Originally Posted by
Jase76
There does seem to be a bit of availability at the moment but am planning on booking about 10 months before - the dates I want are not even shown yet.
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Given I am booking an award flight they probably wouldn't be as compromising as a paid F ticket.
As soon as your dates pop up, I'd get those flights booked ASAP esp. if you are burning a classic award.
Like all long haul premium awards, there are very few with a far too large crowd. Even at release time of seats, sometimes you might be surprised to see no availability. I'd sharpen your online searching skills on QF in advance (i.e. get used to searching one day, checking availability, then re-checking another day, etc., but faster). In a pinch, if you are a WP, you can try calling Premium and requesting an award seat (note that you
must be ready to redeem with all points available, plus you will incur a 2500 point fee (or $50 cash; that was an option given to me, YMMV) - small price to pay to get an award F seat).
When I booked my F classic award (BNE-SYD-LHR-FRA) for Nov, I had to go via Premium request, but admittedly I booked around 7-8 months in advance, which is easily enough time for all the online availability in the premium class awards to zero out. I also gave the agent the 20 questions about what happens if planes get delayed, cancelled, rerouting, downgrades etc. and it seems that even for an award you will be covered in almost all cases; more so if you are a WP.
Happy hunting! I wouldn't mind trying AU-RSA-EU routing one day. (The other options to EU are via US and South America...)