Are there any 1st class flights on OneWorld from Aus to Japan?

[ProggerPete]

Hi folks,
I've got a few AA miles that I'm looking to spend. I'm thinking of a skiing trip early next year. I've never flown 1st class and most likely never will unless I do it via points. Going 1st class to Japan would be fun, but does it exist?

Cheers,
Pete

 

[TomVexille]

Non-stop? I dont think so. The only way I can think of is via LAX if you want F the entire way.

 

[Princess Fiona]

You could go via HKG to HND using a combination of QF and CX with AA miles.
F on both sectors.

 

[TomVexille]

You could go via HKG to HND using a combination of QF and CX with AA miles.
F on both sectors.

That's the one I couldn't come up with. Forgot QF have F to HKG.

 

[ketsuzei]

I recently purchased BA Avios to get HND-HKG in F on CX for the equivalent of AUD850... main advantage of that over AAdvantage was that I didn't have to wait until 330 days before the flight.

I wonder if you could book SYD-HKG-HND (QF>CX in F) for 60,000 AA miles as a single trip via the phone... *that* would be really good value.

 

[Princess Fiona]

I recently purchased BA Avios to get HND-HKG in F on CX for the equivalent of AUD850... main advantage of that over AAdvantage was that I didn't have to wait until 330 days before the flight.

I wonder if you could book SYD-HKG-HND (QF>CX in F) for 60,000 AA miles as a single trip via the phone... *that* would be really good value.

I think you could. I was able to pull up that fare on EF, no guarantee that AA would be able to book it but definitely worth trying. If the timings are correct you would have an overnight transit stop in HKG and a leisurely brekkie in The Wing next morning

 

[ProggerPete]

Thanks for the help guys! 1st via HKG sounds like fun. I'm actually BNE based, but a couple of days in SYD before the trip and then getting to enjoy the 1st lounge in SYD would actually be quite nice.

The next trick will be to find the availability. I called up AA and waited while the guy on the other end laboriously searched one day at a time for a 1st class from SYD to HKG on any day in Jan. He didn't find anything and gave me the standard speil about seats being released at different times, try again later, yada yada.

Is there any extra information I can arm myself with to help them help me? I originally tried giving them dates that I saw 1st class availability within the Qantas system, but it quickly became apparent that availability for a Qantas redemption does not relate to availability for an AA redemption.

 

[legroom]

I thought QF availability on AA is readily available through AAdvantage search function which is DIY in essence.

CX on AA:

Have you tried JAL (JMB) which is supposed to be good for CX availability ?

It's always in your interests to be armed with as much info as possible as reliance on CSRs would be more likely a miss (rather than a hit).

 

[benlight]

I wonder if you could book SYD-HKG-HND (QF>CX in F) for 60,000 AA miles as a single trip via the phone... *that* would be really good value.

I can confirm I had this exact itinerary (SYD-HKG-HND on QF and CX F) booked a few months back for 60k AA miles (with an overnight stopover in HKG), so it's definitely possible by phone -- I ended up cancelling the trip, though. Award availability on CX F from HKG-HND is quite good, and CX also has F on HKG-KIX.

I second legroom's recommendation of searching award space before calling -- I use the BA Executive Club website, but the JAL Mileage Bank site is reliable for CX too.

 

[legroom]

I can confirm I had this exact itinerary (SYD-HKG-HND on QF and CX F) booked a few months back for 60k AA miles (with an overnight stopover in HKG), so it's definitely possible by phone ....

Kaiseki in Kyoto

Onsen hot spring in Hakone

Roast goose in HK

I'm lost in a world of possibilities !

Thanks for this

My original thought for the next trip was CX (J) - CX (F) but this is far more 'palatable'.

 

[ProggerPete]

Great to know this routing is bookable. The fly in the ointment seems to be that on the days that have availability, there is only 1 seat. I'm wanting 2 so I can share the joy with my wife. Any tips on this? Should I grab one and hope a 2nd opens up?

Edit : The leg that is proving troublesome is SYD-HKG. Availability for HKG-HND seems ok.

Edit 2 : With all the availability for a single pax I'm surprised the guy I called couldn't spot anything. I have vague memories of the agents getting confused by Qantas using a different fare code (P) for first class.

 

[Princess Fiona]

Great to know this routing is bookable. The fly in the ointment seems to be that on the days that have availability, there is only 1 seat. I'm wanting 2 so I can share the joy with my wife. Any tips on this? Should I grab one and hope a 2nd opens up?

Edit : The leg that is proving troublesome is SYD-HKG. Availability for HKG-HND seems ok.

Edit 2 : With all the availability for a single pax I'm surprised the guy I called couldn't spot anything. I have vague memories of the agents getting confused by Qantas using a different fare code (P) for first class.

I think you might have great difficulty getting two F awards SYD-HKG. I have an upcoming trip in June searched a year out and so far no dice. Settled for one P and one U.
With regards to AA agents your vague memory is correct and the HUACA method usually yields results.

 

[smit0847]

This question has been asked so many times I've asked for a sticky with the answer, but here it is again:

QF make award seats available to QFF members only at 353 days out. At 330 days out they then make any remaining seats available to partner airlines, such as AA. As QF release far fewer J and F award seats than most other airlines (yet still have 10m members fighting for them) almost all of them get snapped up between 353 and 330 days out meaning there's hardly anything left for partner airlines at 330 days out. They may also reserve anything that is left for QFFers, not partners (hence you seeing it on QFF but AA not seeing it).

I would generally not consider QF F to be a possibility through partner airlines. Its my understanding that QF do not release anymore award seats after the initial 353 days out release.

You could also use EF to set up alerts to advise you if any do become available (i.e. if someone cancels out booked at 353) but remember others may be doing exactly the same thing and you'll be competing with them for the space.

 

[ketsuzei]

QF make award seats available to QFF members only at 353 days out.

As of now, you can book (say) February 10 QF127 as a BA award.

And my next two QF F flights were booked via AA less than eight months out, so I wouldn't consider it not a possibility either, given enough flexibility.

 

[JohnPhelan]

Its my understanding that QF do not release anymore award seats after the initial 353 days out release.

My experience is that Yield Management do sometimes release more seats for awards, much closer to the flight date. All depends on what the load is looking like.

 

[legroom]

As of now, you can book (say) February 10 QF127 as a BA award.

And my next two QF F flights were booked via AA less than eight months out, so I wouldn't consider it not a possibility either, given enough flexibility.

While possible, any travel planning depending on this availability would be highly speculative in nature requiring your utmost flexibility in dates.

A fall back plan (say Classic Y) would be needed in most cases.

For those of us with a day job or a firm date for a meeting, this approach is probably not suitable unless you write your own holiday dates (self employed etc...).

Smit0847 is correct: very very difficult to pick up P seats from AA calendar and it ain't that difficult to know why.

 

[ketsuzei]

In an AA context all that needs to be said is that by the time awards become available on the AA calendar, members of certain other schemes (notably QFF) will have already been able to book for around three weeks, so availability is likely to be limited.

 

[Nizar]

This question has been asked so many times I've asked for a sticky with the answer, but here it is again:

QF make award seats available to QFF members only at 353 days out. At 330 days out they then make any remaining seats available to partner airlines, such as AA. As QF release far fewer J and F award seats than most other airlines (yet still have 10m members fighting for them) almost all of them get snapped up between 353 and 330 days out meaning there's hardly anything left for partner airlines at 330 days out. They may also reserve anything that is left for QFFers, not partners (hence you seeing it on QFF but AA not seeing it).

I would generally not consider QF F to be a possibility through partner airlines. Its my understanding that QF do not release anymore award seats after the initial 353 days out release.

You could also use EF to set up alerts to advise you if any do become available (i.e. if someone cancels out booked at 353) but remember others may be doing exactly the same thing and you'll be competing with them for the space.

Whilst what you say re: QF F award availability is generally true, it is largely dependant on the route.
For say MEL/SYD-LAX forget about it if you haven't booked say 10-11 months in advance. Though if you are extremely flexible (can basically go any day in any month) then you might be lucky and find some seats six or seven months out.

Other routes are easier. I've just booked two F seats on two different dates earlier this month to fly DXB-SYD on QF to be used in March. The bookings were made on 5th of Feb and 10th of Feb and travel dates are 12th March and 13th March.

And as of last week I was still seeing availability to fly DXB-SYD on 25th March and 27th. And yes that's in F and only a month out.

 

[ProggerPete]

Big thanks for the help given in this thread, particularly Fiona.

I've got on hold 1 1st and 1 business SYD-HKG and 2 1st HKG-HND. 60k points pp.

Couple of extra queries.

1. My wife and I are peasant status so they're hitting me with a booking fee of $80pp (it's 2 bookings because neither of us have 120k points). Any cunning ways of avoiding this?

2. It would obviously be nice if we could both fly 1st class from SYD. Obviously they don't release extra 1st class awards often, but if they do, is there an easy way to get notified it has happened?

Huge thanks again, now I get almost a whole year of anticipation. =)

 

[markis10]

I would generally not consider QF F to be a possibility through partner airlines. Its my understanding that QF do not release anymore award seats after the initial 353 days out release.

F is just as readily available via partners versus direct, and often more seats are released. There are no golden rules when it comes to yield management, with the exception that things change depending on the confidence of yield to get money for those seats.