Large release of Qantas Business & Economy reward seats to London & Rome [Oct '23]

[RooFlyer]

You see, THIS is what makes you glad to be an AFF supporter.

Excellent result!

Yes, I was going to post that I wondered how many people were able to get long haul J seats via the notification on AFF versus seeing an email later from Qantas later in the day, when it would be too late.

 

[Lynda2475]

I got the email well before it was posted on AFF.

 

[DAC1]

I was onto it straight away but the EU QF release was no good to me as I needed a return in September and nothing was available post August.

Anyway the North America release was really helpful as I managed to lock in DUB-LCY (BA Y), LHR-DFW (AA J) connecting to DFW-SYD (QF J).

Initially, the multi city search did not work and I could not complete the purchase online. I called up, spent 20 mins on hold. The first 20 mins involved me being given every excuse for why they couldn’t do it either (including London only has two airports (LHR/LGW) and City is not an airport, there’s no classic reward availability, those flights are for online bookings only, you cannot book the BA flight as a classic reward as it is not a QF codeshare and you can only book it as a revenue fare).

Anyway, after expressing how frustrated I was, I persisted (with the same operator) thanks to some helpful advice I found on here relating to multi-city errors (which was to ask them to build the itinerary from back to front, ie add DFW-SYD, then LHR-DFW, then DUB-LCY). Once they did that, while it still took another 45 minutes to finalise and collect payment, it was completed.

E-Ticket arrived around 20 minutes later. Excellent eventual outcome although I wish their team website worked properly and/or I wish their staff were empowered to try harder as despite the excuses, they still managed to get it done…

 

[Amanad78]

Very good availability from SYD and PER, not so much MEL.

When I tried multi-city bookings to tack on connections to MEL via PER or SYD, it would error out at the payment stage.

Same, multi- city wouldn't work for me either (from BNE to SYD to meet QF1)

 

[lovestotravel]

After 3 page errors, managed 1 x J QF9 flight booking

Hopefully can get a flight back from LHR, but have a backup already on SQ

Post automatically merged: Oct 23, 2023

After my last J with Qantas 3 weeks ago, I'm not particularly keen on flying Qantas international again. I'd like some J reward on an actual top tier airline please

Indeed, one of my last choices for flying Internationally but I'm trying to burn the points!

 

[Rosecat]

I managed to score LHR-SYD on QF2 in J in mid-July.

 

[lovestotravel]

I managed to score LHR-SYD on QF2 in J in mid-July.

I didn't see any availability to MEL for July

 

[marki]

More than 100,000 people are thought to have left Belarus since security forces began violently cracking down on dissidents, many of whom fled to neighbouring Poland and the Baltic states.

So I am going to use my points to fly over. Although one does not want to flyover such countries for reasons that become obvious in flight although nice to have point redeeming availability.

 

[marki]

More than 100,000 people are thought to have left Belarus since security forces began violently cracking down on dissidents, many of whom fled to neighbouring Poland and the Baltic states.

So I am going to use my points to fly over. Although one does not want to flyover such countries for reasons that become obvious in flight

I didn't see any availability to MEL for July

I found flights for next month but the cheaper option was flying to Europe.

Post automatically merged: Oct 23, 2023

I found flights for next month but the cheaper option was flying to Europe.

Not back

 

[Lynda2475]

I didn't see any availability to MEL for July

For future reference it sometimes requires some creativity, so you could try using multi-city for MEL-SYD + SYD-LHR. Or just grab a flight from Sydney or Perth where there are direct flights (as the email said this was best availability); and then do a separate positioning booking to get to the starting city.

 

[marki]

One needs to remember lateral thinking. Is a requirement of a flight booking culture.

 

[Rosecat]

If anyone is still looking LHR-SYD, I am QF Gold and I can see J availability on 5-7 June, 18,19, and 25 June, 31 July, and 18 August. There's quite a lot of Y+ in June as well.

I can't see anything in J into MEL, only a smattering of Y+, mostly Y.

Hope this helps.

 

[lovestotravel]

For future reference it sometimes requires some creativity, so you could try using multi-city for MEL-SYD + SYD-LHR. Or just grab a flight from Sydney or Perth where there are direct flights (as the email said this was best availability); and then do a separate positioning booking to get to the starting city.

True, but I was in a rush to get anything. My first attempts at my preferred date/s failed due to the webpage timing out, so then took anything I could get

I haven't booked a QF award flight in about 8 years, my time/effort with creativity is SQ awards

 

[Doctore1003]

Weird that the seats weren’t all released at 11am Sydney time (I checked) and that domestic connections weren’t offered to Syd/Perth. The latter would have annoyed a lot of people - the exact opposite of Qantas’ goal. I had to call up to get the domestic connections added and they wouldn’t waive the 5k point change fee. Seriously Qantas, it can’t be that hard to organise these things properly!

 

[clifford]

I checked it out earlier today (as an academic exercise) and could get business class awards on the dates I wanted to LHR or FCO from SYD/PER, but unfortunately I already have award bookings in J with Star Alliance airlines, so couldn't proceed. Later in 2024 perhaps (Sep-Dec), Qantas permitting.

But it was a nice gesture, nevertheless.

Edit: One downside I discovered was that flights were not available ex SIN, which would have been ideal for one trip to London I had in mind.

 

[SYD]

If anyone is still waiting for an e-Ticket, pop in and check you’ve entered at least DoB under APIS.

We didn‘t have our act together to make use of the Euro options (actually wanted to fly out in May but the return dates could have worked….).

But we did just book SYD-SCL (QF J return) in Feb/Mar. It would seem that a few seats might have been released there also (we‘d been looking previously around that time of year). Odd to see both very full cabins (even as WP for reward bookings!).

Edit: just realised/remembered why the J cabin seemed full - several rows blocked for LA PAX!

 

[mx838383]

I tried today for MEL-LHR in J and was late to the party. Most of it was gone by about 3pm.

Then ended up with some creative multi city itinerary - managed to get F for 2 with MEL-LAX-LHR. Then J back LHR-LAX and F from LAX-MEL.
F was with Qantas and British Airways. J with British Airways. Leaving in August 2024 and back early September. I am one happy camper

 

[clifford]

I tried today for MEL-LHR in J and was late to the party. Most of it was gone by about 3pm.

Then ended up with some creative multi city itinerary - managed to get F for 2 with MEL-LAX-LHR. Then J back LHR-LAX and F from LAX-MEL.
F was with Qantas and British Airways. J with British Airways. Leaving in August 2024 and back early September. I am one happy camper

Must have cost a bomb in points (and not to mention taxes/fees).

 

[hutch]

Picked up 2 x QF9 J flights from Mel to Lhr in August. Happy days.

 

[jase05]

Stacks of SYD-SCL available and still plenty of SYD/MEL-DFW as early as March which was not there previosly.
Found some SYD-ICN too