Why dont you do a REAL investigation into how difficult or easy it is to find BUSINESS CLASS seats to International ports for Qantas.

Why dont you do a REAL investigation into how difficult or easy it is to find BUSINESS CLASS seats to International ports for Qantas. I have a few hundred thousand points and I cannot find anything remotely suitable under their Classic system. I looked for LAX, DFW and HKG over the months from November through to June next year. For the most part they have nothing or a flight from BNE>>SYD>>DFW with an asterix saying the flight SYD>>DFW will be in economy. It would seem that they have no interest in satisfying their more regular customers. (I think it only fair to pint out that although a Lifetime Gold member, I hardly use Qantas these days because they have no services from MCY where I live).

QF J and F award seats need to be booked 365 days in advance. They are generally not available after this time. If you don't believe a FF program offers you value you should be looking at alternative programs.

The poor value of the QFF program is hardly a secret that needs to be 'exposed'. Why do you think QFF is the only profitable part of the QF group? 

Qantas's most popular routes for business class redemptions (SYD - North America) are also the routes on which they sell the most full price business class seats, which is ultimately more appealing to their bottom line than opening up seats for award bookings. 

Compounding the problem, the OneWorld rules stipulate that award seats open for one frequent flyer program must be open for all OneWorld FF redemptions.  While Qantas Frequent Flyer is a decent deal for Australians given the glut of points we can earn from credit cards and other domestic sources, Qantas's miles-per-award costs are far higher than a lot of ther OneWorld stablemates.  For instance, it is 120,000 miles to fly RETURN business class from Sydney - Dallas and back on US Airways.  Given the size of US Airways and American Airlines FF bases, as well as the significantly lower cost for redemption, a great deal of Qantas award space gets gobbled up by the Americans.

One thing working in your favour as a QFF member is that Qantas usually releases their award seats to QFF members a few weeks before they are available to other Frequent Flyer program members.  If you really want to redeem those points, I would recommend looking a year ahead.  You can usually find availability on even the most popular routes if you look a year in advance.

Keep in mind, Qantas partners with plenty of airlines which are a little more generous with their space.  In your example, you wanted to go to HKG.  Cathay Pacific will often open up business class space on their flights to HKG from SYD a few weeks before departure date.  Their product is widely considered to be better than Qantas's on ths route, so it may be an attractive option for you.

You need to book ahead. I was able to easily snag a Classic Award in Business from Sydney to Singapore in late November 2014.

But ultimately, if you're looking at redeeming on the QFi Australia - United States flights, you will find availability has been gobbled up. Start looking for oneworld awards via HKG or NRT.

Did you mean November 2015?

Unlikely, as those fares/seats for Novermber 2015 (or more than 12-months in advance) aren't available for any type of reservation yet.

No, I snagged one Classic Award for a one-way ticket for the following sectors, all on 29 Nov 2014:

QF421 SYD 0930 MEL 1105

QF35 MEL 1215 SIN 1710

3K677 SIN 1945 PEN 2115

Ticket issued 08 Sep 2014.

The port of departure inconveniences and the user-unfriendly departure times are typical of GF availability. If booking a year ahead doesn't really work for you, as suggested elsewhere here other OW airlines may be a better option. I have flown SYD-JFK via Narita and Seoul and found the experience reasonable.

reado,

Don't bother trying to redeem on Qantas. You won't get very far. 

Where do you want to go? I suggest flying out to Asia (Qantas has plenty Economy redemption seats to Singapore, Shanghai etc. There is also plenty of availability in Business on MH.

From Asia you have plenty of options with CX, MH, QR, BA, AA etc.

Economy redemptions are almost worthless with the fees having gone up so much.

I would recommend flying to America via HKG or NRT. Or for the hell of it, doing an RTW award for something like SYD-SIN-LHR-JFK on BA, then JFK-HKG-SYD on CX.

Totally agree, get to ASIA anyway you can then award seats in J/F out to USA or Europe, the number of seats availble from HKG, BKK, NRT & SIN on OW is amazing. 

Buy AA miles hit the yeary limit 2014,buy again Jan 1/2015 and you will get J/P seats on the routes you list.Just not on allways on the specific dates you request,and book early.Since eary 90,s i have found it much easier on the AA program then that of Qantas and that is also with QF plat status.

I followed advice here and bought 25000+55000  AA miles (the max possible) in July this year and bagged 20500 bonus miles. Will wait for next sale in 2015 for additional slice. US Airways was even more generous offering 100% bonus miles on 50000 mile purchase. With the 'pump priming' 10000 I paid normal price for earlier, I now have a Europe or US trip in J when I feel the urge.