QFF Rewards booking with China Airlines

[DrGear]

Finally managed to actually use up a chunk of my points and secured J reward seats on every leg of a trip with China Airlines during peak season to Japan (late March to mid April 24). Absolutely wild luck I swear. Did it a little round about but works well for us. For a grand total of 233,300 per person plus a token cash amount, it was surprisingly good value, especially as we don't have any status, just a lot of points from the business Amex. Even more wild that it was only 7 months away from when we booked.

18/3/24 SYD>TPE A350-900
Stay in Taipei and check out the area
22/3/24 TSA>HND A330-300
Staying in Japan for a few weeks
NRT>SYD A330-300 then A350-900

I spent probably an hour bouncing back and forth on Qantas god forsaken website until I managed to find flights that fit the bill. There were heaps of them, but not in the time periods that actually worked for the round trip. Multi trip planner for the win. Still stunned I got these during peak sakura season so fingers crossed we don't get axed or anything goes wrong.

So there is hope for those of us without status and an inability to beat the early birds to the 12 month in advance tickets.

 

[Danger]

Is there a reason you started a new thread instead of using the existing thread on the same topic?

 

[DrGear]

Is there a reason you started a new thread instead of using the existing thread on the same topic?

Didn't find that thread when I searched for similar topics. My bad.

 

[snakenlibra]

Finally managed to actually use up a chunk of my points and secured J reward seats on every leg of a trip with China Airlines during peak season to Japan (late March to mid April 24). Absolutely wild luck I swear. Did it a little round about but works well for us. For a grand total of 233,300 per person plus a token cash amount, it was surprisingly good value, especially as we don't have any status, just a lot of points from the business Amex. Even more wild that it was only 7 months away from when we booked.

18/3/24 SYD>TPE A350-900
Stay in Taipei and check out the area
22/3/24 TSA>HND A330-300
Staying in Japan for a few weeks
NRT>SYD A330-300 then A350-900

I spent probably an hour bouncing back and forth on Qantas god forsaken website until I managed to find flights that fit the bill. There were heaps of them, but not in the time periods that actually worked for the round trip. Multi trip planner for the win. Still stunned I got these during peak sakura season so fingers crossed we don't get axed or anything goes wrong.

So there is hope for those of us without status and an inability to beat the early birds to the 12 month in advance tickets.

Hi all I have been tracking J redemption opportunities on the new ‘Flight Reward Finder‘ to check for J class tickets on China Airlines to Australia.
From 8 July 2026, I note that me, as a red member without any status, cannot see anymore J redemption tickets from Taipei to anywhere in Australia! If I check now, there are no redemption opportunities tickets on any class from 1 December 2026. Could someone with status please check for me and confirm that it is because of my nil status with Qantas? Greatly appreciate any information. Chris

 

[MELso]

Status only matters for QF award availability in premium cabins (and EK F). If you can’t see them, they’re not there.

 

[freqflyer77]

They aren't available.

Many partner airlines have learnt that there is too many (useless) Qantas points in the market so if they release seats to Qantas the demand is so strong all their own members will miss out.

 

[TheInsider]

They aren't available.

Many partner airlines have learnt that there is too many (useless) Qantas points in the market so if they release seats to Qantas the demand is so strong all their own members will miss out.

I mean that is completely false. But okay.

 

[freqflyer77]

I mean that is completely false. But okay.

Please enlighten me why it's false, oh wise insider.

China Airlines reward seats were readily available when the partnership launched. Now they're essentially non-existent. PH has also recently acknowledged they didn't anticipate the level of demand from Qantas reward bookings. Industry trend is keep FF seats for own program.

 

[aspro2]

Let's not make this silly and personal.

There is relatively limited availability of CI seats on QFF. Less than there was 2+ years ago. But there has been availability this year into next (though I haven't checked in the last three months). When I last got an award ticket, there was one J seat on about two days per week TPE-MEL when looking at the furthest end of the booking window. There was better for PE and Y. But demand is high, availability has been reduced, and you also have to keep in mind different high-traffic periods will apply, resulting in long stretches of zero availability.

 

[snakenlibra]

Let's not make this silly and personal.

There is relatively limited availability of CI seats on QFF. Less than there was 2+ years ago. But there has been availability this year into next (though I haven't checked in the last three months). When I last got an award ticket, there was one J seat on about two days per week TPE-MEL when looking at the furthest end of the booking window. There was better for PE and Y. But demand is high, availability has been reduced, and you also have to keep in mind different high-traffic periods will apply, resulting in long stretches of zero availability.

Thanks for your reply, appreciated... Like I wrote, I just checked and there are NO direct redemption J tickets from Taipei into any any airports in Australia from 2 December 2026 right through to July 2027. Just need someone to check please? Many thanks Chris

 

[freqflyer77]

There is relatively limited availability of CI seats on QFF.

There are ZERO Business seats and a grand total of ONE Premium Economy seat between Australia & Taipei in the next 12 months.

I'd say that's a bit worse than relatively limited and more a restriction on not making seats available to Qantas...

 

[snakenlibra]

There are ZERO Business seats and a grand total of ONE Premium Economy seat between Australia & Taipei in the next 12 months.

I'd say that's a bit worse than relatively limited and more a restriction on not making seats available to Qantas...

Thank you, that's what I needed to know. It is not me, but an overall issue. With regards

 

[jbman]

Are there any other programs that have access to CI and have seats on offer that can't be seen via QFF?

 

[jbman]

I found one...

19th November

 

[SYD]

Hi all I have been tracking J redemption opportunities on the new ‘Flight Reward Finder‘ to check for J class tickets on China Airlines to Australia.
From 8 July 2026, I note that me, as a red member without any status, cannot see anymore J redemption tickets from Taipei to anywhere in Australia! If I check now, there are no redemption opportunities tickets on any class from 1 December 2026. Could someone with status please check for me and confirm that it is because of my nil status with Qantas? Greatly appreciate any information. Chris

Looks like something is broken - it happens and not necessarily for the reason suggested earlier.

There used to be at least one J seat released daily (yes, pre COVID there were more) but I’m not even seeing whY seats at the moment. I note the example above ex MEL, but there should be a lot more.

I was seeing CI J seats coming up a few weeks/months back searching for flights to Nth America. I hadn’t noticed that they’d dropped off because I wasn’t specifically looking for those with a 1x J seat limit).

We’ve seen this happen with EK (they’re back in abundance) and MU went missing for over a year (although, I’m not sure they’re back for domestic China bookings?)

In the meantime, they’re still there (2 or more elsewhere ex TPE). eg

 

[snakenlibra]

I found one...

19th November
View attachment 516848

Thank you. I was looking for J class redemption tickets for June 2027, hence I was talking about 2027. Cheers

 

[snakenlibra]

Looks like something is broken - it happens and not necessarily for the reason suggested earlier.

There used to be at least one J seat released daily (yes, pre COVID there were more) but I’m not even seeing whY seats at the moment. I note the example above ex MEL, but there should be a lot more.

I was seeing CI J seats coming up a few weeks/months back searching for flights to Nth America. I hadn’t noticed that they’d dropped off because I wasn’t specifically looking for those with a 1x J seat limit).

We’ve seen this happen with EK (they’re back in abundance) and MU went missing for over a year (although, I’m not sure they’re back for domestic China bookings?)

In the meantime, they’re still there (2 or more elsewhere ex TPE). eg
View attachment 516849

Thank you for your reply. In my original question I mention coming into any airports in Australia (not Shanghai)! With regards.

 

[SYD]

Thank you for your reply. In my original question I mention coming into any airports in Australia (not Shanghai)! With regards.

Yes, I know. But I think that’s the bit that might be broken and I used an example to show that CI award seats are still out there via QFF (and not a blanket withholding of seats from QFF).

We saw a similar behaviour with EK. Plenty of CRs trans Tasman and elsewhere but award seats disappeared between Oz and DXB for a couple of months around the time of the EK went to a lower awards table, but they also announced restrictions on F rewards and kids. Maybe some unintended consequences implementing that, but they all returned in due course.

I have no idea if CI CRs will return on the Oz<->TPE. Unfortunately, calling QF probably won’t help as they’ll only see what we can see.

Where in Oz are you trying to get to?

 

[snakenlibra]

Yes, I know. But I think that’s the bit that might be broken and I used an example to show that CI award seats are still out there via QFF (and not a blanket withholding of seats from QFF).

We saw a similar behaviour with EK. Plenty of CRs trans Tasman and elsewhere but award seats disappeared between Oz and DXB for a couple of months around the time of the EK went to a lower awards table, but they also announced restrictions on F rewards and kids. Maybe some unintended consequences implementing that, but they all returned in due course.

I have no idea if CI CRs will return on the Oz<->TPE. Unfortunately, calling QF probably won’t help as they’ll only see what we can see.

Where in Oz are you trying to get to?

Thank you for the explanation, much appreciated.
Well, I need to get into either Brisbane, Melbourne or Sydney around 25, 26 or 27 June 2027, in J class.
I think I need to just periodically see if the opportunities come back!
With regards