bhamsan01

Posted this in QF forum, hoping I can get some feedback here from AA folks:

I am hoping to book 2 award seats from BNE to LAX using AA miles. I've been debating where to visit on my trip down under and toyed with several different itineraries, including MEL-BNE-LAX and CNS-BNE-LAX. I found 2 available business class award seats in the U fare bucket BNE-LAX, and originally placed a reservation hold for MEL-BNE-LAX for 2 seats in the U fare bucket. I cancelled the hold and immediately searched for and created a reservation online CNS-BNE-LAX for 2 seats in the U fare bucket. Having changed my mind again, I cancelled the CNE-BNE-LAX itinerary, hoping to book MEL-BNE-LAX again once the 2 seats were released back into QF's award inventory.

However, after cancelling the ex-CNS itinerary, only 1 U seat opened up for the BNE-LAX leg. I think one of two things happened here: (1) someone snagged one of the BNE-LAX seats the exact second I cancelled the itinerary and before I was able to even bring up the available seats; or (2) QF did not release the seat back into the U fare bucket. I feel option 1 is unlikely as I immediately searched for the seats within seconds of cancelling my itinerary.

Hoping to get some information on whether QF will pull back award availability in cases such as mine, and if so, will QF release that award space further down the line?

Thanks in advance. Any help would be appreciated!

Paulchili

IMO you made a major boo-boo. These QF awards are very precious and rare with AA miles. You should have never cancelled one hold before finding a better one. Cancelled awards do not necessarily return to "circulation" and even if they do, they may become available to QF elites rather than you.
Lesson learned - good luck!

bhamsan01

Thanks, lesson learned indeed. Thankfully I have a fairly diverse points stash, so should be able to find another creative routing home.

Mingiunate

Is anyone having trouble finding QF transpac awards on AA.com after 11/30?

I see transpac Y availability right up until 11/30, but on 12/1 there is nothing!

Any ideas whats going on? I know we're past 330 days, but the Exp Desk has not been able to find anything.

thanks.

Austinrunner

Be patient.

Mingiunate

Actually, I see QF transpac space again for 12/12, so theres an 11 day gap from 12/1 to 12/11 with none...

I wonder if I missed my chance already

Austinrunner

There is no way at this point to know for sure.

tt7

Bear in mind that the combination of Christmas and the beginning (around mid-December) of 'summer holidays' in Australia make awards even harder than usual to find once you get into the December/January timeframe. I would look on the QF website to see what they show as available but unfortunately the FF portion of the QF website is down at the moment - I'll try to have a look later and see what they show.

tt7

QF shows availability in Y (LAX-SYD) everyday in December except Dec. 18 and 19. J appears to be available on about half of those days. I say "appears" because the QF website has a nasty habit of showing availability but when you click through to it, it turns out to have a domestic leg in J but the transpac leg is in Y (and no way to know without clicking through to check).

What date are you wanting to travel, which cabin, how many of you, what routing ...?

Paulchili

IIRC from the days I did these searches, you can tell by the number of miles required whether it will be all J or J/Y combination before clicking through.

tt7

Indeed, in their defense, they do now put a little "information i" (with an explanatory pop-up) next to those itineraries in the matrix of results that do not, in fact, have what they purport to have (i.e., transpac is in Y, not J). You are also correct that, if selected, they then price it as a Y/J combination (or the same as if it were two separate flights). However, you pay for the privilege - if you select, for example, the two-leg Y and J combo LAX-SYD (via MEL) (so theoretically J but actually Y transpac), it'll be 64,000 points (48,000 for the Y transpac + 16,000 for the J leg MEL-SYD). If you go for just Y on both legs, it'll be 48,000 total - no add-on for the MEL-SYD leg (which is 8,000 in Y).

Travelbuddy405

Hi - Newbie here. Thanks in advance for your help.

We would love to cruise Australia & NZ next winter. Probably book something departing Sydney and ending cruise in Auckland.

I have enough AA miles for two to fly RT to Australia RT (300K+ miles) but I can't find available Business/First Class flights even a year out. My dates are very flexible but I just can't fly that far in Economy. I am searching on the AA site.

I would be interested in flying from Dallas or LAX (anytime in Dec, Jan, or Feb 2015). Any insight or a point in the right direction would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

HNL

You are looking for one of the hardest premium cabin award flights to book in advance. All you can do is keep checking and hoping that something opens up.

Or look at connecting options with partner airlines in
HNL (AA>QF or HA)
NAN (FJ)
PPT (TN)

You will need to call AA to check availability.

guv1976

Wirelessly posted (BlackBerry: BlackBerry8530/5.0.0.601 Profile/MIDP-2.1 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 VendorID/417)

"I can't find available Business/First Class flights even a year out."

You can't find any award flights with AAdvantage miles a year out: AA does not offer award seats more than 331 days out.

As noted, premium-cabin seats between the U.S. and the South Pacific can be difficult to obtain for AAdvantage members, especially since AA's one-way awards do not permit routing via Asia on such a redemption. However, for 150K AA miles/person, you might be able to construct a distance-based "Explorer" award in Business Class. These awards permit you to route via Asia, but do not permit you to use non-oneworld airlines like FJ, HA, or TN.

VickiSoCal

MH also flies to New Zealand, no?

Best bet is to call at exactly 331 days out. Exactly.