Article: How I Make Qantas Reward Availability Work for Me

[encryptededdy]

As someone who primarily flies to Asia and occasionally North America, I'm pretty lucky - I find these routes have significantly better QF award availability than Europe, and are easier to get Platinum award releases on too.

 

[nickfromeastryde]

My observation is that many members on this site do find availability to Europe and the USA using their QFF points. Most however are not flying Qantas, for the majority of us that are bronze or silver, partner airlines offer the only real opportunity to book those premium seats. I have done just that, commencing a OWA in HKG to Europe and back to Aust whilst planning to add further flights about 6 months later for a second trip. It will be my fifth OWA flying J since 2015.

I do think that domestic rewards offer tremendous value but once again, many of us who don't fly for business don't actually fly that often, maybe one or two trips a year so points continue to accumulate.

Finally, for many of us, accumulating points via QFF is by far the easiest way to accrue points in Australia, other programs just don't offer the same opportunities and to some extent, we conversely don't accrue enough points to justify being in multiple programs.

QFF is clearly difficult for most travellers to understand hence the complaints but for those of us that put the effort into understanding some of the nuances, it offers tremendous value. I guess in a perverse way this is a good thing because if the program ever becomes easy to use, then I might as well spend my points purchasing toasters from the Qantas store.

 

[kangarooflyer88]

I somewhat agree with Matt on the article. Yes you can get good value on domestic flights redeeming QF points, as I've done it to travel to destinations like PER from SYD which historically have been quite expensive fares. In my opinion where Qantas Points are a waste are for flights to NZ where you are paying a ton of points for virtually no savings. I mean by the time you pay the taxes and fees how much money are you truly saving on a QF fare? $100? And for that you burn through 40,000 points, not great value in my book!

I have also had success booking long haul flights in business with Qantas, most recently flying SFO to SYD (via LAX) on American in J for myself and my partner as a classic award. Where he is right is that yes, other programs do offer better availability to certain regions. For instance, last year I flew to Europe no problem on Etihad using my Aeroplan points, all in business class. More recently I flew to Brazil in business class on LATAM, this time using upgrade credits I got as a result of a LATAM Black status match. $800 USD for a one-way fully refundable economy fare that could then be upgraded to business class using those credits is a no brainer compared to forking out 108,400 points just to fly business on QF to SCL.

Another point Matt touches on briefly but I think should be stressed is that you can almost always force frequent flyer programs to open award availability up for you. And no I don't mean being a Platinum member, I mean using routings to your advantage. For instance, Qantas may not have availability to London Heathrow from Sydney when you're checking. Fair enough. But what about Sydney to Singapore, Tokyo or Kuala Lumpur? More than likely they do. And usually at one of these connection points you'll be able to find a J classic award flight to Europe in the days following your arrival into the hub. So instead of flying direct to LHR, why not spend a couple of days in SIN, then fly on to HEL or LHR, as the case may be. And for the return? Fly back via the US! Spend a little quality time New York or LA. Fact of the matter is you'll spend a similar amount of points flying around the world in business class as you would booking that return flight to LHR in business. And you get to visit some extra countries and continents along the way. And isn't that the whole point of aspirational travel?

-RooFlyer88

 

[Matt_01]

Good article and @Mattg I 100% concur with the first line of your last paragraph 'Some people will probably disagree with my take on this, and that’s of course totally fine!' I would suggest that the masses have no idea how the program works as an example it you look on the QF website the points required to get from SYD-LHR in J is 144 600 points. If you find the seats on a OW partner it jumps to 159000 (through flight) and if it is a combination of say CX or JL to AY the points get even higher. This is where knowledge to the QF OW program comes into play. @kangarooflyer88 touches on this in his post, we have travelled a few times going the long way round to stay within the rules.
I would dissagre with your comments on the SQ program to North America as you just need look for SEA rather than LAX or SFO and on the other side EWR rather than JFK.

 

[kangarooflyer88]

I would dissagre with your comments on the SQ program to North America as you just need look for SEA rather than LAX or SFO and on the other side EWR rather than JFK.

For SQ, I suspect North America isn't much of an issue given the partners they have (AC and United). Then again, you can already book those at reasonable rates with Virgin Australia. Indeed, you can often get close in business class award availability on United operated flights (this was ultimately how I got back to SYD from SFO last time).

But I think Matt's point stands Qantas is great, there are sweet spots and instances where you can really make it work for not just short haul but also long haul trips in premium cabin. I think the key these days is to understand multiple awards programs and leverage them to your advantage. Even if there is Qantas classic award availability you sometimes can do better going elsewhere. For instance, Australia to Europe is 90,000 Qatar Avios points one-way in business class which knocks the socks off anything Qantas has to offer on their own operated flights, especially from the East Coast.

Another thing that I haven't seen brought up are strategies to get business class affordability. Yes it's nice to book business class flights on points, but sometimes that just isn't possible. Some alternate strategies I have used to get business class cheaply:

• Using an upgrade instrument:
  • Using points to upgrade a flight (in one instance I spent 35,000 United miles + $650 USD co-pay to upgrade LHR - SYD (via LAX) to Polaris business class - not a bad use of points!) [QF, UA, AA, DL, EK are some examples of airlines offering this]
  • Upgrade using upgrade credits or certificates [UA, AC, LA are some examples of airlines offering this]
• Upgrade with $$$:
  • At any time - some airlines will provide cash upgrade offers in your manage booking page. These offers can be lucrative at times. For instance, BA offered me an upgrade from economy to business for £50 for Dublin to Manchester. Doesn't sound like a big deal until you realize you get lounge access, a meal on board plus extra tier points with BA for status [BA, UA, AY are some examples of airlines offering this]. Some airlines also have quirks for this process. For instance, on United, you can often call up reservations and ask them what the GGBUYUP offer is. This upgrade offer is different in that United re-tickets you fare so that you earn as though you bought a business class ticket to begin with.
  • By placing a bid - some airlines let you name your own price for an upgrade with the offers being considered close to check-in. Obviously the higher the bid, the more likely your offer will stand [ QF, LH, AC, VA are some examples of airlines offering this]
  • By accepting an upgrade offer at check-in. Many (and I would hazard a guess to say nearly every) airlines offer this option at check-in. After all, they have a very good sense of their inventory and they'd rather sell the seat than it go out empty.
• Buy with $$$:
  • Just buy it outright - in some instances it can make sense to simply buy the long haul business class ticket outright. As an example, I had to fly to a conference in Glasgow (GLA) in July 2022 from Toronto (YYZ). The cheapest economy fare was $850 CAD but I saw I could book KLM business for ~$1600 CAD. Not only that, Delta Airlines was running a status match offer meaning I could match my Qantas Gold to their Delta Gold and have it through January 30, 2024 by earning the MQMs from these KLM flights. FlyerTalk's Premium MilageRun Deals can be a good source of inspiration here
  • Positioning Flights - If you have enough patience, sometimes it can make sense to book a cheap economy flight to a hub known for cheap business class flights. For instance, I hear there are often cheap business class flights from Manila to Europe on the usual suspects. Of course there are some logistics involved here to ensure you don't misconnect, but the savings can be quite substantial.

Each of these approaches has their own strengths and weaknesses. Buying the ticket outright with points or $$$ means you are guaranteed that seat in business whereas with upgrade you are rolling the dice. However, upgrades can often be more cost effective than points in the long run.

-RooFlyer88

 

[Greg555]

I love this article. It doesn’t engage in needless Qantas-bashing, but it clearly articulates the truth that Qantas points are not the wisest FF currency to accumulate if long-haul flights to Europe or North America are the goal.

I’ve saved thousands over the last few years redeeming Qantas points for business class travel within Australia, and have also managed to use Qantas points for a couple of fun “aspirational” bookings (eg. JFK-HND in JAL first class, and SIN-MEL in Emirates first class).

I’ve added the article to my Reading List and next time someone complains that “QFF is a scam because there are no business class flights to London available” or the like, I’ll suggest they read it!

I just don't get these apologists for Qantas.... Bashing of Qantas is entirely justified - you must have forgotten the tickets sold on ghost flights to boost their cash flow.... the 7+mth waits for refunds after covid, again to increase their working capital at customers expense...the 5 hour waits on hold only to be hung up on....the unjustified sacking of workers, to increase the CEO'S bonuses....the recent deceptive and dishonest intro of Plus awards at ridiculous points cost, so they can claim higher seat availability....the recent halving of Jetstar Status Credit earns at 85% of orig cost....the incredible current price gouging.....and the increasing billions of points Qantas sell to business/retail etc with NO increase in classic award seat availability. Only scratched the surface of this company's sins...and haven't even mentioned in air service.....

 

[Human]

I just don't get these apologists for Qantas....

Wow... never been called that before.

I was responding to an article regarding the use of Qantas points. If you asked me a couple of years ago, I would have told you in no undertain terms that Qantas points are useless and that anyone who focuses on accumulating them is a schmuck. I was simply making the point (as Matt was in his article) that actually the situation is more complex, more nuanced, than that. Any FF programme has its strengths and weaknesses, and Qantas FF is no exception. I've come to see that the opinion I held a couple of years ago is still more-or-less correct insofar as trying to use points to fly Qantas to Europe goes, but not correct in many other ways.

So that apparently makes me a Qantas apologist -- is there a badge or trophy points on AFF for the first time someone gets called that?

 

[aspro2]

I'm with @Greg555 for much of this. The article is not objective. It reads like apologia. Fundamentally, the message should be less of "your expectations of QFF are misaligned" and more of "you can get value from QFF only if you understand that QF has no intention of serving up what the average punter is led to believe is possible and that you will need to think creatively in a way that only experienced FFs can". QFF is inferior to many of its international competitors' programs in many ways. But don't assume I'm spruiking the competitors too much. The whole FF thing is a game that treats its customers like cough (yes, not least because there is too much demand and so the airlines have customers by the short and curlies in every regard). That being said, there's no obvious basis for being nice about Qantas. That's not objectivity.