Article: Bizarre Trick to Get Qantas First Class Awards

[AFF Editor]

Bizarre Trick to Get Qantas First Class Awards is an article written by AFF editorial staff:

Bizarre Trick to Get Qantas First Class Awards

Update: Since this article was published, Qantas appears to have pulled all First Class award inventory. For many people with Qantas Frequent Flyer

www.australianfrequentflyer.com.au

You can leave a comment or discuss this topic below.

 

[Jack_OC]

Interesting! Do you know if this availability is real though? As in, has anyone actually completed a booking successfully using this trick? The QF online booking engine is riddled with phantom availability, and I've noticed this seems to be a particular issue when playing around with quirky routings.

 

[Gold Member]

The Qantas Premium/Platinum line (Auckland/Hobart) can also piece these First class awards together manually. Just give them any nearby regional origin and then ask them to separate the booking and reprice due to flawed married segment logic. Done this a few times now.

Do not bother trying this with Mindpearl (South Africa/Fiji) unless you want to go around in endless mind bending circles. HUACA

 

[levelnine]

Married segment logic to the extreme ha!

 

[AFF Editor]

Interesting! Do you know if this availability is real though? As in, has anyone actually completed a booking successfully using this trick? The QF online booking engine is riddled with phantom availability, and I've noticed this seems to be a particular issue when playing around with quirky routings.

The Qantas website does indeed have issues at times, but this is genuine availability. I know a few people who have successfully made bookings.

 

[SYD]

I had a quick play around to see if more J awards appeared also. TBH, I was seeing less seats across the board ex regional towns compared with ex-SYD to LHR.

 

[UncleScotty]

What happens if you skip the last leg of the journey? ie Return to Sydney and just walk out the airport to go home

Assuming you have carry on only

 

[SYD]

I had a quick play around to see if more J awards appeared also. TBH, I was seeing less seats across the board ex regional towns compared with ex-SYD to LHR.

I take that back. It’s just the calendar view doing the reverse of what it normal does. Instead of lying about availability, it’s not showing actual F availability! Although there does seem to be limited/less(?) J available using that method.

 

[SYD]

What happens if you skip the last leg of the journey? ie Return to Sydney and just walk out the airport to go home

Assuming you have carry on only

Even with checked luggage, you still need to collect and recheck.

 

[justinbrett]

I checked a random day in March and F was available for the connection - but expertflyer did not show P availability for either the straight segment (SYD-LAX) or both (TMW-SYD-LAX). I

I've seen this before where LAX-BNE-HKG showed up with J availability but LAX-BNE didn't - and expert flyer didn't show either.

I called QFF and told them that, and they released the seat for me - there was no requirement to actually fly the second leg.

 

[aaa99]

Not F, but I saw the same when looking for J from BKK to MEL.
Nothing on the multi-city search for 4th (searching as QF Gold).


But, these JAL seats appear when looking through a specific date.


Not sure if 119k for BKK to MEL via Japan (and a change of airports which may/may not be possible) is worth it, but a data point nevertheless.

 

[Le Clair]

The Qantas website does indeed have issues at times, but this is genuine availability. I know a few people who have successfully made bookings.

Yes, this is a fact. I know about it because I live in regional Queensland and HAVE to use a connecting flight to get to BNE, SYD, MEL etc.
Also conducting the search at precisely 10am AEST (note AEST not AEDT in summer), 353 days from departure almost always results in a successful outcome.
Note though, that flying to the USA, rewards flights flying eastwards are easier than flying westwards because when flying westwards, while your departure date may be 353 days out, the connecting flights are 355 days out and not yet available.
Secured 2 x F and 2 x J rewards seats LAX to SYD on the same flight in late February 2023 with no problem at all

 

[sanne]

Not F, but I saw the same when looking for J from BKK to MEL.
Nothing on the multi-city search for 4th (searching as QF Gold).
View attachment 277397

But, these JAL seats appear when looking through a specific date.


Not sure if 119k for BKK to MEL via Japan (and a change of airports which may/may not be possible) is worth it, but a data point nevertheless.

Sorry to jump in to this post. Please could you tell me how you get this view of available award flights? I used to see this but can’t find it now. Thanks

 

[SYD]

Sorry to jump in to this post. Please could you tell me how you get this view of available award flights? I used to see this but can’t find it now. Thanks

Multi-city search. You only need one city pair.

Edit: but as per my earlier comment, the calendar view is not showing correct availability…

 

[sanne]

Thanks SYD.

 

[jasetheace]

What happens if you skip the last leg of the journey? ie Return to Sydney and just walk out the airport to go home

Assuming you have carry on only

When you arrive in Sydney you collect your bags and go through immigration. I would let Qantas know that you are not taking the ongoing flight and you may even get a partial refund for taxs on the flight. I have often missed connections when flying back into Sydney.

 

[exceladdict]

I experienced the same in recent weeks trying to book OOL-xMEL/SYD-PER. Flights would not show up (and indeed there was no U availability when the help desk checked) if I looked directly from SYD/MEL-PER but occasionally options would show for J OOL-MEL-PER. Unsure if phantom as they were not flights I wanted to book so didn't go the whole way through.

 

[esther_a]

I have previously skipped the last leg of a multi-city award flight. It was not a problem. Before boarding the second last flight (returning from OS to SYD) I told the staff at check in that circumstances had changed and I would not be able to take the final SYD-MEL leg.

 

[Jean Prouvaire]

View attachment 277398

Not sure if 119k for BKK to MEL via Japan (and a change of airports which may/may not be possible) is worth it, but a data point nevertheless.

Also interesting that the Business class set is 20K cheaper than the Premium Economy seat on the same flights (and with the same cash component).

 

[Borisdog]

Not F, but I saw the same when looking for J from BKK to MEL.
Nothing on the multi-city search for 4th (searching as QF Gold).
View attachment 277397

But, these JAL seats appear when looking through a specific date.
View attachment 277398

Not sure if 119k for BKK to MEL via Japan (and a change of airports which may/may not be possible) is worth it, but a data point nevertheless.

I cannot for the life of me get the view of the 4 week availability period that you have to come up for me. I'm a P1.

I've tried multiple cities, domestic and international and it just always takes me straight to the individual day screen, even when choosing flexible with dates.

It's driving me insane and is very, very tedious. Clearly I'm doing something wrong but I have never had this problem in the past, and I have no idea what I'm doing wrong. Admittedly it's been a while since I tried looking.

Am I right in recalling that there used to be an option at initial search to select Classic Awards only, not just "Use points". Cos if I'm right I don't have that option at the search screen anymore.

WTH am I doing wrong? I'd love a quick blow by blow but I really don't recall it being that hard.

All help very gratefully accepted!!!