Unicorn: Qantas First Class Award Seat Opens Up Los Angeles-Sydney

Intro

When it comes to booking award seats in First Class for a long-haul flight using points on a partner program, there might be none harder than Qantas First Class. Well, I happened to be browsing American Airlines today (what the average person does at 2 pm on a Tuesday), and found a seat!

One Seat: The Whole Year

For those unaware, Qantas operates a fleet of Airbus A380s serving the likes of Singapore, Los Angeles, Dallas, and a couple of other destinations with a first class. As of now, this is the only aircraft that features First Class in its fleet.

Award availability is almost impossible to come by for their First Class product through a partner program, but there is one seat still available on August 21st on QF12 from Los Angeles to Sydney. The cost comes out to 110,000 AA Miles (not sure if bookable through BA/JL/CX) and minimal fees, and it is still showing as available.

The only seat across the whole calendar year

This is practically unheard of, especially on a Thursday night down to Sydney. Oftentimes, saver space down to Sydney can be found in Business on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Wednesdays, but Thursday is quite impressive to find.

This goes to show that there is no rhyme to the reason behind Qantas releasing first-class seats. They do not release them close in, nor do they release them at the scheduled opening.

Final Thoughts

Honestly, by the time someone reads this, I expect this award to be gone. However, the moral of the story here is that no award is unbookable with enough patience and research. Put in the time (sadly), and you will most likely be rewarded eventually. A prime example is a 12,000 USD ticket for 110K miles.

Unfortunately, I can't book it as I have to be in Canada, but it goes through to the ticketing page.