Article: Bizarre Trick to Get Qantas First Class Awards

[justinbrett]

Lol, yes.It would appear that the hack is no longer working as qantas has now stopped making any first class award seats available (ie, pulled the inventory).

I'm not sure it was ever real inventory - the dates I sampled showed zero in EF - but did appear on QF. Now, they may have been bookable - QF have their own system that can do fancy things like convert inventory on booking - but surely people must see this was more of a bug than a hack. It was always going to get fixed the minute this was reported.

 

[SYD]

I'm not sure it was ever real inventory - the dates I sampled showed zero in EF - but did appear on QF. Now, they may have been bookable - QF have their own system that can do fancy things like convert inventory on booking - but surely people must see this was more of a bug than a hack. It was always going to get fixed the minute this was reported.

Post #12 suggests otherwise but it is more than a coincidence this was working in the morning and then nada by the arvo… The Spirit of RedRoo is here somewhere?

 

[justinbrett]

Post #12 suggests otherwise but it is more than a coincidence this was working in the morning and then nada by the arvo… The Spirit of RedRoo is here somewhere?

I checked it myself when this article was reported. It was not available on the GDS, that much I'm sure of.

I'm not doubting @AFF Editor when he said it was bookable and knew people who had, I'm just saying this wasn't intentional by QF - hence why the door has been abruptly slammed shut since.

 

[SYD]

What’s weird, I can see a day with 1x 1st classic reward seat ex-SYD but I can’t get any regional departures to show that combo now…

 

[MooTime]

Just another mockery from Qantas, continually letting their customers down, misleading them & not taking any responsibility or giving a damn.

Why / how they release these phantom seats is just unAustralian.....and I don't want to hear other airlines do it too, that's a garbage excuse, if that tale floats some boats then could just as easily say other airlines post DSC's immediately after flight taken, not 5 weeks later.
QF act on the poor end of every issue.

taking the p1S5 out of regional folk by offering F reward seats then pulling them later & they have to call the ultra efficient call centre to rectify some sort of refund etc.

 

[encryptededdy]

they have to call the ultra efficient call centre to rectify some sort of refund etc.

I don't think there's any implication that bookings for people who booked while they were avaliable are being cancelled or anything. I would expect Qantas to honor this, even if it's an error.

 

[aus_flyer]

I'm not sure it was ever real inventory - the dates I sampled showed zero in EF - but did appear on QF.

Qantas First Class inventory bookable using QF points does not appear in EF. It hasn’t for a long time because partners don’t have access to it.

 

[MooTime]

Well a previous posted claimed they never existing upon checking. So on that basis whoever booked these rewards will have issues...No?
I definitely would NOT expect Qantas to honour them if they were Phantom availability, and not actually having
availability there.

I don't think there's any implication that bookings for people who booked while they were avaliable are being cancelled or anything. I would expect Qantas to honor this, even if it's an error.

 

[SYD]

Well a previous posted claimed they never existing upon checking. So on that basis whoever booked these rewards will have issues...No?
I definitely would NOT expect Qantas to honour them if they were Phantom availability, and not actually having
availability there.

Actually, post #12 says that they’d been booking these for a while.

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

 

[MEL_Traveller]

I'm not sure it was ever real inventory - the dates I sampled showed zero in EF - but did appear on QF. Now, they may have been bookable - QF have their own system that can do fancy things like convert inventory on booking - but surely people must see this was more of a bug than a hack. It was always going to get fixed the minute this was reported.

Like QF creating mock PNRs and fictitious origin-destinations to hold booking credits I wonder if this was their way of hiding real inventory that they intended to keep for platinums and CLs requesting a release of award seats? (eg note to operator to create booking ex some regional port to see or ‘release’ the seat)?