QF rewards (lack of availability), SING-MEL Oct 23

[SYD]

Having flown Singapore a couple of times, I'd argue that their hard and soft product across all cabins is a cut above Qantas (apologies for ardent Qantas flyers who are offended, it's the truth though). Only downside I see to Singapore if travelling in business would be that their lounge at SIN isn't great (at least the KrisFlyer Gold lounge I visited back in late 2018) - no restroom in the lounge - seriously?

Obviously you’re not flown SQ recently ex SIN. They’ve refurbed the KrisFlyer Gold lounge for those travelling in whY on *A (now includes a loo etc).

But also refurbed and enlarged the SilverKris Lounge for J PAX. But that always had shower and loos. If you went to the Gold lounge travelling in J, then you were in the wrong place.

But meanwhile, none of that helps if the OP is limited to QFF points in the short term.

 

[levelnine]

But meanwhile, none of that helps if the OP is limited to QFF points in the short term.

Yes & no. It would probably only take 1-2 credit card sign up bonuses to earn enough to Velocity points to fly the 4 persons in economy class. That could be done in a month or two.

 

[flyingdoc`]

Thanks for the advice.
Used up most of my VA / SQ points for Mel- Europe, Europe - singapore business class with SQ. Didn't quite have enough to complete the whole trip.
So was hoping to get the last leg via QF points.
I can see classic rewards econ via Hong Kong with Cathay, but the flight duration (18 hours cf 7.5 hours) is highly undesirable, esp in Econ.

Post automatically merged: Dec 2, 2022

Yes & no. It would probably only take 1-2 credit card sign up bonuses to earn enough to Velocity points to fly the 4 persons in economy class. That could be done in a month or two.

Yep. This is my other option, if the award seats remain available.

 

[levelnine]

Yep. This is my other option, if the award seats remain available.

If I were in your position, I'd start accumulating the necessary VA/SQ points via credit cards and hold out on booking anything with Qantas. Qantas have been releasing batches of award seats at irregular intervals. There's a good chance something will come up on Qantas in the new year. Once you acquire the necessary VA/SQ points, book that if Qantas haven't come through with the goods. There should still be something left on SQ, especially in economy, if you can afford to be a little flexible on the precise day you fly.

 

[MELso]

Weirdly, J classic award availability from SIN-MEL opened up for me (a NB) for my flight in late June 2023 a couple of days ago. This was a couple of weeks after Y availability did (alas, I only had enough points for Y given there are 3 pax ), and there was plenty of Y availability too. Prior to that, I booked a classic award flying on JQ from SIN-MEL, but changed that to QF once I saw it was available (taking extreme care to get it ticketed given that one of the other legs is MEL-MXP on QR)...

(And as an aside, QF has not yet deducted the extra points required for the change from JQ to QF. )

So keep your eyes peeled in a couple of months and book Scoot if all else fails...

 

[levelnine]

Weirdly, J classic award availability from SIN-MEL opened up for me (a NB) for my flight late June 2023 a couple of days ago.

Recently there was one of the batch releases of award seats — in this case, to/from SIN, LHR & TYO — that I mentioned in my post. Only for the first half of 2023. And almost all are now gone.

 

[MELso]

Recently there was one of the batch releases of award seats — in this case, to/from SIN, LHR & TYO — that I mentioned in my post. Only for the first half of 2023. And almost all are now gone.

That would explain it then, although they must've opened up Y too. Either way, it highlights that there's benefit in checking every now and then.

(And J award availability seems fine on SIN-MEL in June for anyone interested.)

 

[dsotm]

Thanks for the advice.
Used up most of my VA / SQ points for Mel- Europe, Europe - singapore business class with SQ. Didn't quite have enough to complete the whole trip.
So was hoping to get the last leg via QF points.
I can see classic rewards econ via Hong Kong with Cathay, but the flight duration (18 hours cf 7.5 hours) is highly undesirable, esp in Econ.

Post automatically merged: Dec 2, 2022

Yep. This is my other option, if the award seats remain available.

I've done exactly the same thing. Krisflyer availability was excellent for Europe in September 2023, but I wanted to use Qantas points for the return. Scored CDG to SIN with Classic Rewards on BA for the return, but couldn't get anything for SIN to MEL, except via HKG with Cathay or Tokyo wit JA, both with long flights/layovers and extra points required. I've read that some QA award flyers on Cathay have had there tickets cancelled without reason close to departure dates. I don't want to risk that.

 

[marki]

I have phoned Qantas's overseas numbers with tremendous success.
Sure I was coming from the perspective that Doc was a Bronze, and QF is very status-focused.

Happy to hear of your positivity.

My reply was in no way an indictment of your post. Which I saw as a thoughtful response. I agree Qantas is status-focused, go Bronze is my catchphrase nowadays.

 

[ZMan]

Me and my partner have 1M QFF points and want to travel to Europe Sep and Oct 23. We have no other airline rewards points so Asia Miles / Krisflyer are out of the question.

There are no business classic reward flights to London, Paris, etc on any days that I checked, direct from Sydney or via Singapore or HK.

We're just QFF Bronze and it seems like the points we have are just going to waste.

 

[mviy]

The September school holidays are a highly desirable time to travel. Success is more likely if you avoid peak travel periods.

 

[dsotm]

Me and my partner have 1M QFF points and want to travel to Europe Sep and Oct 23. We have no other airline rewards points so Asia Miles / Krisflyer are out of the question.

There are no business classic reward flights to London, Paris, etc on any days that I checked, direct from Sydney or via Singapore or HK.

We're just QFF Bronze and it seems like the points we have are just going to waste.

Try booking reward seats to Europe from Singapore, Denpasar, Jakarta or KL, then paying for SYD-Asia in Y.

Also make sure you use the multi-city search engine. I found a whole bunch of Emirates J and F seats from Dubai to Denpasar last week for next September, but couldn’t get the Paris to Dubai sector to work. Plus wasn’t keen on going via Bali. It’s a bit of a Rubiks Cube I’m afraid.

 

[marki]

Me and my partner have 1M QFF points and want to travel to Europe Sep and Oct 23. We have no other airline rewards points so Asia Miles / Krisflyer are out of the question.

There are no business classic reward flights to London, Paris, etc on any days that I checked, direct from Sydney or via Singapore or HK.

We're just QFF Bronze and it seems like the points we have are just going to waste.

Hi ZMan, your last sentence confirms the devaluation of QF points despite holding monetary value. You cannot get reward seats or upgrades as you did before. You see it, I see it, some on AFF see it, and some are sympathetic towards Qantas, and some are not. Qantas is the least reliable Australian carrier as travel rebounds. There is a reason behind it. The CEO blamed his passengers, saying we were not a match-fit bunch. Full-stop

 

[levelnine]

Me and my partner have 1M QFF points and want to travel to Europe Sep and Oct 23. We have no other airline rewards points so Asia Miles / Krisflyer are out of the question.

There are no business classic reward flights to London, Paris, etc on any days that I checked, direct from Sydney or via Singapore or HK.

We're just QFF Bronze and it seems like the points we have are just going to waste.

Unfortunately you are in the 'dead zone' for Qantas where points are often useless unless you are happy to engage in the Asia option dsotm mentioned (ie paid or economy redemption flight to Asia + redemption to Europe) or take a gamble on getting a batch release of award seats at the time you want to fly.

Either you need to have so many Qantas points that you don't care about using Points + Pay (ie 2 million points return per person) or you need to abandon Qantas points in favour of better programs (Amex MR, KrisFlyer, Velocity).

 

[dsotm]

It is possible that a lot of Qantas reward bookings will be cancelled around Christmas just before the "no cancellation fees" deal expires. There might be renewed availability.

 

[AustraliaPoochie]

that's if you have a spare day...

As a NB, if you phone through, you will most likely get to the outsourced call center, outside of HBA.
Oct is a time of high demand, as its school holidays in most parts of Aust.
And as QFF NB, any upgrades opportunities would have been taken up by higher status members, and you are down the bottom of the pile.
QFd is different, where if there are seats in the U subclass, you can "burn" points and get them ASAP.
On QFi, its different, its from the top of the status ladder, down to the bottom.
Don't laugh, I have seen points "burn" asking for QFF points in the 1m for some sectors, and that is one way QFi.

 

[mviy]

It is possible that a lot of Qantas reward bookings will be cancelled around Christmas just before the "no cancellation fees" deal expires. There might be renewed availability.

If the reward bookings are cancelled that doesn't mean that those will be released as awards again. If there are high loads on the flight QF will look to sell those seats as revenue seats most likely.

 

[ZMan]

Try booking reward seats to Europe from Singapore, Denpasar, Jakarta or KL, then paying for SYD-Asia in Y.

Also make sure you use the multi-city search engine. I found a whole bunch of Emirates J and F seats from Dubai to Denpasar last week for next September, but couldn’t get the Paris to Dubai sector to work. Plus wasn’t keen on going via Bali. It’s a bit of a Rubiks Cube I’m afraid.

So do you mean searching on Qantas.com and specify starting city as Singapore? I tried that and no classic business seats come up.

Best multi-city route would be starting at KL / Singapore or Jakarta and going through Doha to Europe? So taking the Aussie leg out completely?

 

[dsotm]

Yes, searching ex-Singapore on the multi-city engine. I got my BA flights for September '23 only because I booked as soon the dates opened up in mid-October. I just had a look for rewards from Singapore to London or Paris, and you're right; there's no practical J availability. I did find a Singapore to Gatwick 777/A380 in mid-October but that's probably too far out for you.

You just have to try every day, and watch the various points-related Facebook groups for news.

 

[ZMan]

Yes, searching ex-Singapore on the multi-city engine. I got my BA flights for September '23 only because I booked as soon the dates opened up in mid-October. I just had a look for rewards from Singapore to London or Paris, and you're right; there's no practical J availability. I did find a Singapore to Gatwick 777/A380 in mid-October but that's probably too far out for you.

You just have to try every day, and watch the various points-related Facebook groups for news.

Thanks for the tips mate. We're flexible with dates so will look at mid Oct to Nov 23.

What site did you get that result from? I'm at qantas.com.au and the format of the search results are completely different?