QR award availability down to 219 days???

[Pug1]

We are happy and expect to pay for some or our flights and it's a matter of working out the best combo of pay and award. The whole process is complicated because we cruise from Bergen to Montreal so have to fly into Oslo and out of Montreal. Don't want to enter the US and not really keen on Air Canada! Buying the two one-way flights is really expensive in J and I have thought of trying for the one-way awards into Oslo and out of Montreal and pay for a return Canberra/Doha. Interestingly Qatar has a direct flight from Montreal to Doha four days a week and although a fairly long way home it is quite attractive to us. My strategy is to take whichever option comes up first and then pay for the rest. This drives my wife mad as she likes to "get it done"

 

[CaptJCool]

Well CBR - DOH do exist...



Although I did note MEL, SYD, ADL or PER Are options too



Also, it’s worth looking in each day separately as the CBR-Per-DOH didn’t register as J or F available. The 8th showed on the calendar of dates as just Y availability

 

[Pushka]

Well CBR - DOH do exist...

View attachment 184432

Although I did note MEL, SYD, ADL or PER Are options too

View attachment 184429

Also, it’s worth looking in each day separately as the CBR-Per-DOH didn’t register as J or F available. The 8th showed on the calendar of dates as just Y availability

What does the asterisk mean though?

 

[Pug1]

thank you Captjcool. I will keep trying. Happy to go via Adelaide Melbourne or Perth and I was going to check if Qantas had a direct Canberra Perth flight. Would be wonderful to get the whole award Canberra to Oslo, we live in hope.

 

[CaptJCool]

What does the asterisk mean though?

Point taken. It means one or more of the flights is at a different booking class than the sought after booking class.... this can work both ways. Y domestic and J/F international or Y J domestic and Y international (to be avoided)

On the upside.... F out of Perth is lower points than F out of the East Coast so this approach is doable

 

[Pushka]

Point taken. It means one or more of the flights is at a different booking class than the sought after booking class.... this can work both ways. Y domestic and J/F international or Y J domestic and Y international (to be avoided)

On the upside.... F out of Perth is lower points than F out of the East Coast so this approach is doable

View attachment 184439

When I’ve seen that asterisk recently there has been a domestic in J and the rest of the ‘real’ flights on Qatar have been in economy. And that is true for award searches that throw up F so-called availability. It’s deceptive.

 

[CaptJCool]

When I’ve seen that asterisk recently there has been a domestic in J and the rest of the ‘real’ flights on Qatar have been in economy. And that is true for award searches that throw up F so-called availability. It’s deceptive.

Yea sadly not fail-safe nor fool-proof

So it’s a case of double-checking and if it looks too good to be true it’s probably false

 

[Battymum]

All flights available again this morning for travel on 22/8 except for ADL. Although interestingly no economy seats only business class.
PUG I notice CBR to DOH is available but as mentioned earlier this flight is always first to go. It won’t be available by the time the European flights open up tomorrow -
This is why you won’t ever see availability all the way to Oslo. You should grab this leg as soon as your dates open up.

 

[Battymum]

Although interestingly checking the returns - there is nothing showing for IST-DOH only RJ flights - and everything prior to the 21st has disappeared - they were definitely there previously. The flights fromDOH to Oz are all there.
Definitely something funny going on with QR I think

 

[KarenD]

Argh let's hope it settles down ASAP

 

[Pug1]

All flights available again this morning for travel on 22/8 except for ADL. Although interestingly no economy seats only business class.
PUG I notice CBR to DOH is available but as mentioned earlier this flight is always first to go. It won’t be available by the time the European flights open up tomorrow -
This is why you won’t ever see availability all the way to Oslo. You should grab this leg as soon as your dates open up.

Yes I saw them too. Will grab the CBR to DOH leg if I can. My first date is soon.

 

[jaseb]

Yesterday I managed to get 2x J Award seats flying QR MEL-DOH-CDG (QSuites DOH-CDG) for 20/08/2020 (361 days out) using QFF points

 

[KarenD]

OMG what a stressful morning but....i got it done!!!!! I called at about 820am and 845am, and the first callback was too early by 10mins and they refused to wait on the line, second call back was at 953am so i tried to stall it and it hung up on me! Anyway luckily it classified as "failed" and i got a second call back and it was all fine!

They charged me a service fee and a change fee which i think it wrong, but i will query that later, just glad to get it all done!

Can anyone confirm my calculations for yesterday's flight booking?

I used 104K pts per person for SYD to DOH in J and it's meant to be 139K points each total for SYD to LHR via DOH in J.

The rep quoted me an extra 96K points for adding DOH to LHR for two people, but it should be 80K from my calculations? (139,000 - 104,000 + 5,000 (change fee) = 40,000 each).

The points haven't been deducted yet, although the flight is ticketed and my credit card was charged.

Hopefully they charge the right amount, when they do eventually charge it.

 

[Battymum]

I can’t find anything right now - but you may have been charged 8000 points for the call centre fee, but this should be waived if your booking is in business class

 

[KarenD]

I can’t find anything right now - but you may have been charged 8000 points for the call centre fee, but this should be waived if your booking is in business class

Hmmm yes maybe. Will have to wait to see what comes out in the wash and then question it if need be. Every point counts with the 15% business class award points increase in Septemer!

 

[kempvet]

Try searching CBR-DOH - I havent searched this option, but as it leaves on the same day I am assuming it would be released at the same time.
The chances of that flight being available the next day are very slim. I havent seen it happen in all the months I have been tracking.

AS a QR Emerald I can see award availability for CBR-DOH but here is the kicker, the SYD-DOH leg is normal award pricing in J but when CBR-DOH is selected then it is double the award Miles (flexi award). Going on this metric, maybe the CBR-DOH is not available to other oneworld award programs.

 

[Pug1]

Hi kempvet, thank you for this insight. I'm not too worried about the Canberra to Sydney leg as we can get a cheap Y ticket. Only touble is getting from domestic to international at Sydney via train or coach. I thought Melbourne to Doha might be a better option as I think you can walk from domestic to international in Melbourne. I've just checked a couple of Qatar awards and could have booked Syd to Oslo on 22nd August next year a few minutes ago. I also noted that QR909 Syd/DOH was available late yesterday and is obviously still available to combine with the Oslo leg. Maybe the trick is to login just before the next day awards become available and if you can see the first leg is still available you should be able to book the two legs. All very tricky. I understand the Canberra sector was a way of Qatar getting the second Sydney flight so they are probably not too worried about filling that sector and apparantly cannot do so anyway due to take off weight.

 

[jaseb]

Hi kempvet, thank you for this insight. I'm not too worried about the Canberra to Sydney leg as we can get a cheap Y ticket. Only touble is getting from domestic to international at Sydney via train or coach. I thought Melbourne to Doha might be a better option as I think you can walk from domestic to international in Melbourne. I've just checked a couple of Qatar awards and could have booked Syd to Oslo on 22nd August next year a few minutes ago. I also noted that QR909 Syd/DOH was available late yesterday and is obviously still available to combine with the Oslo leg. Maybe the trick is to login just before the next day awards become available and if you can see the first leg is still available you should be able to book the two legs. All very tricky. I understand the Canberra sector was a way of Qatar getting the second Sydney flight so they are probably not too worried about filling that sector and apparantly cannot do so anyway due to take off weight.

This is the approach I found success with recently:
Log in at ~9:50AM and confirm the initial outbound leg (in your case SYD-DOH) is available on outbound day 1, and if so, refresh at 10:00AM when the onward leg becomes available on outbound day 2 (in your case DOH-OSL).

 

[Battymum]

This is what I plan on doing - if it’s not still available I will grab QR907 -and add ongoing sectors the next day.

QR909 is often there the next day. QR907 goes quickly as it’s a QSuite flight.
but I thought you were set on getting the flight from CBR.

 

[jaseb]

This is what I plan on doing - if it’s not still available I will grab QR907 -and add ongoing sectors the next day.

QR909 is often there the next day. QR907 goes quickly as it’s a QSuite flight.
but I thought you were set on getting the flight from CBR.

We ended up taking QR905 & QR037... gives us plenty of time in the Doha QR J lounge and 7 hours in QSuites for the onward leg. Better than the paid Y we are used to flying