Qantas has brought forward the planned restart of its SYD-LAX and SYD-LHR flights from 18 December to 14 November, subject to NSW allowing international travel from this date (this is not yet confirmed).
Every seat on these flights is now available as a Classic Flight Reward for the first week of operations, i.e. from 14-20 November. Lots of award availability to go around.
As a web / UX designer in my previous life I cannot believe how terrible the QF site has become - it's like they don't want you to find a fare or FF redemption seat at all
Edit: I see all seats gone for QF2 LHR-SYD Nov 14-20 that was fast (a sprinkle of Premium Y/Y remains but surely gone by end of today)....lots of pent up demand incoming to be expected. More availability outbound on QF1 though...
I have a held booking LHR-SYD because the timing of these flights fits with a proposed work trip, which was struggling due to lack of availability into Australia. It is a last resort option as getting into SYD doesn't get me home to BNE, and if I flew tomorrow I would be facing a wait to get into Qld and double quarantine. I'm also told that the flights are based on the bold assumption that people on them will be doing 7 days home quarantine, which isn't an option for me.
Fascinated that the thread hasn't had much interest. Is everyone just over travel?
Yes it seems so. I came here having just booked my first trip off the island and expected a little more activity...give them a few weeks for it to sink in?
I'm in MEL so I need clarity on MEL opening up and routes to/from MEL not SYD plus I would need a return trip and for points to make sense I'd need to find point seats in both directions. Points planes are a nice gesture, but without a points seat in the other direction you could spend nearly as much as just paying cash.
This is looking quite bizarre. Never seen flights only available on points before. Presumably there was a cash allocation which has sold out in Y, and a points allocation which is still available. Some at classic awards rates, some at points plus pay. If I was AJ I'd be looking for as much cash as I could get. And it's mainly the premium cabins available for cash or classic awards, although some of the 'bargains' look like attempts to reduce points balances. Flights below in Y, Y+ and J respectively.
He is. Getting points (which are a liability, or a debt so to speak) to be used up is a great way to make cash. It's a paper transfer that boosts the bottom dollar for Qantas.
Most QF fares on QF1/2 are now at full flex pricing so looks like AJ is certainly getting as much cash as possible along with scooping up points for November flights which QF were not expecting to be flying...
He is. Getting points (which are a liability, or a debt so to speak) to be used up is a great way to make cash. It's a paper transfer that boosts the bottom dollar for Qantas.
I doubt the balance sheet liability is much more than 0.05c/point, so a classic business one-way award might only be $750 to their bottom line, versus circa $7500 for a paid fare.
I doubt the balance sheet liability is much more than 0.05c/point, so a classic business one-way award might only be $750 to their bottom line, versus circa $7500 for a paid fare.
The 'points' planes were not supposed to be flying as Dec 18th was the original commencement date for international flights. One could argue these Nov 14 flights are bonus flights and good PR for QF showing people how easy it is to burn through their points...
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As a web / UX designer in my previous life I cannot believe how terrible the QF site has become - it's like they don't want you to find a fare or FF redemption seat at all
Forgive me AFF for I'm going to sin ... I think the answer to your question is not sure about others, but I'm sorta-kinda over travel ... atleast until the states & commonwealth is going to provide clear directives on the travel restrictions (or the un-restrictions) and quarantine arrangements on return and the quarantine arrangements for my destination ...
I mean it's all good that there is positive news about opening up for intl. travel and I'm happy for it ... but part of me thinks "what if I leave and can't come back, for any reason, whatsoever ... flights cancelled, there is a "sudden" restriction on intl. arrivals into AU, I get booted off the flight for some reason, I transitted through a country that had a sudden spike and now because of that I can't enter AU OR I can enter AU, but have to go thru mandatory hotel quarantine" ... there could be a million other reasons ...
so I think, I will atleast won't be looking forward to an intl. trip for the next 6 months ... that's how long I personally think things will take to get back to sorta-kinda-post-CoVID-normal ...
Like they say, "All is fair in love and war", I say "All is fair post-CoVID"
This is looking quite bizarre. Never seen flights only available on points before. Presumably there was a cash allocation which has sold out in Y, and a points allocation which is still available. Some at classic awards rates, some at points plus pay. If I was AJ I'd be looking for as much cash as I could get. And it's mainly the premium cabins available for cash or classic awards, although some of the 'bargains' look like attempts to reduce points balances. Flights below in Y, Y+ and J respectively. View attachment 261053 View attachment 261054 View attachment 261055
It's a way for QF to show people that it's ok if you don't have cash, I'm giving you an opportunity to travel cash-less (not so much "cash-less" considering the fees that we pay alongside points, anyways ...) and burn your points ... for some (like me), points are hard-earned ...
And even if this flight doesn't go as planned - QF only has to return the points to the users and then when the "regular" travel is back, jack up the points needed for redemption, so that pax need to burn more points that what they would have normally ...
I doubt the balance sheet liability is much more than 0.05c/point, so a classic business one-way award might only be $750 to their bottom line, versus circa $7500 for a paid fare.
I'm not sure about that, the cash conversion price is about 0.8 cents per point max, if you look at gift cards for example. If that's the value they can provide to punters and still make a profit, 0.05 c per point seems very low.
This is looking quite bizarre. Never seen flights only available on points before. Presumably there was a cash allocation which has sold out in Y, and a points allocation which is still available. Some at classic awards rates, some at points plus pay. If I was AJ I'd be looking for as much cash as I could get. And it's mainly the premium cabins available for cash or classic awards, although some of the 'bargains' look like attempts to reduce points balances. Flights below in Y, Y+ and J respectively. View attachment 261053 View attachment 261054 View attachment 261055
The Y+ fare was a classic award, the others looked like any seat awards, with 3 times as many points to fly Y as Y+! The J cash fares LHR-SYD were about £5,300 when they were available, so on my reckoning a point redeemed on the Flex J fare was around worth around 7/10 of a cent. You'd want to be pretty keen to bin your points.
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