Emirates awards booking under QF flight number?

[Mattg]

I've noticed that the Qantas website has stopped showing Emirates award flights with "EK" flight numbers on some routes to/from Australia, and is instead offering awards with "QF" flight numbers. Anyone know why?

FWIW, this isn't necessarily a bad thing. Especially if you're in Points Club



The QF website is still spitting out EK flight numbers on routes like DXB-CPT.

 

[Matt_01]

I noticed the same same thing on a couple of experimental bookings. On the first occasion I selected the the classic rewards and was taken to the points + pay page however the points and taxes were as per the classic reward. On another search when I selected the classic rewards option a pop up appeared indicating I would be on the EK flight no. on a third search flights were getting displayed as normal. I guess QF IT are fiddling around again.

 

[henrus]

I've noticed that the Qantas website has stopped showing Emirates award flights with "EK" flight numbers on some routes to/from Australia, and is instead offering awards with "QF" flight numbers. Anyone know why?

I think you actually need to select the flight first...

When you click on the classic award option it changes the flight number to EK415 and shows this message. It's obviously just a recent IT change that shows QF codeshares along with classic awards on the same line.

 

[henrus]

As a side note, there is a handful of classic awards that book with QF codes, Air Calin (BNE/MEL/SYD-NOU), Air Tahiti Nui (AKL-PPT, PPT-LAX) and Solomon Airlines (BNE-HIR).

 

[Mattg]

I think you actually need to select the flight first...

When you click on the classic award option it changes the flight number to EK415 and shows this message. It's obviously just a recent IT change that shows QF codeshares along with classic awards on the same line.

Ah, makes sense.

I wish Qantas would stop making changes like this to its website - it's just confusing. (Also, bring back the calendar which shows an overview of award availability across the whole month!)

 

[Amanad78]

Ah, makes sense.

I wish Qantas would stop making changes like this to its website - it's just confusing. (Also, bring back the calendar which shows an overview of award availability across the whole month!)

The calendar is still there but it only seems to come up after you search for points flights (flexible with dates), and the flights are displayed, then scroll down to the end of the list of available flights and click on the search for classic award flights button, then click on Dates at the top of the page. Then you will see the calendar.

That's roughly how it seems to work but that's just off the top of my head so I may have the process slightly wrong.

 

[Matt_01]

Ah, makes sense.

I wish Qantas would stop making changes like this to its website - it's just confusing. (Also, bring back the calendar which shows an overview of award availability across the whole month!)

Normally if you scroll to the bottom of the page there is a link to 'classic rewards' and if you click on that and the old calendar view will normally be displayed. I also posted earlier in the year if you search via the multi city booking tool and only have one sector the calendar view is often returned. 100% agree that QF should stop messing with the web site, it is just a skin on the under lying booking engine which is provided by Amadeus or Sabre (not sure which one or if their name has changed, there are a also couple of others) and not owned by QF. The re-skin is why some airline website look so similar to others. I am no expert however I once employed a developer that had worked for Amadeus, Sabre, CX and a few other airlines. He provided great insight as to how all this 'stuff' hangs together. Happy to provide more insight when we next catch up.

 

[serfty]

I was able to book today an EK Business award flight CHC to SYD, but only by using the classic awards portal.

It showed no availability under the QF codeshare:


But:

 

[Eija]

Seems to work properly from https://www.qantas.com/nz/en.html admittedly not QF8765

 

[SYD]

As a side note, there is a handful of classic awards that book with QF codes, Air Calin (BNE/MEL/SYD-NOU), Air Tahiti Nui (AKL-PPT, PPT-LAX) and Solomon Airlines (BNE-HIR).

Unfortunately FJ to/from NAN isn’t one of those and can be a trap for status PAX being turned away at the lounge if booked in whY…

At least EK code still gets you in the lounges (when we can travel again….).

 

[madrooster]

As a side note, there is a handful of classic awards that book with QF codes, Air Calin (BNE/MEL/SYD-NOU), Air Tahiti Nui (AKL-PPT, PPT-LAX) and Solomon Airlines (BNE-HIR).

There's LA too.

 

[henrus]

There's LA too.

Is that still the case?

Qantas indicate the classic awards are booked via an LA code now:


I had a look at AKL-SCL and SYD-SCL from Jan to Jun 2022 and couldn't find any classic awards on LA at all (with either QF or LA codes).

It is possible to book them as points plus pay under the QF code but then there's a lot of other airlines where that's possible (basically all the QF partners).

 

[madrooster]

Is that still the case?

Up until Australia's borders closing, yes. But now with the pandemic the whole QF/LA agreement for South America is a mess so I cannot be certain now.

 

[RichardMEL]

I suspect QF/LA would be very limited at best given LA's defection from OW so I wouldn't count on them for award seats....

 

[madrooster]

I suspect QF/LA would be very limited at best given LA's defection from OW so I wouldn't count on them for award seats....

It's limited because QF limits the space, not LA. When it is a blockspace codeshare, it's up to the codeshare carrier to determine how they wish to sell their block of seats. QF obviously opts to dish out some awards within their blockspace.