No doubt you could (as also I did many a time) do this prior to April 2013, ( also to St Petersburg via Helsinki) but it seems that all traffic is being sent through Dubai from April onwards. A number of replies suggest that I could have utilized my 180,000 or so points through British Airways, but it was proven to me and my travel agent that this is not so. Thus flying from Bangkok to London after a stopover it seems that you must go by an Emirate flight to Dubai and hence to any other European City. As there is no direct flight from Dubai to Budapest, I have to take an extra 3 + hours to include Dubai. Seem a lot of hours and contrary to the public relations exercise no advantage to me. I might well be wrong, as is my experienced travel agent, but until Qantas states that you can have a stopover in BKK and go direct to London on a QF or BA flight, I think the traveling public is being short changed by Qantas.
Seems your TA perhaps didn't look too hard? The following schedule QF & BA all the way (one way) 86,000 points in Y, straight off the QF website (note a Saturday flight showed AY being the only flight available, but changing dates soon helped that):
[h=2]Your Itinerary : 1 Adult[/h] [TABLE="class: full"]
[TR]
[TH]
Flight 1 [/TH]
[TH="colspan: 2"]From[/TH]
[TH="colspan: 2"]To[/TH]
[TH]Flight[/TH]
[TH]Departure
Terminal[/TH]
[TH]Travel Class[/TH]
[TH] Baggage [/TH]
[/TR]
[TR="class: tr_first"]
[TD="class: nowrap"] Tue 8 Oct 13 [/TD]
[TD]
06:00 [/TD]
[TD] Adelaide [/TD]
[TD]
08:25 [/TD]
[TD] Sydney [/TD]
[TD] Qantas flight
QF730 [/TD]
[TD="class: aligncenter"] 1 [/TD]
[TD] Economy [/TD]
[TD="class: baggage"] Checked:
1 piece [/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TH]
Flight 2 [/TH]
[TH="colspan: 2"][/TH]
[TH="colspan: 2"][/TH]
[TH][/TH]
[TH][/TH]
[TH][/TH]
[TH]
[/TH]
[/TR]
[TR="class: tr_first"]
[TD="class: nowrap"] Tue 8 Oct 13 [/TD]
[TD]
10:40 [/TD]
[TD] Sydney [/TD]
[TD]
16:35 [/TD]
[TD] Bangkok [/TD]
[TD] Qantas flight
QF23 [/TD]
[TD="class: aligncenter"] 1 [/TD]
[TD] Economy [/TD]
[TD="class: baggage"] Checked:
1 piece [/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TH]
Flight 3 [/TH]
[TH="colspan: 2"][/TH]
[TH="colspan: 2"][/TH]
[TH][/TH]
[TH][/TH]
[TH][/TH]
[TH]
[/TH]
[/TR]
[TR="class: tr_first"]
[TD="class: nowrap"] Mon 14 Oct 13 [/TD]
[TD]
00:20 [/TD]
[TD] Bangkok [/TD]
[TD]
06:25 [/TD]
[TD] London (Heathrow) [/TD]
[TD] British Airways flight
BA10 [/TD]
[TD="class: aligncenter"]
[/TD]
[TD] Economy [/TD]
[TD="class: baggage"] Checked:
1 piece [/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD="colspan: 8"]
- = Flight Operated by British Airways
[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TH]
Flight 4 [/TH]
[TH="colspan: 2"][/TH]
[TH="colspan: 2"][/TH]
[TH][/TH]
[TH][/TH]
[TH][/TH]
[TH]
[/TH]
[/TR]
[TR="class: tr_first"]
[TD="class: nowrap"] Mon 14 Oct 13 [/TD]
[TD]
20:30 [/TD]
[TD] London (Heathrow) [/TD]
[TD]
23:55 [/TD]
[TD] Budapest [/TD]
[TD] British Airways flight
BA870 [/TD]
[TD="class: aligncenter"] 3 [/TD]
[TD] Economy [/TD]
[TD="class: baggage"] Checked:
1 piece [/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD="colspan: 8"]
- = Flight Operated by British Airways
[/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]
Key: = Qantas flight
= Flight Operated by British Airways
Note: Qantas flights
QF1 - QF399 depart from and arrive at the International Terminals. All other Qantas flights depart from and arrive at the Domestic Terminals.
Naturally, if flights aren't available on the day chosen, BA (or any other airline) won't show. (This is for a classic award, not an Anyseat Award.)
Took me a little over 5 minutes to check, select, change for an available BA flight - not that hard, and one reason I don't use TA very much these days. . . . .