The Qantas Newbie Questions Thread

[Seat0B]

Maybe answered, but we went through JNB in November, and TBH I found it a bit confusing.
The QF flight details said departing Terminal B, and that was where we checked in.

We then found signage less than ideal to find our way to the security and immigration, which was on other side of the big central atrium, and (maybe) one level down.
Departure was from an "A" gate.
It is one continuous building so the split seems arbitrary.
We used the BA lounge after immigration, so I assume it was the "A" terminal.

thanks a lot @ayebee, that is helpful to understand and makes sense of some of the comments offered by others.

 

[Captain Halliday]

A newbie-esque query about understanding the likelihood of seat releases. I'm aiming to snag a couple in business on DFW-MEL and the loads are J9 C9 D9 I9 U0. Before I ring QF, is I9 a good sign or is it worth trying to see if some in U are released?

U is an award seat. If U was available you could just book it.

I is required for WP to request a release.

 

[AustraliaPoochie]

Hi All, looking to get a family of 4 to Vancouver and back from CNS ideally which is Fiji Airways, or happy to fly out of Sydney also. Looking at 4-10th Jan 2027. I have been playing around with dates and availability. Am I right in thinking there is a bit of a black out from mid dec to mid Jan usually on reward flights around this time?

I have 600,000 qantas points and happy with economy. I am set up with gyoza and flight alerts for this time frame.

Any tips? is it doable? Happy/keen to do a few nights in Fiji on the way back if we can make it work!

Jan will be tight, as its school holidays, + QF only flies one flight a day there, and the same plane back.
Ideally, I would go with CX via HKG.
600,000 is good, but for that tight Christmas/New Year/snow season/school holidays, it might be more so your status that might give you success in getting premY seats, if you are happy to pay eligible Y and put in points upgrade to premY.
If FJ releases seats to QFF, you would be in luck, bypassing dom - int at SYD is a very good thing, if you can avoid it, esp with kids.
Good luck tho.
I am fearful of the CBSA/ADSF (Francais) agents, so have never made an effort to visit Canada, or the C&BPs to the US.

 

[Vivp]

Hi I'm new to this site and also not very tech savvy so please excuse me if I ask stupid questions. How do I redeem points to get free upgraded flights? I have more than 400,000 points from Westpac Platinum credit card - would appreciate advice from the community. Thanks

 

[Tiki]

As a data point, I'm seeing the exact same thing: I'm also trying to link some complimentary lounge passes for an upcoming JQ flight out of BNE in a few months time, and I notice the exact same issue:
View attachment 489245
It doesn't matter what date of travel you choose, it does not recognise/give you the choice, of choosing brisbane.
I assume its a school holiday/capacity thing, but it would be nice if it just said that, instead of making me think that I've spelt brisbane wrong, so I'll try again later in January to see if the restriction has been lifted.

I rang yesterday and after putting me on hold the agent announced that the lounge had ‘already reached capacity in march’ and that’s why I can’t link my pass

Has anyone figured out how to solve this? My flight is mid-March, def not school or Easter holidays and I can't see BNE in he drop down. Is this some kind of glitch? I never had problems linking a lounge invitation before.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Has anyone figured out how to solve this? My flight is mid-March, def not school or Easter holidays and I can't see BNE in he drop down. Is this some kind of glitch? I never had problems linking a lounge invitation before.

The restriction seems to be that you can’t link passes during peak periods such as school holidays, even if the lounge is intended to be used outside of school holidays.

From what I can gather earlier in the thread, you wait until the school holiday period is over… so I think around 25 Jan? … then you can link the pass for whatever date you want.

I think it’s just a hard block for any linking at the current moment in time, rather than future.

The other person travelling with me linked their lass in October no issues. For the same flight I couldn’t, trying to link in early Jan. So I’ll wait another week and try again!

 

[Ade]

Hello, got a question re: courtesy block.

ACK this is not a published WP benefit.

Got a work trip coming up soon. I asked my work TA to see if I got a shadow. They did not really know what I was asking about. I explained a bit more and they said that they will check the seat map.

They came back and said that the seat next to me shows as RESTRICTED on their backend booking system display. Does this mean, I have a shadow/courtesy block?

EDIT: I have asked them for a screenshot - let's see if they would be kind enough to send it...

 

[RooFlyer]

Hi I'm new to this site and also not very tech savvy so please excuse me if I ask stupid questions. How do I redeem points to get free upgraded flights? I have more than 400,000 points from Westpac Platinum credit card - would appreciate advice from the community. Thanks

Welcome to AFF @Vivp .

Assuming you want to redeem Qantas frequent flyer points for your flights then first step will be to transfer your Westpac points to Qantas frequent flyer.

You’ll need a Qantas frequent flyer account so if you don’t have one, open that first. Now I don’t have Westpac so I don’t know their exact procedures but on their points section there’ll be a redeem area and you should be able to select your Qantas account to redeem or transfer them to. It probably won’t be one for one. You’ll probably get fewer Qantas points for your Westpac. EDIT: see below - you can' transfer direct from Westpac to Qantas Frequent Flyer

Don’t transfer them until you know how many Qantas points you need and that there are flights you can get.

Now the redeeming part on Qantas is more complicated and I won’t be able to explain here. Your best to have a look around this site.

If you’re after an upgrade, then you book your regular flight making sure that it’s in an upgradable class of fare and then apply by the website for an upgrade. Depending on your status and the popularity of the route and how early you book will determine if you might get the upgrade or not.

if you meant to say a purely points flight rather than an upgrade of a paid flight then the process is different, but I won’t go into that if that’s not what you mean.

But your best bet is to have a look around this site (including along the top where there are some good articles ) to get a better idea and then come back with some more focused questions. You might want to have a look at the Westpac forum on this site to get you started.

PS Westpac may allow you to transfer your Westpac points to other airline frequent flyers schemes. Have a look to see if they do and maybe those schemes will give you better flights and availabilities rather than Qantas. Qantas can be very difficult to get out of Australia on. Singapore airlines (Krisflyer) for instance is much easier to get a points flight out of Australia especially if you book a long way ahead.

Flights redeemed for points won’t be free however - there will probably be hundreds of dollars in taxes and carrier charges for a long haul flight.

 

[DejaBrew]

A very warm welcome aboard AFF @Vivp

Some good advice there from @RooFlyer. Specific to using points for an upgrade on Qantas, I'd highly recommend reading up on this recent AFF article -:

How to Upgrade Flights with Qantas Points

Our guide explains how to upgrade with Qantas points, including strategies to maximise your chances of a successful upgrade request.

www.australianfrequentflyer.com.au

 

[BriarFlyer]

A very warm welcome aboard AFF @Vivp

Welcome to AFF @Vivp. I have recently helped a family member with transferring points from Westpac Altitude to Qantas. It was a two-step process, transferring first to Everyday Rewards and from there to Qantas. Note: this was for his particular card and may not be the same in your case, but if you are not seeing an option to transfer directly from Altitude to Qantas then you can try via EDR. If you don't have an Everyday Rewards account, you will need to open one.

This article explains the process.

 

[Flyfrequently]

Welcome @Vivp
Good suggestions already.
I have a Westpac Qantas Platinum card, complimentary TI and you can add pre existing medical for an admin fee.

Points go directly over to QFF, I don't recall it being tricky.
Though as @BriarFlyer has mentioned, depends on your card.

 

[Aeryn]

Westpac has 2 versions of Altitude CC, one that earns Westpac Points (and cant directly transfer to Qantas, hence the EDR work around above) and one (formerly known as Earth) that automatically transfers all points to Qantas.

 

[Mwenenzi]

Hi I'm new to this site and also not very tech savvy so please excuse me if I ask stupid questions. How do I redeem points to get free upgraded flights? I have more than 400,000 points from Westpac Platinum credit card - would appreciate advice from the community. Thanks

Welcome aboard.
**Upgrades are never guaranteed**
What route and approximately when?
Domestic and international can have different upgrade process

https://www.qantas.com/au/en/manage-booking/upgrade.html

 

[Flyfrequently]

Westpac has 2 versions of Altitude CC, one that earns Westpac Points (and cant directly transfer to Qantas, hence the EDR work around above) and one (formerly known as Earth) that automatically transfers all points to Qantas.

This is the one I have @Vivp and sounds like you have the one mentioned by @Aeryn
Good work around with EDR

 

[Tiki]

The restriction seems to be that you can’t link passes during peak periods such as school holidays, even if the lounge is intended to be used outside of school holidays.

From what I can gather earlier in the thread, you wait until the school holiday period is over… so I think around 25 Jan? … then you can link the pass for whatever date you want.

I think it’s just a hard block for any linking at the current moment in time, rather than future.

The other person travelling with me linked their lass in October no issues. For the same flight I couldn’t, trying to link in early Jan. So I’ll wait another week and try again!

Thanks, that makes sense that they just did a blanket block on any lounge pass linking during school holidays. I have time, I can wait and try later.

 

[AustraliaPoochie]

(((Blocked))) could also mean they need a seat for a non working staff member or crew who needs to get to a place.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

The restriction seems to be that you can’t link passes during peak periods such as school holidays, even if the lounge is intended to be used outside of school holidays.

From what I can gather earlier in the thread, you wait until the school holiday period is over… so I think around 25 Jan? … then you can link the pass for whatever date you want.

I think it’s just a hard block for any linking at the current moment in time, rather than future.

The other person travelling with me linked their lass in October no issues. For the same flight I couldn’t, trying to link in early Jan. So I’ll wait another week and try again!

MEL is back in the list… ‘open’ to accepting linked invitations!

Get them before they ‘reach capacity’ (as the call centre advised me! )

 

[Vivp]

Welcome to AFF @Vivp .

Assuming you want to redeem Qantas frequent flyer points for your flights then first step will be to transfer your Westpac points to Qantas frequent flyer.

You’ll need a Qantas frequent flyer account so if you don’t have one, open that first. Now I don’t have Westpac so I don’t know their exact procedures but on their points section there’ll be a redeem area and you should be able to select your Qantas account to redeem or transfer them to. It probably won’t be one for one. You’ll probably get fewer Qantas points for your Westpac. EDIT: see below - you can' transfer direct from Westpac to Qantas Frequent Flyer

Don’t transfer them until you know how many Qantas points you need and that there are flights you can get.

Now the redeeming part on Qantas is more complicated and I won’t be able to explain here. Your best to have a look around this site.

If you’re after an upgrade, then you book your regular flight making sure that it’s in an upgradable class of fare and then apply by the website for an upgrade. Depending on your status and the popularity of the route and how early you book will determine if you might get the upgrade or not.

if you meant to say a purely points flight rather than an upgrade of a paid flight then the process is different, but I won’t go into that if that’s not what you mean.

But your best bet is to have a look around this site (including along the top where there are some good articles ) to get a better idea and then come back with some more focused questions. You might want to have a look at the Westpac forum on this site to get you started.

PS Westpac may allow you to transfer your Westpac points to other airline frequent flyers schemes. Have a look to see if they do and maybe those schemes will give you better flights and availabilities rather than Qantas. Qantas can be very difficult to get out of Australia on. Singapore airlines (Krisflyer) for instance is much easier to get a points flight out of Australia especially if you book a long way ahead.

Flights redeemed for points won’t be free however - there will probably be hundreds of dollars in taxes and carrier charges for a long haul flight.

Hi RooFlyer Thanks for your information...appreciate them!

 

[Vivp]

A very warm welcome aboard AFF @Vivp

Some good advice there from @RooFlyer. Specific to using points for an upgrade on Qantas, I'd highly recommend reading up on this recent AFF article -:

How to Upgrade Flights with Qantas Points

Our guide explains how to upgrade with Qantas points, including strategies to maximise your chances of a successful upgrade request.

www.australianfrequentflyer.com.au

A very warm welcome aboard AFF @Vivp

Some good advice there from @RooFlyer. Specific to using points for an upgrade on Qantas, I'd highly recommend reading up on this recent AFF article -:

How to Upgrade Flights with Qantas Points

Our guide explains how to upgrade with Qantas points, including strategies to maximise your chances of a successful upgrade request.

www.australianfrequentflyer.com.au

Hi DejaBrew thanks for info...really appreciate them

 

[Vivp]

Welcome to AFF @Vivp. I have recently helped a family member with transferring points from Westpac Altitude to Qantas. It was a two-step process, transferring first to Everyday Rewards and from there to Qantas. Note: this was for his particular card and may not be the same in your case, but if you are not seeing an option to transfer directly from Altitude to Qantas then you can try via EDR. If you don't have an Everyday Rewards account, you will need to open one.

This article explains the process.

Thanks BriarFlyer...appreciate you info...thanks