No business class reward seats to the US

[bertair]

Correction to my last sentence : I should have added that the inquiries for travel related to using the overseas travel sites to investigate flights into Australia from a foreign destination.

 

[Jerendine]

My first post so be kind. If anywhere in the US is OK then how about Melbourne-Doha-New York on Qatar, newly joined Oneworld airline. Not sure about the rest of this year but a quick search January-Feb next year has 2 business seats availability most days. I think Qatar also fly Doha to several other US cities. Pretty good J class too from my experience. We have 2 J seats booked Perth-Paris return later this year.
Sorry, meant to say Perth-Paris in J in Sept-Oct is on QFF points

 

[kirstyoz]

Welcome Jerendine I'm a noob too but the AFF-ers are very nice and patient, despite my repeated stupid questions. Enjoy!

 

[CaptJCool]

I enjoyed readiing this thread, as I had contemplated using FF points to go to the USA, but the "charges" are rather hefty, especially when Syd-La is $1299 return... that said, QF seem to be mean-spirited, and i suspect LA to anywhere Australia is affected by the "celebrity" Hollywood crowd who regularly long-haul to Sydney resulting in much less seat availability for those who choose to use points instead of cash to fly. When it comes to trading what in effect is a voucher for a flight which each of us paid for through the use of their services or our credit cards - unfortunately, you get what you pay for - at the economy level, in my humble opinion, it ought be open slather - whether you pay with points or cash - who cares - perhaps the airline hasnt set aside the provision account for unused credits and so is like the Govt super funds or a company's unused sick leave that cant be cashed out when you leave - and they really hope people wont use the points so after 18 months that are wiped out... that said, in the PE, Bus and First cabin, you are competing with paid passengers, those seeking one or more class upgrades with points, and that small number that is offered to anyone (well perhaps sometimes just P or P1s) and given the points cost, a very heavy discount on the actual paid cost - I could burn my entire points on a F return to LA which would from memory value it at $10k with a medicare co-payment of around $1000, or I could do 3 economy trips to burn the lot valued at current pricing at $3,900 with around $2700 co-payment ($900 per trip) if you do the maths, Im more inclined to do 1 F and then pay for 2Economy. USA will always be an interesting route - from what i can gather as long as people can be flexible in getting to Bris (if the number of flights per week stays up) or Melb their chances of getting a seat appear to be that little bit better

 

[beaglex]

My first post so be kind. If anywhere in the US is OK then how about Melbourne-Doha-New York on Qatar, newly joined Oneworld airline. Not sure about the rest of this year but a quick search January-Feb next year has 2 business seats availability most days. I think Qatar also fly Doha to several other US cities. Pretty good J class too from my experience. We have 2 J seats booked Perth-Paris return later this year.
Sorry, meant to say Perth-Paris in J in Sept-Oct is on QFF points

A question from someone inexperienced, how do you search and book seats using QFF points on Qatar?

 

[scwappy]

A question from someone inexperienced, how do you search and book seats using QFF points on Qatar?

If you look at MEL-DOH or PER- DOH it will at least let you know if the first route is available, if so give QFF a call and see if the next leg of your journey also is. Used this to get to EDI in July and it worked fine.

 

[TheBOSman]

I enjoyed readiing this thread, as I had contemplated using FF points to go to the USA, but the "charges" are rather hefty, especially when Syd-La is $1299 return... that said, QF seem to be mean-spirited, and i suspect LA to anywhere Australia is affected by the "celebrity" Hollywood crowd who regularly long-haul to Sydney resulting in much less seat availability for those who choose to use points instead of cash to fly. When it comes to trading what in effect is a voucher for a flight which each of us paid for through the use of their services or our credit cards - unfortunately, you get what you pay for - at the economy level, in my humble opinion, it ought be open slather - whether you pay with points or cash - who cares - perhaps the airline hasnt set aside the provision account for unused credits and so is like the Govt super funds or a company's unused sick leave that cant be cashed out when you leave - and they really hope people wont use the points so after 18 months that are wiped out... that said, in the PE, Bus and First cabin, you are competing with paid passengers, those seeking one or more class upgrades with points, and that small number that is offered to anyone (well perhaps sometimes just P or P1s) and given the points cost, a very heavy discount on the actual paid cost - I could burn my entire points on a F return to LA which would from memory value it at $10k with a medicare co-payment of around $1000, or I could do 3 economy trips to burn the lot valued at current pricing at $3,900 with around $2700 co-payment ($900 per trip) if you do the maths, Im more inclined to do 1 F and then pay for 2Economy. USA will always be an interesting route - from what i can gather as long as people can be flexible in getting to Bris (if the number of flights per week stays up) or Melb their chances of getting a seat appear to be that little bit better

The main issue is all of the AA mileage millionaires up here in the States . Any inventory left when AAers can book it at T-330 usually gets snapped right up on LAX-Australia and return.

 

[AnonymousCoward]

I enjoyed readiing this thread, as I had contemplated using FF points to go to the USA, but the "charges" are rather hefty, especially when Syd-La is $1299 return... that said, QF seem to be mean-spirited, and i suspect LA to anywhere Australia is affected by the "celebrity" Hollywood crowd who regularly long-haul to Sydney resulting in much less seat availability for those who choose to use points instead of cash to fly. When it comes to trading what in effect is a voucher for a flight which each of us paid for through the use of their services or our credit cards - unfortunately, you get what you pay for - at the economy level, in my humble opinion, it ought be open slather - whether you pay with points or cash - who cares - perhaps the airline hasnt set aside the provision account for unused credits and so is like the Govt super funds or a company's unused sick leave that cant be cashed out when you leave

I doubt the celebrity Hollywood crowd is slumming it in Economy, and it is "open slather" you can buy any available seat on the plane using Any Seat or Points+Pay. If you think there should be unlimited Classic award seats, then I doubt you're going to get very far with that argument. QF prices points and makes available redemptions on a very strict financial model. If you want unlimited award seats, then either be prepared to pay significantly more to earn points in the first place, or pay significantly more points to redeem the seats - aka Points+Pay.

I snipped the rest of your post because I couldn't make heads-or-tails of the point you were trying to make.

 

[drron]

The main issue is all of the AA mileage millionaires up here in the States . Any inventory left when AAers can book it at T-330 usually gets snapped right up on LAX-Australia and return.

Except QFF members get a crack at them a month earlier.
And second there are a few of us AA multimillionares who live here.

 

[serfty]

Except QFF members get a crack at them a month earlier.
And second there are a few of us AA multimillionares who live here.

I have been looking at loadings over the last year or so and have come to the conclusion that Qantas often load more award availability via the GDS for POS North America at around the 330 day mark.

It may explain why sometimes an AAdvantage redemption is possible but a Qantas FF redemption on the same flight is not.

 

[dajop]

The main issue is all of the AA mileage millionaires up here in the States . Any inventory left when AAers can book it at T-330 usually gets snapped right up on LAX-Australia and return.

I don't focus on QFF these days, but over on FT there is a lot of criticism about SQ holding back premium inventory from some other star alliance partners (and UA members in particular). If this is true about Aa members snapping up QF premium inventory, and would translate to UA/SQ I can understand why they do it.

Anyway, across the Pacific it seems that all carriers operating between Mainland US and ANZ have very tight premium award inventory, at least at "classic" (or in UA "saver") levels. So it's not just QF.