A380 Reward Seats - some advice needed please

[gonecountry]

Hello Flyers,

My husband and I are wanting to book flights (SYD-LAX or SYD-DALLAS, not worried which) for late March early April 2018. My husband will be having a few business meetings while we are there so our plan was to pay for our flights over and get PE reward seats for the flight home so he can claim a portion of his airfare. As it turns out it it's only $200 less getting two one ways than two return tickets in PE!! So it seems like a waste of money.

Then we thought we could pay for one PE ticket and try to snag one single PE seat, the only problem is we can't get reward availability on an A380 flight for either LAX or Dallas for any dates during those times. We did find PE reward seats from Dallas-Sydney but nothing for the flight over, to LAX or Dallas.

Another option we thought was to spend the money purchasing two (saver, not sale) economy fares (the fare where you can use points to upgrade) and try upgrading to PE using points but I've never done that before. Can anyone tell me how it works or if it's guaranteed (getting PE seats). I assume it's costly (points wise) to do it this way?

It might sound silly as I can find seats on the 747-400 or the 787-900 (routing through Melbourne or Brisbane) but what can I say we love the A380!

Does anyone have any other clever ideas or should we just resign to taking another plane, and if so which one would be better?

 

[serfty]

Late March early April next year is Easter; ex Oz, that's a 'peak' period.

Many standard award seats were likely to have been snapped up two or three months ago.

Now looking, I see economy award seats SYD-DFW on March 19th through March 30th. (Not March 31 nor April 1.)

Returning I see DFW-SYD April 1 through April 11.

I have not looked any further for economy than on those dates.

Are you looking for PE? I only see that on LAX-SYD, 2nd, 3rd, 10th and 11th April. None SYD-LAX.

 

[Matt_01]

As serfty mentioned you are looking for rewards in peak school holiday season so any reward seats may have gone. As for wanting to use point to upgrade, the upgrade process is just an upgrade lotto, it will all just depend on your status and where you fit in the status food chain. I don't if anyone knows exactly how upgrades work, however upgrades are not guaranteed.

If you are willing to travel on the other option I would go for the 787 out of MEL, it is a new product.

 

[RichardMEL]

Why the desire for the 380 I wonder? If seats exist on any service when you want to go, then surely grab them?

I do understand some people prefer the 380 experience over the 747 or 787-9 (there's no -900 incidently), and some prefer the other a/c but if the goal is to get to LAX (obviously DFW is 380 only) then there are options.

The usual rule with these things is when you can see something on a date that works, even if it isn't ideal, grab it. Specially for a peak travel time on popular routes it's unlikely the ideal most desired option will open up - specially for more than 1 seat.

IMHO.

 

[gonecountry]

Thanks everyone, probably the best idea to get any reward seats while I can.

 

[sudoer]

Are either you or your husband Platinum/Platinum One?

 

[gonecountry]

sbor90 - no sadly silver & bronze :-|

 

[Matt_01]

no sadly silver & bronze

At PS and NB I would not count on an upgrade at peak flying times. As previously stated I would go for the new PE on the 787. I think the current PE product on the 747 and 380 are the same.

 

[RichardMEL]

Even more reason to select reward seats you can see and not try to pick and choose (sorry I don't mean that in a rude way)

As a Silver/Bronze you're not going to see any "extra" availability that Gold and above can see, nor can you make a Platinum request to open seats up that sometimes sees success, so your options are limited. If you can find seats that fit your travel plans then I would grab them ASAP.

As noted above, upgrade chances in peak times are going to be slimmer the lower down the status chain you are.

 

[funnymummy]

I have read your questions and wondered if you'd consider purchasing PE and use points to upgrade to J. Is that an option you've considered.

 

[Pushka]

Even more reason to select reward seats you can see and not try to pick and choose (sorry I don't mean that in a rude way)

As a Silver/Bronze you're not going to see any "extra" availability that Gold and above can see, nor can you make a Platinum request to open seats up that sometimes sees success, so your options are limited. If you can find seats that fit your travel plans then I would grab them ASAP.

As noted above, upgrade chances in peak times are going to be slimmer the lower down the status chain you are.

Totally agree. As two WP we snag the award seats available once we know approx dates. And are very flexible in terms of exit cities and plane type.

 

[gonecountry]

I have read your questions and wondered if you'd consider purchasing PE and use points to upgrade to J. Is that an option you've considered.

No I hadn't thought of that...

 

[funnymummy]

No I hadn't thought of that...

It was a very nice flight !!!

 

[Jack_OC]

No I hadn't thought of that...

You would still have very little chance of the upgrade coming through, unfortunately. Worth a try though if you're happy to pay for and fly in Premium Economy. I must admit that I struggle to see the value in QF Premium Economy - fares are sometimes not much cheaper than J with other airlines - in fact, I have even got cheap J fares to the US with QF a couple of times that cost only slightly more than a typical QF Premium Economy fare. Each to their own though.