QFF Platinum requesting release of extra Classic award seats?

[BD1959]

Had been watching 1xJ MEL-LHR-MEL avidly for the last week or so for end Oct back mid Nov. Direct, no dice, but there was availability on each of the single sectors MEL-DXB, DXB-LHR etc on two consecutrive dates out, one back. Looked 90% certain I'd be going yesterday when - toyota-me - the LHR-DXB on QF10 disappeared. There was a BA flight available but this costs an additional 21,000 points LHR-MEL in conjunction with QF - plus the hassle of changing terminals etc. My leave request comes through today ....

Called up the Plat Line and the wonderful CSE not only managed to get QF10 opened up right through, she also got the option of QF2 (just in case) and - after joking about the amount that the taxes came to - pre-fixed this with my outbound I was going to book separately.

Sunny skies, indeed!!

Regards,

BD

 

[Princess Fiona]

Woo-hoo !!! I'm now 3/3 on Int Award releases
Got a J award released HKG-SYD early Feb. Done and dusted in 5 minutes via the Platinum desk.
I'm loving QF at the minute !

 

[MrJetset]

Woo-hoo !!! I'm now 3/3 on Int Award releases
Got a J award released HKG-SYD early Feb. Done and dusted in 5 minutes via the Platinum desk.
I'm loving QF at the minute !

Thanks to who PF?

 

[rlgshz]

Hi

Have been enjoying reading this thread and hearing about everyone's successes. Great to hear so many happy stories.

As someone who hasn't tried to do this before, can I just clarify the way it works:

- as a Platinum or P1, you can "unofficially" call the premium QFF desk and ask them to release Classic Award seats to you, which you will then pay for with your QFF points.
- to do this successfully (for example in First or Business), there would need to be A / I class seats available when you call, and upon request they will be converted into award seats for you to purchase with points.
- it works for both domestic and international flights.

So for example, a family of 4 could travel together by buying 2 seats (for $) and getting 2 A / I seats released as Classic Awards and then using points for them? And it also sounds like they can put the released seats on hold for you for 24hrs.

I suppose the points used need to be in the account of the person requesting this (i.e. the Platinum/P1 frequent flyer).

Sounds like a fantastic Platinum/P1 benefit.

If I'm off the mark with this I'd appreciate being corrected, but by the sounds of peoples' experiences in this thread it seems to work extremely well.

Cheers

 

[Princess Fiona]

Thanks to who PF?

Thanks to Jock28's alter ego I actually have 3 x J seats on the same flight

 

[Princess Fiona]

Hi

Have been enjoying reading this thread and hearing about everyone's successes. Great to hear so many happy stories.

As someone who hasn't tried to do this before, can I just clarify the way it works:

- as a Platinum or P1, you can "unofficially" call the premium QFF desk and ask them to release Classic Award seats to you, which you will then pay for with your QFF points.
- to do this successfully (for example in First or Business), there would need to be A / I class seats available when you call, and upon request they will be converted into award seats for you to purchase with points.
- it works for both domestic and international flights.

So for example, a family of 4 could travel together by buying 2 seats (for $) and getting 2 A / I seats released as Classic Awards and then using points for them? And it also sounds like they can put the released seats on hold for you for 24hrs.

I suppose the points used need to be in the account of the person requesting this (i.e. the Platinum/P1 frequent flyer).

Sounds like a fantastic Platinum/P1 benefit.

If I'm off the mark with this I'd appreciate being corrected, but by the sounds of peoples' experiences in this thread it seems to work extremely well.

Cheers

That's roughly how it works. It's not really an unofficial benefit if I recall correctly. There are two methods of the Award seat being released. If the flight has A/I class the agent can request it online and it may be instantly approved. If not they may put through a manual request to Yield Management to have an Award seat released. This may take a day or so to be processed and is less likely to be successful than the instant process. I haven't had award seats held for me with QF so don't know how this works.

 

[rlgshz]

Thanks for clarifying. So it sounds like if they can't deliver it instantly, it probably won't happen.

Perhaps if they knew it was part of a planned family trip where, say, half the seats were being purchased (with $) and we're only trying to get the other half with points it may have some sway with Yield Management? Although I guess they'll always prefer to sell the remaining seats for $ so if they think that's a good chance of happening then they'll probably say no I guess.

Out of curiosity, I wonder if there's a better chance of success with this if it's done closer to the flight or further out. We normally plan our family holidays well in advance, so I'd be giving it a go at least 6 months out, and possibly longer.

Would be interested to hear if there is any consistency in the timing for a successful seat release.

Cheers

 

[Princess Fiona]

Thanks for clarifying. So it sounds like if they can't deliver it instantly, it probably won't happen.

Perhaps if they knew it was part of a planned family trip where, say, half the seats were being purchased (with $) and we're only trying to get the other half with points it may have some sway with Yield Management? Although I guess they'll always prefer to sell the remaining seats for $ so if they think that's a good chance of happening then they'll probably say no I guess.

Out of curiosity, I wonder if there's a better chance of success with this if it's done closer to the flight or further out. We normally plan our family holidays well in advance, so I'd be giving it a go at least 6 months out, and possibly longer.

Would be interested to hear if there is any consistency in the timing for a successful seat release.

Cheers

Just my opinion and based on my own observations and deductions but I think asking for multiple seats closer to the flight will be an unsuccessful strategy. The reason being that there's a lot of other factors in play: more revenue seats sold, P1 and WP Upgrade requests, possibly over sell of the non-premium classes.
I have a family of 6 and all of our trips are a long time in the planning (I'm OCD so maybe partly to do with it). I plan the trip 18mths to 2 years in advance. Build up enough miles and points in the family kitty and then start booking 1 year out from the trip. Being flexible on dates and routes even this far out is vitally important. Finally I have a get out of jail revenue fare back up which would result in the juniors being at the back of the aircraft. Fortunately that's not yet been activated

 

[amaroo]

Just my opinion and based on my own observations and deductions but I think asking for multiple seats closer to the flight will be an unsuccessful strategy. The reason being that there's a lot of other factors in play: more revenue seats sold, P1 and WP Upgrade requests, possibly over sell of the non-premium classes.
I have a family of 6 and all of our trips are a long time in the planning (I'm OCD so maybe partly to do with it). I plan the trip 18mths to 2 years in advance. Build up enough miles and points in the family kitty and then start booking 1 year out from the trip. Being flexible on dates and routes even this far out is vitally important. Finally I have a get out of jail revenue fare back up which would result in the juniors being at the back of the aircraft. Fortunately that's not yet been activated

Wholeheartedly agree with this.

We're a family of 4 and we've been using points for OS long haul premium travel for the past 10 years - have never relied on seats being released. Our strategy has been booking short (within a week or two) mainly on CX or BA (never on QF) ... or booking long (350+ days out).

Given one has the points and has planned the trip - it's pretty easy to secure award seats to most destinations. We're heading to Europe in Dec on CX and for one of the sectors the kids will need to sit one cabin back from us ... as we'll be in F

 

[cardiology]

I am desperately trying to get 1 business redemption ticket to be released from Qantas, but I am only Gold at the moment, is there a way to get the release if my colleague is a Platinum 1/Platinum QFF member? e.g. I transfer the points to his account and then he could call the platinum line to ask for a release of the Business redemption award ticket?

 

[Princess Fiona]

I am desperately trying to get 1 business redemption ticket to be released from Qantas, but I am only Gold at the moment, is there a way to get the release if my colleague is a Platinum 1/Platinum QFF member? e.g. I transfer the points to his account and then he could call the platinum line to ask for a release of the Business redemption award ticket?

Have you called and tried yourself?

 

[medhead]

In terms of timing for seat release, bearing in mind I've only tried this once. But my request for 2 seats in October was turned down because they are expected people to by flying from AKL to attend the rugby world cup in the UK, at that time. Didn't even think of the world cup in the UK as being an issue, but looking at the matches, that is about the right time for people to be flying over for the Semis and finals. So watch for special events as well.

I already have 3 U seats on the flight, so will probably take the paid back up option. On the whole I'm not sure which would be harder, a) convincing QF to release 2 U fares, or b) convincing SWMBO to let me pay for J.

 

[Princess Fiona]

In terms of timing for seat release, bearing in mind I've only tried this once. But my request for 2 seats in October was turned down because they are expected people to by flying from AKL to attend the rugby world cup in the UK, at that time. Didn't even think of the world cup in the UK as being an issue, but looking at the matches, that is about the right time for people to be flying over for the Semis and finals. So watch for special events as well.

I already have 3 U seats on the flight, so will probably take the paid back up option. On the whole I'm not sure which would be harder, a) convincing QF to release 2 U fares, or b) convincing SWMBO to let me pay for J.

If she's anything like Shrek option B would be more difficult

 

[plugster2011]

Thanks for clarifying. So it sounds like if they can't deliver it instantly, it probably won't happen.

Perhaps if they knew it was part of a planned family trip where, say, half the seats were being purchased (with $) and we're only trying to get the other half with points it may have some sway with Yield Management? Although I guess they'll always prefer to sell the remaining seats for $ so if they think that's a good chance of happening then they'll probably say no I guess.

Cheers

I can share some experience with this aspect.

Situation: Booked FASA SYD-LAX for end of march and returning end of April last year primarily as a status backslide in case I didn't get enough flying in to retain WP. Booked as 2 one way awards.

Decided in Late Feb that a month OS was not financially viable - but had enough IHG points for about 10 nights plus a IC AMB Certificate. So new plan was to give back outbound FASA and to ask for a U seat on or around 16 April. In addition as Mum had finally sold the family house she was going to come with me and purchase a mixed class J/F revenue fare which priced out at $13K.

I picked the SYD-DFW Flight because it was showing F9 A9 J9 C9 D9 I9 on Expert flyer and it was a Thursday Departure (as I write this 3 weeks later its now F6 A3 J9 C9 D9 I2 - so I guess a few people book quite late) - got given an immediate no. so I then asked for a U class seat on any transpac flight out of BNE/SYD/MEL to either LAX or DFW on 2 days either side (which took a while to set up). and all requests came back as no.

So I was pretty disappointed - the helpful agent from the hobart premium desk said it didn't make sense to him and asked if i wanted to escalate it - which I did to a supervisor - who didn't seem particularly interested in helping - but she did say there had been some premium desk agents had previously been taking revenue fares into account and that a directive had been issued by Yield Management that any associated revenue fares were not to be taken into account when deciding on the release of extra Classic Award Seats. and Also that my desired flights that they had already released extra classic awards up to their maximum.

Now the other interesting thing is that the first agent told me the requests had all come back marked without reason - which he said usually means they had not been manually reviewed by YM. When i asked the supervisor if i could ask for a manual review she told me it had been manually reviewed - never got to the bottom of who was right on this issue. I'm guessing the first agent because the supervisor was really just trying to get me off the phone - and anecdotaly from this thread the manual review takes some time.

By way of reference i would think the following were possibly factors
1) short time frame - only 7 weeks out
2) route selected (transpac always hard)
3) I would have low PCV - given i've mainly used JASA/FASA/J* J class and YUPP to achieve my status for the last 3 years.

So the upshot is that I have booked SYD-NAN-LAX in J for $2,300 one way by myself and Qantas misses out on some nice extra revenue (except for their slice of the FJ rev) - heading up to Seattle & San Fran for 8 nights and then coming home on the original FASA.

I'm not really angry about the situation given it was a long short in a short time frame - but I am disappointed - I would think selling a nice premium fare would grease the wheels a bit and in this case it didn't.

 

[medhead]

That's interesting. My experience was the call centre said no, in a similar fashion. I thought that was the end of it. A few days later there is a booking matching the request. Called up and it seemed that yield management did indeed review the request. They offered seats on an alternative flight, which was no good with 3 people already booked in the requested flight.

 

[Kangol]

Perhaps if they knew it was part of a planned family trip where, say, half the seats were being purchased (with $) and we're only trying to get the other half with points it may have some sway with Yield Management? Although I guess they'll always prefer to sell the remaining seats for $ so if they think that's a good chance of happening then they'll probably say no I guess.

You can always request for all 4 to be released (if you have the points)..

I am desperately trying to get 1 business redemption ticket to be released from Qantas, but I am only Gold at the moment, is there a way to get the release if my colleague is a Platinum 1/Platinum QFF member? e.g. I transfer the points to his account and then he could call the platinum line to ask for a release of the Business redemption award ticket?

Family transfer is only possible between family members

 

[cardiology]

As I am only Gold, I do not have access to the premium number, even if I managed to get the number from my colleague, don't you think the customer agent will ignore my request?

 

[MrJetset]

As I am only Gold, I do not have access to the premium number, even if I managed to get the number from my colleague, don't you think the customer agent will ignore my request?

No. It is a WP benefit and higher. You're only hope is to have a WP or higher make the request for you, using their points.

 

[TripleB]

Re: QFF Platinum and request release of extra Classic award seats

Thanks to this thread I managed to score a SYD-MEL-LHR-SYD in J class on precisely the dates and flights I was after. It was almost too easy...

 

[Kangol]

Re: QFF Platinum and request release of extra Classic award seats

Thanks to this thread I managed to score a SYD-MEL-LHR-SYD in J class on precisely the dates and flights I was after. It was almost too easy...

Did you try for QF1 SYD-LHR? Or did you want to go through MEL due to the later departure?