Difference in access to award seats - Gold v Platinum?

[Cassiel]

Hi All

I am planning to burn some points on 2 * Mel - LHR in J next September.

The pickings are predictably slim when I look now, with most options being outside my preferred dates and/or involving an economy or premium economy leg. I am currently Gold, but on track for Platinum by Christmas. Should I bite the bullet now and get what I can now or can I expect more options 9 months out as a platinum?

Thanks in advance

Cassiel

 

[serfty]

If you are looking for a classic award, take what you can find in Business class now - you can change later if better options come up (at the cost of the "change fee" of course).

 

[markis10]

Make sure you have a look at JASAs, which can be brought down to classic levels with a cash copayment, when you factor in points earned they can be good value, not to mention status credits.

 

[ozmille]

I can see some options but only a return LHR-MEL on the 25th of September and no QF flights, CX/BA on the way out CX/CX on the way back. A bit more options leaving from SYD. And there is quite some seats available on QF5/6 via FRA

 

[TonyHancock]

I play about a little bit and break the journey into sectors. I have had some success at this. For example around one date I needed to travel there were no MEL-LHR JASA's, but breaking it down to SIN-LHR and MEL-SIN gave me a FASA and a JASA via BNE respectively. Not sure whether it is the same for Classic Awards but maybe worth a look?

 

[anat0l]

To answer your question, in general Platinums do get access to slightly more award seats than Gold. Practically speaking, this is a speckle in terms of premium seats (J or F); it's more than as a Platinum, you can almost always find Classic award seats in Y for almost any flight.

In addition, Platinums can put in a request for award seats to be released by calling the QFF call centre. The release of seats are not guaranteed, and if they do come through you will need to pay the Telephone Assistance fee ($60 for international tickets; not sure if this is per assistance and/or per passenger), and can only be booked as Classic Awards, not Any Seat Awards. But, in some circumstances you can keep this card up your sleeve.

As for looking for awards, the others here have posted valuable information, including to try and search for Any Seat Awards instead of Classic Awards. Some Any Seat Awards will be far overpriced, but you may luck out and find a pair which reduces to the Classic Award points price plus a modest cash payment (these will typically be on Business Saver fare basis).

 

[Cassiel]

Thanks All - great tips as usual and it was particularly useful to learn that there was only marginally better access to award seats for platinums.

I therefore resolved to get what I could now as a humble Gold. As an interesting aside, I tried booking a few award flights (no value available in the relevant JASA's - they wanted ~600k points each way, each passenger !) including ex Sydney and kept coming up with an error message saying that the seats were not available. I called the service desk to query it and was told that they thought J seats had not been released for Sep 13 yet, pending the blessing of the Emirates union. The rep also explained that, assuming the deal is ticked-off, that Qantas anticipate having to call those who already have award bookings in place for next year. Presumably those destined for Europe via either Singapore or HKG may be asked to change to a Dubai connection.

Thanks again for the assistance with my query.

Cassiel