QF BC Classic Award Seats Seem to be Immediately Taken - Brisbane to London

[mmadness]

Hi there

This is my first post so am very new to FF. I have been watching Qantas Business Class Classic Award availability for November 2015 - Brisbane to London.

This morning Qantas seats for the 8th November 2015 dropped in on the website around 10 am Qld time but all QF business class was gone in an instant. I was checking every couple of minutes. One minute there were no QF flights only CX and the next the QF flights were there but all taken.

How do people manage to get these seats so quickly?

The Cathay Pacific seats seem to operate on a different timetable being released about a week sooner than Qantas and seem to be easier to secure.

Any help would be appreciated.

 

[Hvr]

Good to see you haven't rushed your first post mmadness.

There are many people who take the opportunity to book their award seats the minute they become available to ensure they get multiple seats for their family to travel. It's one of the ways to maximise the full benefits of being a frequent flyer with lots of points.

 

[Pushka]

People watch the clock tick down and grab them as soon as they open. To the minute!

 

[blu]

With 10million members QFF is very competitive. I've taken 6 weeks to get two LHR-SYD (at T-353 days).

 

[JohnPhelan]

You can set alerts in ExpertFlyer where you will be notified when the seats become available. You can then log onto the QF site and snaffle them, before most people will even know they are available.

This is also a good tactic to use closer to the flight date, because Yield Management does sometimes release seats at a later date (because of award cancellations or because extra award seats have been released).

 

[serfty]

... using iMacros you can do it in seconds ...

... Just like booking tickets to popular concerts/shows/sports ...

 

[twoharts]

serfty; what are iMacros and where do you get them?

 

[Danger]

It's also possible Qantas didn't release any seats.

You can set alerts in ExpertFlyer where you will be notified when the seats become available. You can then log onto the QF site and snaffle them, before most people will even know they are available.

This is also a good tactic to use closer to the flight date, because Yield Management does sometimes release seats at a later date (because of award cancellations or because extra award seats have been released).

I've found there to be a significant delay in EF seat alerts and I personally wouldn't rely on them for a QF award seat, other than within (rather than at) 353 days.

 

[trippin_the_rift]

Most airlines do staged releases of seats. It doesn't make financial sense to release all award seats straight up 365 days out when you will likely sell those seats for cash.
Also keep in mind you're against 10million members + tens of millions of oneworld members. There are companies out there that can snipe seats for you as soon as they are released.
Additionally with the change of QF codeshares the number of extra award seats compared to paid seats does not scale - so technically your chances of scoring an award seat are less than years gone by.

Personally my view is if you're saving up points for years on end to hopefully one day redeem on Qantas you should forget it unless you are Plat1 or higher.
Availability in premium cabins on star alliance is much better and in most cases cheaper and easier to obtain than QF. For example Malaysian is 110,000 points return to europe where Qantas is 256,000. Your Aussie credit card likely earns Malaysian points at the same rate as Qantas and redeeming on malaysian is very easy.

 

[serfty]

Notwithstanding MH being *O rather than *A that is indicative of how exhorbitant QFF award are.

 

[opusman]

MH is no good for toasters though.

 

[JohnK]

serfty; what are iMacros and where do you get them?

A way of automating the browser. Record and replay repetitious work.

Download from internet if your browser does not already have them.

 

[twoharts]

thanks JohnK I'll download and try, should help with booking classic awards Aus to Chile in business, can get 1 way but having difficulty with the other way, always seem to be "sold out" ???? and not available

 

[coco50]

Hi there

This is my first post so am very new to FF. I have been watching Qantas Business Class Classic Award availability for November 2015 - Brisbane to London.

This morning Qantas seats for the 8th November 2015 dropped in on the website around 10 am Qld time but all QF business class was gone in an instant. I was checking every couple of minutes. One minute there were no QF flights only CX and the next the QF flights were there but all taken.

How do people manage to get these seats so quickly?

The Cathay Pacific seats seem to operate on a different timetable being released about a week sooner than Qantas and seem to be easier to secure.

Any help would be appreciated.

I planned a RTW trip for me and my wife. As much as possible we wanted to travel first class on points. I had talked to Qantas FF long before the first legs became available. I told my travel agent of this and she got the "good oil" from QF. On the day that seats opened she tried for my preferred departure date but the seats were gone. Note that on an A380 there are only 14 first class seats and usually there will only be two (if that) award seats. As luck would have it, there were two first class seats from SYD - DXB the following day and we were also lucky enough to get first class seats on BA from DXB to LHR 5 days later. If I had waited until all legs of my trip were open I would have been lucky to get economy. The moral of the story:

* Book early
* Use a good travel agent to do the bookings
* be prepared to book a sector at a time (expensive in points, but who cares if travelling in comfort is the main criterion)

 

[pks]

I'm also a long time lurker....

I found several years ago that waiting to book a return meant losing any chance of getting outbound seats on premium, so have set an alarm/notification to book when seats are released. Then 2-3 weeks later do the same to get return seats. It's also very worthwhile calling QFF as they will more easily search multiple routes to find availability.

This year I flew SYD-NRT-LHR return with QF/BA in business and customer service tried very hard to add a 3rd OW carrier to get the trip for 280k points.

 

[Dr Bob]

Welcome mmadness, I was in a similar position last August wanting to do J London Sydney between 15th & 18th Aug 2015 & found the release of QF J was so unreliable or via USA or SA, that CX was the way to go & seemed readily available by comparison. An extra 11,000 points per ticket BUT a saving of nearly $500 per ticket in T&Cs - QF 570GBP & CX 306GBP. Did a phone booking so extra 10,000 points (2 tickets) but got an overnight stopover in HK to break the trip.