Millions of Points but No Seats Available

[drdansflyinghigh]

Hi,

I have a couple of million points, to cut a long story short i want to use them. Trying to find flights to LA and New York, I cant freaking find any seats between now and the end of the year in business class is this usual? or would it be better for me to just pay for the tickets and transfer my qantas points back to amex? as the QFF system to me looks like it is set up so you cant use them when you want to. not happy ...

Dan

 

[simongr]

SYD-LAX is one of the most popular and profitable routes for QF so not only is theer demand for seats but also there is limited supply.

If you have transferred your points from Amex to QF you can't transfer them back (I am sure that there are instances where people have stamped their feet or claimed it was a mistake by Amex but in general terms it's one way traffic).

How far out are you looking at travel. Most people book a SYD-LAX flight exactly on teh day that the tickets are released - 355 days (I think) from the date of travel. SO if you are looking any shorter notice than that you might have trouble.

If you have points to burn then try routing via somewhere like Hong Kong - its an expensive use of points on Qantas - but at least gets you to where you want to be.

S

 

[GCS]

I don't believe you can transfer Qantas points back to Amex.
If you can't find flights, you can use you Qantas points to buy products through Qantas.

 

[drdansflyinghigh]

Do people really book 355 days ahead :O thats ridiculous haha.

 

[dragonman]

Hi,

I have a couple of million points, to cut a long story short i want to use them. Trying to find flights to LA and New York, I cant freaking find any seats between now and the end of the year in business class is this usual? or would it be better for me to just pay for the tickets and transfer my qantas points back to amex? as the QFF system to me looks like it is set up so you cant use them when you want to. not happy ...

Dan

Looked in November and the first and thirtennth both show business class available (these were the first two dates I looked at). Subsequent dates definitely tougher.

 

[drdansflyinghigh]

lol you are a genius, i must of danced around those dates or just lost interest haha... thanks mate.

 

[drdansflyinghigh]

Is there a program around or something where you can see flights for the whole month ? and what is available?

Cheers

Dan

 

[serfty]

No special program is publically available.

Easiest way ATM is to simply search between ports day by day using Qantas.com

 

[NM]

Also note that the QF FF on-line awards engine does not see all possible routings. You sometimes need to phone QF and ask them to look for specific routings, such as QF or JL to NRT and AA or JL to USA. Or CX via HKG to LAX/SFO/YVR/JFK, or QF to HNL and AA to mainland USA.

Be creative.

And as has already been pointed out, once points are in your QF FF account, they cannot be transferred to any other loyalty program. They can only be used for QF FF awards. Of course you had several choice with how to use your Amex points for travel to USA< including using the VS 20% bonus promotion and redeeming for travel on VS or SQ.

I you have QF Platinum FF status, you can ask about have a seat made available for an FF award. No guarantee they will do it. But if your points are all from frequent debting/spending rather than from frequent flying, then you are not going to get anywhere with that approach.

And yes, people do book their FF awards 11 months ahead of time.

 

[simongr]

Also note that the QF FF on-line awards engine does not see all possible routings. You sometimes need to phone QF and ask them to look for specific routings, such as QF or JL to NRT and AA or JL to USA. Or CX via HKG to LAX/SFO/YVR/JFK, or QF to HNL and AA to mainland USA.


And yes, people do book their FF awards 11 months ahead of time.

Yup I am waiting for about August 19 to book my trip next year (this is through AA Though).

I would actually recommend the SYD-HKG-LAX routing on Cathay if you have points to burn as I found my body clock was really adjusted by the time I got to the US - and Cathay is very nice. If you do have points to burn then I would even consider Cathay F if they have availability...

You could also go the other way - SYD-LHR-JFK-LHR-SYD - again expensive on points but a bird in teh hand and all that