Using Qantas Assisted Award Flight Reservations

[josko]

Learned Friends

Can anyone advise me about using the Qantas Award Flight Reservations facility?

I understand that you can call the Q operator and they will (for a fee of 2,500 points) advise you of what award flights are available.

My question is this. Do they only give you award oportunities for a nominated date i.e August 1 or can you ask them to check availability say over a 2 week period? i.e 2 business class return airfares to London between August 1 to August 14

Also, is it better to trawl the Q award flights online or use the Q operator?

I don't want waste my time with an operator if you have to go through options day by day?

Thanks for the help everyone

 

[JohnK]

I understand that you can call the Q operator and they will (for a fee of 2,500 points) advise you of what award flights are available.

No fee charged for just inquiring about availability. The fee is only charged when using them to make the booking and even then it can be waived under certain circumstances.

My question is this. Do they only give you award oportunities for a nominated date i.e August 1 or can you ask them to check availability say over a 2 week period? i.e 2 business class return airfares to London between August 1 to August 14

I spent a bit time over the phone trying to book my RTW Oneworld award and from my experience they are quite happy to provide you availability for a 2 week period if you wish. On a few routes, I couldn't get them in the end anyway, they would search up to 3 months in advance and still no seats available. So maybe they have a much more powerful search tool than is available on the QF website.

Also, is it better to trawl the Q award flights online or use the Q operator?

This is awlays a good start just so you know some options.

 

[drron]

Before booking our business RTW awards for 2 I searched QF,CX and AA to see what was available and then rang QFF.Even though I could see availability particularly on CX I could not get this through QF.Although the agent did look at other dates I did not find her helpful and ended up having to accept a WT+ segment and an economy segment.When booking a similiar award with AA and only 7 months out from travel(12 months with QF) I got a lot more help and all segments in business including 2 QF segments.