Using EK for QF rewards

[Welsh-Kiwi]

Hi All - looking to go from Auckland to Barcelona (via Dubai) in December this year. Expert Flyer says there are 7 seats in Business Class available for each leg. I called Qantas this morning and the agent could not see the flights I wanted.

What are my options? I thought QF points could be used on EK?

W-K

 

[SYD]

Hi All - looking to go to Barcelona (via Dubai) in December this year. Expert Flyer says there are 7 seats in Business Class available for each leg. I called Qantas this morning and the agent could not see the flights I wanted.

What are my options? I thought QF points could be used on EK?

W-K

I believe Emirates release award seats 330 days out? Yes, you can book EK reward seats via QF but they have been scarce.

You could try looking at other OW airlines. Unfortunately, QR rewards are being held back from QF until ~150 days (by which time premium seats are usually gone).

When do frequent flyer programs release reward seats for booking?

The early bird gets the worm. Here's how to get first dibs at reward seats.

www.pointhacks.com.au

 

[levelnine]

Expert Flyer says there are 7 seats in Business Class available for each leg.

Are you sure you're looking correctly?

It is more likely to see a squadron of flying pigs than it is to find 7 award seats in business class for flights on EK departing Australia in December.

Edit: Having a look at EF myself, it shows flex award availability, which is not the same as saver award availability. Only saver award availability is bookable with QF points.

For redemptions on Emirates flights, if you can't see the seat on qantas.com, you can't book it with QF points.

 

[AustraliaPoochie]

Can you make your way to CHC?
Might be less demand there that way, than the EK direct from AKL - DXB - BCN.
Just saying, the CHC - SYD flight does drop off some pax, and pick up some, would that one be an option?
But of course, EK as main operator might reserve more seats on the AKL - DXB sector for their own pax, as there is now only that one flight a day, direct from AKL to DXB.
In the past, it used to be AKL - MEL/SYD/BNE - DXB.
Availability of seats can be constrained.
If you try to make a booking on the EK website, AKL - Aust east coast, they palm you off to QF with an EK flight number!

 

[randomly_chaotic]

only suggestion is to keep trying. The patterns for release are all over the place now. I had given up and was about to book to Europe via Jakarta with an unfriendly Jakarta stopover of about 4-5 hours (where the lounges aren't great from what I can tell) when I did one last check before I booked and somehow scored a Mel-FCO first award on EK with a very reasonable stopover.

 

[Guvner]

What date is that MEL-FCO flight? I’ve been looking day after day for that exact award. Well done!

 

[randomly_chaotic]

What date is that MEL-FCO flight? I’ve been looking day after day for that exact award. Well done!

Last week of September, booked 18 December. I wish you luck Guvner.