can sell all of their seats during the school holidays so will not be making any available for awards until closer to the travel date when the yield management dept has a better feel for demand from paying customers.

 

[Annuity]

Noted and thank you. I'll keep looking.

 

[maninblack]

First I agree with the comments above. As a frequent traveler to HNL I have kept an eye on the HNL route in recent times. There was some speculation that with the introduction of Jetstar, QF would drop HNL. I have actually spoken to some senior management at QF who assured me that for various reasons QF has no plans to dump HNL. (though the future is unwritten!)

With the rise of the $AUD v $USD and other factors Hawaii has been an increasingly popular destination for Australian holiday makers in recent times. I was told that HNL is slated (like many other destinations) to get new aircraft when they become available, just which one and when will depend on a number of factors as to whether it's 744, A330 or 787.

HNL is an historic port for Qantas and one of the airlines oldest continuous routes. The first regular service there began in 1954 with Super Connies. In 1959 they began the first scheduled jet service (of any airline) in HNL with their new 707-138's. Check out this great photo of VH-EBB on its inaugural flight at HNL. http://bp0.blogger.com/_UFxaDHXfzmo/RYRHGKJydSI/AAAAAAAAAAM/ebmzDRt26og/s1600-h/century014.jpg