Originally Posted by
gleff
I suspect this is a problem with the data systems rather than actual availability being better for one point of sale over another. The Qantas site was showing quite of a bit of phantom CX availability that wasn't bookable for awhile (and that wasn't available to CX members). Meanwhile, I've found CX flights available that BA couldn't see, wait a few hours and their systems could book it.
FWIW.
It's interesting. A few months ago I was looking at HKG-JFK Y, and there were many occasions where I see awards on CX, but neither BA.com, nor BA/AA phone agents could see it. The discrepancy sometimes lasted days before showing up in partner's system, but often never showed up at all before it is gone from CX.
It's possible that this is the data link issue you mentioned, but it may also be CX having expanded availability for its members. Hard to tell.