Help to break the "UC spell" - please ...
 

Hi there,

I am looking for one award seat on QF73 SYD-SFO in business beginning or April.
EF shows:
J9 C9 D9 IL UC W9 R9 TL ZC Y9 B9 H9 K9 M9 L9 V9 SC NC QC OC GL XC EC

Tried already via the QCC to "request" the award, but no success.
The seat map would indicate that there are still quite a number of unassigned seats - which would go along with the booking situation.
The really (!) friendly people at the QCC told me this is because of the Easter break in Australia - and that I was out of luck.
Can anyone give me any hope or suggestion to try my luck again - possibly shortly before the actual flight date? Unfortunately I am not flexibel on the day, yet on the routing. But MEL/SYD-LAX didn't look any better.

Cheers
TheAirman

The seat map and fare availability will only give you an idea of the currently booked load, but no insight into demand to come. QF may expect further J sales before the flight, and so releasing additional award space doesn't make sense.

Also I think it is very unlikely for additional standard award space to open up in the days/week before the flight due to the QFF upgrade system.

Your chances of getting a business class Aust-USA in early April are low to zilch.
You do not state which ffp you have miles with.

As QF charge $$$ for some/many seat selections and even for business/first some people do not select seats, so seat maps have zero indication of sales.

Easter is the busiest time for flights in Australia. Thursday/Easter Friday has the most air passengers for any days of the year. Flights may sell out.

Airlines that fly USA/Canada to/from Australia (not from all airports to all airports)
- United UA (LAX SFO – SYD MEL) [Star Alliance]
- American Airlines AA (LAX - SYD) [OneWorld Alliance] (AS partner)
- Qantas QF (LAX SFO JFK DFW HNL – SYD BNE MEL) [OneWorld Alliance] (AS partner)
- Jetstar JQ (HNL – SYD BNE)
- Delta DL (LAX – SYD) (VA & AS partner) [Skyteam Alliance]
- Virgin Australia VA (LAX – SYD BNE) (DL partner)
- Hawaiian (HNL – SYD BNE via Hawaii) (AA & VA partner)
- Air New Zealand NZ ( LAX SFO via AKL) [Star Alliance]
- Fiji Airways FJ (LAX via Fiji) (AA & AS partner)
- Air Tahiti Nui (LAX last segments on codeshares) (AA & DL partner)
- Air Canada AC (YYR - SYD, BNE from Jun 2016) [Star Alliance]
And others via Asia & Middle East

CX has J availability 5-7 April (and end of March) HKG-SFO. You could try to source a seat from one of the many CX ports (and Y might be your only option that late) here in Australia.

Regards,

BD

I am a QF WP, but this is the first time I really want to use QFF for an award.


Good idea - this would meet my need timewise, but I see no way to get to HKG - even not in Y as an award.

You might find the odd seat released a few days before the flight date. But, really, this is a case where WP is not important enough to the decision makers in QF home base.

There are various options via MEL and SIN or KUL (EK or 3K somewhere in the mix) but that's really out of your way and not really what I'd recommend/

The best I can find if you're dead-set on using points is:

5APR: SYD-NAN J FJ914 06:30-12:20
5APR: NAN-HNL J FJ822 23:59-10:50
5APR: HNL-LAX Y AA284 14:25-22:58
6APR: LAX-SFO Y AA2438 08:00-09:24

will obviously require an overnight in LAX. 94,000 points + $126.97 fines.

Might be worth you just taking the SYD-HNL and then book a direct HNL-SFO on a paid ticket should you decide on this route and decide to substitute an overnight hotel for a direct flight.

Regards,

BD

And the last time using QF ffp for an award?

Living in Germany, there are better ffp's than Qantas. Look at post 330 here for QF vs AA Aust - award cost in points/miles & cash. People living in Australia can get QF points from credit cards, which softens the difference.

BD1959's good work on awards may be best available at short notice

Thanks for this great help. Will think about it.


Honestly QFF is not my only OW(E) program, hence the first time use for an award - but the benefit of QFF for me is the EK-QF link.

The AS EK link may offer the same or more https://www.alaskaair.com/content/mi...ePlan-partners But the AS award chart has limitations

Yep, just tried to get a first class seat released as a WP on QF10 in October with the cabin wide open. No chance! Rejected within a minute or two presumably by some automatic system.

So the decision makers have outsourced this stuff to a computer algorithm - QF at its worst, yet again treating its most "loyal" customers with complete disinterest.

First is the CSNS ("Computer Says No Syndrome"), but if you find the right phone operator, they may volunteer to send it to a human for higher level review. In my case, the human also said no - with a seemingly wide open cabin. I just booked on JQ Biz to HNL instead and went away and sulked.

TBH, since UC means 'Business Class Awards are Closed" (In fact all award buckets are 'closed' [Z/X]), I seriously doubt any award would be opened.

Whether it is a human or a computer making the decision, there would need to be a consistent algorithm in place in order to fairly make the determination

At least a computer takes away vaguaries of a human not properly following an algorithm

Whether QF has tightened up on releasing more seats is another matter

There can't be such a thing if call centre staff have the option to refer the matter to a human rather than accept what the computer initially spits back.