I have been saving frequent flier miles to be able to fly Business class from the US to Australia in October 2004. I have been trying, unsuccessfully, to get seats. I am not being picky, as I will accept any flights from mid September through mid November, but have been told no Business class seats have been made available for any flights during that time. I can fly on either United or Qantas and have been told by both that Business class seats are controlled by sales, and that seats may or may not ever open, but economy class seats are available. Has anyone else had similar problems? Or success stories? Or advice on how to actually get business class seats? Thanks...I am getting a bit frustrated by the whole process.

Kev1561

I have been told on several occasions by the airlines that frequent flier passengers reserve international seats a year ahead and are almost impossible to come by.

This proved to be true when we went to Europe in 2003, and again for our flight to Australia in March, arranged in November 2003. Nothing available except for a one way segment Toronto-Vancouver (this is on Air Canada), and who wants to spend 100,000 points pp on that? After trying various partners, we had to settle for economy, a real disappointment since we're celebrating our 50th anniversary and were basking in the idea of being pampered in business class seats.

I still check from time to time, which is what you should do -- actually, on an everyday basis is not overdoing it because you never know when someone might cancel.

Good luck; good trip.

Michi,
Thanks for the reply. I actually started a year in advance, and was told they don't open seats until 11 months in advance. Tried again then, and was told they wouldn't open until 10 months in advance. Have been trying almost daily since then without luck, and was told that it was not that all the frequent flier seats were booked, but they had not yet become available. Don't know if this is just a line, or if they truly have not become available yet. Thanks again.

Hi Kev,

We used United miles for business class Tix. We were told that there were only a maximum of 6 business class seats available on each transpacific flights for each day. United advised us to book at the earlieast possible moment, that is 330 days ahead of return flight. We booked June 20, 03 for our April 11- May 14, 04 trip.
You may need to reschedule further out if you want those business class seats.
Good luck,
AndrewDavid

Kev,

Since I knew the various planes going to Sydney by Air Canada, I looked up the actual planes (which could change). Some had as many as 15 or more business class seats (if I remember correctly), but probably only a few are for points.

Have you considered booking economy, and getting wait listed for Business? I don't know if they'll do this if they haven't released seats yet, but it might be worth looking into.

We used UAL FF miles for 2 first class to tickets to Autralia and returning from New Zealand.

Although we booked 330 days in advance, We were wait listed for one leg of our flight. When we arrived in LAX, we were met by a UAL person holding a sign with our names. They informed us that we had cleared first for the rest of the trip. We definitely got lucky.

The problem with being wait listed is that 1k's seem to always go to the top of the list. The award does not go the the person that has been on the wait list the longest. That being the case, there is no way to really know where you stand on the wait list.

Oops..got cut off.

My advice, is to keep trying. I called ffrequently to keep updating the status of my request for first.

I was successful with reserving two business class tickets to australia (first class usa) through American/Qantas but I made the reservation the day the tickets opened up. We are leaving the third week of june 2004 and the tickets were posted the last week in July 2003. However, they did not come up the day I was told they would be available. Luckily I was in a habit of calling everyday and happened to call when the tickets were first made available (a couple days earlier than I was told they would be).

You might be a bit luckier if you try a split trip with stopover, say Economy LA to Hon and then try for Qantas Hon - Syd on business. There are some routes which are not as busy as others and if you get to talk to someone at the airlines who will help you may find an alternative.

Agree with LizF - try for the upgrade on the longest leg of the trip. Though I don't know your exact routing, flying trans-con in Canada is not all that terrible in Economy, but the longer leg onto SYD is what you really want.

We did that for a trip to Thailand - took the Business upgrade on the 12-hrs JFK/NRT, but were in Economy from NRT/BKK (6-hrs). Though we did waitlist ourselves for the shorter leg - didn't get it, the plane was full.

But do, at least, book your Economy seats so as not to get locked-out completely - and waitlist and follow-up regularly. For the Economy seats, do ascertain what the minimum fare tickets you must purchase that is upgradeable.

Hi! We just booked a very complicated business class ticket through American/Qantas/Cathay Pacific going NY-SFO-Hong Kong-Tokyo-Cairns-Sydney-Auckland-LA. We have been working with American on it on a daily basis for about 3 weeks. Our trip is in August and we ran into the same snag with seats not being open. We tried all different routing, were flexible (somewhat) on our days, and just kept calling back. We used the internet to look up flights/routing and then called with different options.

A word of advice- we are gold members but we found out if you talk to anyone that answers the phone in the gold department they are technicly allocated only 6 minutes per call! We asked for a supervisor on several occasions when our plans got tricky and had WONDERFUL help from them in planning our trip. I spent over an hour and a half on several occasions on the phone trying to get the seats.

Have you called Qantas directly? I had trouble getting the answer I wanted from US Airways when I inquired about Business Class (August) and/or Coach Class FF miles for DEC/JAN.

We are currently booked in August on FF miles from PIT to LAX to AUCKLAND to MELBOURNE then return to LAX - PIT in August but I called the 330 days out to reserve them.

We weren't sure how many miles we would earn the rest of the year and decided to go COACH! GASP!! Since our maiden voyage to OZ was Business class I don't know how we will fare in Cattle Call! BUT it is FREE so how much complaining can one do?!

We now have the extra FF miles to spare for the Business class but now NOTHING is available! Qantas rep told me to call back all the time b/c hold seats and then give them up and those reward seats become available---all the time.

Unfortunately we couldn't make our minds up for a new date change in Dec and when I called last week they were completely sold out. Being the Xmas holidays I can't wait to see if those seats become available. So we are sticking with our original August dates instead. Crappier weather but less crowds I hope!

Call Qantas directly and ask them if the seats have been released. We flew in OCTOBER for our honeymoon on Bus Class US Airways/Qantas and called the 330 out with NO problems.

BE persistent and call as much as you can! The rep at Qantas told me it was their job to look up seat availability!

I hope we can upgrade to Bus Class! I don't want to share an aisle with a stranger for 20 hours!! I will be stuck in the middle since my hubby sleeps against the window

I was discussing this with a friend this evening.

He was able to get a business class flight, on points, with Qantas, from LA to Sydney, around mid-October, with plenty of choice. After that, it was impossible.