How to search OZ *A award availability
 

Not sure if this should be in the OZ forum or here, but here goes.

I'm pretty sure I've seen reference to how to use the ANA tool to see OZ award availability, but I can't remember where. When I search, I often get the availability as RQ, but if I perform the same search a bit later, it will be with OK or X. Can someone help refresh my memory, or provide a link?

What about the Aeroplan tool? How well does this work for OZ availability?

There are so many threads on award availability tools such as AwardNexus, ANA tool, KVS, etc, etc... Don't want to sound mean but take some time to search for something before making a thread when it comes to topics like this.

What I recommend is AwardNexus since it shows the same availability on many programs including CO/UA. OZ usually has good award availability except during the summer months in premium cabins. It's good to book premium cabins early if possible.

What does "RQ" mean in the ANA tool
 

That answer was not helpful.
I will clarify what I am trying to find out: what does it mean when an OZ flight has RQ availability in the ANA tool?

How is that not helpful. I will clarify what I am trying to say: go on the search button and type "RQ" and "ANA" then read the threads.

Actually, RQ is too short of a term to get searched on FT. You'll get all threads containing ANA if you try a search for both terms.

However, if you go to Google and search for the following:

You'll get results that contain both terms. It's a work around when you're searching for things that are too short for the FT search engine.

RQ means you need to put in a request with the airline. You can see more information in the following threads:

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/air-c...ilability.html

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/bmi-d...c-process.html

awardnexus.com is the best to search for awards

RQ is short for request. The ANA tool shows OZ award availability without any special tricks or technique.

But the issue might be that you are searching for flights during the blackout periods?

Welcome to FT, tehlze!

Awardnexus is indeed a great tool to help search for awards but some programs have availability which isn't shown there.

Out of curiosity, are you referring to how ANX only has a few airline site choices, such as ANA or AC?

I know that earlier on, many people have the misconception that because there are only 6 or 7 programs listed, than ANX only searches on 6 or 7 carriers. But in reality, many of those airline site choices actually cover the entire alliance, so ANX does have coverage for all 27+ Star Alliance and all 12+ Oneworld airlines.

For example, AC has coverage for the entire Star Alliance, so if you search using AC, you are going to get many Star Alliance carriers results, in addition to AC's own flights.

AC is a good example. On some routes, AC doesn't show availability at all while the ANA tool does. The other issue I find often is when using M&M miles on SQ where tools show no availability and only the LH call centre will see the available seats. And of course there are the specialy things like LH A380 F awards which ANX can't cover.

So ANX is a very nice tool to research and works well with the excpetion of some specialty problems.

Very true. Award availability can occasionally differ between different sources.

I put together a Tips page with some notes on the various airline sites, to document the exceptions where additional research would be needed. In particular, I have also observed the same thing about AC not showing some LH flights. It only happens rarely, but it is always a good idea to cross-check using additional airline sites (such as CO or ANA).

Nice list of tips. ^

In my experience availability seems to differ a lot with SQ and also with the less mainstream airlines. So MS or A3 awards often don't show up properly in any research tool.

Interesting. I know that is true often for SQ availability, but do you have any direct flight examples with MS or A3?

The reason I ask is because there are many reasons why availability may be mismatched, and many of them have to do with connection. For example, if you used ANA to search on a route that requires at least 2 stops, and you expected MS or A3 to show up, you would never see them, not because ANA doesn't cover the flights, but because the connection builder is not considering any 2+ stops.

Similar issue with overnight or very long connection as well, as some airline sites don't consider them.

In prior years I would often see award availability for OZ on the ANA tool. Now at most I only see the RQ. The "RQ" seems to come and go. I will do a search and not get the RQ, then the same leg shows RQ a few minutes later.