Explain the Emirates Domination of Qantas Awards

[JennyMG]

Hi all, having used QFF rewards many times over the years for Bus flights, (but still consider myself a relative newbie) I'm dissatisfied to say that I have not once found any acceptable flight too or from Europe next April/May 2027, even with my (fairly) broad timings and preferences. I do have some caveats. No middle eastern airlines, No long stopovers. Pref x 4 flights instead of two long ones (this should help, rather than hinder). Prefer a stop in Asia, Bangkok, HK, KL, ...
Problem: Emirates on everything, everywhere. Rarely have I seen any other airline except Oman air. I assume Qantas are pretty pleased about this, since they don't have to plug any gaps.
Is it a scam by Qantas to allow Emirates to dominate? Presumably Em are having a tough time of it, and presumably all the 'other' non gulf airlines are picking up big time. Does this mean that I'm unlikely to find a Cathay or Qantas to HK, or a BA to Bangkok or ANY airline to Rome.
The only one I've picked up is the very unlikely Kuala Lumpur to Sydney Reward. (1 of 4, check!) but have backed myself into a corner, in that no QFF airlines fly Frankfurt or Munich or thereabouts to KL. So I'll pay for that one, but gimme a break! I'm NOT flying emirates (their taxes are too high anyway.)

I'm using Qantas new reward finder, and also seats aero. I'm pretty quick, I look every day, and have been for 2 months.
Am I just too early? Things don't seem to drop early like they used to. Or have I missed out already?

 

[freqflyer77]

Emirates charges a lot for their reward seats, so they're probably quite happy to make more available when it costs them relatively little to do so.

Other partner airlines, including Qantas, just don't release many Business reward seats nowadays.

Are Qantas Points a 'scam'? Points programs in general are starting to feel borderline...

 

[Mr_Tee]

Reduced demand on the Middle Eastern airlines due to the Iran/Gulf war = more reward seats released by Middle Eastern airlines.....and conversely...

Increased demand for cash fares on non-Middle Eastern airlines as the regular Middle Eastern airline passengers divert themselves to non-Middle eastern airlines = less reward seats released by non-Middle eastern airlines.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Hi all, having used QFF rewards many times over the years for Bus flights, (but still consider myself a relative newbie) I'm dissatisfied to say that I have not once found any acceptable flight too or from Europe next April/May 2027, even with my (fairly) broad timings and preferences. I do have some caveats. No middle eastern airlines, No long stopovers. Pref x 4 flights instead of two long ones (this should help, rather than hinder). Prefer a stop in Asia, Bangkok, HK, KL, ...
Problem: Emirates on everything, everywhere. Rarely have I seen any other airline except Oman air. I assume Qantas are pretty pleased about this, since they don't have to plug any gaps.
Is it a scam by Qantas to allow Emirates to dominate? Presumably Em are having a tough time of it, and presumably all the 'other' non gulf airlines are picking up big time. Does this mean that I'm unlikely to find a Cathay or Qantas to HK, or a BA to Bangkok or ANY airline to Rome.
The only one I've picked up is the very unlikely Kuala Lumpur to Sydney Reward. (1 of 4, check!) but have backed myself into a corner, in that no QFF airlines fly Frankfurt or Munich or thereabouts to KL. So I'll pay for that one, but gimme a break! I'm NOT flying emirates (their taxes are too high anyway.)

I'm using Qantas new reward finder, and also seats aero. I'm pretty quick, I look every day, and have been for 2 months.
Am I just too early? Things don't seem to drop early like they used to. Or have I missed out already?

you are correct in that Qantas doesn’t appear to release seats every day had a set time like it used two years ago. These days it can be a mixture of seats appearing randomly and sometimes a bulk release of seats although we don’t seem to have seen one of those for a couple of years now.

Emirates dominating the award availability is simply a result of a ton of flights, operated by large aircraft, with large premium cabins. This means their availability is going to be higher than Qantas who has smaller aircraft and a smaller fleet overall.

I was searching around nine months prior to my trip in February March next year for Europe at that time there was availability every day on Finner from Singapore and Bangkok to anywhere in Europe flying business class. There was availability on Oman air flying out of Manila, Jakarta, Bangkok, Singapore and coughet. while some of these were on 737 services particularly those from Singapore and coughet other others are available on the 787 from bangkok and Manila.

there was also availability on Cathy Pacific departing from Brussels on the way home going to Seoul and Manila. From Manila you could connect with Qantas services to Australia. Those flights have all dried up now for February March but should be around if looking for later on but award availability is difficult on those carriers which avoid the gulf.

 

[clifford]

You just have to accept that there will be NO Qantas J reward availability from AU to Europe, (or Asia, barring CGK and MNL).

Omanair is a pretty decent airline departing KUL/BKK, with reasonable award remdeption charges, unlike EK, which just wants to milk frequent flyers.

 

[SYD]

I'm using Qantas new reward finder, and also seats aero. I'm pretty quick, I look every day, and have been for 2 months.
Am I just too early? Things don't seem to drop early like they used to. Or have I missed out already?

The reward finder tool doesn’t factor in any status, so it will never display the QF J rewards coming out at 353 days out but are then usually taken long before a NB can book them.

You just have to accept that there will be NO Qantas J reward availability from AU to Europe, (or Asia, barring CGK and MNL).

HKG is generally OK also. Obviously frustrating that SIN is non-existent (as is BKK).