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.

 

[SYD]

Not surprising as I imagine there'd be not much margin basically being a travel agent for Emirates...

Pretty sure it’s a lot deeper agreement than just a TA for EK.

It’s not uncommon to see the EK operated QF codeshare flights slightly cheaper than QF’s own metal.

 

[MELso]

Pretty sure it’s a lot deeper agreement than just a TA for EK.

When you buy a QF codeshare on Emirates, Qantas is basically selling a seat on EK in the capacity of an agent.

Yes, they dress it up with a few more loyalty frills and perks (seat selection! status credits! more points!), but at its core, when you buy a QF8xx_ flight, Qantas is acting as a sales agent for Emirates...

 

[SYD]

When you buy a QF codeshare on Emirates, Qantas is basically selling a seat on EK in the capacity of an agent.

Yes, they dress it up with a few more loyalty frills and perks (seat selection! status credits! more points!), but at its core, when you buy a QF8xx_ flight, Qantas is acting as a sales agent for Emirates...

It’s not a full revenue share agreement but I believe they do get to jointly price fares on the various routes - to mutual benefit of both partners. So again, more than just a pas through arrangement. QF make a lot of money off the EK partnership.

 

[lovestotravel]

From another thread

Emirates appears to be releasing F rewards a month out between Australia and Dubai.

There are quite a few days with DXB to BNE or MEL in January.

I had previously snagged a F reward from Europe to Dubai and then was going to fly Y back on Qatar to Australia, was able to call and snag an F seat instead added to the existing booking.

They also seem to be readily available again ex SYD for late next year. Getting F beyond DXB is still problematic.

Nothing for MEL-DXB in F for a few weeks now, I got excited when daily 1 or 2 x F were being loaded late October, but they are now gone and nothing new has appeared.

It really seems the only way we'll get J or F on EK is about one month out

 

[am0985]

They're now releasing award space DXB - SYD on the 6am service in November most days.

Can't see many options beyond DXB in F though sadly

 

[SYD]

Can't see many options beyond DXB in F though sadly

There’s some but you need to wrestle the search engine. Who knows what EK have done but there still seems to be some hardwired “married segment” logic in there. Searching DXB-Euro was coming up with nothing but straight SYD-Euro reveals stuff, as does SYD-DXB-Euro…. Forget LON* or CDG but some other cities have availability.



Unfortunately, it’s only the sparrow’s flight out of SYD that seems to have F seats but J on most - for now (in the Oct/Nov window currently).

*can’t see any F/J into LHR or LGW.

 

[am0985]

There’s some but you need to wrestle the search engine. Who knows what EK have done but there still seems to be some hardwired “married segment” logic in there. Searching DXB-Euro was coming up with nothing but straight SYD-Euro reveals stuff, as does SYD-DXB-Euro…. Forget LON* or CDG but some other cities have availability.

View attachment 485967

Unfortunately, it’s only the sparrow’s flight out of SYD that seems to have F seats but J on most - for now (in the Oct/Nov window currently).

*can’t see any F/J into LHR or LGW.

That's interesting - previously you actually needed to separate out the flights on the multi city itinerary in order to find availability. Now the opposite seems to be true.

Still very annoying that we can't search for flights originating in DXB thanks to the bug in the search system!

 

[Lozzzzzaaaaa]

This is the saddest thread I've ever read in my life :-(

I have spent YEARS hardcore researching EK first class reward seats through QFF program. I thought I was going CRAZY when all the F seats disappeared the day after Qantas introduced their new pricing in August.

I was so sure it was a glitch in the Qantas website but months later, it is becoming more evident that it is not a glitch, but the new norm.

I feel so angry that this all just slipped away from our fingers without either parties saying anything about it! Why hasn't Qantas had the guts to say anything about it?? Do they think we haven't noticed?? Surely this will be very detrimental to the QFF program.

I have lost all motivation to collect QFF points as have many others. I have trialed almost every married and unmarried segment you could think of, with multi-city view and normal view. I have not found one single F class seat from Dubai to Europe after March 2026. Hell I can't even find an F seat from Singapore to Dubai which only a few months ago there were multiple F seats on multiple flights daily. In fact any EK flights from Singapore to Dubai don't even show up through the normal booking view, only if you search through multi-city, which is just an odd glitch in itself, given EK flies from Singapore-Dubai multiple times a day.

I feel so helpless as there is nothing we can do. Life will be so boring after March 2026. What will I do with all my spare time haha. I need closure. I need answers.

The one explanation I have heard that might be valid is that a lot of American points collectors who often collected flexible points via their credit card systems lost the ability to book F seats through Emirates directly with the new changes Emirates introduced, since they did not have any actual Emirates status. So a lot of the American points "influencers" were publicising that they should all convert their flexible credit card points to Qantas points so they could still book Emirates First class. And then Emirates wanted to shut this loophole down so they reduced the number of F seats they released to Qantas. So, blame the Americans?