Classic Award phantom seats

[Robert K]

I'm looking for premium award seats SYD-LHR around Christmas time. (bit late to be looking, but have always gotten seats in the last 5 years)

The date picking page would show availability.

After selecting dates and clicking on continue, I'd get an error saying
"Please review the following items Trip from London to Sydney is not available on the 03 Jan. Alternative dates can be selected below."

Then I'd select another date pair with 'availability', I'd get the same error message.
Sometimes the dates I had selected would disappear, but most of the time it would still show up as 'available' the next time.

anyone had this issue before?

 

[earlyriser]

These are showing on AA.com too. I was clicking on them for two weeks until I called AA on Monday and they said that they cannot be booked as one award when they go via DXB. When via Asia there is no problem. I managed to snag one via PEK.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

I'm looking for premium award seats SYD-LHR around Christmas time. (bit late to be looking, but have always gotten seats in the last 5 years)

The date picking page would show availability.

After selecting dates and clicking on continue, I'd get an error saying
"Please review the following items Trip from London to Sydney is not available on the 03 Jan. Alternative dates can be selected below."

Then I'd select another date pair with 'availability', I'd get the same error message.
Sometimes the dates I had selected would disappear, but most of the time it would still show up as 'available' the next time.

anyone had this issue before?

The Japan Airlines program (mileage bank) will give you an accurate picture of whether the seats are phantom or not. The tool is clunky to use, but if you just want to check one or two dates to see if the availability is real it is ok.

 

[Danger]

These are showing on AA.com too. I was clicking on them for two weeks until I called AA on Monday and they said that they cannot be booked as one award when they go via DXB. When via Asia there is no problem. I managed to snag one via PEK.

Say what? American told you that it's not possible to fly on a single award SYD-LHR via DXB on QF with only a transit in DXB?

 

[earlyriser]

Say what? American told you that it's not possible to fly on a single award SYD-LHR via DXB on QF with only a transit in DXB?

Correct. My better half made the phone call. We were looking for CBR-LIS but asked if we could book the SYD-DXB-LHR part of the trip and was told that we could not, regardless of it being phantom or not.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Correct. My better half made the phone call. We were looking for CBR-LIS but asked if we could book the SYD-DXB-LHR part of the trip and was told that we could not, regardless of it being phantom or not.

Qf services via DXB are fine to book, either single flight number or swapping in DXB. It is an exception alongside DOH for QR.

 

[Mattg]

Say what? American told you that it's not possible to fly on a single award SYD-LHR via DXB on QF with only a transit in DXB?

Qf services via DXB are fine to book, either single flight number or swapping in DXB. It is an exception alongside DOH for QR.

I have been told similar by an AAgent, specifically regarding QR via DOH. However, when I questioned it they double-checked and confirmed that QR via DOH and QF via DXB are indeed both exceptions. (EY via AUH always prices as two awards though.)