Reward Seats for Flights from AUS to USA

Weasel on 21/05/2025 - 16:11
Last edited 21/05/2025 - 16:12

Hi All,

Im looking to travel to USA as family of 4 in June/July 2026 - business class if possible.

Ideal flight would be from Sydney to Dallas/Houston direct. However flexible with routes if needed from Brisbane/Melbourne or even Fiji stopover.

We have both velocity and Qantas points to use.

A few questions:

-What is the liklihood of finding 4 business class seats to the USA during this period? I was going to subscribe to a flight crawler for alerts. Is it even possible for 4 seats to open up at once?

-Is it possible to have a gold Qantas member book on my behalf or somehow gain status on Qantas? As the booking window opens much earlier for higher status.

Any advice or alternative options for us would be much appreciated.

We have travelled J class twice in the past with points to USA, however not as a family of 4.

Cheers.

Travel Airfare North America United States

Comments

  • MS Paint on 21/05/2025 - 16:18
    +5

    Too easy - parents in business, kids in cattle.

    It's the best way to assert dominance

    • Weasel on 21/05/2025 - 16:20

      Haha I wish, unfortunately kids are too young to sit alone.

      • MS Paint on 21/05/2025 - 16:21
        +3

        Book them in as unaccompanied minors (UMNR).

        16 hous of parental bliss in business class.

      • sumyungguy on 21/05/2025 - 16:42
        +3

        If too young to sit alone then wholly unworthy to travel in J; save your points for a later trip. If you're a points whale then please disregard my comment.

  • sumyungguy on 21/05/2025 - 16:22
    +1

    If you're not Platinum One expect there won't be four seats in J on the same flight; however splitting up in pairs could work.

    • Weasel on 21/05/2025 - 16:24

      Good to know - do you mean splitting up over different flights / itineraries?

      • sumyungguy on 21/05/2025 - 16:36
        +2

        Yes, I've done this before just to get the routing (Oneworld Classic Reward Zone 10) then later found four seats on the same flights… but only in economy. Demand leading up to the 5 August devaluation will be high.

        • Weasel on 21/05/2025 - 16:40

          Thanks. Yes that and the FIFA world cup will make it extremely busy/hard to get flights I think.

  • JimmyF on 21/05/2025 - 16:49
    +3

    Im looking to travel to USA as family of 4 in June/July 2026 - business class if possible.

    LOL not asking much….. 4 business class rewards seats on the same flight! Yikes!!

    • Weasel on 21/05/2025 - 16:50

      Yep thought Id ask the question - seems near impossible.

      • JimmyF on 21/05/2025 - 16:54
        +3

        Yeah it is a big ask! Even trying to find a pair of business reward seats is near impossible these days. Feels like they release 1 business reward seat per flight nowadays.

  • ryefig on 21/05/2025 - 16:56
    +2

    Once upon a time I would have said that this would be next to impossible (assuming you have enough points), but tourism to USA is down across the board. While chances are very slim, from now to the next few years you probably have the greatest chance of finding 4 x rewards seats to/from the USA.

    The very annoying part is Qantas do not release rewards seats on a regular cycle, instead they drop pockets of rewards seats whenever they feel like it. It is great you are plannign this well in advance, it will take a bit of effort and you may need to be flexible, but it's certainly not impossible.

    • Weasel on 21/05/2025 - 17:19

      We are flexible with dates around that period, so hopefully something opens up and we get lucky. Fiji airways Syd to Dallas seems like our best shot.

      • sumyungguy on 21/05/2025 - 17:26
        +1

        Qantas says from 1 October, seats on Hawaiian Airlines will become available for Classic Reward redemptions

        • Weasel on 21/05/2025 - 17:32

          Thanks and noted - This will be at the higher points rate effective from August, still would look into it.

      • ryefig on 22/05/2025 - 08:59
        +1

        I know you want business but if that fails and you have to pay for tickets, but don't want to fork out business class - Air NZ have this thing called a skycouch where you can purchase the whole row of seats and there is an extendable footrest that lifts up to make the row a bed.

        For the 4 of you, you could purchase 2 rows. It's probably not suitable for 2 grown adults to lie down but the extra space to stretch out is nice. Not sure on your ages but I had a friend with a toddler use this and apparently it was a lifesaver. it gave the toddler enough space to lie down and sleep and just have some space for most of the trip. There are lots of reviews on youtube/tiktok etc. It does require a stop in Auckland obviously but could be a reasonable way to survive the journey if you do have to fly economy.

        • Weasel on 22/05/2025 - 09:37

          I'll look into it, thanks

        • SlickMick on 22/05/2025 - 10:59

          What is the cost of that vs business class? It sounds great i.e. really expensive.

          • ryefig on 22/05/2025 - 13:04

            @SlickMick: Can't remember the cost but it's definitely MUCH cheaper than business. It's not pocket change though, you are purchasing an entire row of seats.

            • SlickMick on 22/05/2025 - 13:54

              @ryefig: Yeah I could never justify business class, I'm guessing this either.

              My wife reckons I'm a spendthrift for wasting $5(?) to choose a seat.

              • ryefig on 22/05/2025 - 14:47

                @SlickMick: Wasting, no.
                Investing in your comfort over a xx hours long flight, yes!

  • dantrax77 on 21/05/2025 - 17:41
    +1

    The World Cup is on at that time in the USA.

    You are kidding yourself if you think price-gouging Qantas, or any other airline for that matter, is going to give you 4 cheap points business class seats.

    • Weasel on 21/05/2025 - 17:59

      One can dream.

      • Muppet Detector on 21/05/2025 - 19:37
        +2

        There is probably a tariff on dreams.

    • TEER3X on 21/05/2025 - 18:35

      I was considering going to the US to watch the world cup (plus Canada and Mexico), but then realised I'm not that rich and will just go somewhere else

      I'll watch some games on TV, and place some bets with the money I saved from not going to the actual world cup

  • jv on 21/05/2025 - 17:58
    -5

    Give Albo a call…

    "…soon after Albanese became Prime Minister in 2022 he asked (Qantas CEO Alan) Joyce to make his son Nathan a member too.”

  • MELso on 21/05/2025 - 18:25

    Question: how many points do you have?

    (I've seen lots of posts the gist of which is 'I want to take my family to the US/Europe during the school holidays next month in business class on points. 100,000 points should be enough for that, right?')

    • Weasel on 21/05/2025 - 18:29

      We have over 550k of both velocity and qantas.

      • sumyungguy on 21/05/2025 - 18:43
        +3

        SYD–LAX–DFW–LAX–SYD in J costs 253,000 per person

        • capslock on 21/05/2025 - 21:13

          Will increase to 303,600 Qantas points per person on Aug 5. Even if there were 4 business class seats available you'll need over 1.2 million points.

          • Weasel on 22/05/2025 - 09:37

            @capslock: Yes was planning on doing one leg each way with virgin and qantas or either of their partner airlines.

    • sumyungguy on 21/05/2025 - 18:31

      The opposite end of the spectrum: "Churned a squillion points and cleared my calendar to redeem four round-the-world tickets in First for July this year… but how come there are no seats?"

  • MS Paint on 21/05/2025 - 20:57
    +2

    This just came through my meme feed and I immediately thought of you OP…

    Exhibit A

    • sumyungguy on 21/05/2025 - 21:12
      +1

      Can't recall any special nuggets, but I travelled to Billund Denmark to eat Lego-shaped fries

    • Weasel on 21/05/2025 - 21:23
      +1

      This will be the special requested kids meal in J class.

  • ol mate on 24/05/2025 - 21:56

    UA likes to drop a lot of outward J tickets around 14 days before departure - I've seen 5+ tickets on some flights (BNE-SFO is common).

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