Was award seat availability through Qantas for Platinum tier and above 353 days out, ever a published benefit? The Qantas Frequent Flyer T&C's at 14.2.2 say otherwise (extract below). I always took it that there was, before looking at Qantas Frequent Flyer T&C's tonight, from reading many articles. However, there is very little if any reward availability this far out through Qantas at present. I have been looking the last couple of weeks, which differs to my recent experience of reward availability with Qantas in the last few years.
The Qantas website advertises a key benefit of Platinum is 'preferential access to classic flight reward seats', this is an ambiguous published benefit, what does it mean? You actually get bugger all points when flying with Qantas, even less with Qantas partners, so I am now wondering what the benefits/points, of being a Platinum Frequent Flyer with Qantas are? My Velocity Platinum membership offers way more points for flying, plus there is good availability of reward seats with Velocity partners. Maybe I need to move to another Oneworld partner?
T&C's extract;
14.2.2 Classic Flight Rewards must be booked between 353 days and 24 hours before the scheduled departure, unless booking on the Qantas website where Classic Flight Rewards may be booked up to two hours before the scheduled departure for domestic flights or up to four hours before the scheduled departure for international flights. However, some regional and overseas locations may require booking up to 14 days or more in advance to facilitate the issuing and mailing of Classic Flight Reward tickets. Minimum booking times for some departure ports apply. Information on other ports is available by calling Qantas. Partner airlines may also have minimum booking times.
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