Reward Redemption Dilemma

[deka2]

I’m just after a bit of advice

Wanted to try 1[SUP]st[/SUP] Class on QF and after watching SYD-HKG realised that as a bronze, there was only ever going to be one F reward seat available.
Agreed with Mrs Deka2 I would fly up in F with her in J, and visaversa the return.
Booked the flights SYD-HKG 15[SUP]th[/SUP] January 2015, as a MASA, and as soon as an F seat became available for 25[SUP]th[/SUP] January 2015 HKG-SYD booked in MrsDeka2’s name .

Problem now is there are NO other reward seats showing on that flight, and the cost of even to purchase a one way in Y is over the top.

The options as I see it are
Wait and see if any other seat is released for QF 128 on the 25[SUP]th[/SUP] January, 2015
Wait and see if there is a sale and purchase a Y ticket for me.
Cancel MrsDeka2’s return and book a different airline.

Any thoughts would be gratefully accepted.

 

[deejo77]

As long as MrsDeka2's get "F" then your fine with any of the options. Could you fly on another date or even airline? or would you rather travel together

 

[deka2]

We would rather fly together, so that limits the options

 

[BD1959]

Problem now is there are NO other reward seats showing on that flight, and the cost of even to purchase a one way in Y is over the top.

There's a consistent price in January next year of roughly $614 in Y, one-way HKG-SYD. Given that a return (ex-Australia) to HKG in Y is pricing up on the QF website at $1000, at what point does a paid Y become not "over the top"?

Regards,

BD

 

[aikman]

There's a J reward seat on CX101 leaving 4 hrs later. Maybe book that as a backup and hope that 1 reward seat opens up on QF128 sometime in the next year?

 

[deka2]

Your right BD1959, didn't realize the prices were in $HK

aikman, there are no reward flights showing for me on the 25th QF or CX

 

[aikman]

aikman, there are no reward flights showing for me on the 25th QF or CX

Oops. Sorry. I had the wrong dates up.

 

[serfty]

Quite often I have seen fare buckets loaded with availability in more than one cabin class with a subsequent redemption in one of the classes resulting in a reduction in all award classes.

For example, you may see ... P1 ... U1 ... Z1 ... X2 ... .

Redeeming one seat will have all them reduce by one to ... P0 ... U0 ... Z0 ... X1 ... .

What this can indicate is "yield management" have decided to sell a certain number of award seats but are not too fussed about the cabin it comes from.

 

[deka2]

Serfty, What in your opinion is the possibility of a reward seat becoming available.

 

[BD1959]

Your right BD1959, didn't realize the prices were in $HK

... and if that is too much for you, you could use Points&Pay to burn the 60,000 points you would have spent on the J redemption on the Y one-way, to bring the price down to approximately HK$2400 or AU$360.

That way you travel together and you score the brownie points!!

Regards,

BD

 

[deka2]

BD1959 The $620 is fine.

I even noticed that this fare is eligible for upgrade, possibly with not a lot of chance.

I could buy the fare today, but then there's no going back, considering the HK$1,000 change fee.

Not sure whether to wait and see for a release of reward seats.

 

[serfty]

Serfty, What in your opinion is the possibility of a reward seat becoming available.

Possible - all common fare buckets are wide open (but it's near the OZ Day long weekend):

Results from ExpertFlyer.com

Flight Availability Search
Departing HKG on 25/01/15 12:00 AM for SYD, Flying QF  

                                                                     Frequency
Flight        Stops  Depart             Arrive             Aircraft  Reliability     

QF 128        0      HKG                SYD                388       Unavailable     
                     25/01/15 7:45 PM   26/01/15 8:10 AM             76% / 21m

Available Classes
F9 A9 J9 C9 D9 I9 W9 R9 T9 Y9 B9 H9 K9 M9 L9 V9 S9 N9 Q9 G0 E0

 

[Kangol]

Quite often I have seen fare buckets loaded with availability in more than one cabin class with a subsequent redemption in one of the classes resulting in a reduction in all award classes.

For example, you may see ... P1 ... U1 ... Z1 ... X2 ... .

Redeeming one seat will have all them reduce by one to ... P0 ... U0 ... Z0 ... X1 ... .

What this can indicate is "yield management" have decided to sell a certain number of award seats but are not too fussed about the cabin it comes from.

Interesting, I've never come across that before.
The only data point I have is that I once booked 2x P seats and prior to that it was showing P2 U2, after I booking it just said U2 and then I also booked one U seat for a family member on the same flight. After that, it was showing as U1.

Then again I don't keep a before/after log of inventory so I wouldn't know.
There could be another explanation for your observation though, eg. it is a coincidence that one award seat in each of the other classes was purchased at exactly the same time as you

 

[deka2]

When I search for HKG-SYD using flexible dates for January 2015 the only thing that comes up in the whole month is 30th January and there are only two flights on that day are two CX and a cx/QF via CGK.
The rest of the month is blank.
If I choose J and F on the date page then half the month comes up.
Very strange.