The Qantas Newbie Questions Thread

[LifesGood]

Easiest way is to use the Qantas award seat finder, on the Qantas website.

That will give you all availability, to all the regions you select, based on the number of passengers you want.

This year might be a bit late to book, but you migjt find some options for next year.

Thank you. I am planning ahead for Dec/Jan 2027/28. I assume those wouldn't be visible yet?

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Thank you. I am planning ahead for Dec/Jan 2027/28. I assume those wouldn't be visible yet?

They won’t.

It also depends on your status with qantas… top tiers get earlier visibility.

 

[RooFlyer]

Welcome to AFF @LifesGood

 

[LifesGood]

They won’t.

It also depends on your status with qantas… top tiers get earlier visibility.

I'm a lowly Bronze status

 

[SYD]

I'm a lowly Bronze status

At least then, what you see on the Finder tool
Is probably what’s available. The upside, partner awards are available irrespective of status but you’d wanting to be booking ASAP.

Some airlines release seats 2 to 4 wks out but mainly to/from the US.

 

[Flyfrequently]

I'm a lowly Bronze status

Welcome to AFF anyway @LifesGood
We all started somewhere - well some of us!

 

[AustraliaPoochie]

Hello, this is my first post ((waves))
I'm relatively new to Qantas FF but have used points to book a few domestic flights. For O/S we usually pay cash as we travel over Oz summer holiday period.
My question is - what chance would we have of getting flights with points at Christmas/Jan? None? Buckleys? any possibility at all? To complicate things further we would want to travel BC. Looking at Japan, HK or Korea from Sydney - 4 people travelling but only enough points for 2, would pay cash for the other 2.

Re Dec/Jan, its school hols, also lots of people going up to Japan for the ski, or to Europe, for the summer up there.
Airlines call it Peak travel period, so reward seats are tight, as the airlines, not only QF but partners, also know that they can earn more with $ than rewards.
Not to mention, business people travelling too.
Maybe go via MEL/SYD with the 380s, via SIN.
QF does not have a lot of exposure going up to Japan, if you want full service, and not JQ (Death*).
Also, QF does not have a lot of flights on its own plane, apart from LHR/FCO/CDG.
You will also need to be higher up status to be successful in getting CR or rewards, and they are in high demand.
Only way to succeed, if you want premium cabin, is to pay, really.
===
Ie/eg, what we call/term WP, they have a certain procedure, where they get preferential treatment, they can call QF up, and ask if reward seats can be opened up for them, lower QFF do not have this.
They have a special section, where their calls (WP QFF members) calls get routed to HBA (ie, the Aus call centre).
---
If you are QFF WP, or Platinum, its possible to have them (QFF) open seats for you, but if you are QFF NB/PS, Bronze or Silver, or SG , Gold, no chance, as all our calls go out to the overseas call center, who are not QF employees.

 

[Seat0B]

4 people travelling but only enough points for 2, would pay cash for the other 2.

Hi there @LifesGood and welcome to AFF.

If you have to pay for some fares for your trip, it is worth thinking about that strategically so that the QF points, and most importantly the status credits (SC) from the paid flights go to the person best placed to benefit from these. If you are flying paid J (business class) from Sydney to Japan/Korea/Hong Kong, you will earn a good number of SC on these flights that will help you to move up to higher FF status levels, which in turn opens up better chances of getting award seats.

It will probably be difficult (but not impossible if you do your research) to get 4 seats in business class in the school holidays. So you might consider taking day flights in economy (Y) or premium economy if offered to these mid-haul destinations and spending some of the money you save by not going J on making your experience better. For example buy lounge passes for a paid lounge. Pay for exit row seating and get more on board leg room. If you can’t get day flights, pay for an extra night’s accommodation at your hotel so you can check in straight away after you’ve arrived at the destination at 0530 and feel very tired and in need of a shower.

And when you look for award seats, be sure to focus on Classic Awards rather than Classic Plus (which will cost 10-100s of thousands more in points).

If you can’t get the flights on points, you could reduce the overall cost of your trip by using points for hotels.

Finally, don’t be afraid to come back and ask questions. There really a lot of helpful and knowledgeable people on the forum.