Beginner’s Guide to Collecting Qantas Points

Qantas Frequent Flyer is Australia’s largest frequent flyer program. The loyalty program of Qantas, members can earn points towards rewards like flights and upgrades, as well as status credits which count towards earning status.

Once you’ve signed up for free (use one of these links to save $99.50!), it’s time to start collecting Qantas points. These are the “currency” of the Qantas Frequent Flyer program.

In this beginner’s guide, we’ll show you the different ways you can earn Qantas points – getting you closer to your next reward!

Earning Qantas points from flying

There are two main ways to earn Qantas Frequent Flyer points – in the air or on the ground. Let’s start by looking at how to earn points from flights…

You can earn points when flying with Qantas by adding your frequent flyer number to your booking.

The number of points earned per flight depends on the route, class of travel and your type of ticket. For example, Economy Flex and Business Class fares earn more points than the cheaper Economy Red e-Deal tickets.

You can check the tables on the Qantas website or the Qantas Points Calculator to see how many points you’ll earn for any given flight. Note that there’s a “minimum points guarantee” of 800 points whenever you fly Qantas.

Collecting Qantas points on partner airlines

You can also earn points by flying with any of Qantas’ partner airlines. This includes all Oneworld airlines and around nine additional Qantas partners that are not part of the Oneworld alliance.

The following carriers are members of the Oneworld alliance:

Here are the other airlines that you can earn Qantas points with:

• Air France
• China Eastern
• El Al
• Emirates
• Fiji Airways
• Jetstar
• KLM
• LATAM Airlines
• Westjet

Jetstar is Qantas’ low-cost subsidiary. When flying with Jetstar, you’ll only earn Qantas points when booking a fare with a Flex, Flex Plus or Max bundle.

In addition, you can collect points with other partners such as China Airlines, Bangkok Airways and Air Tahiti Nui when booking a Qantas codeshare flight with a “QF” flight number.

See our guide to calculating how many Qantas points you’ll earn flying partner airlines for details.

You don’t earn points when travelling on Classic Flight Reward bookings.

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Earning Qantas points on the ground

Despite being a frequent flyer program, around 60% of Qantas points are not actually earned from Qantas or Jetstar flights! The majority of Qantas points are earned through third-party partners such as banks and retailers.

If you live in Australia, there are many different ways to earn Qantas points without flying. Here are 24 of the most popular methods:

Spending on or signing up for a Qantas Points-earning credit card

Booking accommodation with Qantas Hotels or Airbnb

Converting Woolworths Everyday Rewards points to Qantas Frequent Flyer

Shopping online through the Qantas Shopping online mall or Qantas Marketplace

Buying wine from Qantas Wine

Filling up at BP petrol stations

Taking out a Qantas Insurance policy

Booking on Qantas Activities (Viator)

Hiring a car from Avis or Budget

Booking event tickets with Ticketek

Qantas Money home loans

Trading shares with Superhero

Watching a movie at HOYTS

Signing up for a BINGE streaming account

Completing your step & sleep targets in the Qantas Wellbeing App

Riding to or from selected Australian airports with Uber

Switching to Red Energy and paying your bills

Booking a holiday with TripADeal

Getting a hearing check or buying a hearing aid from Audika

Booking a pet sitter from Mad Paws via Qantas Pet Sitting

Completing Red Planet surveys

Signing up with HelloFresh

Using the Qantas Pay travel money card

Booking a cruise with Qantas Cruises

Some of these methods of earning Qantas points are even free!

The Qantas website has a complete list of frequent flyer program partners.

Collecting Qantas points with credit cards

Credit cards are one of the most popular ways to earn Qantas points because you can easily earn points for every dollar spent on purchases you would have made anyway. In Australia, around a third of all credit card transactions are made on cards that earn Qantas points!

You can also earn tens of thousands of bonus points by applying for a new credit card with a good sign-on bonus. With some offers, you could even earn up to 150,000 bonus points! See our guide to the best Qantas credit card offers for current deals.

Buying top-up points

If you need some extra points quickly, you may buy top-up Qantas points directly from the airline. But this isn’t necessarily good value.

An alternative method is to buy a case of wine from Qantas Wine that comes with a large amount of bonus points. Not only will this often cost you less than buying top-up points, but you’ll also get a case of delicious wine!

Family transfers

Need extra points now – or have a family member who does? You can transfer up to 600,000 Qantas points per year to or from a family member.

You can also redeem your own points to book flights for eligible family members, as defined by Qantas. Eligible family members include your immediate family as well as de-facto partners, in-laws, first cousins, aunts and uncles.

Matt Graham

The editor of Australian Frequent Flyer, Matt's passion for travel has taken him to over 90 countries… with the help of frequent flyer points, of course!
Matt's favourite destinations (so far) are Germany, Brazil & Kazakhstan. His interests include aviation, economics & foreign languages, and he has a soft spot for good food and red wine.

You can connect with Matt by posting on the Australian Frequent Flyer community forum and tagging @AFF Editor.