Hope you don't mind the enquiry from a BA FF. Visiting some family in Darwin next 'summer' (July), and was thinking it would be quite easy to snag some Avios redemptions (Classic level) for the flight from Darwin back to Singapore, ideally in Business. Now I realise it's served by a 737-800 with 12 Business seats only, so this is looking quite unlikely.

By looking a full year ahead through the BA site, I can see precisely 0 seats available for any date. Via the Qantas site, I can see the occasional seat in Classic Plus (which I can't access with BA/Avios points).

Question is, should I give up and never expect four Business or Economy seats to ever materialise? In which case I need to decide at which point to pay up and either book through Qantas or Singapore Airlines direct. If paying, sad to say it would be Economy only.

Or worth hanging on a few weeks/months first, before parting with my cash? I'd genuinely take Classic seats in either cabin, or a mix.

If I was paying, then genuinely, my incredibly strong OneWorld allegiance aside, who would provide the better flight experience... Qantas or Singapore?

Any advice / tips, hugely appreciated.

PS - for the SYD - DRW leg (which I also thought would be easier to get this far out - wrong!) I managed to make my Avios work at the weekend, by shifting our travel dates a little... I got 2 Business and 2 Economy seats, so my wife and daughter can enjoy the added comfort. Me and my son will be a few rows back!

Wait 6 months and then start looking again

As per your other thread can use Qatar QR avios on VA for AU domestic flights.

Ah ok, will hold back. I only fly BA, so only have BA Avios, so anything with any other airline's points is a non-starter for me.

off topic
Open a Qatar QR ffp. From that you can access BA avios without moving them and use for QR awards.
[edit Unsure if works for VA awards, Have seen FT posts works for QF awards]
Nothing to lose by trying, without committing/ finalize an award.
Avios is a moveable ff currency used by QR BA AY IB IE for the other ffp's.
Many thread in BA & QR forums

June July is a busy time for the top end

I didn�t realise this. Thank you!!

I was able to snag a couple of seats in business on this route recently at the Class price. They do seem to come and go without rhyme or reason. I was fixed to a particular date and only randomly checked and on all previous occasions I had checked there was nothing at all on my preferred date so was surprised when 2 seats popped up at the Classic rate.

Really useful to hear that, thank you. Daily checks are going to become part of my lunchtime routine I think!

Different departure times, and both are on 737s, with SQ maybe a slight chance of being a refurb 737 (in J). In each cabin, I would expect that SQ provides a better flight experience.

SQ usually has a very consistent service and is scores very high in all the rankings. My personal preference is QF however. A good crew will be better than SQ, a bad crew however will not be close to SQ.
SQ252 is a short red-eye which personally I dislike, SQ254 is close to the QF departure time. SQ has no lounge at all in Darwin, Qantas still the normal Qantas Club.

I did this routing earlier this year on Singapore and enjoyed the flight. Service was the usual excellent standard I expect from Singapore. I actually had seats booked on the Singapore Airlines flight which I cancelled as I prefer to burn Qantas points and save the KF miles for other redemptions as they make seats more readily available. I go into the QF flight with low expectations based on the inflight interactions I’ve had the past few years.