Is it even possible to get classic awards in business internationally anymore?

[Rosege]

I'm gold ff so should be able to see flights out to 353 days.

I've just been looking for ex Adelaide to many destinations and there is nothing in premium cabins.

Do you just have to be superfast the moment it opens? Has Covid reduced capacity? I remember previously there was a fair bit on code shares but now almost nothing.

Any hints?
Thanks.

 

[Ade]

Depends on the destination, I'd think and other factors like school holidays etc? Also, if the destination involves a port that is serviced only by a partner airline (Or a port not serviced by QF directly), then that brings in availability/seats released by partner airline to QF etc as well.

QF Platinum here, I was able to see some reward seats SYD-BLR for September this year. Worth noting that the seats I saw are QF metal only. No partner flights/routes involved (thanks to not-so-great experience with reward seats on partner airlines early this month). I travel solo always and so I'm only looking for/requesting for single Y/J seat, which might not be difficult to see/request compared to, say, a group of travellers or a family of 4.

Also, flexibility is key to finding reward seats - flexible in terms of mixed class, travel dates, destinations, options of surface transport, flying in/out of a not-so-busy port etc ...

 

[Joy6328]

Yes.
We have booked Sydney to Vancouver, Toronto to London, Rome to Singapore - 4x business class over Dec / Jan. Picking up a few paid internal tickets but I am only Bronze so very happy with what I was able to book. Just had to be flexible with dates and airports.

 

[Rosege]

Depends on the destination, I'd think and other factors like school holidays etc? Also, if the destination involves a port that is serviced only by a partner airline (Or a port not serviced by QF directly), then that brings in availability/seats released by partner airline to QF etc as well.

QF Platinum here, I was able to see some reward seats SYD-BLR for September this year. Worth noting that the seats I saw are QF metal only. No partner flights/routes involved (thanks to not-so-great experience with reward seats on partner airlines early this month). I travel solo always and so I'm only looking for/requesting for single Y/J seat, which might not be difficult to see/request compared to, say, a group of travellers or a family of 4.

Also, flexibility is key to finding reward seats - flexible in terms of mixed class, travel dates, destinations, options of surface transport, flying in/out of a not-so-busy port etc ...

I'm just looking for 1 ticket and super flexible. I'm looking mainly all over Europe.

@Joy6328 - thats pretty amazing you were able to book that!

 

[VPS]

I'm gold ff so should be able to see flights out to 353 days.

I've just been looking for ex Adelaide to many destinations and there is nothing in premium cabins.

Do you just have to be superfast the moment it opens? Has Covid reduced capacity? I remember previously there was a fair bit on code shares but now almost nothing.

Any hints?
Thanks.

use the multi city tool and look at leaving from other cities as well

 

[Joy6328]

I'm just looking for 1 ticket and super flexible. I'm looking mainly all over Europe.

@Joy6328 - thats pretty amazing you were able to book that!

Best advice I got here was to be flexible. We are going to London and I was getting upset I couldn’t get flights home. In the end was able to get flights home from Rome (so cheap BA flights from LHR to Rome), could get Rome-Dubai-singpore but couldn’t get all the way home. Cash flights Singapore to BNE.

So look at flights ex Syd, Mel or Perth and maybe pay cash from Asia on the way home if you could get award tickets to Asia?

 

[Rosege]

Best advice I got here was to be flexible. We are going to London and I was getting upset I couldn’t get flights home. In the end was able to get flights home from Rome (so cheap BA flights from LHR to Rome), could get Rome-Dubai-singpore but couldn’t get all the way home. Cash flights Singapore to BNE.

So look at flights ex Syd, Mel or Perth and maybe pay cash from Asia on the way home if you could get award tickets to Asia?

yeah I think I will have way more chance if doing cash from Asia. It seems there is almost nothing to/from AU.

 

[RooFlyer]

Do you just have to be superfast the moment it opens? Has Covid reduced capacity? I remember previously there was a fair bit on code shares but now almost nothing.

Yes, you should jump the moment availability opens and yes, capacity is much reduced. As a Gold you are behind Plat and above, so unlikely to be anything left in Premium cabins for Gold - as you have found. As others have said, best bet ATM is not to try to get Origin-Destination-Origin but to 'revenue' part of the trip to/from Oz.

Mind you, even as a Plat, pre covid, the latter was always a good strategy as well.

 

[Rosege]

Yes, you should jump the moment availability opens and yes, capacity is much reduced. As a Gold you are behind Plat and above, so unlikely to be anything left in Premium cabins for Gold - as you have found. As others have said, best bet ATM is not to try to get Origin-Destination-Origin but to 'revenue' part of the trip to/from Oz.

Mind you, even as a Plat, pre covid, the latter was always a good strategy as well.

Do plat get seats availability ahead of gold? I thought they were both at 353 days out?

 

[CaptJCool]

I'm gold ff so should be able to see flights out to 353 days.

I've just been looking for ex Adelaide to many destinations and there is nothing in premium cabins.

Do you just have to be superfast the moment it opens? Has Covid reduced capacity? I remember previously there was a fair bit on code shares but now almost nothing.

Any hints?
Thanks.

As a WP, Theres zero QF rewards seats ex Australia in the coming weeks and the QF where can I go suggests zero til June 2023.

we are at 70% of pre-Covid capacity so revenue seats are healthy pricing!

family member needs go to a funeral in Spain. No change out of $4,000 economy return

Could snag ex Singapore in May/June 2023 as some slight availabilty with co-payment of $1400 Singapore $

 

[Rosege]

As a WP, Theres zero QF rewards seats ex Australia in the coming weeks and the QF where can I go suggests zero til June 2023.

we are at 70% of pre-Covid capacity so revenue seats are healthy pricing!

family member needs go to a funeral in Spain. No change out of $4,000 economy return

Could snag ex Singapore in May/June 2023 as some slight availabilty with co-payment of $1400 Singapore $

There must be other decent airlines that could get them to Spain for a lot less than 4k?
So what you are saying is they aren't releasing any because they have enough people prepared to pay real $?

 

[RooFlyer]

Do plat get seats availability ahead of gold? I thought they were both at 353 days out?

Splutter ... gasp! Yes, you are correct. I'm clearly not match fit. (I haven't bothered even looking for a Qantas long haul award flight for many years.).

Golds being treated the same as WP? That's the thin end of the wedge!

 

[Rosege]

I've found some availability from DPS but when I go to book I get

 

[Ade]

I've found some availability from DPS but when I go to book I get
View attachment 285948

Call customer care. They should be able to get the seats, if this is a trip that can be sold by QF. I have had similar error when trying to book classic rewards, the customer service were always helpful in getting it booked or offer other alternatives.

 

[SydneySwan]

Do you just have to be superfast the moment it opens? Has Covid reduced capacity? I remember previously there was a fair bit on code shares but now almost nothing.

Any hints?
Thanks.

Qantas may have released no premium reward seats at all for the flights you were searching so being superfast may not help. Qantas really need to follow the lead of BA, VS, and others who guarantee a minimum number of premium reward seats on every flight.

 

[utcps]

I booked business return 2x tickets each way on Qantas to London for October this year a couple of months ago under Bronze status so it's definitely still possible!

 

[DeadlySchnauzer]

Responses here refer to mixing paid and award legs, but when using Multi-city search on Qantas I seem unable to do that?

If I choose
- Use points -> Then only classic award legs show
- Use money, points or both -> Then only paid legs show *if* I have more than one leg in the multi search.

So its impossible to build an itinerary mixing paid and award legs using the Multi-city search, even when I have confirmed via single leg searches that award flights are available.

Am I missing something? (Gold status FF fwiw).

 

[drron]

There must be other decent airlines that could get them to Spain for a lot less than 4k?
So what you are saying is they aren't releasing any because they have enough people prepared to pay real $?

I thought the same but apparently not. The cheapest for comparatively direct on skyscanner for next week return was $4048 return. 29 hours on BA there and 24 on QR back
If you want to take your time the cheapest was a QF ticket on EK. 35 hours there and 48 hours back. For some reason the EK fare was a deal higher.

 

[Dr Ralph]

'Is it even possible to get classic awards in business internationally anymore?'​

Yes. I have no status and have multiple business class tickets booked to the US for 2022 and 2023.

 

[cjd600]

Definitely possible. You may not just be able to wander in and plug in some dates and have a smorgasbord of choice. But if you research releases, prepare, and are able to jump on them upon release, yes, business flights to and from US for 4 (on JL) as a bronze QF,