Qantas' New Flight Reward Finder Tool

[RSD]

I think unless you've got family in the Middle East area or there's literally no other option but to transit via that area now, you'd be crazy to even consider any one of those airlines at the moment.

Getting to Cairo is interesting at the moment...

 

[motef]

Its interesting how this shows as 1 stop. Now i know technically MELto HEL is non-stop but i wondering how many of the general public wont understand that it goes via Bangkok

 

[LoungeAttack]

Like this -:

View attachment 501502

Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

Thank you!!

 

[Beer_budget]

Getting to Cairo is interesting at the moment...

I suppose you'd have to go via IST or JNB (or at least, those are the connection points relatively reachable from Aus exit points). Not very direct compared with the Gulf, but a bit less... exciting.

 

[Lat34]

Getting to Cairo is interesting at the moment...

Agree!!! We have Nile cruise booked for late September (plus other stuff in Europe before and after) but in total holding pattern with flights and havent booked anything.

Final cruise payment is due late May so hopefully more clarity in the coming months. It's not so much the middle east fighting as the uncertainty about fuel supplies that is making me anxious.

 

[Kangol]

If only there was an "exclude Jetstar" option

 

[clifford]

I've had a look at this new Qantas offering, and I think I'll be staying with seats.aero.

 

[vhojm]

So the tool makes it easier for people to find out that there is next to no business/first award seats on QF metal. Very useful.

 

[pointsgalore]

Who would book Emirates right now?

Ridiculous fees & flying through a war zone.

That's your answer.

Not that l am expert in the situation, but you would be fairly confident that this will quieten down and revert back to normality towards the end of year. So this is a great opportunity to get great seats!

 

[Coops1]

After initially giving up due to Emirates, their exorbitant taxes and no filter, I am getting some reasonable results via FinnAir to Europe (Budapest, Prague, Warsaw (low taxes) and also on Sri Lankan (Paris with $600 taxes but on A330)......Shhhhhhh!

 

[trippin_the_rift]

Great, so now the number of biz/first award seats is transparent to everyone.
This area has been grey on third-party sites for a while, but now Qantas is bringing transparency mainstream.

In other words, Qantas is promoting to its base just how few premium seats are ever available, and it's ultra-easy for everyone to see for themselves.

Ok cool so why is this a problem?

You see, Australia is full of toxic Karens.
They're especially prevalent in Government.
Nothing to do but complain and burn people/companies to the ground.

Karens, armed with this new information and likely more "anonymous complaints", will start an official investigation around how airline points are marketed, earned and the chances of the average person ever being able to get what is advertised.

In other words - Brace yourselves for regulation around points/redemptions.

Or worse - to avoid regulation, airlines may move entirely to dynamic redemption. Think... cash + points slider as the only option.

You see, the magic of classic awards has been that it's somewhat of a black box.
Now the mystery around that black box has been removed for the masses - everyone can see it for what it is; a near zero chance for most people to ever be able to redeem in a premium cabin.

Remember when AY removed their transparency finder? EU got sniffing...

 

[aikman]

A lot of people seem to be annoyed that this information has been made easier to access. Interesting...

 

[SYD]

A lot of people seem to be annoyed that this information has been made easier to access. Interesting...

Fortunately, it’s not really a lot of info while it’s not linked to status.

 

[Coops1]

A lot of people seem to be annoyed that this information has been made easier to access. Interesting...

Not going to make any difference, nearly zero J CRs less nearly zero J CRs is still zero.

 

[DejaBrew]

You see, Australia is full of toxic Karens.

“Bunnings Karen” has so much to answer for. I sympathise with all the “normal” Karens out there

 

[MelbFlyer]

Not going to make any difference, nearly zero J CRs less nearly zero J CRs is still zero.

That's true, but what's left of what is still available will slowly erode to "zero" - unless this is a precursor to QF releasing more premium cabin seats (welcome, but highly unlikely).

Also it makes those "not as popular" / "not as well known" routes even harder to find (ie. your average QFF member discovering the likes of CI, rather than just looking for QF or CX).

 

[jamesatfish]

Is there usually this much EK J (or even F) inventory or do we think this has all come online because of reduced bookings from the ME crisis?

Here's a snapshot of the next 3 months, just showing F availability. Noting that most of these are EK flights through DXB.

It's not the clearest graph but you can see the concentration of EX F availability in the next 4 weeks as people have cancelled their flights and EK have seats to fill. After the next 4 weeks things return to normal (ie very slim pickings).

 

[am0985]

The Finnair flights are going to go more quickly with this development - Helsinki flights have poor availability in J but quite a few MEL - BKK seats on the 5th freedom route in J in Feb. Can see those going like hotcakes