Booking Qantas Frequent Flyer Points

[maxwelljames]

The most annoying thing is that it is so difficult to book a flight using FF Points and one doesn't know when they will be released for use.

 

[opusman]

They're released 353 days before departure.

 

[RichardMEL]

The most annoying thing is that it is so difficult to book a flight using FF Points and one doesn't know when they will be released for use.

Well that is, in a way, the nature of the beast.

Is there something in particular you're looking for? Perhaps we can help with options or ideas....

 

[Dr Ralph]

The most annoying thing is that it is so difficult to book a flight using FF Points and one doesn't know when they will be released for use.

This just isn't true.

I'd strongly suggest you spend some time reading AFF.

People can and do book award flights all the time, myself included. I would acknowledge that you need to be flexible and persistent but award flights are readily available.

 

[GoldCanyon340]

The most annoying thing is that it is so difficult to book a flight using FF Points and one doesn't know when they will be released for use.

It *can* be difficult to find award seats if you have a low status (Silver, Bronze) but the schedule for seats being released is well known barring special restrictions for those individual selling classes. Award seats are generally available when a flight comes into system range and for QF flights this is 353 days from departure for most frequent flyers, Bronze I believe is 330 days out but that may be changing (happy to be corrected on this one).

Booking award seats can be frustrating even for people who have been in this game for years. I suggest you read about it here and conduct more research. I guarantee you'll find the information you need somewhere online.

 

[sudoer]

it is so difficult to book a flight using FF Points

This is also what keeps them lucrative...

 

[Mattg]

@maxwelljames There is some info here on award seat release times: Qantas Silver Frequent Flyers Now Have Earlier Access to Award Seats
And here: When is the Best Time to Book Award Flights? - Frequent Flyer Solutions

 

[get me outta here]

Well I tend to agree, and mostly stay away from QF even though I have many somewhat useless points due to that difficulty.
But every now and then you get lucky. It will depend on your status, where you want to go and when you want to go. To test availability, go right to the end of the booking period and keep an eye on it so that you know when they’re going to be released and if necessary get up at 1 am to do so.

The most annoying thing is that it is so difficult to book a flight using FF Points and one doesn't know when they will be released for use.

 

[blackcat20]

We’ve had no issue booking the QF award flights we want; F to and from the US last year, and J for Christmas this year.

 

[get me outta here]

I booked F yesterday home from DFW for June. So I shouldn’t complain. But I think DFW availability is somewhat easier at the moment anyway.

 

[Dennis Leman]

Have you ever wondered why after 30+ years of QFF there is STILL NO AVAILABLE ALERT SYSTEM for changes in QFF seat availability on the QFF site?? So we have some actual smart assistance in making QFF booking and can then avoid the oh so tiresome trolling QFF day in day out, week in week out?? Well, the fact of the matter is Qantas don't want you to find seats and redeem your points and they make it as difficult as possible short of just closing FF bookings down altogether!! They make their money SELLING THE POINTS and if they sit long enough in your account they expire and the revenue from the point sale then has no expense offset and it's all profit!! The whole system stinks and I for one am heartily sick of it.

 

[TheInsider]

Have you ever wondered why after 30+ years of QFF there is STILL NO AVAILABLE ALERT SYSTEM for changes in QFF seat availability on the QFF site?? So we have some actual smart assistance in making QFF booking and can then avoid the oh so tiresome trolling QFF day in day out, week in week out?? Well, the fact of the matter is Qantas don't want you to find seats and redeem your points and they make it as difficult as possible short of just closing FF bookings down altogether!! They make their money SELLING THE POINTS and if they sit long enough in your account they expire and the revenue from the point sale then has no expense offset and it's all profit!! The whole system stinks and I for one am heartily sick of it.

Sorry but that's just rubbish.
First off if you are earning no points within an 18 month period, your not an engaged 'frequent flyer' and it's extremely easy to earn 1 point every 18 months to keep the points active.
Engagement is a huge factor at play within the frequent flyer business and they actually have more and more people redeeming every day. Just because you can't find what you want, doesn't mean there isn't anything available.
Redeeming points on QF and other airlines is a money earner for QF, irrespective of what you think may be.

 

[Dennis Leman]

They're released 353 days before departure.

Just part of the story. Having spent nine months last year watching seats on the Brisbane-LAX route at Christmas, I can say categorically there were at least half a dozen occasions when new seats were added to the FF availability on that route from February right through to October. There doesn't appear to be any set or predictable pattern and it depends on how cash sales are going, FF gets the leftovers .. "-( .. !!

Post automatically merged: Feb 21, 2020

Sorry but that's just rubbish.
First off if you are earning no points within an 18 month period, your not an engaged 'frequent flyer' and it's extremely easy to earn 1 point every 18 months to keep the points active.
Engagement is a huge factor at play within the frequent flyer business and they actually have more and more people redeeming every day. Just because you can't find what you want, doesn't mean there isn't anything available.
Redeeming points on QF and other airlines is a money earner for QF, irrespective of what you think may be.

Wrong wrong wrong, selling points is the money earner, not redeeming them, It's basic economics!! Back to schooll ..

 

[TheInsider]

Just part of the story. Having spent nine months last year watching seats on the Brisbane-LAX route at Christmas, I can say categorically there were at least half a dozen occasions when new seats were added to the FF availability on that route from February right through to October. There doesn't appear to be any set or predictable pattern and it depends on how cash sales are going, FF gets the leftovers .. "-( .. !!

Post automatically merged: Feb 21, 2020

Wrong wrong wrong, selling points is the money earner, not redeeming them, It's basic economics!! Back to schooll ..

Umm Qantas EARNS revenue by selling points redemption flights as well as goods through their store, as well as selling points.
But I guess you ARE the expert, correct?

 

[GoldCanyon340]

Just part of the story. Having spent nine months last year watching seats on the Brisbane-LAX route at Christmas, I can say categorically there were at least half a dozen occasions when new seats were added to the FF availability on that route from February right through to October. There doesn't appear to be any set or predictable pattern and it depends on how cash sales are going, FF gets the leftovers .. "-( .. !!

What you are not aware of or not understanding is that QF has an incredibly complex algorithm that adjusts every selling class in every cabin on every flight on every day. And it does this every day. Just because award seats were added to the particular route you were viewing, probably in a narrow band of dates, does not mean every route will behave like this. Nor does it mean other date ranges for that route will behave like this.

Award seats do not "get the leftovers". Award seats are nominated a yield value and that is thrown into the mix when the algorithm determines what selling classes should be open for sale. If award seats on a segment, or potentially across O&Ds, are deemed to be of more worth to the company than selling a particular revenue selling class then the award seats will go out to the market over the revenue selling class.

 

[RichardMEL]

Well that's quite the dummy spit.

You do not say your status level, but you want seats on a prime route at a peak time of year (Christmas) and wonder why you aren't seeing them?

Maybe higher status members have redeemed what few seats have been made available. Maybe you just missed out by a few minutes.. maybe your did not look at alternate routes such as going via NAN/SYD/MEL (I would include HKG, but right now that's perhaps not a great idea but often has avail) and so on.

Sure, QF earn money by selling points, but the points redeemed are also counted as revenue too (as noted above).

And sure, they win if points expire as the liability is off their books, but an active QFF member won't have them expire and thus still a liability to QF. They may prefer you spend on toasters as a higher yield to them, but it's not impossible to redeem awards.

Remember at peak demand times to be be flex with dates, routes and so on. You are competing with others for the same scarce resource.

 

[Tallfont]

I have never really had any problems booking reward seats. I hold QF Platinum status.

I managed to somehow grab PER-DOH on Qatar in F, DOH-BRU in J and LHR-HKG-PER on Cathay in PE last year. This was booking in February for flights in April. Honestly still not sure how I did that one!

I have just, in the last week, booked PER-SIN (QF in Y) and SIN-LHR (BA in PE) return on points for July-August. This time it was a bit harder with quite a few bizzare routings coming up (PER-MEL-SYD-HKG-LHR - 37 hours, no thanks!).
If I had been prepared for Y all the way there were plenty of options including QF9/10 available.

My experience is that if you are reasonably flexible with dates and even destinations and as long as there is some lead time you can usually find something that works. For example going to Brussels last year was not what we wanted. London was our destination. Three days in Brussels exploring that beautiful city and sampling (too many!) of their wonderful beers before hopping on the Eurostar to London was no hardship!

 

[sinophile888]

I took a last minute cruise from Fremantle to Sydney in Feb/Mar this year, with only 4 days between booking and boarding. I was very pleased to find 2 FF J seats for SYD -> MEL three weeks ahead and 1 FF J seat for MEL -> PER for 3 1/2 weeks ahead. The second J seat for MEL -> PER was obtained after QF sent a email asking for a bid to upgrade. My husband bid $350 where the minimum was $320 and was upgraded at T -24 to the second.
I really didn't like SYD -> MEL in a 737 in J but there was no A330 flights during the day, only very early morning or very late evening flights. The flight in Y would have been excruciating.
So all happy in this family.
A bonus was that I had expected to lose my exhaulted "Silver" status in April, but these flights got me over the line for next year.