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I’m chasing an award flight on Qatar. I know that BA release them at midnight 355 days before but can anyone tell me when Qatar does it?
Also, I recently booked a flight from Singapore to Perth with Jetstar for two with decent luggage allowance, it was £670. I checked Singapore Airlines – too dear and Qantas – a bit dearer than Jetstar but not that much. I’m doing the same trip next year and out of the blue I realised that I could book Qantas with Avios. Does anyone know how generous or otherwise Qantas are with Avios bookings?What do you mean by generous?
Availability tends to be low on QF int’l routes although SIN-PER may be better than east coast
You can generally book QF flights easily with Avios via BA. Exceptions are Qantaslink and those otherwise operated by carriers such as National Jet Systems, Sunstate, etc. – they’re all QF flights, but BA won’t book them online – you can however book them by calling. You can book Jetstar with QF points, but not Avios (QF own Jetstar, QF elites also get additional benefits such as lounge access on JQ, 3K etc. flights, which are outside of the Oneworld ecosystem). QF’s availability is very variable though, especially to Singapore – as John says, to/from PER will be more likely to be available, and a transcon domestic (in Y at least) should be easy enough to find.
Using QF points on the other hand; QF have very poor availability of QR award inventory, even in Y – there is an ongoing feud between the two, QF lobbying our government to prevent QR gaining more slots in/out of Australian airports (hence the partnership between VA/QR, a way around it).
Qatar tend to be 360 days in advance, but in my experience that sometimes fluctuates a few days depending on class of travel.
What do you mean by generous?
Availability tends to be low on QF int’l routes although SIN-PER may be better than east coast
What do you mean by generous?
Availability tends to be low on QF int’l routes although SIN-PER may be better than east coast
Hi John, what I meant by generous was how do they compare to other airlines re points required to book flights. For instance BA will charge 13,250 Avios plus £0.50 taxes for an economy seat to Gran Canaria or 27,250 Avios plus £12.50 taxes for a BC seat during peak season. That’s a journey that’s more or less equivalent to Singapore/Perth. If Qantas award flights were costing anywhere near that in points it would be like paying £350 for two economy seats or two BC seats for less than £600. Bear in mind I paid £670 cash for two Jetstar economy seats.
Qatar tend to be 360 days in advance, but in my experience that sometimes fluctuates a few days depending on class of travel.
Thank you.
You can generally book QF flights easily with Avios via BA. Exceptions are Qantaslink and those otherwise operated by carriers such as National Jet Systems, Sunstate, etc. – they’re all QF flights, but BA won’t book them online – you can however book them by calling. You can book Jetstar with QF points, but not Avios (QF own Jetstar, QF elites also get additional benefits such as lounge access on JQ, 3K etc. flights, which are outside of the Oneworld ecosystem). QF’s availability is very variable though, especially to Singapore – as John says, to/from PER will be more likely to be available, and a transcon domestic (in Y at least) should be easy enough to find.
Using QF points on the other hand; QF have very poor availability of QR award inventory, even in Y – there is an ongoing feud between the two, QF lobbying our government to prevent QR gaining more slots in/out of Australian airports (hence the partnership between VA/QR, a way around it).
Thanks for the great info. I’m pretty new to the points game. I booked my first big points trip to Australia for this January and although I’m happy with the results I know now that with a bit more knowledge I might have done even better. It never occurred to me to look on BA for any Qantas flights, never mind award flights.
I’ve found QF award availability very poor PER-SiN when I was looking at Feb 26 booked Jetstar for cash in the end. Interestingly domestic reward availability on Virgin Australia booked via Qatar seemed pretty good.
You can often get decent fares on Scoot too. We’ve also never managed to get Avios PER-SIN flights!
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