Unable to find any rewards flights when and where I'm hoping

DrGear

Intern
Joined
Feb 24, 2021
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Qantas
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Trying to find some rewards seats to Japan end of the year/beginning of next year and it seems as though there's nothing. Well, nothing J anyway. Am I basically SOL or will some others maybe become available over the next few months? I got a million plus QFF but no status or anything as the points come through the business Amex.
 
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Christmas New Year is very tough for reward seats. If any ever gets released, blink and you'll miss it so you'd want to be checking twice a day every day until Christmas.
 
Christmas New Year is very tough for reward seats. If any ever gets released, blink and you'll miss it so you'd want to be checking twice a day every day until Christmas.
I was even looking to late January/early February as I want to go snow again and travel with some friends.
Might just have to see what I can score if I check regularly.
 
Award seats over the Dec/Jan peak get snapped up pretty much as soon as they are released which was back in Jan. There may be a random cancellation or odd extra seat release but likely you left it too late.
 
Award seats over the Dec/Jan peak get snapped up pretty much as soon as they are released which was back in Jan. There may be a random cancellation or odd extra seat release but likely you left it too late.
Didn't have a chance to jump onboard unfortunately, had a bunch of staff issues that left me working 7 days a week trying to stop my business collapsing. Wouldn't have been able to afford the charges. Even then when I was looking there was next to nothing available.
 
If you can switch your business Amex to one that earns Membership Rewards rather than Qantas points, you'll have a lot more flexibility with how to redeem them. Locking yourself into Qantas, especially when you don't have high level status and therefore the ability to request the release of reward seats, is a recipe for disappointment.
 
unfortunately has others have said you're most likely out of luck, baring some random release that you just happen to spot and are able to grab - most specially in J - due to the peak travel period. You're not the only ones who want to go snow, or any number of other things during this popular period.

Unfortunately this is one of those situations where being able to plan ahead and jump on things as released is your best bet.

Having sad that, you could TRY to get creative - for example look to get to a point in Asia, and look for reward seats from there (for example on Malaysian via KUL, or Cathay via HKG, or JL direct of course). Other options may be lower cost airlines with a premium cabin such as Jetstar or Scoot. Anoher longer way around may be to try multi city and see what is available via China Airlines (CI) - though I suspect any seats have already been snapped up.

Of course given the high demand period, prices will be at a premium, let alone rare options for reward seats, but if you want to use points you may need to get very creative.

The other thing is that perhaps if you have any points in another program like Virgin VFF or a Singapore Airlines account may offer options on carriers like ANA (NH) or Singapore Airlines (SQ).
 
Also, there may be something available one way but not both ways, especially if you have flexibility with the dates on which you travel.
Similar to you, I'm keeping my eye on SIN around Christmas time. Zero rewards outbound but there are some J seats coming back to Australia.
 

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