Business Class Seats on A380 on Points

[rickysheehan]

Hi All

I am planning a family holiday July 2017 and plan on trying to get 4 business class seats (A380) on Qantas Points, Sydney - London.

I am trying to understand what is the likely hood of getting the 4 seats? Do they allow that many Business Class Seats on points.

I am assuming that if I call to book, the moment the flight becomes "bookable", that I will get them.

Does anyone know how many Business Class Seats Qantas / Emirates allow per A380 flight on points?

Ricky

 

[travelislife]

Hi All

I am planning a family holiday July 2017 and plan on trying to get 4 business class seats (A380) on Qantas Points, Sydney - London.

I am trying to understand what is the likely hood of getting the 4 seats? Do they allow that many Business Class Seats on points.

I am assuming that if I call to book, the moment the flight becomes "bookable", that I will get them.

Does anyone know how many Business Class Seats Qantas / Emirates allow per A380 flight on points?

Ricky

What status do you have as this may impact availability?

Otherwise it used to be you should be online at T-353 10am Brisbane time when the seats are released and book immediately. It think Qantas generally releases 2 U seats per flight. You could split up so 2 of you do SYD-DXB-LHR and 2 of you do SYD-MEL-DXB-LHR. Or split 2 on to the Emirates flights.

I would of thought your best option for 4 seats is actually with CX (Cathay Pacific) or QR (Qatar), and I would argue their product is both better than Qantas and Emirates. They release their seats at 360 days. See example below, 4 seats available on the 26th of April 2017.

 

[travelislife]

Is there a reason you were restricting yourself to Qantas and Emirates?

At least you have left yourself plenty of time to get organised and work the system out.

 

[theweaselsteve]

When I try to check this I can only see as far as 353 days out, not 360. There obviously must be a way to check dates 360 days out as you've shown. Am I missing soomething?

Cheers,

Steve

 

[mviy]

When I try to check this I can only see as far as 353 days out, not 360. There obviously must be a way to check dates 360 days out as you've shown. Am I missing soomething?

What Status do you have?

QANTAS operated flights only go 353 days out. So if you are restricting your search to QANTAS operated that might explain it.

 

[theweaselsteve]

Ah, that's probably it. I'm silver.

 

[travelislife]

When I try to check this I can only see as far as 353 days out, not 360. There obviously must be a way to check dates 360 days out as you've shown. Am I missing soomething?

Cheers,

Steve

You are correct the calendar on the search page will only let you choose 353 days out. But when the availability calendar pops up which shows the whole month on the next page there will be flights available in the 7 days after you selected on the front page. These flights will not be Qantas, and most likely Qatar and Cathay.

As an aside Qatar business class is the best I have flown from about 10 major airlines long haul.

 

[theweaselsteve]

Got it. Thanks very much! Great tip.

 

[Kangol]

You are correct the calendar on the search page will only let you choose 353 days out. But when the availability calendar pops up which shows the whole month on the next page there will be flights available in the 7 days after you selected on the front page. These flights will not be Qantas, and most likely Qatar and Cathay.

As an aside Qatar business class is the best I have flown from about 10 major airlines long haul.

Out of interest, have you (or anyone else here) booked a CX/QR award flight at some time in between T-353 and T-360 days?

 

[sanne]

I have booked a J award Oneworld RTW flight in September using CX as my first 2 flights and booked the seats between T-353 and 360. Will do the same again for Sept 2017.

 

[travelislife]

Out of interest, have you (or anyone else here) booked a CX/QR award flight at some time in between T-353 and T-360 days?

Yep. I booked CX last year at about 357-8 or around then.

 

[Mattg]

It's great that you're planning early. Most of the reward seats will probably be snapped up within days of their release date.

As has been said, splitting up may be the way to go. 2 of you on one flight, 2 on another flight.

If you can't find anything on Qantas or Emirates, do keep your options open. With Qantas points you can fly on any oneworld airline, including ones that don't show on the Qantas website (i.e. Japan Airlines and Malaysia Airlines). I'm sure you'll be able to find something.

Enjoy your trip

 

[NVRENUF]

There has to be better solutions than to split up the family.

There is no way on earth I would want to send my wife and daughter, or even the wife on another flight
just to get business class.

why do they have to make it so hard. 363 days what a long time to book ahead too.

has anyone had normal experiences booking say 3 people into business for international flight
6 months or so before travel ?

Such a shame they make it so difficult hey.

 

[stroudie]

Forgive my ignorance/inexperience pls. Mentions made of redeeming seats on Cathay, Malaysia, Japan etc. Can redemptions be made for these airlines through Qantas website ? I have never seen their availability on Qantas site before, am I missing out on doing something here ?
I am hopeful of obtaining 2 tickets for sometime in 2017. (time & destination yet to be decided, so might even be 2018 )
Thanks,
Stroudie.

 

[Mattg]

Forgive my ignorance/inexperience pls. Mentions made of redeeming seats on Cathay, Malaysia, Japan etc. Can redemptions be made for these airlines through Qantas website ? I have never seen their availability on Qantas site before, am I missing out on doing something here ?
I am hopeful of obtaining 2 tickets for sometime in 2017. (time & destination yet to be decided, so might even be 2018 )
Thanks,
Stroudie.

Malaysian and Japan Airlines redemptions are available, but they don't show up on the Qantas website.

You would need to call Qantas to book, and the phone booking fees will be waived as it cannot be done online.

To search for award availability on these airlines, you could search on the British Airways website. If an MH or JL flight shows as being available on there, you'll be able to book it with Qantas points.

 

[eminere]

Mentions made of redeeming seats on Cathay, Malaysia, Japan etc. Can redemptions be made for these airlines through Qantas website ? I have never seen their availability on Qantas site before, am I missing out on doing something here ?

I believe for these airlines you have to call Qantas to book as they can't be booked online. You can check availability first through Expert Flyer or the British Airways online booking engine.

 

[scoutgc]

There has to be better solutions than to split up the family.

There is no way on earth I would want to send my wife and daughter, or even the wife on another flight
just to get business class.

why do they have to make it so hard. 363 days what a long time to book ahead too.

has anyone had normal experiences booking say 3 people into business for international flight
6 months or so before travel ?

Such a shame they make it so difficult hey.

FYI I have recently booked 4 seats on Qatar airways in Bus class to Rome. I had to fly out of Adelaide, instead of Brisbane as bizarrely the FF flight from Brisbane, (which goes via Adelaide, so it is the same flight from there), did not show availability at the front end. It was about 360 days out, and yes, the flights only showed up on the calendar on the 2nd page.....

 

[ronone69]

I don't know where people get the idea QF only releases 2 seats. Even on the old 747's it was always 4 seats. Normally, stage 1 release is 2 First, 4 Business and 20 Economy. I don;t know how many are released in Premium Economy but I think this is only 2 as it is a small cabin. Bets release of reward seats is through SQ

 

[Abdul_A350]

Forgive my ignorance/inexperience pls. Mentions made of redeeming seats on Cathay, Malaysia, Japan etc. Can redemptions be made for these airlines through Qantas website ? I have never seen their availability on Qantas site before, am I missing out on doing something here ?

I've had problems booking JAL flights over the phone recently. This advice proved very helpful:

I had this issue a few months ago when I phoned up to book a couple of award RTW fares. First agent couldn't see any availability when I knew it existed. Second agent found them no problem. Apparently there's 2 different ways for them to check availability and the first agent was looking in the wrong place. When I asked in the oneworld award thread, user gbetox replied with: "Same thing happened to me. I asked the phone assistant to double-check, and when she searched through "redemption" instead of "flight availability", she was able to see the seats and grab them."

 

[stroudie]

Thank you Mattg & Eminere for your advice.
Cheers,
Stroudie