Qantas disguises first class seats as $20 ‘cabin in the clouds’ on Airbnb

[Omerbm]

The user profile has been throwing 500 errors (internal server error usually) for about 20 minutes.

Wonder if Qantas are swapping user IDs so we have to actually search again..

Exactly my thoughts!

 

[Lynda2475]

i've tried searching on price to all the cities Qantas flies direct to with no joy and as others have stated the host page link posted on page 1 of this thread is throwing errors.

Wondering if you do manage to snag one you can ask for only 1 seat not two, I don't have any family members who can travel internationally with me; and program prevents you buying award seats for friends.

I don't mind paying 50,000 points for one seat, but there is no advantage that I can see in business or first of having a spare seat next to you, unlike in Economy or Premium economy where it adds comfort.

 

[nihonomics]

The terms and conditions from the Santiago listing are pretty restrictive. Among other things you must have the 50k miles in your account at the time you 'request to book' and you must be an Australian resident.

 

[anglais]

The 500 error is likely a deliberate act by AirBnB to hide that page. So it will now be harder to find the listings, but they will probably still run through that one account.

 

[Lynda2475]

The terms and conditions from the Santiago listing are pretty restrictive. Among other things you must have the 50k miles in your account at the time you 'request to book' and you must be an Australian resident.

Thanks for sharing, this is what I was after yesterday Actually think apart from the specific date the conditions are fine - you can get your points refunded less the 5k penalty if you do cancel and I never thought you wouldn't need to have the full points available at booking time. I think most ff would have >50k points.

 

[stm1sydney]

Another impressive gimmick from QF marketing. Already five pages on this thread so lots of free coverage here and elsewhere. Better chance of winning lotto, and even if you do snag one of these, you still have to pay full whack to get back.

 

[get me outta here]

It’s quite a good marketing game until the processes are exposed for being so poor that it points out all the flaws on Qantas’s booking system. You don’t need a lot of points to return, or just buy a cheap return ticket in a sale.

 

[cjd600]

The terms and conditions from the Santiago listing are pretty restrictive. Among other things you must have the 50k miles in your account at the time you 'request to book' and you must be an Australian resident.

Restrictive?

 

[33kft]

I suspect if they threw all the bookings up at once on a page and just let everyone have a go it would probably be more fair than letting the most technically ept guy snag them immediately upon listing.

I can't help but think one of these dodgy points ticket booking sites has probably figured this out and is buying up redemptions to onsell.

 

[scubabe]

I

I can't help but think one of these dodgy points ticket booking sites has probably figured this out and is buying up redemptions to onsell.

I don’t know that they can do that.
You must provide your QFF number at the time you place the order on AirBNB.

How can that work? “Oh yeah I’m going to pay for them out of my account but I don’t yet know the names of the people travelling, can I get back to you in a month with that info?”

 

[33kft]

I don’t know that they can do that.
You must provide your QFF number at the time you place the order on AirBNB.

How can that work? “Oh yeah I’m going to pay for them out of my account but I don’t yet know the names of the people travelling, can I get back to you in a month with that info?”

These sites / brokers exist and function this way today - ie they match willing buyers with sellers which is how they are able to buy points from people without getting pinged for doing family transfers to non family. Search over at ozbargain for tuvz to see some discussion on the topic but as you will see the exact mechanisms are not really publicly disclosed.

https://www.iflyflat.com.au/blog/2017/8/7/usa-points-brokers-does-it-really-work

Home

Unlock the world of reward travel and maximise the value of your points with our expert reward seat Concierge service. Get started now with no upfront fees.

www.pointhacks.com.au

 

[The man with no name]

Looks like AFF is a beneficiary of this promotion judging by the 5 new members joining because of this thread since yesterday.

 

[PrincessK]

I put in a number of search parameters on AirBnB, refreshed the page and they had a new listing LHR-SYD, with availability! Quickly grabbed them and hit “check availability” and apparently wasn’t fast enough as it came back with “those dates are not available”. <bangs head> So close

 

[JPatch]

I put in a number of search parameters on AirBnB, refreshed the page and they had a new listing LHR-SYD, with availability! Quickly grabbed them and hit “check availability” and apparently wasn’t fast enough as it came back with “those dates are not available”. <bangs head> So close

Hi PrincessK, what a shame you got so close and missed out! What time was this? If in the last 2 hours, can you confirm what the host name was? Was it the same as the host that had listing earlier today ( QFF 50,000 Points Plus $20 )?

 

[cjd600]

less the 5k penalty if you do cancel

*6k penalty to cancel

 

[sudoer]

they had a new listing LHR-SYD

Were you searching for properties in London or Sydney?

 

[cjd600]

The LHR-SYD I found, mentioned upthread, this morning, was showing in SYD

 

[PrincessK]

Hi PrincessK, what a shame you got so close and missed out! What time was this? If in the last 2 hours, can you confirm what the host name was? Was it the same as the host that had listing earlier today ( QFF 50,000 Points Plus $20 )?

Hi JPatch, it was in the last 20 mins and I can’t tell you what the host name was sorry, it literally came up so quickly and once it said there was no availability the listing disappeared. I didn’t even take the time to read it myself, just looked at the flight destination and date and went for it! It’s NOT the same page that was being used yesterday as that is still giving an error message for me. Sorry I didn’t pay more attention.

If it helps, I had “Anywhere - homes” as my location.

 

[PrincessK]

Were you searching for properties in London or Sydney?

I was searching “Anywhere - homes”

 

[JPatch]

Hi JPatch, it was in the last 20 mins and I can’t tell you what the host name was sorry, it literally came up so quickly and once it said there was no availability the listing disappeared. I didn’t even take the time to read it myself, just looked at the flight destination and date and went for it! It’s NOT the same page that was being used yesterday as that is still giving an error message for me. Sorry I didn’t pay more attention.

If it helps, I had “Anywhere - homes” as my location.

Thanks PrincessK. Appreciate the info. I had been searching earlier and came across the Syd-Santiago a couple of seconds past 12pm (having refreshed numerous times in the previous minute). By the time I clicked into the listing, the calendar showed no availability (all greyed out dates).

For some reason I can't seem to search "Anywhere" in the search box on Airbnb.