Please do not flame me just direct me to the thread discussing this issue. Why does the website show plenty of Business Class availability LAX-SYD, but when clicking through to the flights they are all Economy? Thanks

I presume you mean that there are plenty of Biz seats available for purchase but when looking for redemption award seats (using points) there are only Economy class seats available?

If so, then you have discovered how QF manages inventory. There may be seats released closer to departure. You can also buy an Economy seat (not the cheapest classes) and waitlist for an upgrade when the WL window opens at 90 days (this will be determined 24 hrs prior to departure).

Not a great system, but it forces people to buy Biz or First seats. QF is very profitable (or at least it was last year).

QF know many biz seats are only booked the week before travel. It can he hard at times to get a paid biz seat SYD-LAX & LAX-SYD, especially weekends. QF is one of the most profitable airlines because it does not give our endless upgrades or reward flights.

Also SYD in not the only airport in Aussie. Try LAX-MEL or LAX-BNE or SFO-SYD/MEL/BNE

Can you be more specific about what you're looking at?

For example, if I search for LAX-SYD availability using the "flexible with dates" option, a calendar comes up, on which I can re-search to show business class availability. When picking a particular date on which there is business class availability, a list of flights comes up. There will usually be at least two columns; the left hand column showing all the flights on which there is economy class availability, but the right hand column showing the (more limited) flights on which there is business class availability.

Is that what you're looking at, or something else?

Hi all

I too have had the same problem as the OP.

A specific date was on 29 October 2009, biz class award seats (at least 2 which we were asking for) show up on the front calendar page (when you search with flexibility).

However, once you click on the little purple seat all that shows up on the next page is economy awards and no biz seats.

When I rang Qantas they saw the same thing and couldn't get it to give biz award availability when it came to the actual booking.

Regards

lme ff

Note: I see now that there is no availability showing on 29 October, but if you look at 5 november (2009) the same problem occurs. Again looking for 2 seats, shows the purple symbol, but only eco seats on next page. Although interestingly is shows the flight duration (when you hover over the purple seat) of 24hrs 5 mins - and the next page only lists flights up to a max 23hrs 45 mins. So go figure?

Maybe the software shows the available icon if there is a single seat on any flight (even if you are searching for 2)? That matches the behaviour that I've noticed in the past, and is the reasonable way to implement this function (some people would want to see availability even if it isn't for all seats in the party). QF often puts canceled awards into revenue inventory (part of the reason why primo awards are so scarce -- they are booked 12 months in advance and then canceled closer to the travel date, but stop being award inventory) and then releases awards 1 seat at a time. So if someone cancels 4 award seats, these will trickle back 1 at a time over a several week period, instead of as a block of 4. Making it much easier to get a single award seat than multiples. I have no inside knowledge about how QF and QFF work, but have noticed this behaviour over the years and it is too distinct to be coincidental.

No - this doesn't explain it entirely either. It only works for some dates (two showing but only one available) and doesn't work for other dates (that is, none show when looking for two seats, but they do show if looking for one seat only).

If you get what I mean!

Regards


lme ff

QF needs to consult (engage for $) with some of the switched on IT people on this forum to explain to QF IT people how it should work. And of course QF management could be a little less miserly with award inventory

Many of us are constantly looking for LAX-SYD availability, when the one-month chart comes up it shows only Y but you can select J, PE and/or F and try again. Then a few dates are shown but when you click on one of them it invariably seems to show only Y availability on the direct flights, as you mention.

Scroll down a page or two and you'll find the J seat, it's always on QF26 to AKL connecting to a local flight to SYD.

Up to you whether you ant to grab that seat with the intention of changing it to a direct flight nearer the time, seats are usually released 1-2 weeks ahead

Once the 743s have gone this will not be that painful

The issue with the problem described by the OP is that the 'business class' column itself doesn't exist - so scrolling won't help! Believe me - my sister would have been happy with QF26 via AKL!

regards

lme ff

Whereas searching for LAX-AKL mostly only finds J seats via NAN or BNE

I just booked an F award on the A380 -- all I signed on for was to see these defects in the website award tool. It popped up on a date that was good for me, I booked it, and sure enough the inventory now shows as gone. Excellent tool from my admittedly limited usage of it. I guess the routings shown depend on demand (route and season); the couple that I checked had pretty reasonable results, and there were F/J seats available for several different dates. Not every week, but not impossible either.

And was there any A availability when you were able to score the F award seat(s)?

I have no idea; I wasn't actually looking to book a seat, instead I was testing the qantas.com award application to see whether it was working properly or had the problems mentioned on this thread. It doesn't show fare class inventory, just award inventory -- which was surprisingly plentiful, in fact astonishingly so. I suppose I can thank FT for getting me to play with this tool; booking it with Aadvantage miles was quite easy, after finding the dates on qantas.com (at less than half the QFF cost; looks like Oneworld really does get the same award inventory).

I did see F awards available every week on the kangaroo route for 3 consecutive months (Feb-May 2009, or something like that); and at least one every month trans-Pacific. But probably only 1 per flight (but my theory is that all non-year out awards are trickled in 1 at a time). Got the A380 in F in both directions LAX-MEL-LAX, and on dates I wanted. Astonishing. I have found A and D to be hard to get in the past year (harder than this award) ... the strange world of FF plans.