Does QANTAS release additional classic rewards seats closer to the departure date?

[Casual Class]

As per the title does QANTAS progressively release additional classic reward seats as time goes on closer to the departure date of a given flight? I was under the impression that there was initially release of a rewards seats for a given flight and once they were gone they would be gone. Status holders getting first dibs. I currently looking flying to SFO in the near future, I have some flexibility as too when but most probably will be in October. Specifically I am looking at any morning OOL or BNE to SYD and then QF73 to SFO. I strongly would prefer to take this flight in business and have the points to spend. I was looking again just now and accidentally left today’s date selected but in doing so I discovered that there is currently classic business awards seats on Thursday 17 August 17. The thing is I did look at August availability a couple of weeks ago and I am pretty sure that back then there were no business seats on that date that were available. I maybe mistaken, but I find myself wondering if QANTAS has released additional seats on that flight on that day and if they released additional seats for that flight will they release more seats for October flights as we get closer to October? Should I book in a lower class now or wait around?


I figure that the knowledge base of the AFF community might know more about such things. Appreciate any advice.

 

[Pushka]

Does QANTAS release additional classic rewards seats closer to the departure ...

Flying to the US on award points is difficult and they disappear very early. Different airlines release seats at different times -Qantas being the first but 330? Days out then EK comes online. CX release award seats progressively. Did you drill down to see what airlines those seats were on? Maybe CX.
Usually seats disappear as soon as they are released.

 

[serfty]

Re: Does QANTAS release additional classic rewards seats closer to the departure ...

In some cases on lightly loaded flights, awards can open up. This can happen any time during 353 days after any initial availability is snapped up; including as you point out within a week of travel.

Most of the time however, close to the date of travel, premium awards are used for points upgrades, not points bookings.

You can get an expert-flyer subscription which you can set to monitor specific flights for award availability.

 

[RichardMEL]

Re: Does QANTAS release additional classic rewards seats closer to the departure ...

Agree with Serfty. Have seen it happen but it is rare