Update (28 September): It appears that Cathay members may also now be subject to the 119/249 day rule. Members of Qatar Airways Privilege Club and British Airways Executive Club can still redeem Avios for Qatar Airways flights up to 355 days in advance.
Until recently, it was possible to redeem Qantas points for most Qatar Airways reward seats up to 355-360 days (or just under a year) in advance. But ever since Qatar Airways award availability suddenly vanished from the Qantas website in early August, there have been some big changes.
Australian Frequent Flyer has been following Qatar Airways award availability over recent months, and a clear new pattern has emerged.
As previously reported, Qatar Airways Economy reward seats are now being released to Qantas Frequent Flyer members exactly 249 days before departure. That’s just over 8 months in the future.
We now also know that any remaining Qatar Airways Business or First Class reward seats, which haven’t already been snapped up by members of other frequent flyer programs, are being made available as Classic Flight Reward seats on the Qantas website exactly 119 days out from departure. That’s just under 4 months in advance.
This means that later today (26 September 2022), we would expect Qantas Frequent Flyer members to gain access to Qatar Airways Economy reward seats for travel dates up to 2 June 2023, and Business & First Class seats up to 23 January 2023.
Neither Qantas nor Qatar Airways have commented publicly about the withholding of award seats to Qantas Frequent Flyer members, but Australian Frequent Flyer understands that this has likely been done intentionally by Qatar Airways. Meanwhile, since our last update on Qatar Airways award availability, it does appear that Qantas Frequent Flyer members can now redeem points for Qatar’s Adelaide-Auckland flight – although the 119/249 day limitations still apply.
Ticketing issues
When redeeming Qantas points for Qatar Airways flights, beware that a lot of people have complained in recent months that their flights were cancelled after Qantas failed to ticket their bookings in time. The failure to issue or re-issue these tickets has been occurring either after the booking was originally made, or following a schedule change that required the ticket to be re-issued.
Many Qantas Classic Flight Reward reservations for travel on Qatar Airways have been auto-cancelled without the passenger even knowing. So if you have an upcoming Qantas award booking that includes one or more Qatar Airways flights, you might want to check your booking and monitor it regularly for any schedule changes!
When does Qatar Airways release award availability to other frequent flyer programs?
Members of some other frequent flyer programs can still access Qatar Airways award availability up to 355 days in advance. So if you want to redeem Qatar Airways Avios, British Airways Avios or Iberia Plus Avios for Qatar Airways flights, for example, you can still book up to a year ahead (and get first dibs on available award seats).
As of today, this means you could book Qatar Airways reward flights through those loyalty programs for travel up to 16 September 2023.
But it seems that Qatar Airways is also now restricting access to seats for members of other Oneworld loyalty programs including American Airlines AAdvantage and Cathay.
When redeeming points in Virgin Australia’s Velocity program, it’s only possible to book travel up to 330 days (approximately 11 months) in advance. This means you would not be able to book a Qatar Airways reward seat with Velocity points a full 355 days out, but you would have access to any seats that are still available at the 330-day mark. As of today, that brings us up to 22 August 2023.
Join the discussion on the Australian Frequent Flyer forum: QR withholding award seats from Qantas?
