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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Feb 8, 2019, 5:13 pm

#151

Stivelio

Join Date: Jun 2015

Posts: 644

I have an one way award ticket booked from SFO to MEL for May on QF. If I need to add dfw-sfo to this will I need to book this as a separate award?

Feb 8, 2019, 5:47 pm

#152

CDKing

FlyerTalk Evangelist

Join Date: Dec 2007

Location: BOS/ORH

Programs: AS 75K

Posts: 18,323

Quote:

Originally Posted by Stivelio

I have an one way award ticket booked from SFO to MEL for May on QF. If I need to add dfw-sfo to this will I need to book this as a separate award?

Must be on AS metal (or Alaska/Skywest) only and saver space must be available. DAL & DFW have options. Best bet is probably DAL as many more convenient options

DAL-SFO
DAL-LAX-SFO
DAL-SEA/PDX-SFO
DFW-SEA/PDX-SFO

Feb 8, 2019, 5:55 pm

#153

skimthetrees

Join Date: Jan 2010

Programs: UA, AS

Posts: 2,393

Quote:

Originally Posted by Stivelio

I have an one way award ticket booked from SFO to MEL for May on QF. If I need to add dfw-sfo to this will I need to book this as a separate award?

You can add to the existing award. Change fee applies unless your status gives you a fee waiver. As CDKing says, must be AS operated and there must be saver space but if there is you can keep it on one award.

Quote:

Originally Posted by CDKing

Feb 8, 2019, 6:26 pm

#154

skimthetrees

Join Date: Jan 2010

Programs: UA, AS

Posts: 2,393

Quote:

Originally Posted by LHR/MEL/Europe FF

Thanks ^

So the results are: QF and AS show available. CX, BA and JL all say 'no availability'.

Assume it's phantom then?

Is it worth calling AS to see if they can actually book it or is that a lost cause?

It could be either phantom or a different award availability for a non-alliance partner. Only AS can tell for sure but I am not confident a phone agent could give a correct answer. If you had the miles in your account there would be nothing to lose by trying but since you do not I would not suggest you jump to buy miles without getting confirmation from someone at AS that you could book it unless you are pretty sure you could use the miles for something else. It is a gamble and you could be stuck with miles you do not want. If you are willing to take the risk, go for it, otherwise pass.

Feb 8, 2019, 7:55 pm

#155

Stivelio

Join Date: Jun 2015

Posts: 644

Quote:

Originally Posted by skimthetrees

Cool. I was looking at DAL-SFO that seem to have saver space available on AS metal and I have MVP gold status

[Update] - Called AS customer service and they tell me there is no award space from DAL to SFO in the same class to use same award to link to SFO-MEL ticket. I have 4 people on my ticket

Last edited by Stivelio; Feb 8, 2019 at 8:23 pm

Feb 8, 2019, 8:34 pm

#156

jonnyz1245

Join Date: Sep 2007

Posts: 123

Quote:

Originally Posted by LHR/MEL/Europe FF

Hi all

What's the current scoop on booking QF awards through AS? I can see a couple days where QF F is showing available on AS's booking engine. This is mirrored on QF's booking tool. JL's award tool however says 'cabin not available'. I will need to buy some miles to make the purchase so was just wondering if there is astill a problem with phantom availability or the booking being able to be concluded? (I don't have an immediate use for the miles other than this redemption.)

Thanks in adavnce. LME etc

Just call them and ask. In 2014 and 2017 I was able to book F seats from SYD to LAX. Definitely call first and confirm they see the seat and can book it. Not sure if they can hold it and you aren't the only one looking. AUS seats in F are a tough ticket to get. When I did it, both times it showed on AS site but I could not book it on the site so I called and asked for the partner desk. Each time they saw the seat and booked it for free. Easy peasy. I did look daily for over a month as both times I was already in J and I had some flexibility on what day I came back to the states. Good luck. YMMV!

Feb 8, 2019, 10:43 pm

#157

skimthetrees

Join Date: Jan 2010

Programs: UA, AS

Posts: 2,393

Quote:

Originally Posted by Stivelio

There are 2 award seats now so split the reservation into 2 groups (1 adult + 1 child each) and grab the 2 Y seats available now for one group. Keep monitoring and hopefully space will open up later for 2 more. The flights look pretty empty. Hmm, this is assuming you can get a free change for the other 2. Best to give the 2 seats now to your spouse and child and then later you and the other child can hopefully pick up DAL-SFO.

Feb 11, 2019, 3:58 pm

#158

LHR/MEL/Europe FF

FlyerTalk Evangelist

Join Date: Mar 2001

Location: AU

Programs: former Olympic Airways Gold (yeah - still proud of that!)

Posts: 14,405

Thanks everyone for your feedback (apologies for the delay replying but I didn’t get any notifications for this thread for some reason).

The issue is somewhat moot now as QF F has completely disappeared from their booking calendar... there was the odd date available to the USA but seems someone has snapped those up.

Regards

LME

Feb 25, 2019, 11:28 am

#159

qgpv

Join Date: Aug 2002

Location: CA, USA.

Programs: AA, AS, BA, QF

Posts: 58

Has AS stopped their partnership for awards with Qantas? QF is showing availability on BA and QF websites for several days in December 2019 (12/7, 12/8, 12/11) on the segment LAX-BNE in several classes, for multiple seats and with several different itineraries, and none of it appears on AS. This is less than 300 days out... Does anyone have any words of wisdom? Thanks.

Feb 25, 2019, 1:38 pm

#160

jonnyz1245

Join Date: Sep 2007

Posts: 123

Quote:

Originally Posted by qgpv

You could try calling and asking. In my experience, AS only shows itineraries for flights they have seats available for. Dec is a busy time of year for Oz flights so seats are most likely harder to come by.

As far as I know they have not ended their partnership. Would be a huge bummer if that were to happen as I am planning on using points to go in early 2020.

In 2017 when I was searching, there would be days when the search engine showed no flights and then a week later, multiple flights would be available.

Feb 25, 2019, 2:23 pm

#161

qgpv

Join Date: Aug 2002

Location: CA, USA.

Programs: AA, AS, BA, QF

Posts: 58

I have called and agents do not see them either, even though they awards seats are available on BA, QF websites and AA (through agent, not website). So awards seats are available on QF flights with One World partners, but not available with AS. Is it a IT bug or a deeper partnership issue?

Feb 25, 2019, 2:33 pm

#162

qgpv

Join Date: Aug 2002

Location: CA, USA.

Programs: AA, AS, BA, QF

Posts: 58

Plenty of award availability on BA, in premium, biz, first...

Sinter likes this.

Feb 25, 2019, 4:53 pm

#163

minz56

Join Date: Nov 2013

Programs: NZ

Posts: 1,553

Quote:

Originally Posted by qgpv

From my analysis of this QF longhaul awards (eg LAX/SYD) are only available to book on AS up to 253 days out, which as of today means up to 6 November 2019. You will have to wait another month or so to get the dates you want. As they are already available for QF, BA, AA award bookings this means that AS gets what's left over which generally means nothing in premium cabins. It's rare to see anything in J.

Domestic Australia awards are (I believe) available to book on AS up to 353 days out.

qgpv likes this.

Feb 25, 2019, 5:04 pm

#164

qgpv

Join Date: Aug 2002

Location: CA, USA.

Programs: AA, AS, BA, QF

Posts: 58

Thank you! Availability on QF from AS goes to exactly zero past the +253 days mark. Good to know.

diningdecadence likes this.

Feb 25, 2019, 7:35 pm

#165

skimthetrees

Join Date: Jan 2010

Programs: UA, AS

Posts: 2,393

Quote:

Originally Posted by minz56

I have noticed that QF awards via AS are not available further out but did not calculate a days out number, so it's 253. This is either a severe IT bug or a conscious decision by AS to limit value to its members. Someone needs to hold AS's feet to the fire on issues like this. I have not been looking for QF awards or I would be very angry. I am upset at the way they either have incompetent IT staff with no intention of correcting the situation or they hide their shady behavior behind a veil of ignorance. Which is it? I wish I knew.

Oh, BTW, last time I checked there were literally no USA to Australia J awards on QF -- EVER -- even when other partners have space! Is this still a thing?