davistev

Double miles between Australia and the USA is back again but with a further restriction. All flights must be booked on the Qantas or Alaska Airlines website. Previously this was not the case. I have tried the new partner booking feature on the Alaska site but it is very clunky and does not allow ticketing to Qantas cities beyond MEL, SYD, BNE. It also does not want to search for trips beginning in Australia. Nevertheless, all can be booked on the QF site.

see: Alaska Airlines site for full details.

QF flights between Hawaii and Australia are not included in this promo

williwaw

Nice to see the Qantas booking is expanding, even if limited. The initial test was just SFO-SYD. As these options grow, I hope to see more international booking options via AS. (Even if clunky right now.)

milypan

Did this last year for LAX-SYD. Found it to be surprisingly comfortable even in Y on the A380 (though I did pay a small fee to grab a bulkhead seat on the way out and an upper deck seat on the way back), and QF service was good. Wouldn't hesitate to do it again if I were traveling to Australia.

Oh, pro tip for anyone east of the Rockies: the FA noted that even the A380 is generally weight-limited on the DFW-SYD flight, so if you book in the Y cabin on that flight and play your cards right, you may have a decent chance of getting an empty seat next to you.

CDKing

Just my luck i did a MR on QF too soon so not included in the promo. At least on the bright side I only missed out on 8K points since return was via HNL

I heard the same as well about weight restriction getting people sets of 3-4 alone. I found the 787 is roomier than A380 & 747 though. I was lucky and ended up with empty middle on all 3 legs JFK-LAX-SYD-HNL

The big mistake was booking same flight number JFK-SYD as I could not select seats. Thank god for MVPG lounge access as I was able to move to row further up with the empty middle.

ashill

For sure. When I lived in Australia, I found that the weight limit on that flight was not minor at all: they often had to fly it with 100 open seats in coach. DFW-SYD is by far my favorite way to get from the eastern half of the US to Australia. It's a comfortable ride even in coach, and I'd rather maximize my time on the A380 and minimize my time on domestic narrowbodies.

VegasGambler

Holding out hope for a J or PE sale

NYC Flyer

On Qantas? Don't call us, we'll call you...

UserMark

Is it really required to book the flights online with AS or QF? The rest of the page is encouraging you to do that, but the Terms and Conditions do not mention this at all. Nowhere does it actually say that only flights booked online qualify. Are phone bookings really not ok?
BTW, there's a nice double-dip opportunity with current Amex Offers for QF.

NYC Flyer

Agree...I think the implication that the booking channels are restricted was unintentional...should be good for direct or travel agency bookings (but the Amex offer does restrict booking to qantas.com).

davistev

I beg to differ as the whole point of this promotion was to promote the new QF booking feature within the Alaska Airlines booking engine.

davistev

I beg to differ as the whole point of this promotion was to promote the new QF booking feature within the Alaska Airlines booking engine.
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"Did you know that you can now book Qantas flights to Australia right here on our website? You can! Just shop for flights to cities like Melbourne, Sydney, or Brisbane, and you’ll see Qantas flights included in our search results, ready to buy.

To celebrate this milestone, we’re launching a limited time offer to earn double miles on select Qantas flights to Australia."

NYC Flyer

Then a link to Qantas' website is provided. It's a celebration...participate by booking any way you like!

ashill

I'd be surprised if they even have the technical ability to tell which booking method you used in the frequent flyer back end. I would guess it's fairly easy for them to put in a ticketing carrier restriction (ie must be 027 or 081) and certainly a marketing carrier or route (ie the excluded Australia-HNL routings) restriction. But can the Alaska Mileage Plan system tell the difference between a 081 ticket purchased from qantas.com and a 081 ticket purchased from Expedia, for example? Sure, they could have a human check each reservation as it credits, but that sure doesn't seem anything close to worth the effort. And Alaska probably can't even see a QF ticket that doesn't involve any AS flights; the lack of detail that comes in is probably one of the main reason that airlines with revenue-based earning don't use revenue for partner-ticketed flights.

That said, for this many miles, I am not willing to be the guinea pig to test my hypothesis!

NYC Flyer

Not an IT guy, but I'm sure they can run a script to specifically pull out AS website bookings on QF and then provide a bonus on just those itineraries if they wanted to. They can identify issuing agents/locations as well through accounting processes. As you observed, this would require additional effort outside standard mileage tracking. It's simply easier to have folks register for the bonus and just encourage them to check out the new booking feature.

As others have noted, the T&Cs do not specify any limitations on booking channel, so I don't think there's a lot of risk to booking via one's preferred method.

ashill

The fine print may not, but the large print does. If the large print is indeed accurate, I think I'd have a hard time complaining saying "the fine print supports my position even though the large print doesn't". The normal complaint is the other way around: the large print suggesting something is possible but being overruled by fine print: in that case, the ethical thing is for the large print to rule the day.