Is all of Jan a blackout period?

[Ansett Nostalgic]

Can't find any QF J awards to SIN or HKG in Jan 2025 at all!

 

[RnD]

I have not been able to get a seat released either to or from Singapore for December, let alone to Europe direct from Perth (no surprises there). I've previously never had a problem having a seat released to Singapore.

 

[drron]

They are saving them all up for when they release the QFF changes in 2 or 3 months to have a huge release then so the battlers will have their attention moved from the changes.

 

[MelbFlyer]

Usually it will be harder to find any award seats (not just business) in Jan as it is a blackout period, along with Easter and the other Term holidays.

Or, Qantas could be doing something like they did last year - release a whole bunch of reward seats in bulk (we all know about the website issues last year when it happened!)

Qantas to release thousands of Classic Reward seats in Y, PE, J, F on 24 Feb 2023 around 11am

ET article is up indicating as per thread title. The article has already been shared widely in Facebook groups, so we need to be rather quick if this materialises.

www.australianfrequentflyer.com.au

Just had a quick look - there are plenty of award seats in 01/2025 to HKG from MEL (as an example as it hasn't been stated where you're wanting to depart from) on CI via TPE.

 

[SYD]

Usually it will be harder to find any award seats (not just business) in Jan as it is a blackout period, along with Easter and the other Term holidays.

Or, Qantas could be doing something like they did last year - release a whole bunch of reward seats in bulk (we all know about the website issues last year when it happened!)

Qantas to release thousands of Classic Reward seats in Y, PE, J, F on 24 Feb 2023 around 11am

ET article is up indicating as per thread title. The article has already been shared widely in Facebook groups, so we need to be rather quick if this materialises.

www.australianfrequentflyer.com.au

We actually scored 2x SYD-SIN J returns during the meltdown (but for travel last Oct-Nov).

 

[bPeteb]

Can't find any QF J awards to SIN or HKG in Jan 2025 at all!

What QFF status are you? Unless you're WP or P1 they won't have been release to you yet (maybe SG as well?).

 

[freqflyer77]

Just had a quick look - there are plenty of award seats in 01/2025 to HKG from MEL (as an example as it hasn't been stated where you're wanting to depart from) on CI via TPE.

Those are China Eastern via Shanghai.....so a slightly different 'standard' of airline to CI which has zero availability for the first half of January.

China Eastern reward seats look to be pretty much always available - if people want to fly them.

 

[MelbFlyer]

Those are China Eastern via Shanghai.....so a slightly different 'standard' of airline to CI which has zero availability for the first half of January.

China Eastern reward seats look to be pretty much always available - if people want to fly them.

I can see CI (via TPE) business reward seats as per below:

 

[freqflyer77]

I can see CI (via TPE) business reward seats as per below:

View attachment 367856

Yes - there was a grand total of one day of J availability on CI - not exactly plenty and not in the first half of Jan.

The rest in early January is all China Eastern as mentioned.

 

[frodo]

Those are China Eastern via Shanghai.....so a slightly different 'standard' of airline to CI which has zero availability for the first half of January.

China Eastern reward seats look to be pretty much always available - if people want to fly them.

Unfortunately even MU is blocked for the inbound leg in early January - absolutely nothing available from pretty much anywhere.

 

[RnD]

Had a look on ExpertFlyer on the dates that I requested a release for Per to SIN and half the plane is blocked out both in Y and J. Maybe this normal, as I only use the site occasionally, however I cannot remember seeing it like this before.

 

[RichardMEL]

Had a look on ExpertFlyer on the dates that I requested a release for Per to SIN and half the plane is blocked out both in Y and J. Maybe this normal, as I only use the site occasionally, however I cannot remember seeing it like this before.

Do you mean seat map or class availability?

Seat map means nothing as blocks will show depending on status level. Far more importantl would be the available classes for sale.

Eg on 3rd Jan the 72 is wide open:

QF 72

SIN 19:15 → PER 0:25 J9 C9 D7 I5 Y9 B9 H9 K9 M9 L9 V0 S9 N9 Q9 O0 X0 E0

 

[MelbFlyer]

Yes - there was a grand total of one day of J availability on CI - not exactly plenty and not in the first half of Jan.

The rest in early January is all China Eastern as mentioned.

You're looking for reward flights during probably the busiest time of the year, I wouldn't expect too many options tbh. MU business is better than economy or no flights at all.

If one wants a direct flight, there's always a cash option.

ExpertFlyer

I've been trying to sign-in, however you can no longer sign-in using a Facebook account / an error pops up when attempting to.

I then attempt to sign up using my email address, it states it's associated with a FB account already and to sign-in with that instead (but as per above it doesn't work), so honestly I just don't bother anymore.