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An Expert Guide to Finding Award Availability

Useful tools and time-saving strategies to find reward flight availability or secure an upgrade on your next flight

1 September 2015

Expert Guide to Finding Award Availability | 2

© Australian Frequent Flyer, 2015. All rights reserved. September 2015.

Executive Summary The most rewarding part of collecting frequent flyer points is spending them! Your hard-earned points can be used in many exciting ways, such as flying to exotic destinations all over the world for (almost) free! Or, if flying in comfort and luxury sounds appealing, your frequent flyer points can also secure an upgrade to Business or First class on your next flight. Frequent flyer points can be extremely valuable; but often the most difficult part is being able to use them effectively. If you’ve ever tried to use your points to book a free flight, you’ll know how frustratingly difficult it can be to find available reward flights. The number of award seats released by airlines is limited, so finding the needle in the haystack that is award availability can be a great challenge indeed. Luckily, there are numerous tools and strategies that can be used to find and secure the free flights you’ve worked hard to earn! This Guide will demonstrate a number of time-saving techniques using freely available resources provided by various airlines, that can be used to search for award availability quickly, accurately, and thoroughly. The Guide will also explain how to take advantage of the features of three powerful online tools that take the hard work out of finding award availability. These tools and strategies will help you to discover reward seats on flights you may have otherwise overlooked, while saving you many hours of searching. (AFF members are also entitled to free and/or discounted accounts on some of these tools!) Using frequent flyer points to upgrade to the pointy-end of the plane presents similar challenges. Upgrades are limited and it is not always possible to secure an upgrade to Business or First class. But don’t despair! The Guide explains how tools such as Expert Flyer can be used to maximise the chances of a successful upgrade. The Guide will focus on redeeming Qantas Frequent Flyer and Virgin Australia Velocity points, however the featured tools and strategies can be applied to any frequent flyer program. If you’ve been saving up for that dream flight in business or first class, you can’t afford to miss this Guide. Using the tools and strategies outlined in the Guide, you’ll never miss out on the perfect free flight again!



Contents Executive Summary .................................................................................................................... 2

Chapter 1: Use points for free flights ........................................................................................ 5

Qantas Frequent Flyer ........................................................................................................... 6

Oneworld awards ............................................................................................................... 6

Virgin Australia Velocity ......................................................................................................... 7

Other programs ...................................................................................................................... 7

Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer ............................................................................................... 7

American Airlines AAdvantage .......................................................................................... 8

Chapter 2: Introduction to finding Award Availability ............................................................... 9

Chapter 3: Find award availability on airline websites ............................................................ 11

Finding Qantas Frequent Flyer award availability ............................................................... 11

Qantas.com ...................................................................................................................... 11

British Airways website .................................................................................................... 13

Japan Airlines website...................................................................................................... 14

Award availability on other Qantas partners................................................................... 15

Finding Virgin Australia Velocity award availability ............................................................. 16

Other programs .................................................................................................................... 17

Oneworld ......................................................................................................................... 17

Star Alliance ..................................................................................................................... 17

SkyTeam ........................................................................................................................... 21

Alaska Airlines website .................................................................................................... 22

Chapter 4: Find award availability using specialised online tools ........................................... 23

KVS Availability Tool ............................................................................................................. 25

Use and features .............................................................................................................. 25

Pros & Cons ...................................................................................................................... 30

Subscription options ........................................................................................................ 30

Award Nexus ........................................................................................................................ 31

Use and features .............................................................................................................. 31

Pros & Cons ...................................................................................................................... 33


Expert Flyer .......................................................................................................................... 34

Use and features .............................................................................................................. 34



Flight Alerts ...................................................................................................................... 37

Pros & Cons ...................................................................................................................... 37


Chapter 5: Upgrade success strategies .................................................................................... 39

Qantas Frequent Flyer ......................................................................................................... 39

Virgin Velocity ...................................................................................................................... 40

Star Alliance & SkyTeam Upgrade Awards ...................................................................... 40

Upgrade waitlists: Use Expert Flyer to predict the chances of a successful upgrade ..... 41

How to interpret Expert Flyer flight loading data ............................................................ 42

Conclusion ................................................................................................................................ 45

Appendix: A complete summary of airline availability by website ..................................... 46



Chapter 2: Introduction to finding Award Availability Although points in any frequent flyer program can be used to fly on any partner airline, award flights must be booked directly with the program where the points were originally earned. For example, an award flight using Qantas points to fly on British Airways must be booked through Qantas. It is usually possible to book award travel online, however it will be necessary to call the airline in cases where availability is not displayed online. In addition to the number of points required for any redemption, it is usually necessary to pay any taxes with cash. Some airlines (e.g. Qantas, Singapore Airlines and British Airways) also impose fuel surcharges on top of the taxes. Other airlines (e.g. Virgin Australia, American Airlines and Alaska Airlines) do not levy fuel surcharges. It is usually not too difficult to find award availability during off-peak travel times, on domestic flights or in economy class. But due to very high demand (and limited supply), it may be difficult to find available seats:

On popular long-haul routes, including flights to Europe, South America or the USA

In premium cabins (Premium Economy, Business or First class), especially on international flights

During school holidays & other busy travel periods, or

For more than one person wanting to travel on the same flight. As a starting point, we’ve put together a list of tips and strategies that may assist in searching for award availability.

Be flexible – Search for flights on multiple dates, routes and airlines. For example, if flying to Europe, search for flights to multiple European cities. It may be the case that no flights are available to London, but they are available to Amsterdam or Frankfurt. With complicated bookings, it may be necessary to plan the trip around flight availability, and not the other way around.

Be creative – Think outside the box! For example, if looking for flights between Australia and the USA, consider flying via Asia. Also consider flying out of secondary airports. For example, for flights between Australia and Asia, search for flights out of left-field airports like Adelaide, Darwin or Cairns.

Search for availability on the longest sectors first, as these are usually the most difficult to find award seats on.

On routings where multiple connections are required, search for each segment one at a time.

Look for flights to/from the hub of an airline in the alliance you are using.



Use the highly useful Great Circle Mapper tool to calculate the distance of each sector.

Search for award availability on the date it is released. Locking in a seat as soon as possible is often the best strategy. The exact release times of award seats vary by airline, but here is a short summary of the number of days before each flight that award seats are released:

Cathay Pacific: 360 days

British Airways: 355 days

Singapore Airlines: 355 days

Qantas: 353 days (seats are released at midnight GMT, or about 10am AEST)

Emirates: 340 days

United: 338 days

Alaska Airlines: 331 days

American Airlines: 331 days

Delta: 331 days

Virgin Australia: 330 days (seats are released at midnight AEST)

Air France: 305 days

Many airlines release additional award seats closer to the date of the flight. Set an Expert Flyer alert to be informed immediately if a seat is released at any point. (This will be explained in more detail in Chapter 4.)

If you’re a Qantas Platinum or Platinum One member, try calling the Platinum hotline to request the release of an award seat. This is not an official status benefit, but it has been known to work if asked politely.

There have also been cases reported where Qantas customers have been able to book newly-released seats over the phone on the morning of their release (Australian time), before their online release at 10am AEST. This method will attract a $60 phone booking fee, however if it works, you will be able to get the seat/s you want before they have even been released online!

If you’re a Virgin Velocity Gold or Platinum member, don’t forget that Velocity has a “guaranteed award seat” benefit for up to 4 people for economy flights booked up to 6 months in advance.

If you find a seat you want, book it immediately! Don’t think about it for a few days, or want to wait for the return flight to be released, as the seat may be taken by someone else. (If you change your mind later, it is usually possible to cancel and receive a refund on the points, minus a small penalty. For Qantas, this penalty is 5,000 points.)

Sometimes finding award flights can be a challenge, but persistence and flexibility are key.



Appendix: A complete summary of airline availability by website As a summary of all of the information presented in this Guide, here is a (almost) complete list of airline websites and online tools that can be used to find award availability on most major airlines. Airlines are listed in alphabetical order. Of course, award availability can also be found on each airline’s own website.

KV

S Too

l

Aw

ard N

exu

s

Expert Flyer

AN

A

Air C

anad

a

Un

ited

British

Airw

ays

Qan

tas

JAL

Air Fran

ce

Alaska A

irlines

Oth

er

Adria Star LH

Aegean Airlines Star

Aer Lingus

Aeroflot SkyTeam 2 DL Aerolineas Argentinas SkyTeam DL

Aeromar

Aeromexico SkyTeam DL

Air Canada Star

Air China Star

Air Dolomiti LH

Air Europa SkyTeam

Air France SkyTeam DL

Air India Star

Air Malta

Air New Zealand Star

Air Seychelles

Air Tahiti Nui DL

Air Vanuatu

Airberlin oneworld

Aircalin

Airnorth

Alaska Airlines AA, DL

Alitalia SkyTeam DL

American Airlines oneworld

ANA Star 2

Asiana Airlines Star

Austrian Star

Avianca Star

Azul

Bangkok Airways

British Airways oneworld

Brussels Airlines Star LH

an expert guide to finding award availability - amazon s3 · x air france: 305 days x many ... x...

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