Hi
I wonder if anyone is happy to suggest a rewards route plan for me? I’m going crazy trying to work one out on Qantas site. I’m not very experienced at finding multi stops. Hubby and I need to be in Venice on 31st Aug. Staying in Italy a month. Fairly flexible with dates.We are in Adelaide but don’t mind where we leave from or arrive in.
We’re Platinum and have tons of points obviously would love business class but happily would look at purchasing and upgrading.
I know availability is an issue but if I even had a route to keep checking it’d be half the battle.
I just cannot seem to work out that multi city tool it goes to even find Venice or Milan for me.
Thank you!!
Australian frequent flyer did an excellent article a while back detailing how Platinum members go about requesting for award seats to be made open so I suggest you check that out:
Also here are just some of my thoughts with your plans:
Most people I know don’t fly into Venice because it is easily accessible by train to the bigger cities and Venice is usually part of a larger trip. So I would consider Rome or Milan for that. (although if you do fly into venice, you’ll get to ride a boat from and to the airport which you can’t say for many of the world’s airports haha!)
Also keep your eyes peeled for some fare sales. I know Cathay Pacific had (in pre-covid times) some pretty good business class sale fares to Europe from Australia so you could consider that as well if points don’t work out.
With the multi-city tool, as long as you tick the Use points/classic rewards radio button instead of the price one, it should be open to all destinations
If requesting reward seats, the most prized/convenient will probably be Qantas’ Perth to Rome flights. You can request reward seats on everywhere Qantas flies but their European destinations are limited to Rome and London at the moment. It is conceivably easier to get from Rome to Venice so I’d aim for that.
The challenge mainly is getting from Australia to some point in Asia or the Middle East as that is the main bottleneck. From there, business class is relatively easy to redeem for.
Thank you so much for all that advice!!! Well I had no idea about Venice and boats from airport🤪
Hubby starting cycling tour from Venice finishes in Milan( and I’m off to Uk)so we really can land anywhere. I will check out all your suggestions!!! Might try phoning Hobart first!!!
Hi
Another thought bubble. Platinum can request opening of seats I know if they are showing as available for purchase. Do you know if this request only applies to flights serviced by Qantas or also partners as I can see QF coded flights operated by Emirates and a BA code to FCO available for our dates but don’t want to look too dumb phoning if we can’t have them released.
In essence, you want there to be the cheapest Business tickets available for sale - that is the one with limited changes. For example, on August 2nd, Perth to Rome is currently selling in Flexible business. At this point, only Platinum one members can request for these seats to be unlocked. For platnium members, they must be in the regular “business” category, which is on sale on say the 7th.
A helpful website I use is called ITA matrix. It is the backbone of google flights. When you type in your itinerary, and select the flights, you can see the letter which indicates the fare class next to your flights. On the 2nd, it shows as a C class fare and is considerably more expensive than the D class fare on the 7th.
So you would be able to request seats on the 7th for consideration (remember even if the appropriate fares are on sale, it is not a guarantee), but it would be very quickly denied if you requested for the 2nd.
A good idea is to make your request as broad as possible. Provide the agent with a range of possible dates and possible Qantas flights.
Thank you so much for taking the time to educate me and with such patience. I’m busy reading up as much as I can and still there is a heap more to absorb. We have so looked forward to spending these points never thinking the rest of the world would be too!
I’m off again to read up some more.
Well success we finally got a route booked fully business class, including internal here and there flights for August. I must admit I was a little bit nervous until I read an answer you gave someone earlier as it is through Delhi on Qantas… We will stay in the transit corridor though.
I called Qantas up and as hubby is Platinum got through right away to Hobart and got the most amazing agent.
I can tell you she tried to open up business seats on every route known to man I think. All declined. It took hours. Just as we were about to give up we got lucky.
ADL-MEL
MEL-DEL
DEL-LHR
MXP-DOH
DOH-ADL
She said lock this in and if another route comes available call us back and we can change and reticket.
Glad it worked out! When you encounter the right agent, it really makes a difference. A lot of people don’t think of India as a place to connect onwards, but Qantas recently launched a few routes to India and this has given some great opportunities for Australians to not just go to that part of Asia but onwards given the plentiful availability out of and into India on British Airways!
