Reifel

Hi Qantas Fans,

coming over from the more "european" parts of this message board, I'd like to ask for your expertise.
My griflriend and I plan to book a flight HBA-MEL-PER, preferably business, worst case Economy Class, with points (it would be BA miles, but QF award of course).

We're looking at 15MAR (+/-1 day) and it doesn't look good.
I see only 1 seat here and there in Economy or in sometimes in Business.

Obviously we are booking late, but we just haven't known earlier.

So here comes the question: Is there some pattern that Qantas is sometimes releasing additional seats i.e. 1 month or 2 weeks prior to departure? I understand availabilty can always change, but if chances are usually pretty good I might want to wait a bit, if you think normally at this point not much is released anymore well then we might just book a revenue ticket...

On a side note, do you happen to know which booking classes I need to keep on the radar in Expertflyer for Economy and Business class redemptions on QF?

Thanks a lot
Reifel

jridge

It can always change, but there's still quite a bit of demand for HBA in March, so personally I wouldn't rate your chances highly for two J seats opening up. Maybe look at which segment is causing the issue, i.e. if there are J seats MEL-PER then going in Y from HBA-MEL isn't too big of a deal.

Note that VA started non-stop HBA-PER flights a few months ago, so if you do take the revenue path, this is an option to keep in the mix.

Volvo Mike

I just searched on Qantas with my wife's FF bronze account and there are 2 business class seats on Saturday 16th March leaving Hobart at 6am on QF1010 arriving 7.15am and then QF769 departing 13.05 arriving 14.10.

Regards,

Michael

lokijuh

AA is also showing those 2 seats, but BA is not. Availability on BA is different to what is there on QFF.

number_6

BA award cost is cheaper than QFF or AAdvantage, offset by less award availability. Converting credit card points to QFF a AA is one option. Also you may be able to find BA award availability on MEL-PEr and HBA-MEL when HBA-(MEL)-PER is not available (presuming you did not have a stopover in MEL). I have avoided BA FF plan for this reason

About additional award being released closer to flight time, chances are 0 as that space will be used for QFF upgrade inventory instead (MEL_PER is a highly desired route in J).

og

Mwenenzi

Have you looked a HBA-SYD-PER? Would cost more BA avios.
QF also fly CBR-PER & ADL-PER & BNE-PER

East coast Au to Perth business class is desirable for paid fares, awards & upgrades. A lot of fifo people and people flying for work on paid fares. Some of these fifo guys have high status & QF ff points to burn.

As above, find out if the PER flights are available for business awards. You may have to pay cash to get to the east coast Au airport

Great Circle Mapper

Good luck ^

lokijuh

Yeh, a quirk of the BA zones, that SYD-PER in business is almost double the miles of MEL-PER in business.

Reifel

Hello everyone,

thank you so much for the friendly and detailled responses.

I think we know our options now. We will be looking at booking economy class availabilty as a last resort, or potentially a ticket from MEL to PER on miles and a feeder from HBA on a revenue ticket i.e.

Thanks again for the great feedback
Reifel

dkc192

If it's not too late, it seems like BA.com has issues displaying award space on some/all flights operated by Qantaslink and/or other QF subsidiaries. BA phone agents should be able to see the same space AA and QF Bronzes can see, so call to book if you can find space using either of those two programs. I was recently able to book a HBA-SYD-HTI routing that way.

For more info on this issue, see the various linked threads in post 2 of this thread: Qantas Link with Avios Points

lokijuh

This is relevant for HBA-SYD, which is a route operated by QantasLink. However, mainline operates HBA-MEL. On mainline services, do agents see different inventory to online? At the moment on the 15 Mar, BA Avios is offering QF 1010, 1014 & 1016 in economy and one seat on QF1010 in business, whilst AA is seeing only 1010 in economy! It varies a lot it seems.

FWIW, there seem to be 2 seats now connecting via MEL to PER in business on morning of 16th March, using Avios.