Very disappointed about Qantas FF program

[Litesource]

After accruing Qantas points over many years & many $ spent, I've been trying since early November to Book business class FF seats to Kenya around early May & prepared to go via any city, but there are no classic rewards seats available to Nairobi from now to the end of the year, this means their FF prgram is basically useless & fraudulent. Trying to be flexible, I searched going via Johanesburg & as the flights are via Dubai & min 18hrs, paying for direct economy flights with another airline to Nairobi.

However, although their points calculator says it's 104,800 points each way, however when you search it comes out at around 230,000 points plus $503.00 each way, for "Classic PLUS", this has been recently introduced & seems to be a devious way to get you to use up more than double the points.

I have written directly to Vanessa Hudson the CEO & Andvrew Glance CEO of Qantas rewards but although I got a call from someone from his dept it lead nowhere as have other calls, I've wasted many hours I dont have.

ARE OTHERS HAVING THESE SORTS OF FRUSTRATIONS?

 

[muppet]

Wanting to redeem points during peak travel season for Europe and USA will always be difficult.

You just have to keep trying, often and many alternative options. Travelling in premium cabins for next to nothing will always come at some other cost - in this case its your time and effort.

 

[justinbrett]

Qantas don’t fly to Nairobi, so you’re reliant on Emirates releasing reward seats.

There seems to be plenty of availability for economy seats, but if EK don’t release business seats on the route, there’s not much Qantas can do.

The onus is on you to select your loyalty programs based on the strengths and coverage of the airline. It would be similar to joining VA’s velocity and then complaining they can’t get reward seats to Auckland.

 

[moa999]

In general premium class awards are the first to go and you often need to be booking as soon as they are released (typical 11-12 months in advance).

Oneworld doesn't really have any African coverage, and Nairobi is only covered by Qatar from Doha and BA from London from oneworld, or Emirates from Dubai.

 

[RooFlyer]

Wanting to redeem points during peak travel season for Europe and USA will always be difficult.

But the OP isn't trying to get to Europe or USA, & not in peak season?

Welcome to AFF @Litesource . Yes, its a long standing problem with the Qantas FF program that the demand for 'reward' seats vastly exceeds supply. And you are right, 'classic plus' is a bit of a rort to soak up more punts from the punters.

As moa999 said, getting to east Africa is particularly difficult on Qantas FF. Qatar, even though a OneWorld partner, isn't really available on QFF (a long story).

Probably the best you can do is get as close as you can on an award flight and pay from there. But even that may not work. In any event, I'm afraid you really have to look 10-12 months out. QFF is a terrible program for users.

 

[muppet]

But the OP isn't trying to get to Europe or USA, & not in peak season?

Welcome to AFF @Litesource . Yes, its a long standing problem with the Qantas FF program that the demand for 'reward' seats vastly exceeds supply. And you are right, 'classic plus' is a bit of a rort to soak up more punts from the punters.

As moa999 said, getting to east Africa is particularly difficult on Qantas FF. Qatar, even though a OneWorld partner, isn't really available on QFF (a long story).

Probably the best you can do is get as close as you can on an award flight and pay from there. But even that may not work. In any event, I'm afraid you really have to look 10-12 months out. QFF is a terrible program for users.

I meant peak travel season for USA and European travellers which is summer. Redemptions May to September are much more difficult due to the number of European and American travellers.

 

[elanshin]

So the problem here is May 2025. You're 3 months from your desired travel time. This is pretty much the most awkward timing.

Your realistic routing to NBO is almost certainly on emirates via dubai (DXB).

A quick search on emirates about 9-12 months out shows availability all the time. But if you then narrow it to much closer there's almost nothing mainly because it's all booked.

But if you wait to about 4-6 weeks before loads more open up again. I believe there's availability for PER - DXB for every other day in March. SYD/MEL is a lot closer to flight dates (or they could be booked already with how fast people are with alerts these days).

QFF has value, but it is much harder to extract the value because the value now because of increased people looking as well as the ease of the tools thats available.

Those searches for example took me 5 mins on my phone to do and another a minute on the QF website to verify they exist.

Edit: even re-reading that you started your search in Nov, thats about 8 months out so 3 months after the first wave of awards were released on emirates.
Just curious but was your search specifically Australia (SYD/MEL/BNE) > Dubai (DXB) and DXB > Nairobi (NBO) or just a general Australia> Nairobi?

 

[justinbrett]

Good news, VA will sell you QR J reward seats for just a cool 2.6M points each way



Lol. It's a QF specific problem that demand exceeds supply And CR+ is a rort!

 

[DejaBrew]

Welcome aboard AFF @Litesource

As others have suggested, timing, cabin class etc will not be working in your favour. Like any other loyalty program, QFF is a bit of a game and half the battle is understanding how to play it. Even with deep knowledge, you need a little luck on your side.

Most here will agree that CR+ is a poor use of points, but they do occasionally offer reasonable options (given they're directly tied to the revenue fare cost) and for those who have zero flexibility and points to burn, they do offer a way of getting seats that would otherwise not be available via standard CR.

 

[p--and--t]

We flew on QFF points J to Nairobi and eastern Europe a couple years back.

We starting looking 9 months out.

We flew...
QF to HKG
QR to DOH
QR to NAI
BA to LHR
BA to SOF
Etc etc

It is possible but not at short notice and you need to be flexible.

 

[jase05]

We flew on QFF points J to Nairobi and eastern Europe a couple years back.

We starting looking 9 months out.

We flew...
QF to HKG
QR to DOH
QR to NAI
BA to LHR
BA to SOF
Etc etc

It is possible but not at short notice and you need to be flexible.

That must have been whilst QR was still talking to QF.
Would be almost zero chance of that itinerary these days

 

[p--and--t]

That must have been whilst QR was still talking to QF.
Would be almost zero chance of that itinerary these days

They are there, but not ex AU

 

[jase05]

They are there, but not ex AU

I was under the impression that QR only release awards to QF a few weeks out now

 

[elanshin]

They are there, but not ex AU

QR doesn't give anything to QF now until the literal last minute.
You could do it on VFF but not QFF.

 

[tdimdad]

It's a tricky route from QFF viewpoint. You could find e.g. these Emirates flights from Perth but the fees are astronomical.


Have you possibly checked for options departing from SE Asia? Get a cheap flight to there and catch your J flight from there? It might provide more options to you.

 

[drron]

Unless you have top status in QFF you are going to be exceedingly lucky to get classic award flights to places you want to go at times you want to go. Pre covid you could look at the time of release which was basically a year out for platinums which Mrsdrron had until late last year. but now the awards can be released any time So unless you have some way of being notified when a release is made classic rewards are like t**s on a bull. You can't find them. Now I have a seats aero Pro account so I can set up notifications. Often though the will not show up for mrsdrron now an LTG.

So in November last year we were a little late trying to book business class awards to Europe. Not so bad once you are out of Australia. A few days after I started looking got a notification of a QF classic reward in J. But it was on JQ BNE-BKK. But at least we got rid of some QFF points. From BKK absolutely zilch on QFF apart from Classic plus. But bot VA and AA had J awards on QR at basic prices. AA is a much better option - less points and much less "taxes". So we are flying BKK -DOH -MAN. We could have got awards into LHR but seeing our first few days will be in Wales that was for us.

On th way back flying DOH - BKK in first class on QR.

If you have US family then AA could be worthwhile considering. Not as good as it used to be but ok if you can get a US AA CC.
Or if you can get a UK CC Marriott have a UK CC and the Marriott points can be sent to AA.

PS in January next year you can still get a VA award on SQ from SIN to JNB. And this is school holidays.