Qantas - Emirates Award flight Discussion

[MonteCristo]

Dumb question alert for the brains trust: Is it possible to make a standalone Qantas classic rewards booking with Emirates from Malta to Larnaca (Cyprus)? Either by calling Qantas, or somehow online.

I can't get Malta to appear as a destination unless I start with a multi-city first leg in Rome FCO, but the routing is bad (from Rome, to London, then on to Malta), and charges don't make it worth it.

 

[MELso]

I just want flights loaded from any Australian port available after early/mid March

The blackhole continues

ADL-DXB is available sporadically (23 and 25 March and 25 April)? And there's plenty of DXB-ADL in J until late May. And there are one or two other awards (e.g. DXB-SYD in J on 6 and 10 April).

Given that there are some releases occurring, is this a sign of more worrying restrictions on availability from EK?

 

[Noah Count]

I tried calling Qantas, they keep saying the flights that I want are not available even though they are.
I can proceed to payment page if I try to book them individually, but database errors when I try to book them together in multi city for the extra savings..
What should I need to tell the Qantas call center? I think their system is not able to connect the flights together?

As @MEL_Traveller it is most likely married flights, I went through the same thing for my booking. I wanted HND-DXB-LHR as my wife and daughter would be arriving a couple of hours later on QR, not that that matters. The agent informed me She could only book HND-DXB-LGW so I went with that option. As soon as it was ticketed I called back (within the 24 hour change window) and ask if I could change to LHR and the answer was yes. I am now flying into LHR and as the change was made within the 24 hour time frame there were no points change fees, just a few bucks in taxes. MMYV and I don't think there is anything you can tell the agent unless you can get through to Hobart, the stories spun by agents in other call centers can vary depending on the agent. I find it very frustrating as I spent a number of years as WP and 10 years as P1, now I am back to gold some of the things the agents tell me 'is not possible' is just not correct as I used to be able to book the same thing when I was WP and P1. IMO it just comes down to how well the agent is trained.

 

[lovestotravel]

ADL-DXB is available sporadically (23 and 25 March and 25 April)? And there's plenty of DXB-ADL in J until late May. And there are one or two other awards (e.g. DXB-SYD in J on 6 and 10 April).

Given that there are some releases occurring, is this a sign of more worrying restrictions on availability from EK?

I haven't paid much attention to ADL

But MEL-DXB used to always have 1 x F and 3 x J daily with the very very rare exception but from 7 March it just stopped...

DXB-MEL was usually 2 x J's and the odd 1 x F and sometimes it forced you DXB-SYD and then SYD-MEL on JQ....

I am just hoping it really fixes itself in a few days otherwise QF points are totally worthless to me

 

[Noah Count]

I haven't paid much attention to ADL

But MEL-DXB used to always have 1 x F and 3 x J daily with the very very rare exception but from 7 March it just stopped...

DXB-MEL was usually 2 x J's and the odd 1 x F and sometimes it forced you DXB-SYD and then SYD-MEL on JQ....

I have been paying close attention to EK over the past few weeks and F DXB-SYD and a number of other locations in Asia where there on a daily basis for late May and early June 2026. I know this as I noted the taxes HEL-(x some connection EU/UK)-DXB-HND/ HKG were around €750 and HEL-(xEU/UK)-DXB-SYD were around €1000. Also for ADL there had been at least 2 J DXB-ADL on a daily basis during the same time period, I had asked my wife if she would like to change their (wife and daughter) flights from HEL-HND-SYD-ADL to HEL-(xEU/UK)-DXB-ADL. They are now gone.

 

[lovestotravel]

I have been paying close attention to EK over the past few weeks and F DXB-SYD and a number of other locations in Asia where there on a daily basis for late May and early June 2026. I know this as I noted the taxes HEL-(x some connection EU/UK)-DXB-HND/ HKG were around €750 and HEL-(xEU/UK)-DXB-SYD were around €1000. Also for ADL there had been at least 2 J DXB-ADL on a daily basis during the same time period, I had asked my wife if she would like to change their (wife and daughter) flights from HEL-HND-SYD-ADL to HEL-(xEU/UK)-DXB-ADL. They are now gone.

There has been no daily release of seats for F or J MEL or SYD to DXB for months now

 

[SYD]

There has been no daily release of seats for F or J MEL or SYD to DXB for months now

Yet DXB to/from Euro/Asia/NA are out there and available to QFF…..

Are they showing to EK SR members?

 

[Noah Count]

@lovestotravel I will agree with MEL but SYD was there and it may have only been for a brief period. I remember thinking that doesn't depart to around 10PM and my flight from the EU/UK will arrive in the morning so I should be able to get a day in Dubai. It must have been there at some point in the past three weeks as it how I noticed the taxes difference. Was it phantom availability or could it be booked I don't know, I did try a dummy booking and received the same error as posted up thread. From memory it was on EK416, the others had no availability. I had also checked options via PER and BNE with no success.

 

[Noah Count]

Yet DXB to/from Euro/Asia/NA are out there and available to QFF…..

Are they showing to EK SR members?

I ran a search on Seats.Areo for when I was looking to travel and posted the screen shot up thread. The F pickings are slim.

 

[lovestotravel]

Yet DXB to/from Euro/Asia/NA are out there and available to QFF…..

Are they showing to EK SR members?

No issues getting 7 J seats MEL or SYD to DXB booking with EK directly...

 

[SYD]

No issues getting 7 J seats MEL or SYD to DXB booking with EK directly...

Maybe somethings broken?

MU has been totally MIA for months also despite heaps of seats visible on ST programs….

 

[Noah Count]

I just took a punt and booked BRU-DXB in F, it was the earlier of the 2 daily flights and gets me into DXB around midnight. This should position me to be able to catch flights back to SYD, MEL, HND, or HKG should they get released. I didn't just book it due to the devaluation as EK is moving back to the QF tables and after factoring in a 5000 points change fee should any of the other flights get released the difference is minimal. I booked it as I am watching the options to get from HEL-DXB in EK F slowly starting to disappear with options e.g. LHR or CDG also out of J. If other seats are not released I can always cancel this flight.

 

[lovestotravel]

Maybe somethings enhanced?

MU has been totally MIA for months also despite heaps of seats visible on ST programs….

Yep,.....

 

[k1s3k1]

As @MEL_Traveller it is most likely married flights, I went through the same thing for my booking. I wanted HND-DXB-LHR as my wife and daughter would be arriving a couple of hours later on QR, not that that matters. The agent informed me She could only book HND-DXB-LGW so I went with that option. As soon as it was ticketed I called back (within the 24 hour change window) and ask if I could change to LHR and the answer was yes. I am now flying into LHR and as the change was made within the 24 hour time frame there were no points change fees, just a few bucks in taxes. MMYV and I don't think there is anything you can tell the agent unless you can get through to Hobart, the stories spun by agents in other call centers can vary depending on the agent. I find it very frustrating as I spent a number of years as WP and 10 years as P1, now I am back to gold some of the things the agents tell me 'is not possible' is just not correct as I used to be able to book the same thing when I was WP and P1. IMO it just comes down to how well the agent is trained.

It may be a genuine case of married segments… which can’t be broken. EK is willing to sell the individual sectors, but not the through ticket.

I ended up just booking as individual sectors so I can easily change it myself later.
2x SIN-DXB in J (hoping availability in F later)
1x DXB-BRU in J (me, hoping availability in F later)
1x DXB-BRU in F (wife)
In total if everything in F, it is about 99k points more compared to through ticket costs, plus 15k change fees.

Also managed to get 2x AMS-DXB-KUL all through in F for June 10th.

 

[lovestotravel]

I just took a punt and booked BRU-DXB in F, it was the earlier of the 2 daily flights and gets me into DXB around midnight. This should position me to be able to catch flights back to SYD, MEL, HND, NRT or HKG should they get released. I didn't just book it due to the devaluation as EK is moving back to the QF tables and after factoring in a 5000 points change fee should any of the other flights get released the difference is minimal. I booked it as I am watching the options to get from HEL-DXB in EK F slowly starting to disappear with options e.g. LHR or CDG also out of J. If other seats are not released I can always cancel this flight.

Good idea actually, I'm after flights in late June/Early July so will be booking DXB-ZRH shortly and hopefully the MEL-DXB sector opens up with QF soon (I still suspect after 5 August)

Worse case I'll transfer some Amex points to EK and book directly with EK

 

[Noah Count]

Worse case I'll transfer some Amex points to EK and book directly with EK

I thought about doing the same same thing however I do not have status with EK so F redemptions are off the cards. EK was always my preferred but as a back up have HEL-NRT-TPE-SYD in J and another HND-SYD-ADL also in J that were all made at the time of release as I knew EK would be a couple of months away. I will just cancel what I do not need at some point.

 

[lovestotravel]

I thought about doing the same same thing however I do not have status with EK so F redemptions are off the cards. EK was always my preferred but as a back up have HEL-NRT-TPE-SYD in J and another HND-SYD-ADL also in J that were all made at the time of release as I knew EK would be a couple of months away. I will just cancel what I do not need at some point.

Same here, but if this non-availability continues I'll get EK Silver, by paying for 1 J return for July 2026, so F will be redeemable for the next set of flights in late 2026.

 

[robolb]

Not wishing to hijack this thread, but I think I'll give up on QF rewards. I have a Qantas Amex Card for all my business expenses. What would be a good Amex (or other) card to switch to, so I can start racking up EK rewards? There are so many cards it's confusing. Not so worried about annual card fee, just the ability to rack up EK points.

 

[Noah Count]

@lovestotravel what status do you need in Skywards to redeem F. Now I have stopped flying like the mad old days and dropped from P1 back to LTG (will never make LTP) I tend to book with whoever I want.

 

[MELso]

what status do you need in Skywards to redeem F.

Silver.

 

[lovestotravel]

Not wishing to hijack this thread, but I think I'll give up on QF rewards. I have a Qantas Amex Card for all my business expenses. What would be a good Amex (or other) card to switch to, so I can start racking up EK rewards? There are so many cards it's confusing. Not so worried about annual card fee, just the ability to rack up EK points.

Not a hijack at all, I am in the same situation with 2.6 Million QF points and hardly any chance to use them.

Amex Platinum is the best all rounder and you can of course transfer to EK directly at 3:2 ratio