Qantas - Emirates Award flight Discussion

[MonteCristo]

Dumb question alert for the brains trust: Is it possible to make a standalone Qantas classic rewards booking with Emirates from Malta to Larnaca (Cyprus)? Either by calling Qantas, or somehow online.

I can't get Malta to appear as a destination unless I start with a multi-city first leg in Rome FCO, but the routing is bad (from Rome, to London, then on to Malta), and charges don't make it worth it.

 

[k1s3k1]

Which seems to be one issue. “Married segments”.

Before August 5th, the F class seats between dxb and fra or other european destinations were all bookable on Qantas

 

[SYD]

Before August 5th, the F class seats between dxb and fra or other european destinations were all bookable on Qantas

Yes, amongst others. The shift in moving EK to the cheaper QF classic reward table seems to have created random issues (see my other example above).

But there were other things MIA even before 5 Aug.

 

[Noah Count]

@SYD your search is for Aug 25, most of the chat and banter in thread seems to be for flights in 2026. The EK released dates are around T-330? At the time of the QF changes 5 Aug 25 I was looking for Jun 26 and the F rewards just up and vanished like a fart in the wind.

 

[SYD]

@SYD your search is for Aug 25, most of the chat and banter in thread seems to be for flights in 2026. The EK released dates are around T-330? At the time of the QF changes 5 Aug 25 I was looking for Jun 26 and the F rewards just up and vanished like a fart in the wind.

Yet, as mentioned before, there’s tonnes of these.


But not others… It’s all a bit weird…

 

[Noah Count]

@SYD yep it is all a little strange. Some time in July I was able to book EK F HND-DXB-LHR and it had to made by calling QF. I posted up thread that getting back was hit and miss as flights would appear and then vanish a day later. For EK F back to anyplace in Asia was working like clock work until 11 Jun 26, post this date flights disappeared for around 4 days and then reappeared to around 18/19 Jun 26 then they all disappeared again. As I posted the EK agent stated that they have not released F seats for their own members let alone partners. All the posts and articles on what is happening and who is blocking what is just speculation.

 

[badbed]

@SYD yep it is all a little strange. Some time in July I was able to book EK F HND-DXB-LHR and it had to made by calling QF. I posted up thread that getting back was hit and miss as flights would appear and then vanish a day later. For EK F back to anyplace in Asia was working like clock work until 11 Jun 26, post this date flights disappeared for around 4 days and then reappeared to around 18/19 Jun 26 then they all disappeared again. As I posted the EK agent stated that they have not released F seats for their own members let alone partners. All the posts and articles on what is happening and who is blocking what is just speculation.

I believe you are talking about flight between Dubai and Tokyo? And yes, I had noticed the flight to and from Tokyo was a surprising exception last week. You can take a look flights to other Asian cities like KIX, KUL, ICN, HKG, PVG, BKK etc. and you will understand where the problem is. This problem had been checked and confirmed by Qantas rewards ticket team.

 

[badbed]

@SYD yep it is all a little strange. Some time in July I was able to book EK F HND-DXB-LHR and it had to made by calling QF. I posted up thread that getting back was hit and miss as flights would appear and then vanish a day later. For EK F back to anyplace in Asia was working like clock work until 11 Jun 26, post this date flights disappeared for around 4 days and then reappeared to around 18/19 Jun 26 then they all disappeared again. As I posted the EK agent stated that they have not released F seats for their own members let alone partners. All the posts and articles on what is happening and who is blocking what is just speculation.

It's not only affecting F seat, all Economy, Business and First class seats are vanishing on the website but these seats are sitting in their system. This can be proved by using multi-city search, as long as you add a segment from or to an Aus city.

 

[Noah Count]

It's not only affecting F seat, all Economy, Business and First class seats are vanishing on the website but these seats are sitting in their system. This can be proved by using multi-city search, as long as you add a segment from or to an Aus city.

I am not sure why you think it is necessary to add a segment to/from AU. My search in the multi city was HEL-DXB, DXB-HND. Even the standard search DXB-HND will return J.

 

[k1s3k1]

I am not sure why you think it is necessary to add a segment to/from AU. My search in the multi city was HEL-DXB, DXB-HND. Even the standard search DXB-HND will return J.View attachment 464119

I think if you add a segment DXB-AUS, it can unlock the F seat rewards.

badbed seems to indicate that F seat rewards can be unlocked if we add a DXB-AUS segment to a multi-city booking

 

[badbed]

I am not sure why you think it is necessary to add a segment to/from AU. My search in the multi city was HEL-DXB, DXB-HND. Even the standard search DXB-HND will return J.View attachment 464119

I said Tokyo is an EXCEPTION, try other cities.

 

[Noah Count]

I said Tokyo is an EXCEPTION, try other cities.

I have been able to book DXB-HND in J. I did try your theory and it does not seem to return F for my search, same search but for flight 2 also searched HKG and ICN
es

 

[badbed]

I think if you add a segment DXB-AUS, it can unlock the F seat rewards.

badbed seems to indicate that F seat rewards can be unlocked if we add a DXB-AUS segment to a multi-city booking

Economy and business will be unlocked but F seat still cannot be seen. On 26th Aug, F seat is available if you search LHR-PER, but when you use multi-city LHR-DXB DXB-PER, it doesn't show up.

I have been able to book DXB-HND in J. I did try your theory and it does not seem to return F for my search, same search but for flight 2 also searched HKG and ICN
View attachment 464120View attachment 464121View attachment 464122View attachment 464123View attachment 464124es

Read my reply to @k1s3k1 above.

 

[badbed]

I have been able to book DXB-HND in J. I did try your theory and it does not seem to return F for my search, same search but for flight 2 also searched HKG and ICN
View attachment 464120View attachment 464121View attachment 464122View attachment 464123View attachment 464124es

EXCEPTION means DXB-HND/NRT is searchable as single segment, BUT DXB-OTHER Asian cities are not searchable.

 

[lovestotravel]

Still no update even to a media outlet.. No reply to my complaint either still.

Qantas Actively Blocking Some Emirates First Class Awards?

Since the Qantas devaluation, certain Emirates First Class award seats have vanished.

flighthacks.com.au

Initial response from QF "Thanks! I've just got a response from the QF media team who confirmed no change in policy on first awards with EK. They also pointed out that award space is controlled by EK. Still waiting on EK to respond but I'm starting to think this is a tech glitch when they updated on the 5th."

EK "Still following up with EK, so far they've only said to check with QF so I've asked again if there's any policy change from their side."

 

[iamsuperandrew]

Still no update even to a media outlet.. No reply to my complaint either still.

Qantas Actively Blocking Some Emirates First Class Awards?

Since the Qantas devaluation, certain Emirates First Class award seats have vanished.

flighthacks.com.au

Initial response from QF "Thanks! I've just got a response from the QF media team who confirmed no change in policy on first awards with EK. They also pointed out that award space is controlled by EK. Still waiting on EK to respond but I'm starting to think this is a tech glitch when they updated on the 5th."

EK "Still following up with EK, so far they've only said to check with QF so I've asked again if there's any policy change from their side."

Its very odd, I'm wondering if they have 'restricted' F seats to prevent non AU QFF holders from redeeming cheap F seats compared to Aeroplan (obviously QF pays EK for the flights)

EK removed F due to people transferring points to SW at a 1:1 ratio and I think people worked out that this could be done now using QFF and thus restricting availability?

I think if you add a segment DXB-AUS, it can unlock the F seat rewards.

badbed seems to indicate that F seat rewards can be unlocked if we add a DXB-AUS segment to a multi-city booking

My multi city wont let me search anything to or from DXB, always get errors - HTTP Status 400 - Bad Request

 

[flyguy77]

Still no update even to a media outlet.. No reply to my complaint either still.

I'm not sure what you are expecting?

Emirates is the one who controls the reward seat releases & what availability partners have in this case.

If they are restricting seats Qantas isn't going to come out and explicitly say that - it's negative publicity for the QFF program.

 

[iamsuperandrew]

I'm not sure what you are expecting?

Emirates is the one who controls the reward seat releases & what availability partners have in this case.

If they are restricting seats Qantas isn't going to come out and explicitly say that - it's negative publicity for the QFF program.

I believe the seats are there but you need to have a married AU leg attached to it

 

[lovestotravel]

Its very odd, I'm wondering if they have 'restricted' F seats to prevent non AU QFF holders from redeeming cheap F seats

EK removed F due to people transferring points to SW at a 1:1 ratio and I think people worked out that this could be done now using QFF and thus restricting availability?

My multi city wont let me search anything to or from DXB, always get errors - HTTP Status 400 - Bad Request

Agree and yes same issue here with the error

Seems the days of collecting Qantas points are over for me, just need to spend the 2 million points now

 

[SYD]

My multi city wont let me search anything to or from DXB, always get errors - HTTP Status 400 - Bad Request

This seems to be one of the main issues. ie the QF search engines are borked when it comes to some EK specific searches (namely to/from DXB). Even though there are non-EK options (eg RJ) out there.

But there were problems before 5 Aug where on some routes, the normal search worked fine but MC search didn’t and on others the reverse…

The main search doesn’t even let you select “First” on TT but they there on the MC search.

 

[iamsuperandrew]

This seems to be one of the main issues. ie the QF search engines are borked when it comes to some EK specific searches (namely to/from DXB). Even though there are non-EK options (eg RJ) out there.

But there were problems before 5 Aug where on some routes, the normal search worked fine but MC search didn’t and on others the reverse…

The main search doesn’t even let you select “First” on TT but they there on the MC search.

Fingers crossed we get an outcome soon