Reward Availability in Qantas First
 

Has anyone redeemed CO miles for two First Class tickets on Qantas to Australia? How is the availability? I am thinking of burning through most of my remaining CO miles to do this. Any suggestions on a good time of year (I know the seasons are opposite)? I was thinking July or August, but not sure if I can get the tickets. Any comments or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Yes, many many posts on this, but bottom line availability is tight, so book early and be flexible. Going off-season will help.

Plan on looking 330 days out. Join the QF ff club. This allows you to search their data base for available award seats, including F. Make a note of the dates/flight #s and call CO Partner desk and request those specific ones.

This is the same process I used to secure JFK-LAX-MEL-SYD-LAX-JFK all QF FC last July.

I don't know how true this is- but I was told there is only 1 seat in First available to CO for use with onepass miles. The onepass rewards desk told me that about a year ago. So if that is true- it might be imposiable to get 2 seats- you might have to fly J.

Not true. I've secured 2 before.

Perhaps the day you were looking there was only one left?

I'm not sure that QF allocate "X" seats to a particular airline. I think that the "X" seats go to whoever calls first for the seats, regardless of whether the caller is calling CO or any of the airlines QF has a agreement with, and there are many. I have heard, and would not be surprised if true, that X=2.
There are only 14 FC seats on the 747s that got LAX-OZ and I suspect that they would like to sell a few :)

Flexibility
 

For a vacation in May, 2004, I started trying in July of 2003. I was unable to get LAX-SYD on the outbound, so I accepted LAX-AKL-SYD. I called 28, 21, and 14 days before the trip. The LAX-SYD nonstop opened up, so I paid $50 to change the itinerary.

IMHO, I should have received the nonstop to begin with but at that point it was worth $50 each to avoid the layover.

Unfortunately QF no longer offers FC on LAX-AKL. :(

How is the FC cabin? Looks really nice. We may end up doing a last minute trip this summer...depends on my job situation. I'll just have to keep looking. Thanks for the idea about joining the FF club.

My brother in law took FC to Sydney a month or so ago & raved about the seat and service when he got back.

I was able to score 2 FC tickets too. Ask for a routing through MEL and see if anything shows up. That is the routing I used. LAS-MEL-SYD on the outbound and MEL-LAS on the return.

It's great. It makes the 22-hour jaunt from JFK-SYD actually enjoyable! Food, liquor, service, comfort, all incredible. By all means if you can get the award availability and have the miles, do it! It's probably the best use of OnePass miles out there! It's not quite to the level of Cathay (which has 2 fewer seats in the cabin), but slightly ahead of BA (IME/IMO).

QF F easier to snag than CO F
 

I managed to book a 135K award from EWR - SYD for next year's Mardi Gras (Mar 2006). My advice is to call 330 days out, put a hold on the outbound and then call back for the return when you hit the 330 day mark. Funny thing is I was able to get First on QF with no problem (other than minor tweaking of the dates). My connections to/from LAX are on DL (confirmed first) with a waitlist on CO for F.

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I believe that the QF JFK-LAX flight is the best possible "domestic" flight there is! If you are quite flexible and you live in the NY metro area, it's worth traveling on a Sun, Wed or Fri to get those flights. There is nothing like returning home after a long journey and having the comfort of QF F (after a nice shower) when you reboard in LAX for JFK.