The Qantas website may have plenty of irritating IT bugs, and there are quite a few basic things that can’t be done on it. But one good thing about the Qantas website is that it displays award flight availability for most Qantas Frequent Flyer partner airlines.
This includes reward flights operated by Qantas, all Oneworld airlines except S7 Airlines, and all of Qantas’ other partner airlines including Jetstar, Emirates, LATAM Airlines, Air France, KLM, El Al and China Eastern.
By global airline website standards, this is unusual – and a very good thing! Only a small handful of airline websites display award flight availability for most or all partner airlines. Most frequent flyer programs still require their members to call up if they want to their redeem frequent flyer points to fly on some (or even all) partner airlines.
Unfortunately, while flights on all Qantas partner airlines appear online, there are still a few specific types of Qantas Frequent Flyer redemptions that are not available on the Qantas website.
This doesn’t mean you can’t book these types of flights using Qantas points – but the only way to do so is by phoning the Qantas call centre. This can present some challenges.
Booking Qantas reward flights over the phone
If you’re lucky (or have Platinum or Platinum One status), you’ll get to speak to somebody at the Qantas contact centre who can help you on the first attempt. But some staff at the outsourced overseas call centres in South Africa and Fiji may not be trained well enough to be able to make some types of bookings, or even be able to access the seats as they use a different reservations system to the Qantas call centre staff in Hobart and Auckland. The operators in Cape Town and Suva may tell you there is no award availability, even when there is.
So, dealing with the Qantas call centre can be a mixed bag and often requires multiple calls with very long waits on hold. But if you’re trying to book something that isn’t available online, there aren’t many other options…
If you aren’t able to book online, most Qantas contact centre staff will at least waive the usual Reward Assistance Fee (7,700 Qantas points or $77 for international bookings) that applies to bookings made over the phone.
So, exactly which types of Classic Flight Rewards aren’t available on the Qantas website? Here’s a complete list…
Contents
1. British Airways flights operated by Comair (South Africa)
British Airways has an operation based in South Africa, with flights operated by Comair under a franchise agreement. Comair flights operate under the British Airways brand on a network of South African domestic routes, as well as from Johannesburg to international destinations including Windhoek, Harare, Victoria Falls and Mauritius.
Although it is possible to redeem Qantas Frequent Flyer points for British Airways flights operated by Comair, these do not appear at all on the Qantas website. In fact, when you call Qantas, many reservations will also tell you that the flights are unavailable. But they do exist, and if there is a reward seat available, the call centre staff can book it for you using what’s known as a “long sell”.
To do a long sell, the reservations staff would need the flight number, date of travel, origin airport code, destination airport code, number of seats being requested and the fare class (British Airways uses “X” for Economy award inventory and “U” for Business awards).
Unfortunately, even some of the premium reservations staff don’t seem to know the correct process for booking Comair flights. This being the case, there is almost no hope that you would ever be successful with booking one of these flights via one of the outsourced overseas Qantas call centres.
With some persistence, you may have luck. But beware that the carrier surcharges on British Airways can be very high – so you may be better off saving the hassle and just buying a ticket anyway. (As it happens, British Airways business class tickets in South Africa can be quite affordable and earn a decent amount of Qantas status credits anyway.)
2. British Airways UK domestic flights in Club Europe
The Qantas website also does not display any award availability on British Airways mainline domestic flights within the UK in Club Europe, which is BA’s fancy name for Business Class. You can book British Airways flights in all other classes of travel and on all other routes to/from London – just not Business Class on domestic hops.
British Airways traditionally didn’t offer Business Class on domestic flights, which could be why the Qantas website doesn’t display it. But it began selling “Club Europe” on domestic flights in 2017 and there is often award availability.
You can check for availability by searching for award seats on the British Airways, American Airlines, Japan Airlines or most other Oneworld airline websites.
Although seats don’t appear online, you can redeem Qantas points for British Airways domestic Business Class over the phone. This shouldn’t be as complicated as booking a British Airways flight within South Africa, although I’m afraid I didn’t have much success with this either when I tried recently.
Unfortunately, the person I spoke to at the Cape Town call centre had absolutely no idea what she was talking about. She first told me that Business Class was unavailable, but that I could book a Premium Economy award using my Qantas points (Premium Economy doesn’t exist on BA domestic flights). I then enquired what fare class this “Premium Economy” award was booking into, and she told me it was “Y” class. This is a revenue RBD for full-fare Economy Class, but the Qantas call centre staff member was insistent that this was actually a Premium Economy award and could not be convinced otherwise. Needless to say, I did not make a booking. 🤦
For some reason, Business award seats on domestic Embraer E190 flights operated by British Airways’ subsidiary BA Cityflyer to/from London City Airport do appear on the Qantas website.
You just can’t book Club Europe online on any mainline British Airways domestic flights to/from Heathrow or Gatwick airports.
3. S7 Airlines flights
S7 Airlines, based in Russia, has been a Oneworld alliance member and in turn a Qantas partner airline since 2010. S7 flights used to be available to book on the Qantas website, but this is no longer the case since the Russian invasion of Ukraine and associated sanctions came into effect. S7 Airlines flights no longer appear on the Qantas website at all.
4. Tickets originating in many overseas countries
Perhaps a more common issue with the Qantas website is the inability to book tickets online where the first flight departs from a country that the website doesn’t support.
If you’re booking a trip from Australia, New Zealand or any destination where Qantas flies to, you should have no difficulty booking online. But Classic Flight Reward bookings originating in many other countries cannot be booked on the Qantas website and require a phone call.
This includes trips commencing in:
- Sri Lanka
- Bangladesh
- Nepal
- Anywhere in the Middle East except the UAE
- Anywhere in Africa, except South Africa
- Anywhere in South America (even Chile, which is a Qantas destination!)
- Cuba & most of central America
- Several European countries including Malta, Cyprus, Croatia, Romania, Bulgaria, Slovenia, North Macedonia and Serbia
- Anywhere in Central Asia
Frustratingly, several of the countries on this list such as Qatar, Morocco and Sri Lanka are even home to Oneworld or Qantas partner airline hubs.
If you really don’t want to have to deal with the Qantas call centre, there is a workaround. You could try making a multi-city booking where the first flight on the ticket departs from a country that is supported by the Qantas website. Then, make the flight originating overseas the second flight on the ticket.
For example, if you wanted to book an Emirates Classic Flight Reward from Colombo to the Maldives, you would normally need to call Qantas. Alternatively, you could book a multi-city ticket with a Qantas domestic flight as the first flight on the ticket and the Emirates flight as the second sector. If you were planning to book that Qantas domestic flight anyway, then this won’t cost you any more.
However, only book this way if you actually plan to take the first flight. The remaining flights on your ticket will be forfeited if you don’t show up for the first flight!
You can also use this method to simply search for award availability with the multi-city booking tool, then call up to just book the flight originating overseas.
5. Some types of complex multi-city bookings
If you’re trying to book a Oneworld Classic Flight Reward, you may have luck using the multi-city booking tool on the Qantas website. But to book online, your itinerary will need to meet the following additional criteria:
- You have a valid itinerary that satisfies all award routing rules and reward seats are available
- You are searching for a maximum of six flight segments
- Your itinerary does not contain more than 2 surface sectors (excluding changing airports in the same city)
- Your itinerary does not include any destinations in Brazil, Laos, Botswana, Mozambique, Kazakhstan or various other countries not recognised by the multi-city tool
- You are not commencing any segments in Ho Chi Minh City, Hanoi, Da Nang, Phnom Penh or Kota Kinabalu (however, you can end a segment here and then use a surface sector to commence the next segment somewhere else)
If you are getting an error message when trying to book on the Qantas website, it could be due to one of the above conditions not being met. If possible, try changing your itinerary to make it bookable online. But if that still doesn’t work, your only option will be to call.
Some flights are completely unavailable through Qantas Frequent Flyer
We should note that there is a difference between a Qantas Frequent Flyer redemption being unavailable online, and not being available at all.
There are a few certain types of rewards (e.g. specific cabin classes or routes on certain airlines) that are simply not available through the Qantas Frequent Flyer program at all. Where this is the case, you also won’t be able to book over the phone. See our article on flights you can’t book with Qantas points for details.
You can leave a comment or discuss this topic on the Australian Frequent Flyer forum.
