Article: How I Make Qantas Reward Availability Work for Me

[kangarooflyer88]

I’m looking at this strategy now trying to get 2xJ rewards to the UK in the second half of October next year. SIN>LHR in early October has plenty of Finnair availibility so will probably be the go for the date range I am after. Of course there are no reward seats out of Oz to SIN but I might get lucky down the track.

Another thing to keep in mind with the UK and London specifically is they got quite a few international airports. Supposing you don’t mind “settling” for a less known airport like Gatwick or Manchester instead of the obvious Heathrow might yield additional results. For instance, Emirates flies to Gatwick (LGW) and Stanstead (STN) in addition to Heathrow (LHR). They also fly to Birmingham (BHX), Manchester (MAN), Newcastle (NCL), Glasgow (GLA) and Edinburgh (EDI). Qatar flies to similar destinations in the UK.

And look there might be some advantages here too. For instance it may be closer to your final destination in the UK. And immigration and security may not be as much of a mess as LHR can be at times. Certainly for my money I’d fly into LuCY (aka London City Airport) so I don’t have to deal with the bs of getting into London.

-RooFlyer88

 

[am0985]

Emirates first class has been a great way of burning QF points for me. Had to fly into BNE last time but it was worth it. Need to use the multi city tool too as searching normally often doesn't show up. SYD - CHC is a fun redemption, had also booked SIN - MEL but for April next year, have a feeling it'll be canned.

There's availability into BNE September 2025 for anyone interested with UK/EU availabilities for the leg to DXB too.

 

[kangarooflyer88]

But I doubt the OP could 'force' a reticketing such as you suggest.

Just to clarify I didn’t mean one could force airlines to reticket flights booked on separate frequent flyer programs. What I meant to say is you can make availability appear through creative routing and booking what is available on different frequent flyer programs. Yes you may have to spend more points but it would likely be way less than a Classic+ or Points+Pray redemption.

Emirates first class has been a great way of burning QF points for me. Had to fly into BNE last time but it was worth it. Need to use the multi city tool too as searching normally often doesn't show up. SYD - CHC is a fun redemption, had also booked SIN - MEL but for April next year, have a feeling it'll be canned.

The only issue with EK awards is the high carrier surcharge particularly to destinations like Europe. On the other hand the redemption could still be good value particularly if you are travelling in F.

 

[Mr H]

I think it's misleading to look at the value of domestic J awards unless you would have been willing to pay the cash price. QF J tix are exorbitant and like others here, I wouldn't even look at QF for domestic travel. I'd be comparing VA and coughstar for - both in Y - for BFOD. So when I look at value for a domestic QF saver award, I should judge it on the VA Y price, deduct the fees and taxes I'd be paying for the award ticket, then divide by the number of points used. I bet it would seldom look good unless it was a niche route to Woop Woop.