Sep 26, 2019, 6:52 pm

FlyerTalk Forums Expert How-Tos and Guides

Last edit by: Mwenenzi

Qantas routes Australia to/from USA Canada
Looking for awards only on LAX-SYD route restricts your options.
AS award chart:---> https://www.alaskaair.com/content/mi...s/award-charts

Note these routes and/or aircraft type may change. Not all routes have flights every day.
May not be up to date

BNE-LAX B330
MEL-DFW B787
MEL-LAX B787 (was the first A380 route for Qantas on 21 October 2008)
MEL-DFW B787
SYD-DFW B787 A380
SYD-HNL
SYD-AKL-JFK B787 (from June 2023)
SYD-LAX A380 B787
SYD-SFO
SYD-YVR

General
The QF A380 have first, business, premium economy & economy classes. Only the A380 has first class.
The QF B787's have, business, premium economy & economy classes. The B787’s do not have first class.
All QF B747's have been retired and sent to the Mojave desert. (July 2020)

QF starts to release their awards 353 days out to QF frequent flyers. But awards can be released any time out to departure. Anyone can join the QF ffp and then search for award availability. Be careful about mixed economy/business QF awards. These have an identifying symbol on the award flight.

A business class flight will give access to the Qantas Club or Qantas Business lounge. Major domestic airports have both a Qantas Club lounge, for mid level Oneworld status holders and paid QF club members, and a better Business lounge, with access by business class of service or top level Oneworld status. Domestic lounges can get very busy at morning and late afternoon peaks.

From QF web site QF seat maps

Qantas Australia domestic
Award availability on QF domestic routes in both business & economy is usually OK. Can be harder on longer routes (say 3~ 4 hour flights).

The workhorse of QF Mainline domestic fleet is the B737-800. QF have 75 of these in a 12J162Y configuration. Some schedules have a A330, some of which have international style business seats. These 2 aircraft types are also used on trans Tasman routes (Australia to New Zealand).
General Qantas information Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qantas

The QantasLink brand is used on regional routes to smaller cities and towns. The aircraft used are Dash 8's (de Havilland Canada DHC-8-200, Bombardier Dash 8 Q300 & Q400) in all an Y configuration, Foker 100 in all 105Y configuration and B717's in 12JY98 or 125Y configuration.
General QantasLink information Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QantasLink

Qantas information Wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qantas
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QantasLink

AA sub forum thread They have the same problems getting awards on QF and to AU/NZ & South Pacific--->
AA miles awards: using / redeeming AA miles on Qantas (QF) & related (consolidated)
AA MileSAAver award to / from Australia, New Zealand (master thread)
FJ / Fiji Airways (ex-Air Pacific) and AA, miles, awards, etc. (consolidated)
AA Miles Award: TN / Air Tahiti Nui award redemptions (master thread)

Revisions
11 Jun 2022 QF announcements removed (except for 2) as AU is open and QF is flying AU<--->USA
15 Jun 2022 Deleted some dead links
11 Dec 2022 Remove redundant links. Revise routes
27 Dec 2022 MEL DFW added
25 Feb 2023 Formatting
13 Aug 2023 Added SYD-SFO

Consolidated Qantas (QF) Awards Availability/Booking/Routing Thread

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Jul 1, 2019, 2:43 pm

#256

Poolek

Join Date: Oct 2012

Posts: 52

Thanks both for quick reply, now I get the point

I'll have to route my trip from Europe to Australia via the US then, will take a bit longer, but at least can try out QF C class

Jul 1, 2019, 3:04 pm

#257

Flying for Fun

Join Date: Mar 2017

Location: British Columbia

Programs: AS MVPG100K, Marriott Marriott Titanium Elite, Hilton Gold

Posts: 7,263

Quote:

Originally Posted by Poolek

Thanks both for quick reply, now I get the point

I'll have to route my trip from Europe to Australia via the US then, will take a bit longer, but at least can try out QF C class

That will require two awards. Europe to North America and North America to Australia. You can't mix partners on an award either. AS+One Partner only.

If you want to try Qantas J, QF does fly wide-body. MEL-PER on the B787 and A330. Finding North America to Australia isn't impossible but you will need a lot of flexibility.

James

Jul 25, 2019, 1:26 am

#258

overlord207

Join Date: Jun 2019

Programs: AS MVPG, CX MPCS

Posts: 66

Can someone help explain this award to me? How can I avoid that overnight layover? And why SFO->PDX->SEA?
Is there anything stopping me from just going SFO->SEA on the multitude of flights AS runs per day out of SFO/SJC to SEA?
Thanks.

Jul 25, 2019, 2:06 am

#259

Flying for Fun

Join Date: Mar 2017

Location: British Columbia

Programs: AS MVPG100K, Marriott Marriott Titanium Elite, Hilton Gold

Posts: 7,263

Quote:

Originally Posted by overlord207

Without knowing the dates it is hard to determine. It could be that there is no Saver availability on the evening flights on the day you arrive in SFO or it may need an Agent intervention. Sometimes combining onward same day travel on an international arrival with min connect times in play can challenge the processor.

If you are looking at an open-jaw, MEL-SFO & SJC-SEA try the multi-city search. Alternatively, you could create a stopover (weeks, months) in SFO to another destination (Hawaii, Mexico, Florida, etc... and purchase a cheap revenue ticket back to Seattle. If you have a change fee waiver there is a lot of flexibility in what you can do.

James

Jul 25, 2019, 10:06 am

#260

overlord207

Join Date: Jun 2019

Programs: AS MVPG, CX MPCS

Posts: 66

I've noticed it for many dates, but was just querying and noticed it (for example November 2, 2019)

There are a few flights LAX->SEA after 5:25pm from AS. So the award searcher can return a LAX->PAE without overnight, but not LAX->SEA. (At least not when returning on QF55). Is this experience only through the website? Would calling have different result?

Thanks for the tip in regards to the open jaw stopover. Haven't considered that yet but it's smart.

Jul 25, 2019, 10:29 am

#261

CDKing

FlyerTalk Evangelist

Join Date: Dec 2007

Location: BOS/ORH

Programs: AS 75K

Posts: 18,323

Quote:

Originally Posted by overlord207

I've noticed it for many dates, but was just querying and noticed it (for example November 2, 2019)

There are a few flights LAX->SEA after 5:25pm from AS. So the award searcher can return a LAX->PAE without overnight, but not LAX->SEA. (At least not when returning on QF55). Is this experience only through the website? Would calling have different result?

Thanks for the tip in regards to the open jaw stopover. Haven't considered that yet but it's smart.

Here is 11/2 w/ same day connection in LAX. There is an earlier LAX flight on this date but no saver space so this is the one that appeared. If you cant see the AS leg, do a separate one way search to see if there is saver space.

doing a one way search only 2 flights after arrival of QF55 the 5:25 is under minimum connection time so only way to get on that one is to SDC once you finish with arrival formalities. The 7:35 has no saver leaving the 8:55

overlord207 likes this.

Last edited by CDKing; Jul 25, 2019 at 10:39 am

Jul 25, 2019, 1:02 pm

#262

skimthetrees

Join Date: Jan 2010

Programs: UA, AS

Posts: 2,393

Quote:

Originally Posted by overlord207

I've noticed it for many dates, but was just querying and noticed it (for example November 2, 2019)

Thanks for the tip in regards to the open jaw stopover. Haven't considered that yet but it's smart.

Use the multi-city search. MEL-LAX 11/2 and LAX-SEA 11/2 and if there is space on the connecting flight it should show up.

overlord207 likes this.

Jul 25, 2019, 1:06 pm

#263

Flying for Fun

Join Date: Mar 2017

Location: British Columbia

Programs: AS MVPG100K, Marriott Marriott Titanium Elite, Hilton Gold

Posts: 7,263

Quote:

Originally Posted by overlord207

[...]

There are a few flights LAX->SEA after 5:25pm from AS. So the award searcher can return a LAX->PAE without overnight, but not LAX->SEA. (At least not when returning on QF55). Is this experience only through the website? Would calling have different result?

Again without specific dates we can't advise one way or the other. Check the SFO-SEA segment separately as @CDKing has illustrated for your desired date. If there is no Saver award space calling AS won't bear any fruit.

I anticipate the routing you are shown, despite the connection through PDX, is the first availability of saver award space that will get you to SEA the earliest.

Here is an example of MEL-BNE-LAX-SEA all on November 4th. I found BNE-LAX-SEA arriving earlier in LAX that allowed a connection to SEA with saver space. Now, I just needed to get to BNE. Using the multi-city search I requested MEL-BNE connecting to BNE-SEA, which I already knew had availability. The result shown took me less than 2 minutes to find and add to the cart.

Think about positioning on your departure in addition to positioning on your arrival.

While a lot of people try to manipulate the US arrival from the gateway, don't forget that you can also manipulate the Australian departure even adding in a stopover in BNE for a few days if you wanted to visit before heading home.

James

overlord207 likes this.

Jul 25, 2019, 8:32 pm

#264

overlord207

Join Date: Jun 2019

Programs: AS MVPG, CX MPCS

Posts: 66

Okay, thanks for all the advice. The multi-city search and looking for legs individually is very helpful. Looks like I can find different results this way.

This one puzzles me.. (See 11/28)

Querying SYD->SEA gives this

Which you can see QF441 -> QF49 -> AS1759

Now looking for the same date but from MEL

So also on QF49.. but the connecting to SEA is on two flights and actually takes longer.

Jul 25, 2019, 9:12 pm

#265

skimthetrees

Join Date: Jan 2010

Programs: UA, AS

Posts: 2,393

Quote:

Originally Posted by overlord207

Which you can see QF441 -> QF49 -> AS1759

Now looking for the same date but from MEL

So also on QF49.. but the connecting to SEA is on two flights and actually takes longer.

There is an AS1759 paired with QF49 at the top of the search results for MEL-SEA in the PE column. It's a class thing. QF49 MEL-SFO only has PE availability. QF423 has business Neither QF49 nor AS1759 has business availability so you won't see it listed in the business column unless there is another flight with business availability like QF423 but you do see it listed in the PE column (which we do not see above since you did not provide the complete search results).

Jul 26, 2019, 12:01 pm

#266

overlord207

Join Date: Jun 2019

Programs: AS MVPG, CX MPCS

Posts: 66

I see, that makes sense. So that's why I cannot find it without searching for the multicity.

Thanks for all the wonderful advice from you guys. Was able to find a CX J award from SYD -> HKG -> SEA that gives me some time to stopover as well.

Flying for Fun likes this.

Aug 2, 2019, 6:10 am

#267

WestCoastPDX

Join Date: May 2019

Location: RTW

Programs: Delta PM, AA PlatPro

Posts: 406

The new Qantas flights BNE-SFO / ORD are now for sale on Qantas.com

Has anyone seen award availability pop up yet?
Goal is to snag more J seats SFO-BNE in June 2020.
Not seeing anything released yet though.

Aug 2, 2019, 6:46 am

#268

CDKing

FlyerTalk Evangelist

Join Date: Dec 2007

Location: BOS/ORH

Programs: AS 75K

Posts: 18,323

Quote:

Originally Posted by WestCoastPDX

Its will be a few months before its bookable with AS because even though 331 days out, AS doesn't have QF space until around 270 days out. Currently QF shows up on results through 4/30 while AS booking calendar is extended to June 27, 2020

Aug 5, 2019, 9:16 pm

#269

WestCoastPDX

Join Date: May 2019

Location: RTW

Programs: Delta PM, AA PlatPro

Posts: 406

Quote:

Originally Posted by CDKing

Fair point. Checking Qantas.com and only seeing economy in June 2020 for SFO-BNE.
I snagged an SFO-SYD in J in March... but not seeing anything on the new route so far.

Aug 8, 2019, 12:22 am

#270

Ellice

Join Date: Dec 2007

Programs: Air New Zealand Elite

Posts: 446

Sorry if this has been asked before but has anyone noticed a regular time during the week when AS posts the QF premium awards? TIA