Can QFF Platinums get Y award seats released?

[brisbull]

Hi all,

I recall a while back that if QFF platinums wanted to redeem points for a reward seat on a leg that had showed no availability (but still had plenty of seats available, including red-e deals), they could call up Qantas and get a seat 'released' for them to redeem using their points.

Does feature still exist? How does it work? Is there anything other options, tricks, or potential issues with this?

Thanks

 

[jasonja3]

Not sure about tips and tricks. I called QF yesterday trying to find availability to the US west coast, and they asked why dont I request a seat from Oz, which I did, and they released straight away for me after checking with a supervisor. I am a platinum member.

Although, I asked for San Fran, because I don't get the feeling that LAX is a pleasurable experience, but only received the LAX flights. Happy with that though!

 

[G*]

From my recent experience trying to put together a RTW QF jigsaw, I understand that they can request seats and get a reply in 'about 2 seconds'. If this comes back negative, some staff will suggest a 'manual review' while others say that they are unable to do this (maybe it depends on loads or your actual Platinum level..) The manual review seemed to work best for me as while I took nearly 3 weeks to put my jigsaw together, I did get there. Persevering worked for me. Oh, and being polite too...

 

[aus_flyer]

From my recent experience trying to put together a RTW QF jigsaw, I understand that they can request seats and get a reply in 'about 2 seconds'. If this comes back negative, some staff will suggest a 'manual review' while others say that they are unable to do this (maybe it depends on loads or your actual Platinum level..) The manual review seemed to work best for me as while I took nearly 3 weeks to put my jigsaw together, I did get there. Persevering worked for me. Oh, and being polite too...

You can request everything except domestic economy. However, they cannot request unless there is A, D or (I think) N inventory available for sale.
You can get the quick response for international, but domestic is reviewed manually so you usually get a response next day.

 

[Febs]

An unpublished feature likely to be removed after the proposed new enhancements (i.e. any seat availability) come in, however.

 

[DTM1]

I'm not aware of this being the case. I have been Plat for about 3 years now and was booking a flight with my points for my sister. There were flights with Y inventory, but I could not get seats released. I had to fly her on a nother routing. Seems discretionary to me, with no guarantees at all.

What you may be thinking about is the rule that a plat is guaranteed a Y seat domestically if paying for it and booking by 12pm the day before the flight, regardless of whether the flight is sold out or not.

 

[simongr]

An unpublished feature likely to be removed after the proposed new enhancements (i.e. any seat availability) come in, however.

What makes you say that? General cynicism about QFF or something specific?

 

[oz_mark]

I'm not aware of this being the case. I have been Plat for about 3 years now and was booking a flight with my points for my sister. There were flights with Y inventory, but I could not get seats released. I had to fly her on a nother routing. Seems discretionary to me, with no guarantees at all.

They won't release award seats from Y. They may release them from a dscount bucket though

 

[NM]

You can "request" anything you like. But its up to QF Yield Manager to determine if they will deliver on the request or not. And if they think they can sell the seat for cash then its unlikely to be released as an award. but if they think they there will be unsold seats on the flight, then you have a reasonable chance the request will be honoured.

 

[oz_mark]

You can "request" anything you like. But its up to QF Yield Manager to determine if they will deliver on the request or not. And if they think they can sell the seat for cash then its unlikely to be released as an award. but if they think they there will be unsold seats on the flight, then you have a reasonable chance the request will be honoured.

Yes that is true - but IME if there is just Y left, then it pretty much falls through to being denied (there are some advantages in not 100% filling a plane, as it gives a bit of flexibility with dealing with missed connections etc, so having 0 unsold seats is not always the target!)

 

[NM]

Yes that is true - but IME if there is just Y left, then it pretty much falls through to being denied (there are some advantages in not 100% filling a plane, as it gives a bit of flexibility with dealing with missed connections etc, so having 0 unsold seats is not always the target!)

If there is only Y remaining, then QF firmly believe they are going to be able to sell those seats for cash, so there is no way their Yield Management will release an award seat. The same will be true if only B and H available. I expect there is some threshold of class availability that triggers yield management to be willing to release a revenue seat for an award, perhaps something like L, S or V being the threshold. But nobody is ever going to publicly confirm the yield management policies.

 

[oz_mark]

But nobody is ever going to publicly confirm the yield management policies.

Of course not. It is voodoo.

 

[aus_flyer]

I have been told firmly that domestic economy cannot be requested.

International economy can only be requested if N inventory is still for sale.

 

[NM]

I have been told firmly that domestic economy cannot be requested.

You can request anything. They may just automatically deny the request.

You could even request that they let you fly the plane yourself. Just be prepared to be disappointed with the answer.

 

[brisbull]

ok - when i say 'Y', i just mean economy seats. As I mentioned, the flight has red-e-deals still available, so I guess it can't be too booked up yet (dont have accees to seat bucket info).

The flight is international, from BNE to Queenstown, NZ, on the 30th Aug this year. Maybe someone with access can let me know seats available?

 

[DTM1]

you should check out SeatCounter - The Booking Class Availability Machine - you can get a good indication of flight load there.

 

[brisbull]

Hmmm, seatcounter isn't finding the direct flight (QF185)?

 

[tuapekastar]

Hmmm, seatcounter isn't finding the direct flight (QF185)?

Showing it to me at the moment (pardon the ugly presentation):

Qantas185BNE/08:55aZQN/02:15p
BCDHJKLMNOQSVY
96499999800899

It's for Aug 30 even though I didn't copy/paste that bit.

 

[Febs]

Just to confirm - this is for QF-operated flights only right?

Looked for some DFW-LAS flights over the May long weekend, but as expected - all at inappropriate times or in First. Thought about calling up now that I'm WP, but figured this would be for QF flights only.

(AA First is great for earning, not so great for burning...)

Cheers,
- Febs.

 

[aus_flyer]

Just to confirm - this is for QF-operated flights only right?

Correct .