Article: How I Make Qantas Reward Availability Work for Me

[kangarooflyer88]

I’m looking at this strategy now trying to get 2xJ rewards to the UK in the second half of October next year. SIN>LHR in early October has plenty of Finnair availibility so will probably be the go for the date range I am after. Of course there are no reward seats out of Oz to SIN but I might get lucky down the track.

Another thing to keep in mind with the UK and London specifically is they got quite a few international airports. Supposing you don’t mind “settling” for a less known airport like Gatwick or Manchester instead of the obvious Heathrow might yield additional results. For instance, Emirates flies to Gatwick (LGW) and Stanstead (STN) in addition to Heathrow (LHR). They also fly to Birmingham (BHX), Manchester (MAN), Newcastle (NCL), Glasgow (GLA) and Edinburgh (EDI). Qatar flies to similar destinations in the UK.

And look there might be some advantages here too. For instance it may be closer to your final destination in the UK. And immigration and security may not be as much of a mess as LHR can be at times. Certainly for my money I’d fly into LuCY (aka London City Airport) so I don’t have to deal with the bs of getting into London.

-RooFlyer88

 

[am0985]

Emirates first class has been a great way of burning QF points for me. Had to fly into BNE last time but it was worth it. Need to use the multi city tool too as searching normally often doesn't show up. SYD - CHC is a fun redemption, had also booked SIN - MEL but for April next year, have a feeling it'll be canned.

There's availability into BNE September 2025 for anyone interested with UK/EU availabilities for the leg to DXB too.

 

[kangarooflyer88]

But I doubt the OP could 'force' a reticketing such as you suggest.

Just to clarify I didn’t mean one could force airlines to reticket flights booked on separate frequent flyer programs. What I meant to say is you can make availability appear through creative routing and booking what is available on different frequent flyer programs. Yes you may have to spend more points but it would likely be way less than a Classic+ or Points+Pray redemption.

Emirates first class has been a great way of burning QF points for me. Had to fly into BNE last time but it was worth it. Need to use the multi city tool too as searching normally often doesn't show up. SYD - CHC is a fun redemption, had also booked SIN - MEL but for April next year, have a feeling it'll be canned.

The only issue with EK awards is the high carrier surcharge particularly to destinations like Europe. On the other hand the redemption could still be good value particularly if you are travelling in F.

 

[Mr H]

I think it's misleading to look at the value of domestic J awards unless you would have been willing to pay the cash price. QF J tix are exorbitant and like others here, I wouldn't even look at QF for domestic travel. I'd be comparing VA and coughstar for - both in Y - for BFOD. So when I look at value for a domestic QF saver award, I should judge it on the VA Y price, deduct the fees and taxes I'd be paying for the award ticket, then divide by the number of points used. I bet it would seldom look good unless it was a niche route to Woop Woop.

 

[bronros]

I'm a Bronze FF, my husband's Gold for life. In Sept last year we tried using FF points to get J seats on flights from MEL to Croatia, then return London to MEL. We were planning to travel Aug-Oct 2024. Could not find anything. Consulted (and paid) FF Concierge to find seats in J class for us going to Europe. Got recommendation to book MEL-KUL + KUL-CMB (Malaysia Airlines), CMB-CDG (Sri Lankan Air), CDG-ZGB (Air France). Husband & I managed to find return flights MAN-HKG + HKG-TPE (Cathay), TPE-MEL (China Air). We were delighted, promptly booked our first trip to Europe & UK together (recently retired) using FF points, all J class., woohoo!

Fast foward to March 2024, husband checked Qantas app - 4 of our 3 flights to Europe had DISAPPEARED!! To cut long story short, over a period of 8 days, I made 8 long phone calls to Qantas (Phillipines/Fiji) in a state of panic as all legs to Europe disappeared, no notification, no explanation. (Flights times had been changed numerous times, we'd accepted changes via email, but all our flights to Europe had been "cancelled" - however we still had the return flights booked.) The stress this caused us - banging our heads against the Qantas brick wall, trying to get someone to explain what, why and how this had happened (no luck), and can they reinstate our flights (finally got someone in Phillipine call centre who went above & beyond to help us). I only found out recently that the problem was with the MH booking process ... The relief was immense when we were booked on MEL-CMB + CMB-CDG (Sri Lankan Air), CDG-ZGB (Air France). Not once did anyone from Qantas call us with updates or an apology - I had to make all the calls. (The only good point was I always got through immediately every time I rang the Call Centre.)

I'm happy to say we had no further problems with our flights and very much enjoyed flying J class with Sri Lanka Air, Air France, Cathay & Air China. We had a 3 day stopover in Colombo, then travelled to Croatia (Zabreg, Dubrovnik, Split, Plitvice Lakes, Zadar, Pula, Umag), Italy (Asolo, Milan), France (Paris), Switzerland (Basel), France (Paris), UK (London, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Liverpool, Manchester). We travelled from northern Italy to Manchester by train (Eurail First Class passes) and did day trips by rail to Venice, Bern, Zurich, Chester, York, Hebden Bridge. We loved travelling by train and saved a lot using the Eurail passes. We finished our trip with a 4 day stopover in Hong Kong - handy for getting over jetlag!

Our very negative experience using Qantas FF points to book J class flights to Europe has almost put us off trying to earn FF points, the stress of trying to explain or get explanations from staff at the Call Centres was extremely frustrating due to language barriers, staff's lack of knowledge or understanding. To end on a positive, we loved flying with the partner airlines, especially Cathay, and enjoyed the stopovers in Colombo & Hong Kong. Flying home from Manchester also gave us the opportunity to explore that city and the surrounding towns, we were actually glad not to be flying home from London.

 

[clifford]

As intended: Frequent Flyers i.e. Platinum members get the redemptions they want, Gold have a half chance.

Sorry, but I'm not so sure you're correct here.

For a few days I've been looking for a J award to SIN, BKK, MNL, KUL and other places in Asia in May. What's available? You guessed, it's nada, except if you want to pay 3x points for Classic Plus.

But what's interesting is that VA and other airlines do have availability at the regular rates. So it seems that good old Qantas is pumping up Classic Plus availability at 3x points and denying availabitiy at the Classic level.

Who's surprised? Maybe I will stick with VA (but let's see what the ownership is in due course).

 

[Mr H]

Sorry, but I'm not so sure you're correct here.

For a few days I've been looking for a J award to SIN, BKK, MNL, KUL and other places in Asia in May. What's available? You guessed, it's nada, except if you want to pay 3x points for Classic Plus.

But what's interesting is that VA and other airlines do have availability at the regular rates. So it seems that good old Qantas is pumping up Classic Plus availability at 3x points and denying availabitiy at the Classic level.

Who's surprised? Maybe I will stick with VA (but let's see what the ownership is in due course).

Fair enough. I have never found useful J availability with Velocity.

 

[Bellthecat9]

Thanks for the article Matt.

As a QBR member I find the best use of QANTAS points to be on domestic routes especially to regional centres where I fly a lot as they can cost the king’s ransom if paying with cash and it can help with the cost of business travel especially in my circumstances and I’m happy with how I use them and it works for me.

At the end of the day people need to be savvy with how they use their points and have some flexibility and adaptability as well a strategy to make points work for them.they also need to realise that supply and demand plays a factor in this and with QANTAS flooding the market with a myriad of ways to earn points it increases demand for J and F seats exponentially and with its fleet being constrained as it is, this causes consternation especially among those who vent their spleen’s about not being able to get these seats without accepting the reality of the situation.

 

[Dmac59]

I can’t disagree with any of that.
And welcome to AFF @Bellthecat9