How To Search For oneworld Award Availability

[anat0l]

Hkg->Mel->Bne works

Fair bit of backtracking though

If there was availability on the route it would work...

 

[Limewood]

Hkg->Mel->Bne works

Fair bit of backtracking though

2 Pax? where?

 

[baggyred]

2 Pax? where?

Sorry only saw this

CX105 shows 3 J seats available. Departs 00:10 on 26 June Arrives 11.20AM

QF 618 departing Melbourne for Brisbane at 13.05

There is later availability at 5pm ish as well.

Found all this on the BA tool

 

[anat0l]

Sorry only saw this

CX105 shows 3 J seats available. Departs 00:10 on 26 June Arrives 11.20AM

QF 618 departing Melbourne for Brisbane at 13.05

There is later availability at 5pm ish as well.

Found all this on the BA tool

If it's on the BA tool, that's no guarantee those seats are actually available for US bookings.

Although that said, JL may show less or nothing, but it too could be wrong - there may well be 3 seats.

A combination could be possible - there might less than BA showing but more than JL.

I guess you can try and bank on JL for the most conservative option, but if you like an option, I'd try it anyway (even with JL not showing it possible) but have an alternative (solid) in backup.

If JL shows 0 seats but BA shows 8 available, I'd say that's definitely worth a try!

There is no silver bullet...

 

[baggyred]

Talking of the JL tool - often when I search for Qi flights - it comes up server busy. Despite it spitting out other Qd info and other Oneworld carriers.

 

[baggyred]

If it's on the BA tool, that's no guarantee those seats are actually available for US bookings.

Although that said, JL may show less or nothing, but it too could be wrong - there may well be 3 seats.

A combination could be possible - there might less than BA showing but more than JL.

I guess you can try and bank on JL for the most conservative option, but if you like an option, I'd try it anyway (even with JL not showing it possible) but have an alternative (solid) in backup.

If JL shows 0 seats but BA shows 8 available, I'd say that's definitely worth a try!

There is no silver bullet...

Just checked the QF site and the CX flight is there as well. A phonecall to USDM might be in order Limewood to see whether they can see it

 

[get me outta here]

I have been advised by AA that there are 4 F seats left for sale on the flight that I'm looking to get as a reward. It's AA2 on 05 May, LAX-JFK.

They have advised me to keep checking back to see if they make a seat available, so has anyone an idea of when AA may make that change? I have called umpteen times and always have to go through 4 people.

 

[big_RED]

Finally, not all seating which may be available to be booked on a oneworld partner is not shown by Qantas; in particular, you may have trouble seeing some partners, including JL. In all, the tool may be familiar to many and that is an advantage, plus until you can get an Executive Club account, is readily accessible.

A bit of a rookie question with this one sorry.
I'm wanting to fly to Toronto after Christmas this year, stopping over in Tampa for Christmas. I don't care which oneWorld airline I fly, I just want to use my QFF points. I also understand I've left it very late and so no award seats may actually be available. However I wanted to get confirmation from you.

If you do a search on Qantas, and select "award seats" am I correct in thinking the search results will list every single oneWorld airline that Qantas is affiliated with that flies that route?
E.g right now when I search for Sydney to LA, to Tampa there are hardly any results. However I'd have thought American Airlines would show up. Once again it could be because I've left it so late, but am I correct in thinking you do the search for Qantas for any oneWorld airline and you can then pick what comes up?

Hope that makes sense.

 

[sergeyvzn]

A bit of a rookie question with this one sorry.
I'm wanting to fly to Toronto after Christmas this year, stopping over in Tampa for Christmas. I don't care which oneWorld airline I fly, I just want to use my QFF points. I also understand I've left it very late and so no award seats may actually be available. However I wanted to get confirmation from you.

If you do a search on Qantas, and select "award seats" am I correct in thinking the search results will list every single oneWorld airline that Qantas is affiliated with that flies that route?
E.g right now when I search for Sydney to LA, to Tampa there are hardly any results. However I'd have thought American Airlines would show up. Once again it could be because I've left it so late, but am I correct in thinking you do the search for Qantas for any oneWorld airline and you can then pick what comes up?

Hope that makes sense.

1) No. The QF search engine doesn't show all OW airlines flying a particular route (notable missing airlines are JAL and Malaysian, for example). BA does - use the BA website (membership in the BA Executive Club is free)

2) doing a multiple city search? Don't. Do a sector by sector search.

3) transpacific direct AA and QF flights are long gone for the time you want to fly. They are extremely rare, and get snapped up by status holders first and you mighty get lucky if you find one seat 355 days in advance but there's not guarantee. There are chances you might find something on Fiji Airways via Nadi (they are a QFF partner and you can redeem your Qantas points on them even if they are not OW) or go via Asia on Cathay Pacific or Japan Airlines but redeeming QFF points this way is expensive, you might as well want to do a 140/280/420 OW award then and go elsewhere


Hope it helps

 

[big_RED]

1) No. The QF search engine doesn't show all OW airlines flying a particular route (notable missing airlines are JAL and Malaysian, for example). BA does - use the BA website (membership in the BA Executive Club is free)

2) doing a multiple city search? Don't. Do a sector by sector search.

3) transpacific direct AA and QF flights are long gone for the time you want to fly. They are extremely rare, and get snapped up by status holders first and you mighty get lucky if you find one seat 355 days in advance but there's not guarantee. There are chances you might find something on Fiji Airways via Nadi (they are a QFF partner and you can redeem your Qantas points on them even if they are not OW) or go via Asia on Cathay Pacific or Japan Airlines but redeeming QFF points this way is expensive, you might as well want to do a 140/280/420 OW award then and go elsewhere

1. Signed up for BA membership, however the Executive Club membership (which I assume is different to a normal BA membership?) isn't allowed if you're from Australia. Australia isn't a country in their residential address drop down field.

2. When you say sector by sector, do you mean I purchase individual tickets for each leg of the flight? E.g SYD - LAX. LAX to TPA. TPA to Canada, and so forth? Rather than having everything on the 1 itinerary?

3. In regards to this sad comment I'm only bronze so I know from reading recent threads that finding award seats on these popular routes is now even rarer to find. If there were CX and AA flights available as award seats would they display in the Qantas search? I suppose that's what I'm wondering.
And in regards to the 140/280 thing. That is a round the world ticket correct which I need to call Qantas about? It might just be easier to call Qantas, pay the phone fee so that I can get as best a deal as possible and see if we can use points etc?

 

[sergeyvzn]

1. Signed up for BA membership, however the Executive Club membership (which I assume is different to a normal BA membership?) isn't allowed if you're from Australia. Australia isn't a country in their residential address drop down field.

2. When you say sector by sector, do you mean I purchase individual tickets for each leg of the flight? E.g SYD - LAX. LAX to TPA. TPA to Canada, and so forth? Rather than having everything on the 1 itinerary?

3. In regards to this sad comment I'm only bronze so I know from reading recent threads that finding award seats on these popular routes is now even rarer to find. If there were CX and AA flights available as award seats would they display in the Qantas search? I suppose that's what I'm wondering.
And in regards to the 140/280 thing. That is a round the world ticket correct which I need to call Qantas about? It might just be easier to call Qantas, pay the phone fee so that I can get as best a deal as possible and see if we can use points etc?

1) sign up with whatever UK address, just make it up. 1 Buckingham Palace will do. The address is needed for the card to be posted to but all you need is the membership number and it will be generated instantly and emailed to you but write it down just in case
2)no, not "book" - I said "search". The QF search engine is notorious for being terrible with anything but the simplest connection so you need to work out your itinerary and search for availability sector by sector. E.g. if you want to go SYD-KUL-DOH-VIE you first search for seats on the SYD to KUL sector, then on the KUL to DOH sector etc. After you have found all your seats you either attempt to put this itinerary together via the online search engine (most likely to fail) or ring Qantas and feed the agent the itinerary sector by sector (dates, flight numbers, travel class etc) and they will book it for you over the phone. They will try to charge you a booking fee but you tell them you could not book the itinerary online and they will waive the fee (or at least they've done this for me and lots of others before)
3) as I said for your desired dates most seats have probably gone. Be creative - go Sydney to Tokyo to LAX with JAL or SYD to Cairns to Hong Kong to Tokyo to SFO to LAX to wherever...

or maybe get AwardNexus (google it) and the software will do it for you. I prefer to do it myself as I just get a kick out of the whole process as quite a lot of AFFers seem to do )

and yes, 140/280 is the RWT ticket but you don't have to pay the phone fee if your desired itinerary cannot be booked online as I said before. The RWT ticket is good because you can get to the US via Europe or South Africa or South America if you will as long as you're flexible with dates

 

[Masonic Phantom]

1. Signed up for BA membership, however the Executive Club membership (which I assume is different to a normal BA membership?) isn't allowed if you're from Australia. Australia isn't a country in their residential address drop down field.

2. When you say sector by sector, do you mean I purchase individual tickets for each leg of the flight? E.g SYD - LAX. LAX to TPA. TPA to Canada, and so forth? Rather than having everything on the 1 itinerary?

3. In regards to this sad comment I'm only bronze so I know from reading recent threads that finding award seats on these popular routes is now even rarer to find. If there were CX and AA flights available as award seats would they display in the Qantas search? I suppose that's what I'm wondering.
And in regards to the 140/280 thing. That is a round the world ticket correct which I need to call Qantas about? It might just be easier to call Qantas, pay the phone fee so that I can get as best a deal as possible and see if we can use points etc?

big_RED,..... put the country as Austria.... that works for me.

 

[jgm]

big_RED,..... put the country as Austria.... that works for me.

And use your Australian residential address as well. Many have even received the card here even though they have Austria as the country - the UK mail system seems to correct it.

 

[big_RED]

Thanks for the help and instructions guys.

1) sign up with whatever UK address
2)no, not "book" - I said "search". The QF search engine is notorious for being terrible with anything but the simplest connection so you need to work out your itinerary and search for availability sector by sector. E.g. if you want to go SYD-KUL-DOH-VIE you first search for seats on the SYD to KUL sector, then on the KUL to DOH sector etc. After you have found all your seats you either attempt to put this itinerary together via the online search engine (most likely to fail) or ring Qantas and feed the agent the itinerary sector by sector (dates, flight numbers, travel class etc) and they will book it for you over the phone. They will try to charge you a booking fee but you tell them you could not book the itinerary online and they will waive the fee (or at least they've done this for me and lots of others before)
3) as I said for your desired dates most seats have probably gone. Be creative - go Sydney to Tokyo to LAX with JAL or SYD to Cairns to Hong Kong to Tokyo to SFO to LAX to wherever...

1. Sweet! Used my US address so have an account now. Thanks!
2. Thank for explaining that. I'll search for each segment individually and then go from there. And I'll do the search on BA as from what you're saying they show more of the partner airlines as well. If BA do have say AA or CX award flights available, do I then call Qantas to book to use my points, or do I book on BA and it lets me use my Qantas points?
3. Thanks once again for that. I hadn't thought about doing this. As you say I assume the amount of points required would be higher as you're going about it in a round-a-bout way, however it could still work.
4. We typically just fly to America all the time, and it's for holiday periods so we aren't too flexible with dates unfortunately.

 

[sergeyvzn]

Thanks for the help and instructions guys.



1. Sweet! Used my US address so have an account now. Thanks!
2. Thank for explaining that. I'll search for each segment individually and then go from there. And I'll do the search on BA as from what you're saying they show more of the partner airlines as well. If BA do have say AA or CX award flights available, do I then call Qantas to book to use my points, or do I book on BA and it lets me use my Qantas points?
3. Thanks once again for that. I hadn't thought about doing this. As you say I assume the amount of points required would be higher as you're going about it in a round-a-bout way, however it could still work.
4. We typically just fly to America all the time, and it's for holiday periods so we aren't too flexible with dates unfortunately.

When you've found your seats on BA you then call Qantas and ask them to book it for you, you can't use your QF points on the BA site

the roundabout way may be actually fewer points as you've got a ceiling of 280K points (I presume you're looking for business class seats) within which you can travel wherever (as long as you're under 35K miles in the overall distance, 5 stops and some other restrictions also apply) whereas for example a return J class ticket to London is like 192K alone.

depends on where you want to go, of course

 

[Princess Fiona]

A bit of a rookie question with this one sorry.
I'm wanting to fly to Toronto after Christmas this year, stopping over in Tampa for Christmas. I don't care which oneWorld airline I fly, I just want to use my QFF points. I also understand I've left it very late and so no award seats may actually be available. However I wanted to get confirmation from you.

If you do a search on Qantas, and select "award seats" am I correct in thinking the search results will list every single oneWorld airline that Qantas is affiliated with that flies that route?
E.g right now when I search for Sydney to LA, to Tampa there are hardly any results. However I'd have thought American Airlines would show up. Once again it could be because I've left it so late, but am I correct in thinking you do the search for Qantas for any oneWorld airline and you can then pick what comes up?

Hope that makes sense.

This is a really old thread about US Dividend miles. Aside from the excellent advice you've already received, you might find some good reading here amongst other threads on the QFF sub-forum.

 

[big_RED]

When you've found your seats on BA you then call Qantas and ask them to book it for you, you can't use your QF points on the BA site

the roundabout way may be actually fewer points as you've got a ceiling of 280K points (I presume you're looking for business class seats) within which you can travel wherever (as long as you're under 35K miles in the overall distance, 5 stops and some other restrictions also apply) whereas for example a return J class ticket to London is like 192K alone.

Ah perfect. All makes sense. Find the flights of partner airlines however you can and then call Qantas to try and book them.
Correct, looking for business class tickets. 192k SYD to LAX return. Internal flights across US we can do economy and pay for them (return). Qantas search doesn't list LAX to TPA as available on business awards.
This trip we will also be going to Toronto in Canada so will have Syd, LAX, TPA, Toronto, LAX, Syd.

This is a really old thread about US Dividend miles. Aside from the excellent advice you've already received, you might find some good reading here amongst other threads on the QFF sub-forum.

Thanks PF. Will review that thread again now that I have a much better understanding of what's required and the potential benefits!

 

[sergeyvzn]

Ah perfect. All makes sense. Find the flights of partner airlines however you can and then call Qantas to try and book them.
Correct, looking for business class tickets. 192k SYD to LAX return. Internal flights across US we can do economy and pay for them (return). Qantas search doesn't list LAX to TPA as available on business awards.
This trip we will also be going to Toronto in Canada so will have Syd, LAX, TPA, Toronto, LAX, Syd.
!

That's what I'm saying. Rather then spend money booking your economy class intra US flights, do a 280K RTW trip where all your additional trips you're planning now to buy will be included in the price

for example Sydney-Tokyo-LAX-Toronto-Tampa-Hong Kong-Sydney, all in all 280k...all your connections intra US etc on AA would be included, e.g Toronto to Tampa would probably be via ORD or MIA and Tampa to Hong Kong would be via whatever (LAX or SFO on AA and CX) - you can come up with all sorts of interesting itineraries that would work for you

 

[big_RED]

do a 280K RTW trip where all your additional trips you're planning now to buy will be included in the price

for example Sydney-Tokyo-LAX-Toronto-Tampa-Hong Kong-Sydney, all in all 280k...all your connections intra US etc on AA would be included, e.g Toronto to Tampa would probably be via ORD or MIA and Tampa to Hong Kong would be via whatever (LAX or SFO on AA and CX) - you can come up with all sorts of interesting itineraries that would work for you

Will definitely check this option out, thanks!

 

[ausfox]

When working out the flight details, does the system automatically recognise that you are limited to 280k points or do you have to nominate somewhere? Thanks in advance.