Originally Posted by gleff
CO does not get less inventory than other partners. It is not true that CO is allocated 1 F and 2 J seats per flight. Some flights never see and F seat, others see a few, and CO pulls from the same inventory as other partners. And some flights see award inventory loaded up front, others see it added later. But there's definitely no "CO seat" up in the F cabin, but it IS possible on some flights to reserve more than 1.
I haven't checked CO redemption rules, but when I reserved QF F seats (2 by the way) using AA miles there was a flight, IIRC it was QF11, that was blacked out for AA redemption.
Check all routes of course. And consider flying into SYD and back from MEL or some combination of other cities in order to get the seats you're looking for.
It *is* possible, I've done it.
I am intrigued by your observation that CO has the same access to QF reward seats as does the rest of QF's partner airlines, because that directly contradicts what I have been told by the CO international partner desk folks time and time again when trying to book availability on QF in F or C using CO miles. They constantly state that the Qantas relationship is "special" and because CO isn't a member of OneWorld, access to the reward seats by CO *is* highly restricted.
I agree with you that maximum flexibility is the key to snagging a seat, and your best chance occurs when your travel dates and choice of city pairs is wide open.
Still, however, the results haven't been all that promising for the CO rewards.
With respect to the CO redemption rules, from co.com:
"Restricted Travel Dates for 2006: No First or Business Class reward travel on Qantas flights QF11 or QF12 year round"
