QF early-2017 award availability - restricted to elite status holders?

[Cynicor]

Surely this is a bug and not an intentional enhancement. Would be crazy otherwise, and time to burn the remaining points. Been using them up and not earning to QF anyway, but need to do it before status drops further!

 

[farstar]

It could be a glitch but at the end of the WP and above have always had the ability to ring and ask if seats can be released so there has always been different availability based on status. It may be they have updated their systems to determine what seats can be released to WPs and show them automatically.

 

[sanne]

Just had a look at SYD/LAX for Feb 2017. As a gold QF I can see J availability every day for the month of Feb on QF either direct or via BNE or MEL.

 

[BriarFlyer]

I'm NB and def. not seeing that amount of availability. All Thursdays, a couple of Tuesdays and some random others. I clicked through on several dates, and availability was with CX and/or FJ. Only Y available on QF.

 

[eastwest101]

I'm NB and def. not seeing that amount of availability. All Thursdays, a couple of Tuesdays and some random others. I clicked through on several dates, and availability was with CX and/or FJ. Only Y available on QF.

Reading this thread makes me glad I started to burn off all of my QFF points a while ago now and have reallocated most of my credit card earn elsewhere. Would be a PITA for high point balance but lower status members here.

 

[tania73]

If QF have made a policy decision to never release J flights to members who have no or low status levels on their own metal, surely they legally must update their t&c?

 

[Quickstatus]

If QF have made a policy decision to never release J flights to members who have no or low status levels on their own metal, surely they legally must update their t&c?

They do release J seats at a level above the "never" level so will be able to avoid that disclosure. Even if it's 1 J

 

[Coley]

Surely this is a bug and not an intentional enhancement. Would be crazy otherwise, and time to burn the remaining points. Been using them up and not earning to QF anyway, but need to do it before status drops further!

It can only be 3 things the way I see it:

- Website bug that just happened to occur at the same time they introduced award upgrades using points and only for NB.

- A deliberate attempt to remove award availability searching from new/low tier accounts and you now have to call them to make an award booking. Maybe the new awards.flights chrome extension put their already disabled website into meltdown.

- An unannounced policy change to severely limit J award booking for low tier QFF members. This could be to open up more award space for point upgrades and force low tier QFF members to book economy flights and then apply for upgrades to business, therefore charging more points for the same booking.

 

[Scr77]

I guess the only way to know for sure is to brave the on hold music and ring up.

 

[ShrinkWrapped]

It's very interesting since I'm waiting for the window to open in 48 hours for a flight back from LHR in March 2017

on QF.com logging in as SG I get 28/2 LHR - MEL on QF 10 available in J
on BA.com I can't see the same availability

so maybe QF is tightening up on premium cabin availability to partners and keeping it only open for SG+?

 

[craiglm]

If QF have made a policy decision to never release J flights to members who have no or low status levels on their own metal, surely they legally must update their t&c?

Just wondering if QF has made any official statement about this?

 

[Doctore1003]

So I just clocked over to Silver status today and decided to compare early-2017 award availability with my partner's Bronze account. I only made a few quick searches and the results were a little puzzling. Even as lowly silver I could see J/F availability on QF metal on MEL-LAX and MEL-LHR in early Feb while nothing came up on my partner's bronze account. But there was no difference in late Feb/early March on these routes (with nothing showing up for either of us) and there was no difference at any time in early 2017 for Asia routes such as MEL-NRT or MEL-JKG.

 

[Scr77]

Just wondering if QF has made any official statement about this?

I Private Messaged Red Roo yesterday asking for a response to made on this thread.

BA.com also shows the same poor availability.

It would be nice to know if this is a glitch or new policy.

 

[Coley]

I also noticed ExpertFlyer returning strange award results for some Asian routes as well. EF shows almost no availability on QF metal for month Feb/March (same as Bronze FF), while a Gold FF account shows J on QF available nearly every day. Haven't had a chance to look at US or Europe yet.

 

[Pushka]

The US flights get taken almost immediately. Feb flights have been out for a few weeks now. I start searching weeks before release date so I grab them asap. If I am lucky I get them and this is through a WP account.

 

[Scr77]

The US flights get taken almost immediately. Feb flights have been out for a few weeks now. I start searching weeks before release date so I grab them asap. If I am lucky I get them and this is through a WP account.

I don't think this is just a high demand issue. There are still plenty of Premium and some business seats available 2015. Hard to believe that every seat other than economy for Feb and March have gone so quickly.

 

[Coley]

I don't think this is just a high demand issue. There are still plenty of Premium and some business seats available 2015. Hard to believe that every seat other than economy for Feb and March have gone so quickly.

Exactly. This no/low availability of award flights is far above the normal high demand cycle. Even typically low demand routes have no availability.

 

[TahoeSkier]

Has anyone actually phoned the QF booking line for a 'pls explain'?

Is it possible that by actually phoning to book, seats could be found that don't show as available on the website?

 

[Pushka]

Has anyone actually phoned the QF booking line for a 'pls explain'?

Is it possible that by actually phoning to book, seats could be found that don't show as available on the website?

Depends on status.

 

[TahoeSkier]

Depends on status.

Well even for me as a lowly Bronze bottom feeder - I am curious to know whether calling direct could yield a better result than the 'zero availability' experience on the QFF website. Someone mentioned this as a possibility early in the thread.

Might have to put a call in.