Qantas Frequent Flyer - Can you book an Int award further ahead on QF than other airlines

I guess the question is already asked.

I am looking at going in business to LAX from any port in Australia ie BNE, SYD, MEL

I heard that some airlines limit you to 330 days ahead

Yes, QF is at ~355 days. e.g. Today a Qantas FFer can book flights up until 26/11/2007.

I heard that some airlines limit you to 330 days ahead

If you want to use points/miles to fly QF, the situation is:

AA points/miles = can book QF up to 330 days out
QF points/miles = can book QF up to 355 days out

I'm in the same boat.

I have miles on AA, and a FF# on Qantas but no miles. I found some sweet business seats on the qantas website but they are unbookable to me, right?
Wouldnt all the good seats on Qantas get booked before they are ever releaesd to AA ?????

Is there any workaround here??????????

I'm in the same boat.

I have miles on AA, and a FF# on Qantas but no miles. I found some sweet business seats on the qantas website but they are unbookable to me, right?
Wouldnt all the good seats on Qantas get booked before they are ever releaesd to AA ?????

Is there any workaround here??????????Only one solution, and it is quite easy to implement: start crediting all your AA flights to QFF, and in a few years you might have enough QFF points to redeem that QF flight 355 days out, ahead of the non-QFF redeemers. No other way around it.

Wouldnt all the good seats on Qantas get booked before they are ever releaesd to AA ?????


Yes - and I find this an entirely satisfactory state of affairs.

:)

I'm in the same boat.

I have miles on AA, and a FF# on Qantas but no miles. I found some sweet business seats on the qantas website but they are unbookable to me, right?
Wouldnt all the good seats on Qantas get booked before they are ever releaesd to AA ?????

Is there any workaround here??????????

An airline alliance is not a merger afterall. Airlines do have the right to treat their own passengers well.

CX treats me great, but you know I fly them alot also in full J.

I'm in the same boat.

I have miles on AA, and a FF# on Qantas but no miles. I found some sweet business seats on the qantas website but they are unbookable to me, right?
Wouldnt all the good seats on Qantas get booked before they are ever releaesd to AA ?????

Is there any workaround here??????????


If you have status on AA you should be able to use it to open up the good seats assuming you have already purchased the flights with either cash or miles. All you need to do is call QF, provide them with your AA membership number and the seats generally should be yours.

An airline alliance is not a merger afterall. Airlines do have the right to treat their own passengers well.

CX treats me great, but you know I fly them alot also in full J.

In this case, it isn't actually QF deliberately treating QF members better, just that AA doesn't allow booking tickets greater than 330 days in advance since, iirc, Sabre is limited to 330 days whilst Amadeus is 355

Dave

In this case, it isn't actually QF deliberately treating QF members better, just that AA doesn't allow booking tickets greater than 330 days in advance since, iirc, Sabre is limited to 330 days whilst Amadeus is 355

DaveExcept that the OW airlines using Amadeus are also limited to booking awards on QF 330 days in advance. Only QF is allowed 355 days. I have no doubt that this is policy by QF, and not an accident of programming.

In this case, it isn't actually QF deliberately treating QF members better, just that AA doesn't allow booking tickets greater than 330 days in advance since, iirc, Sabre is limited to 330 days whilst Amadeus is 355

Dave

Ah Ha

So it is just coincidence Qantas is not all that generous. It is just because of the software they chose.

Another thing I think QF is far too restrictive about only allowing family transfers only once a year or limiting them to 100000 points. I understand they do not want too much activity to track in this regard but twice a year would not cause them any grief and they would probably have some happier FFers

Maybe we need a thread ( or has there already been one) about how we think QF can improve their FF program without really costing them anything. Maybe they will not lose so many to AA or others and their program partners may be happier

If you have status on AA you should be able to use it to open up the good seats assuming you have already purchased the flights with either cash or miles. All you need to do is call QF, provide them with your AA membership number and the seats generally should be yours.

Huh? This seems way too easy to be true.

I keep seeing this groups of 4 business seats from LAX-SYD or Brisbane or whereever down under and I can't get me mitts on em.

Huh? This seems way too easy to be true.

I keep seeing this groups of 4 business seats from LAX-SYD or Brisbane or whereever down under and I can't get me mitts on em.You seem to be talking about redeeming awards on QF flights (and seeing J inventory but no U inventory), while Traveloguy is talking about seat assignment after you have booked the flight (he was quite clear in the wording). Perhaps you need a better strategy for "get me mitts on em". Snagging 4 U awards on the same flight is not unheard of, but happens once in a blue moon for non-QFF awards.

You seem to be talking about redeeming awards on QF flights (and seeing J inventory but no U inventory), while Traveloguy is talking about seat assignment after you have booked the flight (he was quite clear in the wording). Perhaps you need a better strategy for "get me mitts on em". Snagging 4 U awards on the same flight is not unheard of, but happens once in a blue moon for non-QFF awards.

Yes, we have cleared that up.

I see U inventory on the QF website, but I cant get them (just like the OP) since I have AA miles but not QF miles. These U seats are then distributed to various partners, right?-- so that if I see 4 seats on QF, I'm likely to only see 1 or 2 available by the time they get to AA, if that.

btw, is there any OW work around available? (i.e. I obtain a OW award through AA miles and then use it to bag the U seats on QF now???- wake up from my dream, right?!!)

Award inventory is not distributed, it is available for all the various plans to redeem against. In some cases QFF gets extra inventory that is exclusively for QFF, but that isn't applicable to your scenario. Let me make it perfectly clear: the only way to redeem awards more than 330 days before the flight date is by using QFF, which means you must have QF miles and not AA miles. If this is important to you, start crediting your AA flights to QFF and you will be able to do this once you accumulate sufficient QF miles. Using AA miles you are limited to 330 days out, for any award type. Looking at award inventory more than 330 days out is pointless, it has zero relevance to what you will have available to you when you go to redeem. Historically it is very easy to redeem 4 seats on the same flight 355 days out on QFF, and almost impossible to do the same at the 330 day mark using AAdvantage (or any other plan). Phoning exactly at midnight, and having speed dial, sometimes helps.