QFF Platinum requesting release of extra Classic Reward seats?

[bussyboy]

Term of the day "Team Coach".

Is this "forcing" policy directly related to successful award releases only?

Different to "supervisor" or "manager"

I my call centre days, I always told people who wanted to go that way that supervisors and managers were just that - decisions were made by front-line staff. And this was well supported.

 

[Brettmcg]

Term of the day "Team Coach".

Is this "forcing" policy directly related to successful award releases only?

Yes, all standalone requests are subject to the usual Domestic subclasses being available: N for Economy and D for Business.

 

[fletty]

Thanks all for the info, much appreciated. I have a status run next week to obtain WP and classic reward seat releases is one of drivers for that!

 

[fletty]

13th Nov 2025, SYD-SIN QF1 F9A9 success for 2pax! Got the domestic connection in J as well which was no issue as discussed earlier in the thread.

 

[dairyfloss]

13th Nov 2025, SYD-SIN QF1 F9A9 success for 2pax! Got the domestic connection in J as well which was no issue as discussed earlier in the thread.

Well done! We may need to sticky this one so people stop asking about whether or not it can be done!

 

[Jousams]

25 Jun 2025 - 1 x Business DFW-MEL (QF22) - success.
Also requested DFW-SYD (QF8) in anticipation of a decline but also come though successful.

(didn’t check loadings)

Didn’t have to try other dates or other departure points. Feels odd… Have done a lot of Transpac requests in the last 18 months and DFW was generally my first preference but always got decline, no matter how many dates I tried.

 

[_TheTraveller_]

Any recent requests for PER-LHR? I'm currently on SYD-LHR on QF1 in F but would really like to try PER-LHR and would be happy with J.

Edit: FWIW, it's I2 and late Feb.

 

[Economy_Gold]

25 Jun 2025 - 1 x Business DFW-MEL (QF22) - success.
Also requested DFW-SYD (QF8) in anticipation of a decline but also come though successful.

(didn’t check loadings)

Didn’t have to try other dates or other departure points. Feels odd… Have done a lot of Transpac requests in the last 18 months and DFW was generally my first preference but always got decline, no matter how many dates I tried.

I might be wrong, but I have a strong hunch that US flights will be easier to get in future as I think the Presidential election outcome will put a small damper on demand - and keep in mind, given the massive volume of available seats AUS-USA, even a small percentage drop in demand can lead to cheaper airfaires and / or more reward seats being made available.

 

[SydneySwan]

I might be wrong, but I have a strong hunch that US flights will be easier to get in future as I think the Presidential election outcome will put a small damper on demand

I agree and will be imposing my own travel ban to the US from Jan 2025 for 4 years following my previous self-imposed 4 year ban from 2017. Fortunately the world is a big place and there are plenty of other countries to visit.

 

[kangarooflyer88]

Some more data points on my final day as World Platinum:

• QF27 SYD > SCL : requested 3 J seats on 28 March (showing I3) declined
• QF27 SYD > SCL : requested 3 J seats on 3 April (showing I7) - declined
• QF27 SYD > SCL : requested 1 J seats on 23 May (showing I5) - declined

May attempt to get a PY seat released for relative tonight before the party is over.

-RooFlyer88

 

[serfty]

Yes, all standalone requests are subject to the usual Domestic subclasses being available: N for Economy and D for Business.

These are different fare buckets to that posted by @madrooster ...

The written policy is that the domestic connection can be manually forced in as long as C class is available for J, or S class is available for Y, on the domestic on a standalone basis (eg. looking at just SYD-MEL separately as if it were a new commercial booking).

 

[Brettmcg]

This somewhat contradicts that posted by @madrooster ...

I don't think it does. @madrooster will correct me if wrong, but I believe what he was saying is that the domestic connector can be forced in subject to those specific subclasses being available when looking at the domestic segment in isolation, rather than as married segments (i.e. through-availability with the international seat release) which is how commercial bookings are pieced together.

 

[madrooster]

This somewhat contradicts that posted by @madrooster ...

No it does not. @Brettmcg is referring to standalone domestic bookings where there are no international segments whereas I am referring to domestics that connect to an international segment.

 

[serfty]

I don't think it does. @madrooster will correct me if wrong, but I believe what he was saying is that the domestic connector can be forced in subject to those specific subclasses being available when looking at the domestic segment in isolation, rather than as married segments (i.e. through-availability with the international seat release) which is how commercial bookings are pieced together.

There is some variance.

Generally, S and C represent higher cost fare categories than N and D respectively.

i.e. C is more likely to be available on a flight than D. Same for S over N.

Domestically C is considered "Business" whereas D is "Business Sale".

https://www.qantas.com/au/en/frequent-flyer/earn-points/airline-earning-tables/earn-category-tables.html#qantas

 

[Brettmcg]

There is some variance.

Generally, S and C represent higher cost fare categories than N and D respectively.

For example, C is considered "Business" whereas D is "Business Sale".

https://www.qantas.com/au/en/frequent-flyer/earn-points/airline-earning-tables/earn-category-tables.html#qantas

N and D are the respective subclasses required if just asking for a seat to be released on a domestic route.

According to @madrooster that moves up to S and C class respectively for the domestic sector only of an award booking in which there has also been an international segment released. In a normal commercial bookings you'd have to look at end to end availability (i.e. HND-SYD-MEL would all have to have the right subclass available) whereas in this scenario, HND-SYD would have to have I class for WP or D class for P1 available to make the international segment request, then the connecting domestic segment can be forced in as long as C class would be available on the SYD-MEL if you just looked at that as a standalone segment.

Does that make sense?

 

[serfty]

Sorry, I'm not understanding the relevance of that to what we're talking about here?

Apologies; just making sure there is clarity highlighting the difference in the indicated fare bucket requirements for a domestic flight connecting to an international flight for which a seat has been released against that for a standalone domestic flight when requesting an extra classic award release.

 

[serfty]

No it does not. @Brettmcg is referring to standalone domestic bookings where there are no international segments whereas I am referring to domestics that connect to an international segment.

Apologies, I worded it incorrectly, fixed.

 

[kangarooflyer88]

Just to clarify a misconception some have: there are requirements for agents to be able to request a seat be released. These are well publicized and can be checked rapidly either via the Qantas website or by specialized tools like ExpertFlyer. However, just because they can request the seat doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll get it. Indeed there could be 9 or more seats available as a business sale fare and that’s still not enough to get a seat released on an international flight. How Qantas decides whether to approve the request remains shrowded in mystery. There does not seem to be any hard or fast rules and is very much at the whims of revenue management

 

[OATEK]

Rang QF today requesting release of 2xPE seats SYD-SIN for 30/4/2025. EF said QF291 was W9 R9 T9 Z0, so figured I was in with a chance. The agent had a strong accent and we struggled with a couple of words here and there, but it was all approved and ticketed immediately. This will be a positioning flight for our next big trip.

 

[Boeyn]

Was just unsuccessful (as a WP) in trying to get 2 x J seats released on one of the following flights:

07JUN25 QF127 SYD-HKG I7
07JUN25 QF029 MEL-HKG I3
08JUL25 QF060 HND-SYD I2

The flights to HKG got put to the droid first, then I decided to check the outbound leg from HND in a separate request.