Is there an efficient way to search for premium cabin redemptions?

[4lex]

I'm a bit over being shown results like PER-BNE-DOH-MAD **most of these flights will be in economy. Is there any means of searching for redemptions that allows me to specify no Y legs, no more than one connection, that kind of stuff? Cheers.

 

[cambriamarsh]

I'm a bit over being shown results like PER-BNE-DOH-MAD **most of these flights will be in economy. Is there any means of searching for redemptions that allows me to specify no Y legs, no more than one connection, that kind of stuff? Cheers.

I'm looking forward to the responses to this

 

[Zanzara]

Not really. Welcome to the Qantas frequent flyer program. It sucks. Business class availability is like looking for a needle in a haystack. Plenty of opportunities to earn points, but heavily restricted ability to redeem for business class. (Unless it’s on China Southern). You could subscribe to Expert Flyer so you get notifications when (and if) business class leg becomes available.

It’s easier if you are looking for just one seat a year in advance (or alternatively couple of weeks before travel) and are very very flexible on route.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

You can always try starting your search on AA.com. They have a one month calendar view and in theory, 'saver' awards should map across to partner availability (but not always). Once you have found something, you can go back to the QF site to see if it's also there.

Alaska Airlines also has a quick and easy website if you're searching for QF to USA or EK to USA from AU.

 

[4lex]

Thanks @MEL_Traveller
Not sure if I'm missing the point here, but I see largely the same there - a similar search leans toward MH but also caveats 'some flights might not be in business'. Once we drill in we find it's y per xkul lhr and then a J seat from lgw -mad on IB, fwiw. Am I doing it wrong?

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Thanks @MEL_Traveller
Not sure if I'm missing the point here, but I see largely the same there - a similar search leans toward MH but also caveats 'some flights might not be in business'. Once we drill in we find it's y per xkul lhr and then a J seat from lgw -mad on IB, fwiw. Am I doing it wrong?

At least that confirms that there aren't (m)any business class seats.

What I usually do is break the ticket down. Ex SIN/DPS/KUL there's usually excellent availability on Emirates in business class... simply because they fly big aricraft with lots of business class, on multiple flights. So I start there. Then I look for the connecting fliht to Asia as a separate search. Lots of options there between the couple of MEL-SIN flights, SYD-SIN, even MEL-PER-SIN, or MEL/SYD-DPS. Because you can use QF and EK on the one award, and because you can have up to 24 hours between flightd and keep them all on the one award, it's usually possible to cobble something together if your dates are flexible by one or two days.

Searching Australia-Europe may give you nothing. But multi-city Au-Aisa-Dxb-Europe may yield results. (A recent example was MEL-New York... absolutely nothing coming up on the Qf search engine, but once I put in MEL-SIN, SIN-DXB, DXB-JFK the flights were all there, in business class, just with a 4 hour transit in Singapore).

 

[Zanzara]

Very good suggestion MEL_Traveller that the QFFF is also useful for flights with Emirates (and as per usual, not actually utilising QF!) and some great positive news. I'm presuming that if you break the search and journey into sectors and if it's <24 hours between flights you use less points.

In the past (and admittedly it was a whilst ago) I've broken the journey to Europe in the past for just over 24 hours and had a stopover. That was the only way QF had availability. However, that cost me extra points. Ironically it was the same QF crew that operated the second leg, as they had a stopover too.

Good luck to everyone using QF points. I guess it proves that if you're flexible (and clever) you can get what you want (provided of course that it's not actually flying on QF and a small number of passengers travelling together).

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Correct frequent passport. If you keep your connections under 24 hours you'll get charged the total mileage distance rather than individual sectors (so for Europe/USA this is 126K in business class). Just beware that there are exception to this... if you swap between partner award tables you will get charged sector ppriced regardless. But AA/EK/QF can all be included in the one ticket.

 

[jase05]

At least that confirms that there aren't (m)any business class seats.

What I usually do is break the ticket down. Ex SIN/DPS/KUL there's usually excellent availability on Emirates in business class... simply because they fly big aricraft with lots of business class, on multiple flights. So I start there. Then I look for the connecting fliht to Asia as a separate search. Lots of options there between the couple of MEL-SIN flights, SYD-SIN, even MEL-PER-SIN, or MEL/SYD-DPS. Because you can use QF and EK on the one award, and because you can have up to 24 hours between flightd and keep them all on the one award, it's usually possible to cobble something together if your dates are flexible by one or two days.

Searching Australia-Europe may give you nothing. But multi-city Au-Aisa-Dxb-Europe may yield results. (A recent example was MEL-New York... absolutely nothing coming up on the Qf search engine, but once I put in MEL-SIN, SIN-DXB, DXB-JFK the flights were all there, in business class, just with a 4 hour transit in Singapore).

Spot on and all very valuable information. We find really good availability ex CGK aswell and have had some luck ex AKL also on EK

 

[Mattg]

The hardest part is usually just getting out of Australia, so I start by searching for options from Australia to literally any overseas port (SIN, HKG, BKK, CMB, HND, LAX, etc. depending on where my final destination is). Once you've found something to an overseas port, the rest is usually much easier.

If the Qantas website is giving you no joy, you can also try using the BA, JL or AA websites. But there is no perfect search tool, unfortunately. The Qantas website is (sadly) one of the better ones for QF/Oneworld award availability.

 

[RooFlyer]

Mentioned above, but to emphasise that there are paid subscription services such as Expert Flyer and Award Nexus where you can specify cabin and routings. Not perfect but can do what you ask for, 4lex.