1 million points on Bronze, hardly able to redeem intl tickets

[Pierre_a]

I'm also bronze but have successfully got my family of three to europe and back twice in J.
Echoing all the comments on being flexible I would also add that you need to be prepared to focus a significant amount of time on it. I would say my latest itinerary took over a month of spending > 1hr a day trying every option under the sun. And I did that starting from a year out. Put the idea that you can just log on and book something out of your head - its a major undertaking requiring significant planning!

 

[levelnine]

OP, you are unfortunately going to need to face some harsh truths.

You are in a competition with tens of millions of other people to obtain those seats.

Remember, you are not only competing with Qantas' 10+million other frequent flyers, but also competing with the members of the frequent flyer programs of British Airways, American Airlines, Cathay Pacific, LATAM, etc etc etc.

Further, remember that many of these airline programs hand out frequent flyer points like candy. There are billions of points held in the hands of those millions of members, and many are seeking to use them to obtain spots on a tiny number of seats.

Best of luck. You're going to need it.

 

[cjd600]

I've got our family of 4 to the US and back multiple times, SYD - LAX/DFW in J, QF and AA. And am Bronze.
Currently have 4 J SYD-DOH-AMS Q suites J for next April right on school holidays (start of a 4 x 280k J One World Award), but will likely move this to Sept 2020.
Need to know what you want, know you can get it, know the release patterns, hope the release patterns don't change (and they do!), and strike quickly.
It can be done, wont just fall in your lap though, for the most part.

 

[edwina86]

Just wondering,
- Does QC get better availabilities?

Hi there, I'm QC Bronze and sadly no it doesn't seem to make any difference - our access appears to be the same as regular Bronze.

 

[ja1]

OP, you are unfortunately going to need to face some harsh truths.

You are in a competition with tens of millions of other people to obtain those seats.

Remember, you are not only competing with Qantas' 10+million other frequent flyers, but also competing with the members of the frequent flyer programs of British Airways, American Airlines, Cathay Pacific, LATAM, etc etc

While L9 makes great points in helping you adjust your expectations, I'd also point out that out of the millions of people and billions of points.. the majority (if not the vast majority!) go unused...

I've talked to colleagues who fly so often that they never redeem for travel - one was explaining that he had a new washer, dryer, fridge and furniture in his house just from points redemptions and I almost cried thinking about just how bad that redemption rate would have been compared to J somewhere...

So with that in mind, plan further out, as others indicated, look further afield rather than for direct flights and you will almost certainly find a great set of flights with a million points available..

 

[RichardMEL]

LAX is extra popular due to hollywood, disney and so on, as well as being a gateway city for many other trips... some creative routings can involve going via SFO or AKL (AA AKL-LAX), AKL and PPT (TN AKL-PPT-LAX), HA SYD-HNL-LAX or even SYD-HNL-SFO/SEA/SNA(I think they still serve SNA)/SAN and then to LAX. Or even SYD-AKL-HNL.... CX is opening a HKG-SEA route, so that is an option too. (Onc ein the USA one can either find an award seat or even get a cheap internal flight).

In terms of searching, if online does not show anything useful (remember to use the calendar "flexible with dates" view, and to click for all classes) then one may need to call QF and endure the long waits unfortunately as not all partner flights show up online.

Having QC membership will not give one any real practical priority in terms of access to QF reward seats.. you really need Gold or higher status to see anything really concrete.

 

[HPSOV]

Availability is challenging but if you are able to plan in advance then it is possible. Remember also that it is only a 6000 point penalty to cancel, so I often make multiple speculative bookings and then cancel whatever I don't need. Also there are many airlines available to you, don't just restrict yourself to Qantas. I'm only Bronze, and have never earned a single point on a Qantas flight, but from many credit cards and bonuses have accrued over 2 million QF FF points, I have redeemed the following over the last 4 years-

1x Dallas-Syd Qantas Business
2x Syd-Oslo Emirates First
2x Syd-Per-Syd Qantas Business
1x Syd-Shanghai-Syd China Eastern Business
2x Syd-Oslo Emirates First (again)
3x Syd-Shanghai-Syd Qantas Business
2x Syd-Zurich-Syd Qatar Business
2x Vancouver-Syd Cathay Business

I've also had and cancelled bookings on Jetstar, Japan Airlines and British Airways. It's taken quite a bit of time and planning, and several hours arguing with QF reservations by phone, but when you work out the value I've extracted from those points (even taking into account crazy QF taxes and fees on redemptions), it has been well worth it. Sites like Expertflyer have been invaluable.

 

[Hillbilly64]

HOw do you find China Eastern J? They seem to have alot of availability to where I want to go (admittedly through China) but I'm wary of flying them as reviews seem poor.

 

[HPSOV]

HOw do you find China Eastern J? They seem to have alot of availability to where I want to go (admittedly through China) but I'm wary of flying them as reviews seem poor.

China Eastern were fine, both flight were A330 which has an identical config to the Cathay 330's (reverse herringbone, although they do have a couple of configs). Food was fine, more plentiful but lower quality than QF. Crew were great, toilets were cleaned after every use. Now that Sydney gets the A350 with business 'suites' with doors I think I'll take China Eastern in preference to Qantas next time.
For me business is about having a lay flat seat, once I have my ear plugs in and eye shades on I could be on any airline. I've flown enough to not get excited about the food or amenities kit!

 

[MEL_Traveller]

... but I'm wary of flying them as reviews seem poor.

I'm not sure those reviews are for business class, or recent.

As HPSOV points out, there's a full flat bed, and the crews on Chinese carriers are usually pretty good. For the price (if on a paid ticket) or simply because of good award availability, the product offering is perfectly fine. The food is edible and you get a good sleep. The major downside is the IFE. But that's not an uncommon problem... I'd put it on par with the two Japanese majors.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

...so I often make multiple speculative bookings and then cancel whatever I don't need.

possibly one of the reasons why award availability is so tight?

 

[Saltywings]

I'm not sure those reviews are for business class, or recent.

As SPSOV points out, there's a full flat bed, and the crews on Chinese carriers are usually pretty good. For the price (if on a paid ticket) or simply because of good award availability, the product offering is perfectly fine. The food is edible and you get a good sleep. The major downside is the IFE. But that's not an uncommon problem... I'd put it on par with the two Japanese majors.

Yep, add me as another data point that vouches for their J product (more hard than soft, but soft was okay too). Would definitely fly again.

 

[OATEK]

I have been looking at QF SYD-HKG-SYD as the first and last legs to a trip to Europe next March/April. I wanted day time Y up, and overnight Y+ back. Their is lots of choice outbound, but not much incoming because of school holidays. Finally managed to get CX inbound, but it meant changes to the proposed itinerary. Funnily enough there was some J inbound, via Adelaide, but I decided to go for the direct flight.

 

[Lynda2475]

As a Silver I managed to get a QF SYD-HKG-SYD in Premium Economy as a classic reward for travel Boxing Day - New Years Day (so smack bang in middle of school holidays) a few weeks ago. Although there was nothing in Y or J on QF for the same dates. So you just need to plan ahead and be a bit flexible.

I also had a Y Classic reward redeemed departing July last year on first day of school holidays booked 9 months out flying SYD-SIN-LHR on BA and then returning LHR-PER-SYD on QF.

 

[Matt_01]

@jasonfungsing there is a lot of good advice hear, earning QF points via CC churning or business/ daily spend is the easy part, redemption is harder and in my opinion it is often difficult to get the best of both. What I mean is that is, redemption with QF points to say JFK, LHR or LAX on other *OW carriers burns more QF points but may be easier and possibly cheaper to redeem, the trade off is may not be the most direct route.

My understanding of QF availability and when rewards are available to WP1-NB is all based on QF status when on QF metal. I may be wrong.