SYD-JNB on QF with points
 

Hi everyone

We are planning a family trip from Australia to Europe next September and October. This time, we'd like to travel a different route and we are thinking of flying QF from SYD to JNB, stay some days in the area and then fly onwards to FCO with the direct Alitalia flight.

I am looking into getting our QF flights (SYD-JNB and possibly JNB-SYD) using QF frequent flyer points. I will then purchase the Alitalia flights separately, but I have a few questions.

I know that Qantas releases their reward flight seats 353 days in advance, so I am monitoring the site. Up until now they have flights till September 12th, which is 360 days from now (which is weird, as I have never seen this before)! However, up until September 3rd (351 days), they have released the direct flight seats. And it's avalaible every day! After that (between September 4th and 12th), they only have partners reward flights. So I am a bit confused. I am obviously looking into getting the direct flight as I am not willing to spend almost double the amount of points AND flying double the amount of time. ;-)

Also, the dates I need are nowhere near school holidays/high season etc., so there shouldn't be any block out dates.

Any idea why they are not releasing the direct fligh tickets? Does that happen often? Wil they be realising them in the next few days?

ANY idea, tips, suggestions, etc. are more than welcome.

Thanks everyone!

This seems to be a case of different airlines having different advance booking periods, eg

Today (17 Sep 2018) the latest date you can book QF is 5 Sep 2019, whereas you can book CX to 12 Sep 2019.

You don't say what dates you want, but unless I am missing something you will just have to wait till QF comes in range.

Ohhh I see what you mean and it does make sense. Even though following QF rule of 353 days, September 4 and 5 should be out already, but they only list flights with stop overs.
I am looking for something in the middle of September (I can be a bit flexible with dates), so l still have a few days to wait and see if QF releases direct flights... Fingers crossed! And then I will have to wait even longer to book the return flight...
Thanks! :-)

Thank you LondonElite. It's for the same trip/flight, but the question is different. In the previous post I was asking about the fares for the second leg of the journey (JNB-FCO and then JNB-MRU-SYD, possibly on AZ up until JNB). In this case I had a more specific question about the reward flight to get to JNB from SYD with QF. I have "bought" QF reward tickets before, but I had never seen different airlines been listed before the QF flights became available on the QF site, so that confused me. But minz56 cleared my doubts, so all good. :-)

One other thing - while you can buy a regular cash ticket today for 5 Sep 2019, that doesn't mean that QF has made any award seats available for that date.

I understand, but, for the sake of people in future looking at this routing, having everything in one place keeps the discussion flowing.

A question about this route - I looked at 2021 and couldn't find a single day with SYD-JNB availability in business or premium economy on QF on Expertflyer. Is that common?

Not surprising as it is a high demand route and QF isn't sure of plane capacity in J for 2021 yet or of how much demand there is. You can book EK in F or J for SYD-DXB-JNB using QFF points for almost any date in 2021 :)

I see - thanks. I'm trying to position to JNB for a cheap paid EK F fare, so flying SYD-DXB-JNB to fly JNB-DXB-xxx might be too much for me!

Well, you don't belong on Flyertalk then :eek:

Then fly SYD-DXB-JNB in EK J and "compare the pair" with EK F !!

Regards,

BD