Classic Award MEL-LAX Return Business

[jimstreet]

I'm looking to take my family (3 pax) to Disneyland. I have enough points for business however I can't find any available classic award seats at all.

This is my first time trying to book international with points. Is this typical? Any tips on how to secure seats?

 

[opusman]

3 award seats in J on the same flight is asking a lot. Consider maybe one adult travelling separately. Also consider other non-direct routings (e.g. via BNE). You will also need to book as soon as the seats are released - approx 350 days in advance.

 

[Limewood]

Depends on class of award Y ? J etc, book a year out better chance, best of luck for 3. Try to HNL better, then buy Y to USA city.

 

[kelvedon]

What dates are you trying for?

 

[jimstreet]

I'm trying for any time, even went the furthest out their site goes.

Also tried for Singapore and got nothing.

What a crock classic awards are!

 

[serfty]

3 seats on the same flight is almost impossible transpacific for business class.

You need to be looking at 331 days before the10 am Brisbane time - you'll likely get three economy seats but not business, normally ony one or two - also look midweek, not Fri-Sun.

If you did find them are you aware those business class transpacific flight will cost you around $3000 in taxes, levies and airline surcharges, let alone the 576000 QFF points.

Now, here's the thing, perhaps you could consider Singapore, Hong Kong or even Tokyo. They all have Disneylands...

You can get sale fares with Qantas (in economy) for less than those charges ...

I did that (Hong Kong) with my family 9 years ago.

 

[grrofunger]

Singapore doesn't have Disneyland , only Universal Studios

 

[amaroo]

Paris Disney?

It was pretty easy to book the 4 of us into J (CX) award seats to Rome and back from Paris ... couple of F flights thrown in for the parents

 

[Flying mermaid]

I'm trying for any time, even went the furthest out their site goes.

Also tried for Singapore and got nothing.

What a crock classic awards are!

3 in J is going to be very hard on the same plane. Should be quite easy to get two if you book on the day they are released and then perhaps one person on a plane ex Brisbane or Sydney. Or maybe pay for one, or get a PE award for one. A380 is hard 747 much easier. I have been monitoring daily for Australia to Lax for a friend and have found Tues, Wed, Thurs have best availability and Friday not too bad. Sat, sun and Mon pretty useless. Coming back he wants to fly DFW-Syd and Sun, Mon and Wed are best days.

 

[jimstreet]

Thanks for all your advice. It's supposed to be our first family overseas trip, so being all together is the aim. I did look at Singapore but couldn't find anything available either.

It is really disappointing, I've been a QF FF member for 15 years and spent the last few years banking points. Appears they're now useless

 

[Limewood]

Go SYD via SFO on QF much better chance of finding 3 x Y seats.

 

[cjd600]

Thanks for all your advice. It's supposed to be our first family overseas trip, so being all together is the aim. I did look at Singapore but couldn't find anything available either.

It is really disappointing, I've been a QF FF member for 15 years and spent the last few years banking points. Appears they're now useless

August flights into early-Sept (up to about a week before school holidays) might see better availability.
Need to check 10am each day at the time of release and tues-thurs flights (released sat-mon respectively) are the best bet.
For 4 J you will def need to go via BNE I'd think, not much chance of MEL direct, or even via SYD.
Remains to be seen what opens up with AA flights now commencing from SYD, as another possible option

We got a family of 4 in J, SYD-DFW on Classic Awards last Sept, so anything is possible if you're lucky (and our flight actually had 5 J released, which I've not seen on the SYD-DFW before or since.....)

 

[opusman]

Appears they're now useless

Not useless, just harder to use than you may have expected.

 

[straitman]

Thanks for all your advice. It's supposed to be our first family overseas trip, so being all together is the aim. I did look at Singapore but couldn't find anything available either.

It is really disappointing, I've been a QF FF member for 15 years and spent the last few years banking points. Appears they're now useless

Go SYD via SFO on QF much better chance of finding 3 x Y seats.

Have a look via SFO. I just had a quick look and whilst there were not 3 business seats there were many days that have 2 business and also 2 PE seats on various days. Not exactly what you were looking for but still not bad.

You could also ask if they could release another business seat for you. They did for me for Jan 2016 without issue.

 

[BD1959]

I'm seeing very little availability even via SFO, where Y+ consistently comes up but only the two seats.

I'd be tempted to call the QFF Desk and seeing whether they can offer something on a partner which is not showing online. Given the scarcity of the number of seats you'll be requesting (can't see that many via HKG either) you may need to consider a "long way around" if you're set on California or even Y awards if you want 4 seats.

Regards,

BD

 

[smit0847]

Ive said it before and ill say it again- we need a sticky for this question- its asked and answered every week.

 

[jimstreet]

For 4 J you will def need to go via BNE I'd think, not much chance of MEL direct, or even via SYD.

Thanks for the tip! Via BNE seems to be the go, I've found 1 leg business, and one leg premium economy in June next year.

 

[ozbeachbabe]

It's usually fairly easy to get award seats in J on FJ LAX/NAN for 72K points plus USD5.50 taxes then buy a NAN/MEL ticket for a couple of hundred bucks rather than waste points.

You could book that as a backstop then do a flight alert in Expert Flyer should more "U" class seats be released.

If they do cone up call QF to book the new seats and collect the difference in points - actually it would probably be an outright cancellation of the FJ ticket but you'd want the QF seats held until the FJ points were refunded in order to complete the booking.

Of course if there's no shortage of ff points in the kitty just do the new booking asap then put the FJ one in for refund.

 

[Anna]

Does FJ in J bear any resemblance to QF int J? I thought it was more like QF dom J. Not what I would want trans Pac, even for fewer points.