QF FF not showing JL First Class award availability?

[vantage03]

Hi all,
I was looking to book First Class return SYD-NRT on JAL in November.

Both the JAL Mileage Bank website and the AA AAdvantage call centre are confirming availability on my flights.

However, two different Qantas FF agents (via the call centre) are saying there is no availability on those flights.
I don't have AA miles unfortunately.

Is this normal? I thought a number of Aussies had been booking JL F with QF points?
I've previously done it using CX Asia Miles, however I don't have enough in my account to book at the moment.

Any insight as to what is going on here? Possibly that QF is blocking JAL First Class? I doubt that's the case. They were showing Economy available, but that's it..!

 

[moa999]

Not sure.if AA can see it then so should QF

 

[vantage03]

Called Asia Miles and they can see it too. Something going wrong with QF I'd guess...

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Called Asia Miles and they can see it too. Something going wrong with QF I'd guess...

Maybe they have to do a long sell? (manual request). Can't hurt to call QF, say CX/JL/AA can all see it, and see if QF can look into it.

I know when I booked JL flights earlier this year for a family member, the AA res agent was having some difficulty securing the JL seats, he had to do a lot of tapping to get each segment. Not sure if that's related in any way.

 

[vantage03]

I explained to the QF agents that both JL and AA could see the seats.
There was a firm "There is no Z Class availability" response. Additionally, one said that "Perhaps it's because AA is codesharing with JL"... ergh.
I am just going to xfer miles to Asia Miles and book it that way assuming the seats are still available... for 120K points vs double that on QF it's better value anyway.

 

[Croupier]

When I booked my F flights using QF points I used BA to search availability, I then spoonfed the agent the date, time and flight numbers of the available award and they booked it for me, also ask to have the telephone fee waived.

I can see availability now on BA
Good luck.

 

[Croupier]

Just a quick update,
i just spoke to an agent now and they could see the 2 seats available in the screenshot I posted?
All she asked for was the destination and dates. NRT-SYD 11/11/15 and she could see it.

I re read your OP and realize you want SYD return I can also see the SYD-NRT availability on BA

 

[Croupier]

OK I would call back if I were you, I just did another enquiry for you and they could see the exact availabity as the BA award search engine. Here is the example flight booking I gave them

 

[trippin_the_rift]

To complicate things further....

Airlines sell award seats to each other at different rates (although agreements generally state it's at an agreed industry standard rate that last X years).
This also means airlines control the inventory flow to partner airlines based on a number of factors. For example: If JL and QF are not friends - JL could restrict block certain inventory from QFF, which actually devalues the QFF program. Similar to how SQ blocks inventory from United Airlines. So in theory JL could be making more revenue by selling the seat to Asia Miles than to QFF and therefore prioritizes the inventory on channels that drive more revenue.

(Disclaimer: There are pricing, inventory and partner/oneworld agreements along with a number of other factors - but the above scenario is possible under some conditions but not necessarily the case in this example)

However in saying that it could be a case of QF systems not being in sync. Hard to tell.

I think you've done the right thing by securing the seat quickly!

 

[vantage03]

Thanks for checking it all out Croupier, I'll try QF again today and see what they come up with..!

 

[Saintza]

I had this issue a few months ago when I phoned up to book a couple of award RTW fares. First agent couldn't see any availability when I knew it existed. Second agent found them no problem. Apparently there's 2 different ways for them to check availability and the first agent was looking in the wrong place. When I asked in the oneworld award thread, user gbetox replied with: "Same thing happened to me. I asked the phone assistant to double-check, and when she searched through "redemption" instead of "flight availability", she was able to see the seats and grab them."

 

[Croupier]

Thanks for checking it all out Croupier, I'll try QF again today and see what they come up with..!

Your welcome, I know how frustrating it can be.

 

[Spizz]

Croupier out of curiosity how many QF points was JL in F from SYD-HND?

 

[Croupier]

Croupier out of curiosity how many QF points was JL in F from SYD-HND?

It was 114000 per person and about $150 in tax if I recall correctly. The flights I booked were NRT to SYD though points should be the same either direction.

 

[aaronjames000]

+1 Booked 2x Syd-nrt JAL F for Feb for 114k QFF points + $150ish per person

 

[Spizz]

Thank you.

 

[Croupier]

I'm going to refund my 2 x NRT - SYD F tickets for the 17th of March.
I just added The same flights (but leaving 2 days earlier) to an existing AA award award for only 20k miles and a USD175 change fee And I'll take my 218000 Qantas points + taxes back thank you.
Hopefully the 2 cancelled seats go back into the award pool

 

[vantage03]

Yes good call!

I ended up missing out on my ideal dates whilst QF screwed around and my miles took 5 days to transfer from Amex MR to CX Asiamiles.

Made a booking either side of the ideal days for a total of 120K points return (F SYD-NRT-SYD).

Then the next day my ideal return flight became available, so CX changed my date. The day after that, my ideal outbound flight became available so we changed the ticket again.

Both times taxes had to be refunded and repaid, but no matter. Have my perfect flights and only 120K points!

Take off in 3 weeks