( Now gone) "how do I book a J any seat award at classic award points level" thread.

[QF WP]

(Good) Champagne is wasted on me

 

[pagingjoan]

re: ( Now gone) "how do I book a J any seat award at classic award points level" thread.

J ex TPE has been around $2500 for the last 10 years, if you go more than every 6 months the CX option is cheap and a great way of getting SCs, I have around three trips planned this year myself, so I save the JASAs for elsewhere!

View attachment 5037

Hi Markus10,
Have checked out the CX offerings and they have $1284 on a one way, Business (D), Taipei-MEL, on a date that should work, so that fits with the pricing you quoted, plus there seems little penalty for a one-way rather than return booking, unlike many major European services.
As far as I can interpret, that fare should earn QF SCs at the standard Business Class rate. Am I missing anything?
Thanks again.

 

[markis10]

Hi Markus10,
Have checked out the CX offerings and they have $1284 on a one way, Business (D), Taipei-MEL, on a date that should work, so that fits with the pricing you quoted, plus there seems little penalty for a one-way rather than return booking, unlike many major European services.
As far as I can interpret, that fare should earn QF SCs at the standard Business Class rate. Am I missing anything?
Thanks again.

Only the cost of going back, which will be more than 4k.

 

[pagingjoan]

re: ( Now gone) "how do I book a J any seat award at classic award points level" thread.

Only the cost of going back, which will be more than 4k.

Yes, thanks. I see that is the case. Was thinking, for this booking, of combining with the JASA outbound - but the return booking, deferred for the next visit, would be the way to go. [That is, as long as we can rely on the family members staying put for a while yet!]

 

[MrHanky]

re: ( Now gone) "how do I book a J any seat award at classic award points level" thread.

Is there some trick to searching for J/F class ASA's on the QFF site?

Admittedly I'm only NB, but whenever I search for an ASA I'm presented with a choice of Red-E-Deal, FlexiSaver or Fully Flexible, with no (apparent) way of searching for non-economy seats.

 

[ozbeachbabe]

re: ( Now gone) "how do I book a J any seat award at classic award points level" thread.

Is there some trick to searching for J/F class ASA's on the QFF site?

Admittedly I'm only NB, but whenever I search for an ASA I'm presented with a choice of Red-E-Deal, FlexiSaver or Fully Flexible, with no (apparent) way of searching for non-economy seats.

What date and city pair?

1. from QF home page log into your frequent flyer profile with ffn/surname/pin
2. You are on page "Your Account - Welcome Mr Hanky
3. Half way down page on the right click on the tab 'award bookings' & click on tab 'Qantas & Jetstar any seat award' radio button
4. Fill in from & to fields plus date & tick box 'flexible with dates' number of adults etc
5. When you have done this a 'travel class' box appears so click drop down box & select you preferred class then press 'go'

 

[markis10]

re: ( Now gone) "how do I book a J any seat award at classic award points level" thread.

If you select a non domestic/trans tasman city the travel class selection will appear underneath the number of pax etc allowing you to pick F or J:

 

[pagingjoan]

re: ( Now gone) "how do I book a J any seat award at classic award points level" thread.

My sympathies are with you, MrHanky.
Although I've used the seemingly straight forward method outlined by ozbeachbabe above, I've also had the frustrating cycle where the travel class selection option does not appear. That sequence seems to come into play particularly if you have checked an option, then wanted to change dates, for example, or to modify a route.
When the "start again" option is clicked, there is no possibility of selecting cabin class.
Not always, mind you, but often enough to be extremely irritating.
Sometimes, it does appear above the table showing dates and offerings - but again, in my experience, not always.
Perhaps there is a simple explanation - and some wise person will produce it!

 

[richie9x]

re: ( Now gone) "how do I book a J any seat award at classic award points level" thread.

Is there some trick to searching for J/F class ASA's on the QFF site?

Admittedly I'm only NB, but whenever I search for an ASA I'm presented with a choice of Red-E-Deal, FlexiSaver or Fully Flexible, with no (apparent) way of searching for non-economy seats.

Usually for J/F you will have to select Travel Class at the original booking screen. Unless it is domestic or transtasman.

Also it depends on your route. There are a few combinations such as Mumbai to Singapore where you can only select economy, even though Qantas will let you buy a business class ticket on that route they won't allow a JASA.

 

[pagingjoan]

re: ( Now gone) "how do I book a J any seat award at classic award points level" thread.

Usually for J/F you will have to select Travel Class at the original booking screen. Unless it is domestic or transtasman.

Also it depends on your route. There are a few combinations such as Mumbai to Singapore where you can only select economy, even though Qantas will let you buy a business class ticket on that route they won't allow a JASA.

The problem is though that the classes will show up on one search, then a change - such as date/dates - sometimes takes you into a cycle where there is no option to choose the class of travel. No choice then but to start all over.

Prom the responses above, it seems that it is not a common problem but I have certainly run into it a number of times, and have heard others report the same problem. Curious, indeed.

 

[cove]

re: ( Now gone) "how do I book a J any seat award at classic award points level" thread.

I don't agree. My kids have been able to get both JASAs and FASAs as Bronze QF status but it involved going out up to 353 days in advance.

 

[wilco]

re: ( Now gone) "how do I book a J any seat award at classic award points level" thread.

I don't agree. My kids have been able to get both JASAs and FASAs as Bronze QF status but it involved going out up to 353 days in advance.

And this goes back to another topic regarding FF's and their status not being taken into account by Yield Managers when allocating award inventory.

I think getting ANY good value *ASA's involves getting them as soon as they become available simply because theres so many people that want the very few that are made available.

 

[ozbeachbabe]

re: ( Now gone) "how do I book a J any seat award at classic award points level" thread.

And this goes back to another topic regarding FF's and their status not being taken into account by Yield Managers when allocating award inventory.

I think getting ANY good value *ASA's involves getting them as soon as they become available simply because theres so many people that want the very few that are made available.

Trippin_the_rift got some commercial seats converted to award seats just before Xmas, forget where he was going though. I'm sure this was because they took his P1 status into account.

 

[Limewood]

re: ( Now gone) "how do I book a J any seat award at classic award points level" thread.

And this goes back to another topic regarding FF's and their status not being taken into account by Yield Managers when allocating award inventory.

I think getting ANY good value *ASA's involves getting them as soon as they become available simply because theres so many people that want the very few that are made available.

Spot on, being trying to get 2 x JASA between July to mid Oct next to USA for 14 to 17 days, for 192K points each, had no luck, called QFF twice too, seems as a Q SG makes no difference.

So many in QFF now, so few seats made available on the so called "any" seat award (should be any seat "lottery" award), tried the basic award as well, sends us through another city or NZ and shows J on most long haul as Y.

Its all so frustrating why Q take this path is beyond me, no wonder many are deserting over to VA, with my new VA gold match in hand I'm thinking in 2012 will give them my business..

 

[wilco]

re: ( Now gone) "how do I book a J any seat award at classic award points level" thread.

Trippin_the_rift got some commercial seats converted to award seats just before Xmas, forget where he was going though. I'm sure this was because they took his P1 status into account.

You miss the point. FF's or their status are not taken into account when the initial allocation is made and the YM does not care who redeems the available seats. No one knows at what points level those seats were made available but I wouldn't think it would have been at the lower end.

A good YM will allocate more award inventory when it was patently clear that not all seats would or could be sold and this may have played a part in this release of seats, but without knowing exactly what happened, all we are doing is speculating.

P1 is a relatively new thing and I don't claim to have any knowledge of how this might impact on a YM's decision except to suggest it is in all likely hood going to be more favourable than not.

Spot on, being trying to get 2 x JASA between July to mid Oct next to USA for 14 to 17 days, for 192K points each, had no luck, called QFF twice too, seems as a Q SG makes no difference.

So many in QFF now, so few seats made available on the so called "any" seat award (should be any seat "lottery" award), tried the basic award as well, sends us through another city or NZ and shows J on most long haul as Y.

Its all so frustrating why Q take this path is beyond me, no wonder many are deserting over to VA, with my new VA gold match in hand I'm thinking in 2012 will give them my business..

I think the scheme has gotten way to big for Qantas to manage adequately, from a redemption perspective. There are too many members sitting on vast reserves of points who are keen to redeem them but just can't. Its all fine and dandy that the FF program is posting these amazing profits, but I don't think the liability is being correctly accounted for and I have a sneaking suspicion that QF would be able to fly for several months on award redemptions alone. This is going to blow up eventually as the program is IMO, nothing more than a "legal" Ponzi scheme.

 

[ozbeachbabe]

re: ( Now gone) "how do I book a J any seat award at classic award points level" thread.

Spot on, being trying to get 2 x JASA between July to mid Oct next to USA for 14 to 17 days, for 192K points each, had no luck, called QFF twice too, seems as a Q SG makes no difference.

So many in QFF now, so few seats made available on the so called "any" seat award (should be any seat "lottery" award), tried the basic award as well, sends us through another city or NZ and shows J on most long haul as Y.

Its all so frustrating why Q take this path is beyond me, no wonder many are deserting over to VA, with my new VA gold match in hand I'm thinking in 2012 will give them my business..

Do you have a subscription to Expert Flyer? If you do you can create a 'flight alert' eg QF11 U 31 Jul SYD/LAX & the minute these seats become available it will send you an email so you can book them asap. Even better set up an alert so your email account will sms you when you receive any email from E/F.

FYI we flew on a JASA HNL/SYD/BNE 02Dec & the reservation was made on 23Oct which was only 5-6 weeks prior to travel. We just booked another one last week HNL/SYD/DRW for mid May.

Expert Flyer rocks!

PS although you can get a free trial of E/F, you need the full subscription to be able to create flights alerts & seat alerts the latter being for specific seat numbers you want eg 80K on the A380. If you are a gold member of AFF (not QFF) you get a discount on your E/F subscription.

 

[Limewood]

re: ( Now gone) "how do I book a J any seat award at classic award points level" thread.

I think the scheme has gotten way to big for Qantas to manage adequately, from a redemption perspective. There are too many members sitting on vast reserves of points who are keen to redeem them but just can't. Its all fine and dandy that the FF program is posting these amazing profits, but I don't think the liability is being correctly accounted for and I have a sneaking suspicion that QF would be able to fly for several months on award redemptions alone. This is going to blow up eventually as the program is IMO, nothing more than a "legal" Ponzi scheme.

Yes I think its a big problem and getting larger, not a good idea to do this to QFF members.

I checked out Expert Flyer, spent about 2 hours there going through month after month out of the 3 major departure cities, no luck at all. Im not the type of person that likes to wait as there might be seats, also, I'd have to put so many reminders in EF there its not funny, and why should i have to go to all this trouble anyway.

and many have been complaining for years about seat class fiasco, like in award, choose flights in J only, then to review page the its sending one through another city as J domestic and Y international, its wrong, wrong, wrong and about time someone did something about it, ask Q and Roo and it just falls on deaf ears.

Qantas are big on announcements but not at answering questions that don't suit them. lets face it VA are improving every week and that recent offer of status match has put a big cat amongst the pigeons.

I see only one option for Q let more seats in all classes out at reasonable points min 9 months out, and let us fly direct from our chosen departure city not through some other as dom then int., if not, it may well comeback to bite them.

 

[ozbeachbabe]

re: ( Now gone) "how do I book a J any seat award at classic award points level" thread.

Yes I think its a big problem and getting larger, not a good idea to do this to QFF members.

I checked out Expert Flyer, spent about 2 hours there going through month after month out of the 3 major departure cities, no luck at all. Im not the type of person that likes to wait as there might be seats, also, I'd have to put so many reminders in EF there its not funny, and why should i have to go to all this trouble anyway.

Limewood, I think you're only having a 'boys look' re the J class avail CNS/LAX/CNS as I managed to find several date both outbound and inbound during your time frame whereby you could use 192,000 QF ff points return per person plus a cash component of AUD904.95 per person.

I was using the QF website not E/F for my search availability & found Wednesdays to often have the desired availability. It's important to understand that in the Business Class columns displaying availability, the amount of points next to the flight options will have amounts such as 137,884 outbound & 131,226 inbound. You won't ever see 92,000 points in these columns however not that above the site will say "the minimum amount of points you need for this trip is 192,000.

Select the radio button for these options and it will give you a total points required of 269,110 on the first page however after you click on the select button & to to step 3 review your flights you will then see the slide which enables you to scroll back to the minimum amount of 92,000 points each way.

It didn't take me 2 hours, only about 10 minutes. If you're not the type of person who likes to wait or spend unnecessary time looking, then I think taking some time out to set a few alerts here and there on E/F would be of great benefit to you & in the long run save you time and energy. If you don't think you should have to go to all this trouble who on earth is going to do it for you?

 

[wilco]

re: ( Now gone) "how do I book a J any seat award at classic award points level" thread.

I wish I had the dilemma of having lots of points to spend as some would say here. Mainly because I would know how to spend it, as I have had near no trouble finding award seats, and if not QF Premium has been a great help both for QF and partner award seats.

My latest was finding domestic JASAs less than a week out from departure. All on the same day, all using the online engine, all at Classic prices.

And I should note, I am not using ExpertFlyer or KVS.

And since when should finding JASAs (cf. Classic awards) be held as the base measure of award availability quality - that's ridiculous. And I'm glad that SGs are having a harder time than me finding awards - as a WP I am fully entitled to increased award availability, and am glad to see it actually holds. And I especially don't want some credit card churning NB eating up all the award space just because they command a silly amount of points.



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Aust Freq Fly app: bringing this anat0l content to your mobile.

and here we go again......

 

[serfty]

re: ( Now gone) "how do I book a J any seat award at classic award points level" thread.

...

And since when should finding JASAs (cf. Classic awards) be held as the base measure of award availability quality - that's ridiculous. And I'm glad that SGs are having a harder time than me finding awards - as a WP I am fully entitled to increased award availability, and am glad to see it actually holds. And I especially don't want some credit card churning NB eating up all the award space just because they command a silly amount of points. ...

As I posted up thread, xASA's appear to come out of the general award buckets, not the "additional availability" for WP/PS/SG et al.

i.e. If a WP can see a (discounted) JASA for a particular flight, so can an NB!