Finding Qantas Classic Reward seats on international flights can be very difficult. That’s especially the case if you want to travel to a popular destination such as London, Paris, New York or Bangkok. In fact, Qantas isn’t currently releasing any premium cabin Classic Flight Reward availability to Europe for next year’s northern summer.

But if you want to use your Qantas points to book a long-haul flight, having Qantas Frequent Flyer status can be a big help… in more ways than one!

Priority access to popular Classic Flight Rewards for frequent flyers

Qantas gives its frequent flyers with Gold or higher status priority access to Classic Flight Reward seats in Premium Economy, Business and First Class on international long-haul flights.

That doesn’t necessarily mean Gold and Platinum members get access to seats on every flight at the release date. Qantas no longer releases Classic Flight Reward seats on most flights when they first go on sale at 10am (Brisbane time), 353 days before departure.

But on routes where Qantas does release Classic Reward seats at this time, they’re initially only available to Gold, Platinum and Platinum One members. This includes to destinations like Indonesia, India, Hong Kong and the Philippines.

On other popular routes such as Sydney-Bangkok and Perth-Rome, Qantas rarely ever releases Business or Premium Economy reward seats at the release date – even to top-tier frequent flyers. So, it depends where you want to fly.

There are no such restrictions for most domestic, trans-Tasman and long-haul Economy flights.

A month later, around 323 days until departure, Qantas then makes any remaining premium seats on long-haul flights available to Silver frequent flyers. Finally, if there are still any seats remaining with 297 days (around 10 months) to go, Qantas makes them available to Bronze members.

Sometimes, Qantas will release additional Classic Flight Reward seats closer to the departure date (including on domestic routes) for frequent flyers with Gold status or higher. So, when searching for availability on the Qantas website, it’s a good idea to log into your Qantas Frequent Flyer account!

Family members can book for you

If you have a family member with Qantas status, you could also ask them to book a seat for you. In addition to transferring points to eligible family members, Qantas Frequent Flyer members can use their points to book reward seats for family members.

Qantas also gives upgrade priority on international flights to frequent flyers with the highest status.

But that’s not all…

Qantas Platinum members can request additional reward seats

If you have Qantas Frequent Flyer Platinum or Platinum One status, there’s another unpublished benefit that could be hugely beneficial. Qantas Platinum and Platinum One members can request the release of additional Classic Flight Reward seats!

If you’re having trouble finding Qantas award availability on the route or date you want to travel, and there’s no suitable award availability on Qantas partner airlines either, this is another option at your disposal. Platinum frequent flyers can request the release of extra Qantas reward seats by calling the Qantas contact centre. Platinum One members can call the VIP Service Team.

You won’t necessarily be able to request the release of additional Qantas Classic Flight Reward seats on every flight. Even if you are able to submit a request, Qantas’ revenue management team has full discretion over whether to accept or decline your request.

That said, there is some method to the madness! According to the Qantas protocol, call centre agents can submit an award seat release request if there is real-time availability in certain Reservation Booking Designators (RBDs, also known as fare classes or fare buckets) on that flight.

Our guide to fare classes explains this in more detail.

If your request is approved, you’ll be able to book your flight at the Classic Reward rate. This continues to be the case even after the introduction of Classic Plus.

The fare classes needed to place a request

For domestic Qantas flights, seats need to be available for sale at the time of the request in either of the following fare classes:

• Economy – N class
• Business – D class

If you’re a Platinum member, sufficient seats must be available for sale in the following fare classes for your request to be considered:

• Economy – Q class
• Premium Economy – T class
• Business – I class
• First – A class

And if you’re a Platinum One member, you are able to submit Classic Reward release requests on international routes if seats are available in these fare classes:

• Economy – L class
• Premium Economy – R class
• Business – D class
• First – F class

Anecdotally, it may not be possible to request additional reward seats on the Sydney-Lord Howe Island route. Qantas may also place embargoes on First Class reward seats on certain routes from time to time. But other Qantas marketed and operated flights are fair game (and you don’t know unless you ask)!

If your request is rejected, you could try requesting another seat on a different Qantas route or date.

How to check fare class availability

This is where a subscription to ExpertFlyer can come in handy! By conducting a “flight availability” search on Expert Flyer, you can check real-time seat availability in each of the relevant fare classes on any flight. (If you know how to fully interpret this data, it can also give you a good overall picture of how full the flight may be in each class of travel, and how likely an upgrade request is of being successful.)

Let’s look at an example. Below is a screenshot from an ExpertFlyer search for fare class availability on a Qantas flight from Sydney to San Francisco:

On the above flight, it would be possible for a Platinum One member to request the release of additional Classic Reward seats in Economy, Premium Economy or Business.

As there are four Business seats available for sale in “I” class, a Qantas Platinum member could also request the release of up to four reward seats in Business Class. But as there are no seats available for sale in T or Q classes, respectively, it would not be possible for a Platinum frequent flyer to submit a request for the release of extra Premium Economy or Economy Classic Flight Rewards on this flight.

If you don’t have an ExpertFlyer subscription, you can ask an AFF member who does have a subscription to check flight loading availability on the relevant AFF Help Desk thread.

So if you’re a Platinum or Platinum One frequent flyer, and you’re struggling to find Classic Reward availability on a Qantas flight you want, why not give this unpublished benefit a try?

Matt Graham

The editor of Australian Frequent Flyer, Matt's passion for travel has taken him to over 90 countries… with the help of frequent flyer points, of course!
Matt's favourite destinations (so far) are Germany, Brazil & Kazakhstan. His interests include aviation, economics & foreign languages, and he has a soft spot for good food and red wine.

You can connect with Matt by posting on the Australian Frequent Flyer community forum and tagging @AFF Editor.