Qatar only releasing flexi awards seats at Christmas?

[doctorstrangelove]

Hi all,

With the effective withdrawal of obtaining Qatar premium cabin seats via QFF I thought I would be in pole position for once to snag a Christmas award seat from Australia to Europe next year using Avios but I'm beginning to get a sneaking suspicion that Qatar aren't going to make it that easy. There is excellent availability of Avios Reward Seats across Australia on QR in the month of December up until 12th, when suddenly the only seats available to be redeemed are flexi award seats. I've been trying to book an Avios Reward Seat from Perth now for the past 3-4 days as they open 361 days in advance. I've been checking in every 8 hours or so in case other early birds are catching the worm before me but have still seen nothing but flexi award availability.

I think it's too much of a coincidence that there's a sudden transition to these flexi awards seats all across Australia on one particular date to lay the blame at consumer demand considering how good the availability is throughout the rest of early December. I believe QR realize that they'll have no trouble putting bums on seats this time of year and have therefore deliberately moved the awards seats to the higher flexi redemption around the Christmas holidays. While it is within their right to do so this would be very poor form.

I would like to hear from any other members on the forum who have been searching to book Avios Rewards Seats on QR for Christmas next year to see if they agree with my findings. I would be even more keen to hear from anyone who has successfully booked a non-flexi redemption awards seat after 11th December so that they can 1) prove me wrong and 2) tell me what exact time of day the rewards flights are released so I can have my finger ready on the mouse button!

 

[Notyourbag]

Hi all,

With the effective withdrawal of obtaining Qatar premium cabin seats via QFF I thought I would be in pole position for once to snag a Christmas award seat from Australia to Europe next year using Avios but I'm beginning to get a sneaking suspicion that Qatar aren't going to make it that easy. There is excellent availability of Avios Reward Seats across Australia on QR in the month of December up until 12th, when suddenly the only seats available to be redeemed are flexi award seats. I've been trying to book an Avios Reward Seat from Perth now for the past 3-4 days as they open 361 days in advance. I've been checking in every 8 hours or so in case other early birds are catching the worm before me but have still seen nothing but flexi award availability.

I think it's too much of a coincidence that there's a sudden transition to these flexi awards seats all across Australia on one particular date to lay the blame at consumer demand considering how good the availability is throughout the rest of early December. I believe QR realize that they'll have no trouble putting bums on seats this time of year and have therefore deliberately moved the awards seats to the higher flexi redemption around the Christmas holidays. While it is within their right to do so this would be very poor form.

I would like to hear from any other members on the forum who have been searching to book Avios Rewards Seats on QR for Christmas next year to see if they agree with my findings. I would be even more keen to hear from anyone who has successfully booked a non-flexi redemption awards seat after 11th December so that they can 1) prove me wrong and 2) tell me what exact time of day the rewards flights are released so I can have my finger ready on the mouse button!

Any better availability to Adelaide or Brisbane (I know that's backtracking quite a bit to get to Perth!)

 

[doctorstrangelove]

Any better availability to Adelaide or Brisbane (I know that's backtracking quite a bit to get to Perth!)

Not from Adelaide, Sydney or Melbourne. I must confess I did not look at Brisbane as having observed similar flexi awards behaviour at the other four major Australian airports I thought it unlikely Brisbane would buck the trend.

 

[Jack5]

Does availability look like it comes back on or after Christmas Day? The Singapore award availability was pretty similar, good until mid-December and then mostly advantage seats (probably for the same expected traffic reason)

 

[levelnine]

Definitely not surprised. It seems to be an occurrence in most big FF programs. Qantas have also not released any classic rewards on their own flights for December 2023.

 

[sle0617]

I have noticed the same thing (only flexi awards=2x Avios). I was able to book our departure, IAH-DOH, for 12/14/23. I’ve been looking daily for a return sometime between 12/25-1/1 but only flexi awards have shown up.

 

[exLXCXFF]

Definitely not surprised. It seems to be an occurrence in most big FF programs. Qantas have also not released any classic rewards on their own flights for December 2023.

Can relate to that - I have been checking QF Classic Reward every day since 20 Dec 2022 on any Asia routes in December 2023 and have not seen a single one.

 

[Jack5]

Can relate to that - I have been checking QF Classic Reward every day since 20 Dec 2022 on any Asia routes in December 2023 and have not seen a single one.

If you have access to air miles it’s worth having a look at CX, we managed to get a MEL-HKG-CDG business award in late December 2023. There were also some SYD departures when we were looking

 

[exLXCXFF]

If you have access to air miles it’s worth having a look at CX, we managed to get a MEL-HKG-CDG business award in late December 2023. There were also some SYD departures when we were looking

Yes - that’s exactly what we did. CX flights via QFF (SYD - MEL - HKG PE) and AM (HKG - SYD J) But we only need to do SYD - HKG return next Xmas .