Until Friday, you can get 25% off Qantas Classic Rewards for travel in Economy Class. The discount applies to all award flights on Qantas, Jetstar or Emirates.
The 25% discount is valid for travel from 14 October 2018 until 29 August 2019 for travel on Qantas or Emirates, or until 30 June 2019 for travel on Jetstar.
When booking on the Qantas website, the 25% discount will only be applied once you get to the final payment page. The full price will still be shown initially when searching for Classic Reward flights.
Unfortunately, the discount is not available on Qantas award flights in Premium Economy, Business or First Class. The discount is also not available if the itinerary includes any flights on an airline other than Qantas, Jetstar or Emirates.
The discount applies only to the Qantas points required, and not the Qantas-imposed carrier charges or taxes payable in addition to the points. As one AFF member discovered, these can add up to hundreds of dollars for some award bookings – especially on long-haul international flights.
I looked at two rtn flights SYD-SIN – will cost 112K in points [before the 25% discount]. But $679 in fees! Forget it. That’s one ticket (or less on Scoot). If you could move a slider to cover the fees with points like VA I’d consider.
This is quite a good deal though for domestic flights, where airfares are normally high but the number of points and taxes payable for an award are relatively low. For example, with 25% off Qantas Classic Rewards you can book an Economy flight from Canberra to Brisbane for 6,000 Qantas points and $57.52 in taxes. A paid airfare would normally cost at least $200. In another example, Qantas flights from Broome to Perth are now available for just 9,000 points and $54.08 in taxes.
On the Sydney-Melbourne route, Jetstar flights are now available for just 4,800 points and $29.98 in taxes and charges. When redeeming Qantas points to fly Jetstar, 20kg of baggage is included.
Perhaps the ultimate use of points during the current deal is from Sydney or Brisbane to Lord Howe Island. Award availability to Lord Howe Island is normally very limited, but there are currently some dates available for travel during the promotional period. Taking advantage of the 25% off Qantas Classic Rewards, you would pay just 12,000 Qantas points and $169 round-trip.
Paid airfares on the same flights would cost $1,314!
Qantas runs a similar promotion around twice per year. The last deal – 30% off Economy award flights – was back in March 2018. However, previous promotions have not included award travel on Emirates. Emirates flies a range of routes to and from Australia, so this discount could be useful to some people. As well as flights from most major Australian cities to Dubai (and onwards to Europe, the Middle East and Africa), Emirates has a range of fifth-freedom flights out of Australia. You can fly Emirates from Sydney-Christchurch, Sydney-Bangkok, Melbourne-Singapore and Brisbane-Singapore.
Join the discussion on the Australian Frequent Flyer forum: 25% off reward sale
