Award availability in J w family of 4
Feb 16, 2019, 4:35 am
#1
Original Poster
Join Date: Feb 2019
Posts: 3
Award availability in J w family of 4
Hi!
I'm about to hit platinum and planning on taking a family holiday on the tail-end of a work-trip.
I would be buying a Y ticket for work, but want to redeem J awards for the family on the same flight so the booking becomes more complex. Generally, is 3xJ reward tickets hard to achieve (and possible Y points upgrade)?
Does hitting platinum allow me more access to rewards seats on request?
Thank you!
I'm about to hit platinum and planning on taking a family holiday on the tail-end of a work-trip.
I would be buying a Y ticket for work, but want to redeem J awards for the family on the same flight so the booking becomes more complex. Generally, is 3xJ reward tickets hard to achieve (and possible Y points upgrade)?
Does hitting platinum allow me more access to rewards seats on request?
Thank you!
Feb 16, 2019, 6:13 am
#3
Join Date: Nov 2013
Programs: NZ
Posts: 1,554
If you must travel on a particular day (due to your work travel commitments) then you may find it extremely difficult to find award availability. Three or four seats in J is always going to be hard to find and if you have no flexibility then even harder.
Feb 16, 2019, 1:39 pm
#4
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Apr 2002
Location: SYD
Programs: QF WP/LTG | UA P
Posts: 13,530
Some flights have zero Biz award seats no matter whether you phone and beg, check the website or even if the seating diagram shows no allocated seats (not that this is a true indication of seats sold in the cabin). For instance, SYD-HNL during school holidays has been impossible for me to book in Biz - even at one year in advance - and that was just for 2 seats.
As commented above, you have to be flexible (very). It’s not as good as QF would have you believe.
As commented above, you have to be flexible (very). It’s not as good as QF would have you believe.
Feb 16, 2019, 1:55 pm
#5
Original Member
Join Date: May 1998
Location: Portland OR Double Emerald (QF and AA), DL PM/MM, Starwood Plat
Posts: 19,589
As stated, it varies by route, date and even day of week and time of day ... QF has sophisticated yield management software which is effective in predicting demand. 3 J seats is 10% of the cabin on some planes. Now if you wanted SYD-MEL J then I;ve seen 6 awards available (and there are only 12 J seats on 738s). Presuming you are looking for LAX/SIN/LHR then pretty much 2 is the limit. Routes like HKG and NRT will have more availability on some days.
Also Platinum isn't a very high status on QF, I have been on planes with 100 Platinums, so you have a lot of upgrade and even award competition on those routes.
Also Platinum isn't a very high status on QF, I have been on planes with 100 Platinums, so you have a lot of upgrade and even award competition on those routes.
Feb 16, 2019, 2:23 pm
#6
Moderator: Asiana & Qantas Frequent Flyer
Join Date: Dec 2006
Location: STR/SYD/SMF
Programs: QF Lifetime SG, LH HON, OZ Lifetime Diamond +, HH Diamond, Marriott Lifetime Platinum
Posts: 14,373
Welcome to FT, huangwenshen! Once you have hit Platinum it definitely worth calling to see if there is a chance to release additional award inventory even if there isn't enough seats showing online.
Feb 16, 2019, 4:02 pm
#7
Original Poster
Join Date: Feb 2019
Posts: 3
Thanks everyone for your response so far.
Apologies for the vague question. Although I was asking generally, I appreciate that some details could have helped in providing better responses.
We are aiming for Seoul ICN during early April, preferably flying out of SYD 5th, 6th or 7th.
By the sounds, generally its going to be tough, and platinum may or may not afford me any extra benefits/opportunity. It will really be a game of chance I suppose.
Apologies for the vague question. Although I was asking generally, I appreciate that some details could have helped in providing better responses.
We are aiming for Seoul ICN during early April, preferably flying out of SYD 5th, 6th or 7th.
By the sounds, generally its going to be tough, and platinum may or may not afford me any extra benefits/opportunity. It will really be a game of chance I suppose.
Feb 16, 2019, 4:11 pm
#8
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Apr 2001
Location: MEL CHC
Posts: 21,018
Apologies for the vague question. Although I was asking generally, I appreciate that some details could have helped in providing better responses.
We are aiming for Seoul ICN during early April, preferably flying out of SYD 5th, 6th or 7th.
By the sounds, generally its going to be tough, and platinum may or may not afford me any extra benefits/opportunity. It will really be a game of chance I suppose.
We are aiming for Seoul ICN during early April, preferably flying out of SYD 5th, 6th or 7th.
By the sounds, generally its going to be tough, and platinum may or may not afford me any extra benefits/opportunity. It will really be a game of chance I suppose.
Have looked on line for 1 business class award SYD-ICN or SYD-xxx-ICN?
QF partners CX & MH & OZ? Maybe JL
From https://www.qantas.com/travel/airlin...able/global/en for 5 April
---> Qantas Codeshare Flight QF367 is operated by ASIANA AIRLINES
Last edited by Mwenenzi; Feb 16, 2019 at 4:16 pm
Feb 16, 2019, 4:31 pm
#9
Moderator: Asiana & Qantas Frequent Flyer
Join Date: Dec 2006
Location: STR/SYD/SMF
Programs: QF Lifetime SG, LH HON, OZ Lifetime Diamond +, HH Diamond, Marriott Lifetime Platinum
Posts: 14,373
Even for an Asiana Diamond+ it is difficult to get 4 J seats on that route. I did try a few years back and was not successful.
Feb 18, 2019, 2:03 am
#10
Original Member
Join Date: May 1998
Location: Portland OR Double Emerald (QF and AA), DL PM/MM, Starwood Plat
Posts: 19,589
QF never releases awards on codeshares due to the terms of their codeshare agreement. Best you could do is award on JL or CX or MH into ICN. Actually MH SYD-KUL-ICN could have 4xJ award availability (I know you actually want 3 award and 1 upgrade).
Feb 18, 2019, 7:47 pm
#11
Join Date: May 2007
Programs: UA 1K, Hyatt Globalist
Posts: 5,451
On the vast majority of flights MH only releases one initial J award seat per flight. IIRC the subsequent practice is to not release further awards; i.e. once the one award is claimed, nothing further will be released, unless the original traveler cancels the award.
Feb 18, 2019, 7:51 pm
#12
Join Date: Jul 2008
Location: YYZ
Programs: Hilton Gold Mariott Gold Aeroplan E25K SAS Gold NEXUS
Posts: 1,308
CX J might be available. I've been able to get 5 seats YYZ - HKG - CGK before, it might also be possibly Ex SYD to ICN via HKG, not sure if availability is worse ex SYD though . . . CX traditionally is more generous with award seats. I did book about 10 or 11 months in advance though and it was not peak time.
Jul 21, 2019, 10:31 pm
#13
Original Poster
Join Date: Feb 2019
Posts: 3
Hi all - just to round this out, it took a little longer than expected to reach our points requirements, as the original plan to tag off the back of a work trip fell through.
Instead we opted for 4xJ award seats direct to Japan; Korean became considerably more costly as we had to fly through HKG which increased the mile requirements.
SYD to KIX, on QF and return is NRD to SYD on JL
Dates were harder to find during April 2020 holidays; I'm assuming just based on the period, (tried calling QFF hotline, searching on AwardNexus, BA and JL sites) but otherwise we didn't have too much trouble finding the 4 seats.
Thanks again for your advices.
Instead we opted for 4xJ award seats direct to Japan; Korean became considerably more costly as we had to fly through HKG which increased the mile requirements.
SYD to KIX, on QF and return is NRD to SYD on JL
Dates were harder to find during April 2020 holidays; I'm assuming just based on the period, (tried calling QFF hotline, searching on AwardNexus, BA and JL sites) but otherwise we didn't have too much trouble finding the 4 seats.
Thanks again for your advices.
Jul 21, 2019, 10:37 pm
#14
Moderator: Asiana & Qantas Frequent Flyer
Join Date: Dec 2006
Location: STR/SYD/SMF
Programs: QF Lifetime SG, LH HON, OZ Lifetime Diamond +, HH Diamond, Marriott Lifetime Platinum
Posts: 14,373
Great result. Finding 4 award seats in J is very difficult and I am glad you were able to pull this off in both directions.