Originally Posted by
omk298
I've booked flights from London out to Vietnam on Avios for late-March next year. I'm now planning to book flights to get back in early April, and have noticed that for the end of March and the open dates in April so far there are no business class (and very few economy) seats available except for the double avios ones. When I booked the outbound there was plenty of choice for slightly earlier in March. I've looked at each leg separately and together, and looked at some other options in Europe to fly back to and there seems to be nothing.
As
KingCanute says, it's down to the same reason mid-to-end April is sticky this year: school holidays for easter, pilgrimage (umrah) during Ramadan, Eid travel.
These all march backwards through the western calendar for 2024 to occupy end-March to mid-April or later (orthodox Easter moves out to over a month beyond its western celebration).
QR's yield managers will (should) have a pretty good idea how bookings will go, but may want a clearer picture of how things look before they open reward seats. The availability at double the avios might be as far as it gets: for the avios-rich that works just fine.
All you can do is monitor the situation and/or juggle your dates. If you have the required level of status you can grab award flight as they appear and cancel/rebook later at little or no cost.
If you are willing to accept a measure of inconvenience and extra cost you could look at returning to other UK airports (Gatwick and BA can work out well), or cities on the near-continent - though the magic of Easter will have its effect on prices and availability of seats on the homeward leg from Amsterdam, Dublin etc.