J to Europe May 08

[swissmade]

Hi,
Great site! I've been receiving the Gazette for a while but have only just tried my hand at booking a flight on points.

I'd like to fly to Europe – any city – in May 08. Trouble is, only flights I can find are Y class.
I've only got QFNB status - would that have something to do with the awards flights I'm being offered? There are some J flights to Europe available in July, but that's going to be too late.

Should I hold off? If I check daily is it possible that some J flights in May 08 might come up? Or, should I pay for a Y ticket and use points to UG? (My only concern is that might not be able to UG with points after I've paid - a valid concern?)

Any help and all advice gratefully received!
Thanks.

 

[simongr]

Status doesn't impact availability for J seats. Time is the killer - QF makes award seats available at 355 days out from the flight date. The May 08 seats would have been available two months ago so not particularly likely to be available by now. Have you got sufficient points to try and get another partner award - maybe some alternate routings? More expensive in terms of points though.

In relation to points upgrade - remember that they are not guaranteed. So if you want J you might have to pay - maybe on another carrier?

 

[swissmade]

Hi, thanks very much for that - it's a great help. I did wonder if time was the issue since there were J seats avail in July but not May. Gotta be quick! I'll look into partner options as I have the points (I've been saving them for years!). Cheers, Simon.

 

[NM]

Note that CX award flights do not show on-line on the QF FF web site. So you may find that by calling QF FF by phone they can find you a CX business class award. It may cost a little more and they will want to charge you the 2500 points assisted booking fee (fine?), but there may be better availability. And note that CX has more options to Europe than QF, so that may help too.

You could also look at a combination of QF to Asia and then Finn Air (AY) to Helsinki and beyond.

 

[swissmade]

Thanks NM, I like the sound of those options ... And I never would have known without advice from other FFs.

 

[josko]

Good luck but my advice is try booking your award flight through the Q operator assist rather than on the Q website.

I have just recently done so for 2 business class return award flights to Rome for June/July 2008 and my first atttempt was to use the Q website but quickly found there are very few business class flights shown and absolutely none for 2 people on the same flight/ same day!

Mind you....heaps of economy seats! Funny about that!

Then decided to use the Q operator asisst and even she had a lot of trouble finding seats for two....lucky for me I got a very helpful operator who refused to give up and after 2 hours on the phone and her searching the system endlessly....success!

Hmmm, I think that you have missed the boat for May 2008 award flights....the operator told me that they go as fast as they are released. But it costs nothing to make an enquiry and only 2500 pp per booking if you book through them.

Hopefully you get the same Q operator as I got....what a treasure she was!

Good luck

Josko