Why it’s almost impossible to book a flight with points right now

I had 400000 asiamiles expiring October (twice extended form 2020) in the old scheme. So have been playing forward in anticipation of this, and potentially a big point loss

Had some trips cancelled under Covid but there is no fee for cancellations. Few extra points and I have 2pax times 2 business to Europe, 1 August 22 and the other April 23… (plus a leg in first to look forward to)

I would hazzard a guess that the airlines are more interested to see fresh cash in their bank account rather than pay out on an IOU. The IOU is after all only that, and doesn't pay bills.

We have been able to book classic reward tickets Australia / US on Qantas…..8-9 months out.  Needs planning but doable.  

This is so true. Although based in Australia I normally buy my return tickets originating I’m Europe because they’re much cheaper. So after being stranded in Australia during covid I had to take a one way positioning flight to Europe to restart the cycle.

I’m Turkish Airlines Gold and there was some economy partner availability but I’m 6’4” so that wasn’t going to work. Thanks to the usual search engines by booking class I managed to get a Thai award flight from SIN-BKK-ARN and I had to purchase premium economy on SYD-SIN.

Perfect solutions are like hen’s teeth right now so it pays to investigate all other options.

Searching for J class seats to any destination in the USA from any Australian destination for April  2023 on QF. Bronze status doesn't give any options

there also seems to be limited Emirates seats / flights for QF members. Qatar have economy seats available on most bookings, limited premium seats.

Biggest problem I have found for Reward Seats to / from Canada (Ski Season) in J is you might snag one leg out but find it impossible to find a return reward leg. Stuck with an OK outbound flight and no Inbound flight available either cancel the reward outbound flight and book a normal $ fare or pay for a one way flight at huge cost.

Booked BNE/DOH/SFO J for 2 Just before Easter next year using Avios. Certainly the long way round but needed to burn the miles. Returning SFO/SIN/BNE J for 2 April Next Year using KrisFlyer before they expired. The secret was book as soon as seats released - and think outside the box :)

It amuses me that this is seen as a current issue due to the world situation. It has always been thus. 

With a normal annual balance of ca. 800,000 QF points, my ability to use them over many years, other than on internal Australian hops, has always been absurdly limited. The whole QF FF scheme has always smelt like a scam to me, rather than a genuine "loyalty" program. We have been loyal to Qantas for decades and use them or their affiliates for large amounts of travel, internationally in Business, and often at inflated QF fares, but we receive SFA in terms of loyalty payback. 

Eventually we started to look around for the best biz class international fares for our annual European trips because of these factors and because using QFF "loyalty" points is almost impossible. I say "almost" because my wife, due to her incredible persistence and devotion to the task, actually managed to score the Holy Grail, a QF Business class return MEL-LHR about 9 months ahead of travel dates. That was in 2019, then Covid arrived and that was it. Points were reimbursed after 3 or 4 months, but what use are they? And to add insult to injury my Gold status was lost due to QF's Covid era policies, when my normal travel would have retained my status. 

Interestingly, I am also a member of United's Mileage Plus, and although the scheme seems to promise less than Qantas, it is actually usable with much less fuss. Add in the questionable morality of Qantas's use of the Jobkeeper fund and we will definitely go elsewhere in future. And those QF points will be gifted to our kids for their Oz holidays.

I am not a big defender of Qantas but in reply to rambler I was in same situation and managed to book J class to LA in April and London in December. I am Platinum and QF have maintained over the last 2 years so no complaints although recent business travel will likely see me retain this year. I am surprised you lost Gold when you only needed to make one flight to retain.

If you apply morality filters there aren't many airlines you can fly on.

Will be in UK/EU later in the year and just booked J class fares with QF points to a number of different cities on airlines including BA and AF.

While I'm at it I've have had some awesome discussions with the QF call center crew, fixing my stuff ups and flight changes, and the wait times have decreased significantly.

Just came across this forum after trying to lock in a QF Business rewards flight any day of 2023 (till June) . It is impossible unless you are prepared to spend a ridiculous amount of points  [800k to 1.2M points]. I dare to say it should be illegal if you think how much money you would have had to spend to accumulate that amount of points, either flying or through credit card spending.  Could't agree more with @traveller90, they should also be called to account for many of they actions.  Any other airlines is a better choice. I have opted for Singapore Airlines.