Using One Pass Miles with Qantas
 

I am trying to book 11 months out and there are no Busness class seats available on any of the Qantas o/w flights.

Is this too much to ask? If they are going to lure us with the QF avaibility shoudn't there be a minimal number of seats out there....?

YADA, YADA, YADA

I just needed to vent. I actually know we are all screwed no matter what thay tell us

From what I understand, they release a few seats per flight 12 months out. The Qantas folks get access 1-2 weeks before the partners (AA, CO, etc) and tend to snap them up. I scored 1 first class seat about 9 months out, but I had to be VERY flexible. I checked many, many weeks and had to fly out 3 days early and leave 2 days late. I'm laying over in Sydney on the front and back end of the trip to NZ.

You can get a FF number with Qantas and check their site, but it's not easily navigated.

Good luck - keep trying.

Welcome to the club, SCF... apparently the average CO traveller has a better chance of winning the MegaBucks slot jackpot than getting a reward seat in F or J on a QF transpacific flight!

The first problem in booking "down under" reward seats is that there are limited n/s routes from the mainland.... LAX-SYD (QF107/108 QF11/12 and QF8/149), LAX-BNE (QF175/176), LAX-MEL (QF93/94), LAX-AKL (QF25/26), and SFO-SYD (QF73/74, >3/26/06).

Also according to CO.com there are *no* seats available for CO reward travel on the LAX-SYD QF11/12 pair in F or J, on any dates, period.

And, even if you're willing to fly into NZ instead of AU, the QF25/26 LAX-AKL route has only a single BF hybrid cabin.

Your best bet for nabbing reward seats on QF is to call the partner desk often, as the CO-allotted inventory is quite variable. As of last week there were a couple of seats in business available on the LAX-MEL route in early Nov., although the soonest return flight with avail. was Dec. 13th and that was out of SYD. Other than that, they had nothing available on any flight in F or J for any city pair from now until Dec. 28th.

Good luck! I've been trying for a pair of reward seats in F for the past 3 years without success. I call about once a week and check inventory for the entire year..... I got REALLY close nabbing a pair last month, but the 2 available outbound and return flights via SYD were 29 days apart-- from June 27 to July 26.... too long! :(

I'm going to nominate the above post as the post with the most inaccuracies in a single post I've ever seen on FT.

Just for starters, and for instance, when did Qantas start flying to MLB?! I thought their only intra-US route was LAX-JFK. :confused:

It is true that Qantas FF members get to book awards about 3 weeks earlier than others (~ 350 days rather than 330). So it's possible that some award seats are loaded when the flights come into the system and are snapped up by QF members.

But in most cases it's just that QF is stingy with premium class award availability, coupled with very high demand for the seats (from their own members, from oneworld partners, from additional partners like AS/CO/US). And award availability can change at any time.

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.

Why not just sign up for a QF FF account and use their website to check availability? Or use the KVS availability tool? Or ExpertFlyer?

SYD really isn't that cold or wet in late June/early July. Sure it's their winter but it's mild and frankly I enjoy it. But it's actually a great time to travel to Australia and then perhaps head up to CNS... in fact no better time of year for that!!

[QUOTE=gleff]Just for starters, and for instance, when did Qantas start flying to MLB?!

Lot of Aussies on the Space Coast! I heard they started a 744 going MLB-CPT-SYD.....:)

I have read many one pass posts where people are never able to get F or J on QF however I called One Pass on December 28th to try and get F and much to my suprise I was able to get F on March 14th (LAX-SYD)and back in economy, however after calling everyday I was able to get J class SYD-JFK. So its luck of the draw.
That only left me one small problem, I was actually trying to get to New Zealand, but this is where my 20K AA miles came in handy, was able to get SYD-AKL-SYD in Y, for on 20K miles !
I found there most of the CO agents on the QF reward desk were very patient when checking all the routings. Be sure to try SYD-SFO (2 class cabin) this is a new route and I think they are also starting SYD-YVR.
and lastly if you are from the east coast make sure to ask the agent to check both SYD-JFK & SYD LAX as there is a different allocation (ie my J class seat from SYD-JFK was not available SYD-LAX even though its the same aircraft)
Good luck

Best advice, bar none, for QF rewards. The seats are out there, though it takes a bit of work, and maybe some luck, to find what you want. A co-worker found his perfect flights by using the QF reward tool on their site and then just calling CO to book. I'm not saying that there are tons of seats on every flight, but the seats are out there and are available. Using the QF tool is the easiest/fastest/cheapest/bestest way to find them.

S.

I second this. Start looking 330 days out. The QF FF site is slow to respond, but once you find avaiability (and if you play a bit, you WILL find more than one F on some flights), call the CO partners desk immediately, give them these dates and times and flight numbers and you are good to go.
I did this a year go, all in F: JFK-LAX-MEL-SYD-LAX-JFK.

It's out there. You just need to work at it. :)

which "above" post were you referring to? the originator of this thread's, or mine?

I got mine first try using OP miles once. Then changed the return and was able to get that.

Gleff-

The OP was referring to using his CO miles miles to get a reward seat on QF metal, not QF miles.


And yes, while I find the KVS tool invaluable in many instances, again, the question is not whether a given QF flight shows any reward seats available... the question is whether or not QF will allow a CO member to claim that seat using CO miles.

The reason for the limited CO availability to their reward seats is quite obvious....

If you are a QF FF using QF miles, a rt reward ticket LAX-Australia costs 288,000 miles for First Class, or 192,000 miles for Business Class. (or 168,000 miles for the BusFirst cabin LAX-AKL).

However, if you are a CO member using CO miles, a rt reward ticket requires only 135,000 miles for First Class and only 105,000 miles for Business (or BusFirst) Class.

It's not surprising that QF tightly controls its reward inventory when persons want to use CO miles for the ticket.

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" :(

Yours.