Why so far in advance for award tickets?

[dajop]

The transfer of my BMI diamond club into BA Avios has opened my eyes to some things. One of those is advance purchase of award tickets using QF FF points.

I have just noticed I can use BA to book award seats on QF domestic flights - on the example I chose - departing in 3.5 hrs time (at 5am AEST - currently being around 1:30am AEST). Yet QF won't let me booking anything for travel in < ~ 26 hrs I believe. Is this because the IT systems can't handle it, or a deliberate business decision by QF to encourage people to pay for last minute fares? Either way it just reinforces the low regard with which I hold the QF FF program.

(and of course not to mention that the surcharges are about $20 lower using BA for a simple MEL-SYD)

 

[Deewhy]

The transfer of my BMI diamond club into BA Avios has opened my eyes to some things. One of those is advance purchase of award tickets using QF FF points.

I have just noticed I can use BA to book award seats on QF domestic flights - on the example I chose - departing in 3.5 hrs time (at 5am AEST - currently being around 1:30am AEST). Yet QF won't let me booking anything for travel in < ~ 26 hrs I believe. Is this because the IT systems can't handle it, or a deliberate business decision by QF to encourage people to pay for last minute fares? Either way it just reinforces the low regard with which I hold the QF FF program.

(and of course not to mention that the surcharges are about $20 lower using BA for a simple MEL-SYD)

That's interesting. I didn't know that was a limit with Qantas. Now I can rest easy knowing I traded my VA points for a T-3hour reward J seat! The other option was QF which I didn't even check at the time.