Does Expert Flyer work to find Alaska awards on Qantas

[fn0]

I understand there are fewer award seats on Qantas flights for Alaska Mileage Plan members than there are for Qantas points holders, and if any award seats are left for Alaska members they are typically released later. Can Expert Flyer be used to find availability just for Alaska members, or does it only work for Qantas members and members of other existing OneWorld airline plans. Also is it possible to find out what routings are allowed other than by endless searching. Last year YVR-LAX-MEL was an allowed routing on AS/QF using Alaska Miles, but YVR-SFO-MEL on AS/QF was not using Alaska miles.

 

[Mattg]

Regarding the first part of your question, unfortunately no - Expert Flyer won't show you availability specifically for Alaska Mileage Plan members. The only way to check AS availability is via the Alaskan website or call centre.

Regarding allowable routings, these can be found in the Mileage Plan award charts - Mileage Plan airline miles award charts | Alaska Airlines. For Qantas, it's basically domestic Australia or Australia-North America only. You also can't use two airlines that are not Alaska Airlines in the same booking.

I suspect YVR-SFO-MEL wouldn't have been allowed because I don't think Alaska flies YVR-SFO direct (it's normally via SEA or PDX). Or, it could be that there was no award availability on that routing.

Of course, this all could change once Alaska Airlines joins Oneworld. I suspect the award charts may be devalued, but at the same time you should be able to use Alaskan miles to travel on any flight operated by a Oneworld airline and the availability should be the same for all Oneworld partners - meaning the JL website could become another good place to search for award availability.

 

[DC3]

I understand there are fewer award seats on Qantas flights for Alaska Mileage Plan members than there are for Qantas points holders, and if any award seats are left for Alaska members they are typically released later. Can Expert Flyer be used to find availability just for Alaska members, or does it only work for Qantas members and members of other existing OneWorld airline plans. Also is it possible to find out what routings are allowed other than by endless searching. Last year YVR-LAX-MEL was an allowed routing on AS/QF using Alaska Miles, but YVR-SFO-MEL on AS/QF was not using Alaska miles.

Airlines will naturally look after their own frequent flyer scheme members first and are under no obligation to release seats to partner airlines as they do with their own members. On some flights there may be no seats released to partners.

My experience is with AA and QF availability, where EF will show availability when released by the airline for it’s own ff scheme. AA award availability is not necessarily reflected on the QF website (or seen by the Call Centre) for example. I have no experience with AS.

I don’t know if there is an easy solution to your other matter of routing. You may need to contact EF, whom I have found to be very responsive in answering enquires via their web contact form.

 

[KVS]

The only way to check AS availability is via the Alaskan website or call centre.

It can also be checked via the [Awards/AS-MultiAliance] Method in the KVS Tool.

 

[Mattg]

It can also be checked via the [Awards/AS-MultiAliance] Method in the KVS Tool.

That gets its data from the Alaska Airlines website, right?

 

[KVS]

That gets its data from the Alaska Airlines website, right?

Yes, as there is only one possible source for the data in question.