First / Business award availability - London flights

[Cheatah]

Hi all - I've been trying without success to find a J or F award seat on the new London flights - QF1/2 or QF9/10.

I havent been able to find any F/J award seat - in either direction - from September this year to February 2019.

Has anybody seen any availability in the premium cabins since the new flights were announced? Has anybody successfully redeemed an award?

Not sure if I should give up or be patient!

 

[Matt_01]

What is your status level.

 

[TomVexille]

You're likely too late. There's availability on partners like CX, EK, and BA

 

[Matt_01]

There may be some available this was posted earlier today by another member

Wiki - QFF Platinum requesting release of extra Classic award seats?

 

[jinks485]

Sadly no award seats are being released on QF9/10.

 

[Cheatah]

Thanks all. I'm a mere bronze on QF however I've also been looking at availability via the BA site(I'm a silver) and AA(platinum).

I'm curious if there is a QF policy of no award seats on these flights, except by request from a QF platinum? Has anybody been able to redeem in J or F on these flights?

Does QF distinguish in award seat offerings to oneworld partners based on membership tier ? I would have thought all BA members have access to the same QF seats - regardless if they are a BA Bronze, Silver or Gold? Thoughts?

 

[BD1959]

Hi drb1979,

Premium seats on QF between Oz and the UK were a rarity prior to the reduction in capacity with the rescheduling of QF9 via PER and the 787 - though jinks485's assertion that QF release NO award seats on QF9/10 is a new one on me. Even previously, it's usually been a recommendation to book premium award on these routes as close to 355 days out as possible. Last Oct I was looking myself and could only get J award on QF/CX via HKG to MAN outbound (and even then using Plat to open MEL/HKG direct) and EK/QF BHX-DXB-BKK-SYD-MEL back.

There *is* still limited premium Award - but very, very limited. eg MEL-SIN-LHR on QF/BA a couple of days in Oct and Nov outbound and return.
Calling QFF may provide non-online availability (eg MH) otherwise you may find better options via various obscure routes or wait for partners such as BA or EK to open up award very close to travel.

Re the question of QF making award available to partners, there is anecdotal evidence on this forum that QF WP/SG see some award earlier than non-elites (with apologies to PS,NB for this term) so it would not surprise me in the least that this is seen - and snapped-up - long before it is released to OW/Partners.

The golden rule on any QF award redemption is to dummy book for patterns on the city pairing prior to the 355 opening, be as flexible as possible on carriers/routes and book as early as possible - and then flash the WP card to potentially open award seats if what you have is not available online!!

Regards,

BD

 

[Per_Travels]

QF released some seats in J for me on QF9 (PER - LHR) flying out early April next year (I requested three different dates and they all came back approved). This was at about 350 days out as a WP1. However the return flights are proving trickier with QF being unwilling to release seats on QF10 or the QF2/72 combination. I'd guess this is due to us flying to the UK a week before the school holidays start and wanting to fly back on the last weekend of the holidays - but who really knows how QF manage these things.

 

[TomVexille]

Thanks all. I'm a mere bronze on QF however I've also been looking at availability via the BA site(I'm a silver) and AA(platinum).

I'm curious if there is a QF policy of no award seats on these flights, except by request from a QF platinum? Has anybody been able to redeem in J or F on these flights?

Does QF distinguish in award seat offerings to oneworld partners based on membership tier ? I would have thought all BA members have access to the same QF seats - regardless if they are a BA Bronze, Silver or Gold? Thoughts?

As I understand it, airlines often release more seats to their own members than partner airline programs. Not sure if QF do. However QF do release more seats to their status members. So a QF WP sees more than a bronze, who I suspect sees the same availability as any status BA or AA member.

 

[amaroo]

I'm a QF Platinum member of some considerable years and have noticed the tightening of releasing F seats recently ..... do what I do, fly up to Japan and jump on one of those beautiful JL birds in F, and come back in style with CX F. yes, the first and last sectors will be in J, but as most say, that's not far off what QF F offers anyway.

 

[ramboflyer]

I'm looking at return flights from London next August (2 in J) and have been using Award Nexus for a few weeks. Getting flights from LHR to DXB and DOH seems the easy part but from those 2 stopovers back to SYD or MEL it gets much harder.

Searching in Award nexus for oneworld (QF) brings up a couple of likely options. Here is one:

QR 816
Depart:DOH @ 07:25 (Aug 18)
Arrive:HKG @ 20:35 (Aug 18)8.2 hour flight
2 x QF Business award
3.3 hours layover

CX 101
Depart:HKG @ 23:55 (Aug 18)
Arrive:SYD @ 10:50 (Aug 19)8.9 hour flight
2 x QF Business award

but there is an * against this that says "Oneworld (QF) occasional returns inaccurate information on CX flights. Please search with Oneworld (BA) for availability for the segments operated by CX".

So I ran the same search using oneworld (BA) and came up with the same flights plus several more appealing options, all through HKG. The problem, of course is that none of those flights appear on the QF booking site.

Is it worth ringing the QF booking to ask if they can see those flights + the others that show up on the oneworld (BA) search? I only have Bronze status so don't want to call unless I think I might achieve something given the long wait times.

I'm aware that there may be other options when EK and JL award seats become available but I want to cover all the bases in case I miss out on those seats.

 

[Matt_01]

@ramboflyer you may have to call QF and I understand you concerns around potential long hold times. I have noticed recently that there seems to be a decline in OW award flights and also EK redemptions on the QF site and most rewards are for QF only.

I am also looking for return J or F seats for next year and and getting a number of options on MU although this is not preferred option it may work. It is just a suggestion but since QF "ditched the desert" and returned to SIN there seems to be less rewards flights to/from EU via EK and increased availability with BA and their cr@!!y product. Maybe QF are renewing their friendship with BA and MU is the new non OW partner of choice.

I understand QF is an original member of OW and I often wonder why redemption flight seems to be easy and cheaper with other OW carriers and QF just makes it hard.

 

[ramboflyer]

@ramboflyer you may have to call QF and I understand you concerns around potential long hold times. I have noticed recently that there seems to be a decline in OW award flights and also EK redemptions on the QF site and most rewards are for QF only.

I am also looking for return J or F seats for next year and and getting a number of options on MU although this is not preferred option it may work. It is just a suggestion but since QF "ditched the desert" and returned to SIN there seems to be less rewards flights to/from EU via EK and increased availability with BA and their cr@!!y product. Maybe QF are renewing their friendship with BA and MU is the new non OW partner of choice.

I understand QF is an original member of OW and I often wonder why redemption flight seems to be easy and cheaper with other OW carriers and QF just makes it hard.

Yes, I could book MU right now and have several excellent timing choices but there is a question mark over flying on an unknown (to me) carrier. I have read some bad reviews regarding service.

BA options from London to several airports is pretty good but the fees and taxes are huge. You also have to factor in paying for your seats in J.

I've given up trying to get J seats on QF - it's just way too hard. I would be more than happy to snag seats on CX but they seem to be getting harder as well. I had no trouble booking EK to Spain for this trip and would love to try out QR if possible.

 

[rock86]

Yes, I could book MU right now and have several excellent timing choices but there is a question mark over flying on an unknown (to me) carrier. I have read some bad reviews regarding service.

BA options from London to several airports is pretty good but the fees and taxes are huge. You also have to factor in paying for your seats in J.

I've given up trying to get J seats on QF - it's just way too hard. I would be more than happy to snag seats on CX but they seem to be getting harder as well. I had no trouble booking EK to Spain for this trip and would love to try out QR if possible.

I think you've got just about buckley's getting QR rewards to/from Australia (if they're even releasing them anymore), they are like hens teeth and seem even harder to snag then QF premium awards.

For me, I'm a fairly new entrant to premium travel redemption's with no where near the experience of a lot on this forum in travelling on various different airlines products. So, although MU may not be near some other carriers premium classes, it'd surely still have to be a lot better then flying any other carrier in Y long haul

 

[Aus ATC]

Agree - very poor options for One World at the moment. I'm part way through booking our One World Award for next year. We can get QF to SIN or HKG, but not beyond - so BA it is (plenty of availability here). Returning in October and hoping some CX availability shows up, but not too confident.....

 

[ramboflyer]

I'm looking at return flights from London next August (2 in J) and have been using Award Nexus for a few weeks. Getting flights from LHR to DXB and DOH seems the easy part but from those 2 stopovers back to SYD or MEL it gets much harder.

Searching in Award nexus for oneworld (QF) brings up a couple of likely options. Here is one:

QR 816
Depart:DOH @ 07:25 (Aug 18)
Arrive:HKG @ 20:35 (Aug 18)8.2 hour flight
2 x QF Business award
3.3 hours layover

CX 101
Depart:HKG @ 23:55 (Aug 18)
Arrive:SYD @ 10:50 (Aug 19)8.9 hour flight
2 x QF Business award

but there is an * against this that says "Oneworld (QF) occasional returns inaccurate information on CX flights. Please search with Oneworld (BA) for availability for the segments operated by CX".

So I ran the same search using oneworld (BA) and came up with the same flights plus several more appealing options, all through HKG. The problem, of course is that none of those flights appear on the QF booking site.

Is it worth ringing the QF booking to ask if they can see those flights + the others that show up on the oneworld (BA) search? I only have Bronze status so don't want to call unless I think I might achieve something given the long wait times.

I'm aware that there may be other options when EK and JL award seats become available but I want to cover all the bases in case I miss out on those seats.

I did contact the QF call centre by live chat (thanks heaps to the AFF'er who posted that link, I only waited about 10 minutes) and yes, the 2 flights above were there to be booked even though they didn't appear on the QF booking site. Given recent Typhoon activity in the Hong Kong area though, I decided to wait (booking for August 2019).

Yesterday morning there was no options for 2 J seats from DXB or DOH to SYD or MEL but after lunch I checked again and there were 2 J seats with EK for our dates in August 2019. Getting from LHR to DXB was no problem but no choice other than BA.

What was interesting with the EK availability was that they are released 330 days out. It seems that is not the case as if they were, my flights would have not been available until this weekend coming

 

[shorttd]

Being SG for a few years I managed to get a one way SYD-LON or vice versa in July/Aug each year, mostly on Emirates, once on Qatar in business for 2.

Having been demoted to Silver, when I look now, I can't see any business flights via the QF website except on China Eastern. Not one Emirates, never mind QF flight. Is it just me or have they really cut all of the reward flights on Emirates in particular?

I'm trying to find LON-SYD in July/Aug 2019 for 2 people. Am I looking too early or too late? Any advice appreciated.

 

[Aus ATC]

Being SG for a few years I managed to get a one way SYD-LON or vice versa in July/Aug each year, mostly on Emirates, once on Qatar in business for 2.

Having been demoted to Silver, when I look now, I can't see any business flights via the QF website except on China Eastern. Not one Emirates, never mind QF flight. Is it just me or have they really cut all of the reward flights on Emirates in particular?

I'm trying to find LON-SYD in July/Aug 2019 for 2 people. Am I looking too early or too late? Any advice appreciated.

Have you tried a multi-city booking LON - xx_ followed by xx_ - SYD? Though I did read somewhere that silver and below searching (for J) is limited to 308 days, so maybe that is a factor too.

 

[Limewood]

Commence award flights in HKG or SIN the world is your oyster, been doing just that for years and the fees are a pittance compared to QF. Recently had cheap Y QF fare to HKG then we received PE upgrade for the daylight flight. Then in our case next day HKG/JFK/HKG in J on CX was about 380K in QFF points (for two) and $192 in fees and charges.

 

[ramboflyer]

I'm pretty sure it's only QF that release award seats 308 days out for less than silver. There are other options which you have a much better chance of getting seats. I booked 2 J seats on EK from DXB to SYD on 18/9 for 17/8/19. It looked like I got the only 2 award seats on that flight because looking later that day there was no award availabilty. At the time there looked like there were other days with J seats but looking just now there are none at all for around that month so i assume they have been snapped up.
Have you tried JL through Tokyo?