Help: Award flight to the US in July

[werdnum]

Hi folks,

I'm headed to Washington (DC) from the 10th to the 15th of July for a conference, and I'm hoping to use some of my 320k+ miles for an F award. My main objective in this is to get a flight on the QF A380 in F. I don't need a return flight as I'll be doing something else in the US and going onto Europe (hopefully in BA F or to LCY) later in the year.

I had a great routing on July 7 via HKG on QF127/CX888 to JFK (from which I could train/bus/fly up to IAD), but it disappeared before I managed to book it (I had to call because the booking engine was messing up, and I ended up putting it off for a day or two).

I've been looking, and the best I can find is QF1/BA217 via LHR on the 5th, but I'm hoping for something a few days later.

The tricky part seems to be getting an A380 flight out of Australia that goes in the right direction. QF flies A380s to HKG/SIN/LHR/LAX, and getting to the US basically means transiting in either LHR or HKG (SIN doesn't seem to have north america bound flights on OW).

Just wondering if anybody else has any brilliant ideas for a reasonable A380 routing to somewhere in the US with availability in F between about the 7th and the 10th of July (I can pick up a revenue seat for the short haul legs if necessary).

Otherwise I'll have to take the seat on the 5th. I'm only Gold so I'm assuming there's no chance of getting YM to release a seat.

Thanks a lot!

—Andrew

 

[Deleted member]

I haven't checked, but does your port of exit have any impact on the outcome? I.e Mel vs Syd ?



If it doesn't matter if you win or lose.......How come they keep score?

 

[UP4014]

July is peak season, next time you see a seat grab it.

Matt

 

[werdnum]

I haven't checked, but does your port of exit have any impact on the outcome? I.e Mel vs Syd ?

I've been checking flights ex MEL as well, but in theory the engine should pick up flights with connections from SYD.

 

[werdnum]

July is peak season, next time you see a seat grab it.

I'm curious, does anybody have any experience with later releases of F award seats? Am I better off snagging whatever I can get, compromising on the A380 or whatever and cutting my losses, or is a seat likely to open up on one of the flights I've already checked (and so I should hold out for that)? Quite happy to check every day until something opens up.

Thanks for the advice, I only wish I'd heard it a week ago.

 

[Limewood]

Am I better off snagging whatever I can get, compromising on the A380 or whatever and cutting my losses, or is a seat likely to open up on one of the flights I've already checked (and so I should hold out for that)?

We did that, had flights over to US but not back, joined up to Expert Flyer (as advised by members here on AFF) few weeks later they notified the 2 J seats, be it back via AKL, but have a number of US/OZ flight and dates in with them, if better come up direct back to OZ will jump on them.

 

[straitman]

I've been checking flights ex MEL as well, but in theory the engine should pick up flights with connections from SYD.

Theory and practice are often quite different on the Qantas booking engine.

I would manually look at all the options as you often will get a surprise.

 

[Alanslegal]

My main objective in this is to get a flight on the QF A380 in F.

Just be mindful that there could be equipment changes between time of booking to the actual flight. I still remember my first A380 flight back in May 2009, it was in J, SYD-LAX and I was checking pretty much daily to make sure the plane didn't change to a 744. Like your situation, mine was also to fly the A380.

Shame you aren't a WP otherwise I would think you might have a fighting chance of getting an award seat released. I am seeing quite a few "A" availability around the dates you need to travel, as well as some good "I" bucket numbers which means discounted J class seats are still available, hence J/F loads are pretty light at today's date, giving you a better chance of getting award seats released.