Classic Rewards flights Sydney - London

[MichaelKH]

Hi all,

I have previously booked classic rewards flights for our family of four to the USA (Sydney-Dallas and Sydney-LA) and it worked very well. We are hoping to book another trip next year to London and looking on the Qantas website there appears to be very limited spots. Given that the bookings open 353 days in advance, would I be better off simply booking a one way leg (Sydney to London) as soon as the date opens and then book the return one-way leg (London to Sydney) when the date opens for that one? My concern is that if I wait for the return leg to open up the trip over might have no seats left?? I assume that the return leg booking would take me to the Qantas overseas website but I have used that before with American Airlines and didn't have any issues?

I hope this makes sense?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Michael

 

[CorporateFlyerMEL]

yes, take the one way as soon as you see it and then look to do return when those seats open up

 

[MichaelKH]

yes, take the one way as soon as you see it and then look to do return when those seats open up

Thanks very much for the quick reply

 

[RooFlyer]

Welcome to AFF @MichaelKH .

Yes, do as you have suggested; separate out and return bookings. Note that seats are no longer 'regularly' released on the '353 days' mark (& variation for status). Sometimes no seats are released for indefinite periods, then suddenly, there will be a batch of seats released, usually with some fanfare.

Have a look at the past AFF Gazettes (RH side of the top blue bar) - there are some informative articles going back. Subscribe for the new ones, too.

 

[luckypierre]

yes, take the one way as soon as you see it and then look to do return when those seats open up

That’s been my experience some years ago, however dummy searches I have done recently would suggest trying to find a return flight at the desired date range near impossible. Suggest you do a return flight dummy search first up on the booking window threshold,to get a feel for possible availability in future dates. Also I no longer have any status with QF, your situation might be different.

 

[offshore171]

advance, would I be better off simply booking a one way leg (Sydney to London) as soon as the date opens and then book the return one-way leg (London to Sydney) when the date opens for that one? My concern is

Yes definitely! I thought everyone was doing this already?

 

[MichaelKH]

Thanks everyone

 

[ronlon]

Hi all,

I have previously booked classic rewards flights for our family of four to the USA (Sydney-Dallas and Sydney-LA) and it worked very well. We are hoping to book another trip next year to London and looking on the Qantas website there appears to be very limited spots. Given that the bookings open 353 days in advance, would I be better off simply booking a one way leg (Sydney to London) as soon as the date opens and then book the return one-way leg (London to Sydney) when the date opens for that one? My concern is that if I wait for the return leg to open up the trip over might have no seats left?? I assume that the return leg booking would take me to the Qantas overseas website but I have used that before with American Airlines and didn't have any issues?

I hope this makes sense?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Michael

if you are after 4 seats, going at a popular time and staying in Europe for say more than a few days, like everyone else said book the one way NOW and then book return later as a separate one way.

 

[Seat0B]

And do be aware that if you can't get return award flights, one way paid flights can often be extremely expensive ie nearly as much as fully paid return flights. So if that happens, you may want to cancel your outbound reward flights (6,000 points per passenger penalty) and take paid flights for the points and SC that they will earn you. Honestly, I have had to do this a few times, so I now regard the necessity to jump on the outbound flights as a bit of a necessary evil, and accept that I may lose some points in the process if it does not work out.