Availability of Qantas rewards flights

[AnnaB]

Im trying to book a Qantas J awards flights, return PER-CPH in June, July or August for next year.
Preferably around the 15th of July to mid August but except for one flight on the 6th of June, there is nothing at all. Is this common or are the tickets yet to be released? I am merely a bronze member atm.

Im also wondering if there are any penalties if I need to cancel the flight? Will I get my points and $$ back?

 

[bsb]

If you are trying for the PER LHR flight, next to no reward seats get released on that. You probably need to get creative on your route. If you have status, call QF, in my experience they are helpful but only if you guide them or it’s like bobbing for apples. Try CX MH and fly somewhere into Europe and pay for your CPH connection. I’m not across the whole EK thing so others may have insights into redemption there (if it’s possible).

 

[grussellt]

You will have to look at multi-city awards and use, for example, PER-HKG/HKG-CPH. On June 18-19 you can fly this route in J on CX170/EK383/EK151. Otherwise look for awards on AY, QR, CX, BA, and EK and fly from PER to one of their gateways.

 

[cove]

Yes Qatar , Emirates and Cathay would be your most likely chance as Qantas has nothing much.

 

[ellen10]

I have been looking at J flights to Europe for he last couple of months to try and see a pattern.
I am in the process of booking J flights to Europe but later than you August/September. I am silver (I note you said you are bronze) there has been absolutely nothing on QF. Cathay sometimes has a few. Not much on Qatar or Finnair. The most options seem to be Malaysian.
I agree that you may have to be creative and use multi awards but even that seems to be hard.
Good luck!

 

[jetpack]

Also be careful about mixing airlines. Emirates is on a separate award chart so if you mix it with Cathay for example your points cost will go up heaps.

 

[Franky]

OP stated she was a 'mere bronze' so I assume that just about puts her at the end of the queue for the initial releases of award seats, is that correct?

 

[ellen10]

OP stated she was a 'mere bronze' so I assume that just about puts her at the end of the queue for the initial releases of award seats, is that correct?

Yes it feels that way!

 

[Matt_01]

Also be careful about mixing airlines. Emirates is on a separate award chart so if you mix it with Cathay for example your points cost will go up heaps.

Sure points using CX go up, but the fees and taxes come down.

 

[Limewood]

We usually make our way to HK on purchased daylight fight in Y seat with possible upgrade to PE, then go rest of way to Europe or USA with ample award seats and low cost fees. Recently did HKG/JFK/HKG in J on CX x 2 pax was 400K points and just $192 in fees.

 

[amaroo]

We've booked a mixture of J/F on QF / JL / CX to get to and from Europe next year. Had no worries securing 2 x F seats HND-LHR (JL) and CDG-HKG (CX), with the remaining being J flights on QF / CX. Status helps, but being creative and spending lots of time searching should = result.

Yes, if you cancel you will get your points and cash back .... minus (IIRC) 6,000pp point penalty

 

[AnnaB]

Thank you so much for the input. I have looked at the awards flights for some time but it seems availability is limited as soon as I want to book *lol* I dont mind flying other airlines as long as I get to where I want to go, but would prefer not to have to do multiple bookings.
I just have to keep searching I guess. Seems Europe is the place everyone wants to be next year

 

[davidj]

Qatar

Good luck with that.

 

[cove]

My son did get one a few weeks from flying.

 

[RichardMEL]

Looking for awards in peak (Northern summer) season in premum cabins is difficult at the best of times. You've missed the boat likely on any direct options for sure (specially on QF9/10). I agree to position to Asia (you could go PER-SIN pretty easily) and try from there. Also you're being specific with CPH as a destination (nice city ).. Have you tried other regional/close by cities that you could use rail or cheap air to get to? I'm thinking larger hubs like FRA or even HEL(AY), MAD /BCN(IB) etc?

Good luck

 

[cove]

We were happy yesterday when we asked for two seats a day earlier than I had booked on a SYD-PER Flight. I hadn’t realized Sydney had a public holiday on that Monday as we had intended to make it a work day.

 

[ozfflyer]

with the Australian economy going pear shaped fast & looking like completely collapsing after the fed election, due to dramatic drop in business & consumer confidence, many more frequent flyer seats should become available. Airlines have to be careful dropping flights.

Eg. Qantas flys BNE/LAX ten times a week & due to reduced demand could easily drop that to 1/day, without annoying any business types who pay top dollar, but you'd want to grab those frequent flyer seats before cut to frequency happen.

Am amazed that friends have been getting frequent flyer seats with minimum points/miles in Jan 2020 to Europe, USA & Canada, whereas normally they'd have no hope.