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GoPro is ready. This is gonna be an epic trip report.
At just 70k miles and $35, Qantas First Class is one of the single best redemptions you can make with Alaska Miles. The problem is finding availability…it’s virtually impossible. Qantas releases some seats when the schedule opens, but other that that, there isn’t really any way, with certainty, to plan for availability. You can’t even rely on last minute space. Unlike Cathay, JAL, or Lufthansa, who regularly release seats within 14 days, Qantas does not institute this practice, and instead will fly the cabin empty, or just partially full. As luck would have it, my first trip down under will start in Qantas First Class with my girlfriend, and I couldn’t be more excited.
What will the experience be like?
It’ll start in the Qantas First Class lounge at LAX where they have sit down dining, great champagne, and amazing food. You can read my review by clicking above.
The onboard experience.
Then the onboard experience on the A380. 14 seats. 1-1-1 configuration. 15 hours and 50 mins of first class indulgence. I selected two window seats: 1A and 2A
Alaska gives you your Qantas record locator as well, so I headed on over and selected our seats. Completely empty cabin. Much like Cathay Pacific, the A line has its own aisle. Where as the K line shares the aisle with the F line.
We will get to dine together, and I hear the food is quite good.
Bubbly? They serve a $200 bottle of Pol Roger Sir Winston Churchill Champagne. YES, PLEASE!
And then when it’s time to sleep off some of that nearly 16 hour flight…
How did I find the space?
One easy way to do it is to set alerts on ExpertFlyer. Expertflyer is a great resource for travel aficionados and I use it daily in my award booking service. Below is an example of how alerts work, and when they become available, an email is sent to you notifying you.
The only problem with this situation is that Alaska doesn’t have access to ALL partner award avail. So this may prompt you that seats are available, but those seats may not be specifically available to Alaska. So I also searched using Alaska’s own search engine.
Searching with Alaska
The easiest way to search is using Calendar view. The more you search the savvier you’ll become with pricing, and you’ll be able to pinpoint the dates that correspond to airline that has availability. Since we know that 70k is the one way price for First Class on Qantas, that’s what we are looking to find. See all those 225k…that’s Emirates ( and most dates…it’s not even First Class the whole journey)
Ultimately, we booked dates that worked for our schedule and paid just 70k +$35 a ticket. B-YAH!
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Congrats on finding a real needle in the haystack there! We were looking at this a few years ago, trying to get 4 seats ORD-Australia and ultimately wound up in J on CX through HKG traveling July last year. Still a great way to get there and back, albeit longer. Enjoy your trip!
A true ‘unicorn’ redemption – a great find. Easily the most comfortable way to fly to Australia, but don’t set your hopes too high for the onboard catering out of LAX – it’s generally very ordinary, even in F. I tend to have a good meal in the F lounge, where the food is much better, and then focus on the wine list and snacks on board (which I prefer anyway, given the often-delayed late evening departures). Ex-Australia, the food onboard is much better, and departure times are more conducive to enjoying it as well. Enjoy your flight, and your time in our great southern land.
Nice! Do you know how you’ll return yet? What will your strategy for finding return flights be?
Luke – right now we don’t have any returns…first choice would be more Qantas =) I’m tracking CX space as they fly the A350 to HKG which I’ve yet to review. Would be nice to do a stopover there and continue on back to the states in F – great deal for only 80k AS. We may end up buying something originating in southeast asia as we plan to head back that way later this year from Europe – Qatar has been publishing some insane fares so if the $ is right we may just jump on that.
Congrats- that’s awesome! I’ve been able to find a lot of dates where Qantas makes 1 F seat available, but this is the first I’ve heard of someone actually finding TWO together!
So excited…now we just need a ride back =)
Your girlfriend had better appreciate this experience 🙂
So stoked!
Oh… April 1. Are you sure that isn’t an April Fools seat?
Well…. were waiting… what are the dates? Mid winter? Summer? Shoulder? 3 years from now? 😉
haha – i’m excited. trip is in a couple of months, April 1 was just another day that showed avail…