Outside the realm of Qantas, partner awards are usually referred to as "saver". Hence I use the terminology classic award when referring to a Qantas "saver" award and the terminology saver award when the Qantas flight was booked outside of QFF.
”Saver” is a very North American term that was probably introduced when the various programs were ‘enhanced’ to let you drop thousands of more points where the early release reward seats were taken - even before dynamically priced redemptions were a thing. Yes, it’s not limited to the US, SQ also has this model, no doubt as do others.
And, it'll be used less into the future: Elimination of AA Saver Awards in Coming Weeks: Implications for Partner Airline Redemptions? (QFF/BAEC/etc.)
Well it may suit your personal world view, but these are not terms QF themselves currently use and thus can be confusing to other forum members suddenly wondering how to find a "saver" seat.
There is a funny/destructive logic to award programs around the world.
The award programs set up by the airlines aren't designed for people who collect points, they're designed for people who use the points. There are many collectors out there who spent decades collecting frequent flyer points only to figure out that their simple searches won't get them what they're looking for (i.e. no availability) or cost nearly all their points (i.e. 500,000 point Delta One award to Sydney from LA). Those who know that ins and the outs of the program and practice award aerobics every week (to figure out that if they fly to MEX instead of LAX, they can get the same Delta One award for 90,000 points) are the only real winners here!
That's why I find it always amusing to read questions or (totally wrong) answers in the Qantas Points Collector groups on Facebook. It's like stand-up comedy/a zoo/a tragedy but I find it certainly utmost entertaining!
Depends what you mean by 'designed for'.
What's the point of Qantas Points? Between the credit cards, hotels, supermarkets, shopping portals, surveys, flights, banks, energy suppliers, pet insurance, petrol stations, wine, car rentals and Binge there are many ways to earn points. But there's no way to actually use them! And really, in my opinion, the whole using them bit is sort of the point of collecting points. Oh sure, Alan Joyce will say we've released a record number of award seats to our valued frequent flyers? But who is actually getting those seats? Is it you or me? No! It's someone on a frequent flyer forum or has an in with the airline to find out where these seats are available? Qantas Points? More like Qantas Pointless!
YMMV
We are flying creatively to Mumbai, Heathrow and return to Australia this May, in J, all booked on points. Using a curious blend of MH and KLM.
Those are all very excellent points and strategies I have used in the past (except for the international upgrade bit since apparently QF doesn't know how to upgrade international flights, a story for another thread). I suppose what I am saying is how casual travellers are pitched how they can use points (i.e. book your next dream vacation to LA, Rome or Hawaii in business class using points) isn't the reality, sadly. Fact of the matter is there are a very small number of flights to those premium destinations QF promotes and even fewer award seats available.
The examples that come to my mind, and are in the press release itself under popular international destinations include: London, Los Angeles, Tokyo, Auckland and Fiji. The first two destinations are a challenge to find (I can't count the number of threads on AFF discussing this very point). Auckland can be very hit or miss for business whilst Tokyo and Fiji tend to have decent award availability.
You can literally do that right now using the Where Can I Go? search on the Qantas website.
The whole point of marketing is to create aspiration, not reality. Given that QFF rakes money by selling points, they have positioned themselves very well. The fact that the supply of redemptions is constrained is a minor annoyance in their books...
And now Everywhere Australia sale is on until 2 March!
Nothing in the half yearly results. Shame.
The first is travel demand, which remains very robust, particularly for leisure. While interest rates and inflation are expected to hit discretionary spending at some point, we’re yet to see any signs of that in our bookings. In fact, the research shows travel is one area that people want to prioritise over the next 12 months.
Why did they then launch a sale involving over 1 million seats?
You raise a very good point. I think the combination of sale fares along with opening up additional classic award seats for frequent flyers suggests there is a softening of demand on forward bookings. Yes, it is true that demand remains high but keep in mind capacity hasn't fully recovered yet, and given the long-range planning Qantas is doing (including acquiring a new aircraft every 3 weeks over the next 3 years) capacity will recover, likely sometime later this year and Qantas wants to be sure that those newer larger planes go out full. So now that I'm seeing all of this, I reckon we could see a double status credit promotion real soon (perhaps in late March or early April?)
