Bus class award seats with Qantas FF points

[robert kennelly]

How best do I Get two business class award seats from Sydney to Vancouver on Tuesday 20th April 2027?

 

[MELso]

Luck will be involved but a few things to try.

1. Check from 360 days out. While Qantas releases at 355 days, some partners release earlier (e.g. CX)
2. Set up an alert on a site like seats.aero or Pointsyeah
3. Be prepared to book partner airlines (e.g. FJ - noting that FJ’s business product ranges from world class on the A350 to very weak on their 737s and A330s)

But with that high degree of inflexibility, be prepared to pay cash.

 

[Warragul]

1. Check from 360 days out. While Qantas releases at 355 days, some partners release earlier (e.g. CX)

The Qantas release date is for Gold Status and above Frequent Flyers. It's about half that for lower levels. Don't know about partner airlines.

 

[Franky]

How best do I Get two business class award seats from Sydney to Vancouver on Tuesday 20th April 2027?

We are in Perth doing the same trip this April, and found that flying via HK on CP was the best option. May not suit you, but either way, there's a lot of water to transit to get there...

 

[robert kennelly]

Luck will be involved but a few things to try.

1. Check from 360 days out. While Qantas releases at 355 days, some partners release earlier (e.g. CX)
2. Set up an alert on a site like seats.aero or Pointsyeah
3. Be prepared to book partner airlines (e.g. FJ - noting that FJ’s business product ranges from world class on the A350 to very weak on their 737s and A330s)

But with that high degree of inflexibility, be prepared to pay cash.

Thanks for this. I am observing now 400 days out. and the use A330 200s!

 

[mbe1510]

How best do I Get two business class award seats from Sydney to Vancouver on Tuesday 20th April 2027?

You'll need to look at one-stop flights as currently Qantas does not fly to Vancouver on Tuesdays - at least on its current schedule.
It can help to be flexible and look at alternative routings via NAN, SFO, LAX or even via Asia as your chances are slim if you need a precise date. Currently QF flies to YVR on Mon, Wed, Thu, Sat.

 

[bPeteb]

Thanks for this. I am observing now 400 days out. and the use A330 200s!

Apart from noise, the A330 J experience is barely any different to QF 787, or A380.

 

[justinbrett]

Bus class sounds terrible

 

[stu961]

How best do I Get two business class award seats from Sydney to Vancouver on Tuesday 20th April 2027?

I would be targeting NAN to YVR with FJ.... that's a realistic possibility!!

 

[Captain Halliday]

Bus class sounds terrible

Or accurate. Depending on your perspective.

 

[11sjw]

Syd-Asia return with Cash and at least an overnight in each direction. Points to and from the Asian city to Vancouver.

 

[1A Please]

I did SYD to YVR via LAX with AA on business about 6 months ago - different timeline, but found nothing available on Qantas metal and went AA. However, got lucky and AA cancelled the flight the day before and put me on the direct QF flight to YVR the next day. Take whatever you find these days. The ability to easily burn points for RTW business like 25+ years ago is long gone unfortunately

 

[AuSammy]

Our routing 2 years ago was BNE-TPE-YVR :::: YVR-NAN-BNE on points. No QF metal.

Being inflexible picking a specific day is going to be real tough.

 

[pointsgalore]

Our routing 2 years ago was BNE-TPE-YVR :::: YVR-NAN-BNE on points. No QF metal.

Being inflexible picking a specific day is going to be real tough.

Agreed, you'll need a few different dates to be even close to finding seats. These seats are extremely hard to find.

 

[SYD]

I would be targeting NAN to YVR with FJ.... that's a realistic possibility!!

FJ goes thru cycles where they release seats regularly on cycle but then have “winters” of nothing for weeks. We’re currently in a winter so far stretching to mid Mar 2027. But it could change without notice.

 

[AuSammy]

so far stretching to mid Mar 2026

We already at end of March

 

[Nate-Dawg]

FJ goes thru cycles where they release seats regularly on cycle but then have “winters” of nothing for weeks. We’re currently in a winter so far stretching to mid Mar 2027. But it could change without notice.

Any idea as to how this cycle works? I’m looking to fly SYD-YVR in June 2027 so have been looking at the FJ releases for SYD-NAN-YVR (even just NAN-YVR is fine) to get an understanding of their release patterns. I’ve noticed that there are times when you can almost always find availability on Tuesdays or Thursdays around 355 days out, and sometimes nothing.

 

[SYD]

Any idea as to how this cycle works?

No idea…

I believe they release about 4x J seats ex SYD but the onward flights* to LAX, SFO, DFW and YVR seem to be the ones that go MIA or get snaffled quickly (as there’s usually only 2x seats each AFAIK).

*only LAX is daily BTW(?)

Edit:
I haven’t looked on AA, but there was some speculation that we’d see less FJ award seats after FJ joined AA FF program. I’ve not read anything to confirm or allay those concerns?

 

[Nate-Dawg]

No idea…

I believe they release about 4x J seats ex SYD but the onward flights* to LAX, SFO, DFW and YVR seem to be the ones that go MIA or get snaffled quickly (as there’s usually only 2x seats each AFAIK).

*only LAX is daily BTW(?)

It could be that sometimes they just get snaffled quickly and that FJ are releasing 2 J reward seats for every flight from NAN to North America.. They seem to be the only QF partner that consistently has J award seats available almost a year in advance.

AFAIK, QFF release award seats 353 days day out and AA is 331, so presumably any dates between 331 and 353 days out should be unaffected by FJ joining AA Advantage.

 

[markis10]

AFAIK, QFF release award seats 353 days day out

Only for Gold and above, otherwise it’s in batches much later