Newbie - familiar question??

[harvyk]

Hi love to travel and welcome to AFF. As you will find from various threads on this subject as a Bronze member you have virtually ZERO chance of an award seat. In my experience Qantas will not award a points upgrade to a NB (nothing bronze) even if there are spare seats in Business. Essentially the FF programme is designed for frequent flyers (emphasis on frequent) - anyone who is a casual flyer is basically just paying their membership fees for (almost literally) nothing. Unless you fly a number of times a year then there is little, if any, value in being a QFF member.

I disagree, I got a few upgrades \ points flights whilst I was a NB...

The trick I've found to getting the upgrades \ points flights is to be flexible on dates. Points seats \ upgrades exist, but only a limited number are released at any one time. If the date you choose to fly has already issued out the points seats then it's really is a case of bad luck.

 

[Boris spatsky]

Yep, getting the direct flights you want might be a challenge, but if you don't mind going the long way you might be ok. This is particularly so with Europe. Done 3 award flights in 5 years, all via Tokyo or HK, on CX and JAL. Only other option was Perth-SIN. But it got us there for only taxes at Xmas time! So no complaints.

 

[serfty]

Actually the forward limit is 353 days.

Today you can search for flights and book for as far in advance as Oct 14, 2011.

 

[cove]

Just took 2 J seats LAX to SYD for OCT 13th,2011 and paid the $US ticket fees.
The travellers were Bronze and a nobody so I was heartened that 192,000 points for each did the deal with A380 going out of Sydney.Very nice but I had to go out the full 353 days seeing it is a school holiday period in Perth.