Award travel on Qantas with AA miles

[rwrowla]

Hi,

I've searched the various threads and not seen any discussion relating to the problem I've just encountered:

Having earned a large number of FF miles on American in the US and now relocated to the UK, I'd like to cash in some miles for 2 business class tickets from London to Australia mid Dec - mid Jan (significant anniversary). The American awards desk (who were as helpful as usual) tell me I have to travel on BA/JAL with lengthy stopover at Narita as they have no QF flights available to them at all either to SYD or MEL. AA couldn't explain why - my first guess was some kind of blackout but I haven't been able to find confirmation of that.

Was going to sign up for ExpertFlyer and try that, but the web site says it can only show availability of Qantas X (coach) class.

Any light anyone can shed on this would be really appreciated - I'd like to make this a memorable trip and previous business travel to Australia on Qantas has always been pleasant so I figured that was my best choice.

Cheers,
Richard

 

[alect]

You are wanting to travel in the very peak period (winter northern hemisphere and summer in southern, plus Christmas/New Year). So not surprising that award inventory is not available. If it ever was, it was made available 355 days out and would have been snapped up.

To check availability you can sign up for a QFF account and search for awards using the tool on qantas.com.

Your alternative choices LHR-SYD/MEL are - BA, JL (via NRT), CX (via HKG), or combinations of all of these airlines.

The other (longer) alternative is AA LHR-NRT and then either JL or QF. I can see eg AA U availability via JFK on Dec 18. From NRT you may still have a problem.

 

[Kiwi Flyer]

Welcome to AFF rwrowla

QF releases awards to QFF 355 days out, but to partner FFPs (like AAdvantage) only 330 days out.

On prime routes in peak season the best awards are long gone by the time the window opens for partner FFPs.

I got such an award exactly 355 days out. When I was searching I noticed most of the award seats released, at least in business and first class, went on the very first or second days they were made available.

 

[Dave Noble]

The American awards desk (who were as helpful as usual) tell me I have to travel on BA/JAL with lengthy stopover at Narita as they have no QF flights available to them at all either to SYD or MEL. AA couldn't explain why - my first guess was some kind of blackout but I haven't been able to find confirmation of that.

The simple reason is that any awards which were available have already gone. I would suggest booking on the BA/JL service and then closer to the time check for award seats to open up on routes with better connections and then change the booking if they do ( as long as the origin and destination points remain the same, the partner award can be changed with no penalty )

Dave

 

[Dave Noble]

Your alternative choices LHR-SYD/MEL are - BA, JL (via NRT), CX (via HKG), or combinations of all of these airlines.

The other (longer) alternative is AA LHR-NRT and then either JL or QF. I can see eg AA U availability via JFK on Dec 18. From NRT you may still have a problem.

Going via HKG is not permitted on a partner award from Europe to Australia , nor is going via the USA. For both such routings, it would be necessary to use a more expensive One World award

Dave