Classic Reward Seats - a thing of the past?

[robolb]

Hi All.

I'm coming out of my cave of the last three years and planning a few trips. (ex Syd)

I have a shed load of Qantas FF points and wondering the best way to use them.

Trip to Europe.
In looking for flights, I could not find any classic reward seats available over a 4 week sample period. (Feb 23)
Only points plus pay. (which don't seem to offer any benefit. about 50% of the ticket to be paid in cash and about 400 k points for the rest!)
I looked at a few sectors.

Trip to Bangkok.
Only marginally better.
I found one classic reward outbound, but nothing inbound.

Domestic Flights?
Lots available here.

So I guess I'll use up my points flying to remote places in Australia for the weekends........


Or am I missing a trick here?
Quite probably.

Seems a pity to 'burn' them on gift vouchers or something.
Kind of defeats the purpose in collecting them.

 

[serfty]

What cabin class are you looking for?

In any case when you bring the normal search up, then to filter out the points plus pay distraction, select "Reward Seats".



Another method is to use "multi city", even for just one city pair.

 

[SYD]

For premium long-haul, you still need to try and book as far out as possible. Even then, availability is scarce. Airlines are releasing less reward seats while they can charge a premium and there’s lot of pent up demand for what’s out there - so they’re been snapped up like chips and seagulls.

There are reports of QF releasing extra seats closer to departure but not sure if there’s any rhyme or rhythm to those.

 

[robolb]

What cabin class are you looking for?

In any case when you bring the normal search up, then to filter out the points plus pay distraction, select "Reward Seats".

View attachment 313905

Another method is to use "multi city", even for just one city pair.

OK, thanks. Just looking at Economy at this stage. (no premium seats either)
Interesting when I switch off points + play I see a reward seat outbound.
Then when I select reward seats on the filter. There are no seats at all.

I might try multi city.

 

[SYD]

OK, thanks. Just looking at Economy at this stage. (no premium seats either)
Interesting when I switch off points + play I see a reward seat outbound.
Then when I select reward seats on the filter. There are no seats at all.

I might try multi city.

I was just playing around looking at options between Oz and NZ (as an aside, there’s actually reasonable reward availability - even close in) but I started with the multi city to see what one or two stop options are out there and it would only give me one or two options. But the regular search engine actually gave me more combos for say SYD-MEL-NZ or SYD-BNE-NZ.

So pays to check both...

 

[Dr Ralph]

'Classic Reward Seats - a thing of the past?'

Nope. Keep looking. I have 3 return trips to the US already booked for 2023 and did one in Sept 2022.

You must start the process 1 year out.

 

[robolb]

'Classic Reward Seats - a thing of the past?'

Nope. Keep looking. I have 3 return trips to the US already booked for 2023 and did one in Sept 2022.

You must start the process 1 year out.

OK. Thanks.

 

[leeflyer]

'Classic Reward Seats - a thing of the past?'

Nope. Keep looking. I have 3 return trips to the US already booked for 2023 and did one in Sept 2022.

You must start the process 1 year out.

Robolb -
Here's a guide on the seat release dates - not sure who to credit for the image but it is on quite a number of forums.

 

[SYD]

Robolb -
Here's a guide on the seat release dates - not sure who to credit for the image but it is on quite a number of forums.
View attachment 313915

There’s an alphabetical list here also:

When do new reward seats come out? - Point Hacks

The early bird gets the worm. Here's how to get first dibs at reward seats.

www.pointhacks.com.au

The question at the moment is whether airlines are still following these across the board…?

 

[Guvner]

Maybe look to be a bit creative.
I was looking for MEL - FCO in July (peak season) just a few hours ago. I knew I was no chance.
I did a multi search MEL-SYD-SIN-DXB-FCO and quite a few options came up, including BA biz (SYD-SIN), 2 days in SIN and then EK First (SIN-DXB-FCO).
Do MEL-FCO via normal search and nothing comes up.

 

[robolb]

Robolb -
Here's a guide on the seat release dates - not sure who to credit for the image but it is on quite a number of forums.
View attachment 313915

Many thanks

 

[exLXCXFF]

Another option which works from time to time is Aus - Bengaluru (QF) - Europe (BA)

 

[RichardMEL]

As others have said the big "trick" you're missing is you're looking a month out (ie: Feb) and that's just not going to happen unless one is super lucky. loads are high, demand is high so it's really unlikely for seats to be released.

And as you noted, plenty of domestic availability you can see - so the notion that classic reward flights are a "thing of the past" is clearly not so.. Perhaps the classic rewards you're interested in miht be more difficult but of course you need to plan further out. I know it's very frustrating and you're in good company with MANY punters all vying for unicorn seats given the current high demand environment. It's really difficult but it's not totally hopeless.

(plus status helps, but that's a whole other issue)

good luck!

 

[kangarooflyer88]

Hi All.

I'm coming out of my cave of the last three years and planning a few trips. (ex Syd)

I have a shed load of Qantas FF points and wondering the best way to use them.

Congrats on accruing so many points. They will no doubt be put to good use on Classic Award flights. What I must warn you about with Qantas and for that matter any frequent flyer program when you're redeeming points is that this isn't WebJet. You can't simply type in an origin, destination and a date you want to fly and expect there to be classic awards available. Instead, you need to do a bit of digging to find the availability you want (more on that in a sec).

Trip to Europe.
In looking for flights, I could not find any classic reward seats available over a 4 week sample period. (Feb 23)
Only points plus pay. (which don't seem to offer any benefit. about 50% of the ticket to be paid in cash and about 400 k points for the rest!)
I looked at a few sectors.

Agree that flights to Europe are a bit more challenging to find Qantas business classic awards which quite frankly you would get the best value out of your points for. However, I do have a couple suggestions to consider that might improve your odds:

• Change the destination airport (Europe has tons of airports, many of which are served by QF Partner Emirates). Some destinations in Europe I have had success in the past include CDG, ZRH, MAN, GLA
• Force Qantas to Pick a Routing with known business class availability since the booking engine is idiotic and won't admit routings off the beaten track. For instance, you could book a multi-city like SYD > TPE on China Airlines, then take Emirates from TPE to Europe. A similar trick could work, routing yourself via the USA. It is true you will spend a bit more points than a more direct routing, but if it means it gets you to the destination you want, when you want to go there it can be worthwhile
• Find Business Classic Awards on a calendar view by doing a multi-city classic award search, inputting just one origin and destination

Trip to Bangkok.
Only marginally better.
I found one classic reward outbound, but nothing inbound.

This also might be a case where you need to engineer a routing to get your inbound. For instance a multi-city with BKK to KUL then maybe flying KUL out to Australia the following day. Again, a decent amount of research needs to be done to find these diamonds in the rough.

Domestic Flights?
Lots available here.

So I guess I'll use up my points flying to remote places in Australia for the weekends........

There's certainly some sweet spots for domestic flights. One thing I enjoy doing is upgrading a cheap red e-deal flight to business classic for very little. These upgrades can be confirmed online instantly (provided there is U, business classic award availability). For instance, did you know that you could fly business class on an A330 with lie flat seats between SYD and MEL, have access to the business lounge and business check-in, earn Qantas Points and status credits from the red e-deal ticket you bought all for just 10,900 points + the cost of the red e-deal fare?

In terms of domestic destinations within Australia, yes that's another good use of points. Travelling to Lord Howe Island (which normally is a $1,000+ flight) for 16,000 points + $180 in taxes and fees is a real bargain. I've also done flights to Longreach out of Brisbane for about the same number of points to visit the Qantas founders museum. Another sweet spot are classic awards with JetStar since they include free checked baggage and cost considerably fewer points and taxes & fees.

-RooFlyer88

 

[Princess Fiona]

They are there you just have to be extremely flexible and patient.

I just booked a J 318K One World Award today for April 23.
I found all of the flights on the QF website.

 

[ANstar]

There’s an alphabetical list here also:

When do new reward seats come out? - Point Hacks

The early bird gets the worm. Here's how to get first dibs at reward seats.

www.pointhacks.com.au

The question at the moment is whether airlines are still following these across the board…?

QF certainly aren't. They aren't releasing premium seats as far out as they used to.

 

[Spizz]

'Classic Reward Seats - a thing of the past?'

Nope. Keep looking. I have 3 return trips to the US already booked for 2023 and did one in Sept 2022.

You must start the process 1 year out.

I'm going to assume Fiji Airways as I have yet to spot any Qantas seats a year out to US in Premium classes.

 

[RichardMEL]

I'm going to assume Fiji Airways as I have yet to spot any Qantas seats a year out to US in Premium classes.

They're out there. look at a route like MEL-DFW (and v.v.) which may not come to front of mid. I got seats in J (reward) just normally (no special request) for Feb just a few months ago...

so things like BNE-LAX may also be an option (as well as FJ as noted).

 

[kangarooflyer88]

I'm going to assume Fiji Airways as I have yet to spot any Qantas seats a year out to US in Premium classes.

Nope! Here's one such example on QF for Feb 5:

 

[Dr Ralph]

I'm going to assume Fiji Airways as I have yet to spot any Qantas seats a year out to US in Premium classes.

Nope. Qantas, Cathay and JAL.