SYD-HNL on Qantas, any chance of J award seats as a QFF platinum?

Hi everyone,

I am hoping to get some advice and insights into what I can book in terms of J award seats when I become a platinum with Qantas.

I will become platinum this September and I have learnt from forums here that one of the unpublished perks of being a platinum is the ability to "request" award seats to be released if there are still "I" tickets available. I am looking at a possible trip for my family to Hawaii for the April school holiday 2019 and there are currently no J award seats on Qantas whatsoever even for golds. So I am just wondering if any of you have had experience having J award seats SYD-HNL released to platinums, in that case I will wait until September when I become platinum to try, or is this just an impossible route to get J award seats, and in this case I will look to Virgin/Hawaii option. Ideally I would like two award seats and will be purchasing one commercial seat.

Many thanks.

With regards,

Trying to get one seat released for a busy travel period (school holidays) to Hawaii only about 6 months out would be very difficult let alone two one would think.

Platinums may request seats be released shortly after the initially released seats are snapped up (QF may not have any award seats if they expect to be able to sell all the seats) rather than waiting that long.

No harm in trying but I wouldn’t count on getting what you want.

You do need to be flexible with travel dates when requesting seats be released.

Well you can try.

As it is not a peak business route then J seats for award should be available. You get notified a couple of days out. I have had no problem except for Singapore at a peak time and Syd LHR and Syd LA which are much harder to get. I will try for a Y to PE on the Perth London flight but that may be tricky given it’s pop as a business route.

By the way a family group is say 4 will be much trickier.

As P1 my wife and I have never had a problem getting a business upgrades on this sector.your p and should have no problem,just be flexible.the flight service manager on the last time I took this flight said the business cabin HNL flights is full of most all upgraded pax and little to no business travel demand.and no person in their right mind will ever pay the business fares Qantas demand.

I don’t like your chances for school holidays if there are no seats now.

Stupid question but I assume that asking for “I” release as an award is only applicable for Qantas operates flight?

Thank you everyone, your advice is very much appreciated. I think I will wait until I become platinum in September and try my luck, and as many of you have advised, be flexible with my dates, there is a little room that I can be flexible. I am very excited about becoming platinum soon, and am very much looking forward to the additional perks over gold, eg finally getting to the international F lounge in Sydney!

I booked an award seat for my wife to Santiago in J for the September school holidays. Tried my luck online but they nothing was showing up. I then rang Qantas the first 2 agents I spoke to where of little help and one didn’t even know they flew to Santiago. Third time lucky I got to an agent who was very helpful and requested a seat for the dates I wanted and got them confirmed. He was so good that we were able to make sure that my wife was on the same flights as my daughter which were paid tickets. Being Platinum helped.

Just out of interest, does anyone know what lounges Qantas offered in Sydney pre the current First class lounge (2007)