Mixing Qantas Voucher and FF Points

[AirportRail]

Just before the pandemic hit I booked a Qantas trip to Europe which ultimately got canceled and refunded with a $1,500 Qantas voucher.

I'm now looking to book a 4 to 8 week holiday to Europe in mid-2023 and getting around to booking flights now. During the pandemic I amassed around 800k Qantas FF Points, so would like to use these to upgrade to a premium cabin for such a long international flight.

Each time I go to book I end up confused. I'm much better at accumulating points than spending points. I think I need to use my voucher, top up the remainder with cash to a full (not discount) economy seat and then use points to upgrade?

Any advice or experience on this would be appreciated.

 

[astrosly]

The upgrade is a request, not a guarantee, and unless you have any status with Qantas there is a good chance you won't get an upgrade.

If you want to use both voucher and points to ensure you fly a premium cabin (at least on the longest legs) I would suggest looking at business class reward seat availability from ports in Asia (e.g Singapore, Bangkok) and book these rewards seats outright, and then use your voucher to buy seats to that port from Australia. Since they would be on separate tickets factor in a day or two stopover each way which shouldn't be too much of an issue as you plan to go away for a good length of time.

 

[encryptededdy]

So I guess the first question is - is your Qantas credit a "Flight Credit" or a "Qantas Pass" / "TravelPass"? Some Flight Credits were converted to Qantas Passes, which are just an UATP card and is much more flexible than a regular Flight Credit.

Anyway I think these are the ways you can book a premium cabin with a combination of points and money from a voucher

Method	Flight Credit	TravelPass / Qantas Pass	Notes
Book an economy seat with cash, then request an upgrade (Classic Upgrade) using points	Yes, bookable online using normal Flight Credit portal	Yes, bookable online using normal booking process (pay with Qantas Pass at the end)	If you do not have Qantas status, it is highly unlikely that the upgrade will clear. Good value for your points.
Book a premium cabin with Points + Pay, where the Pay part is your credit + any remainder	Not doable online. Unlikely that call center can do it either.	Yes, make a normal Points + Pay booking, then enter your Qantas Pass at the end to pay for the "Pay" part	Very poor value for your points. They will be valued at ~0.6 cents per point.
Book a classic rewards return flight, and pay the taxes and fees using your credit	Not doable online. Unlikely that call center can do it either.	Yes, make a normal classic rewards booking, then pay for the taxes using your Qantas Pass at checkout	Good value for your points. Relatively difficult to find premium cabin availability (although may be possible if you're travelling by yourself). Can book on partner carriers
Book a mixed cash / classic rewards in one booking (Cash one way, Reward the other way)	Not doable online. Unlikely that call center can do it either.	Yes, normal checkout process	I don't actually think this is possible for flights to Europe. I've only seen the booking engine allow this on domestic and TT flights. Still limited by classic reward flight availability
Book two one-ways, one cash, one reward	Yes	Yes	Still limited by classic reward availability Pricing for the cash leg will be unusually high due to it being one-way

If you have a Flight Credit and not a Qantas Pass, then I suspect none of these options would really work. In that case, @astrosly's suggestion is probably the best option you have.

 

[SYD]

Hopefully OP has the UATP credit!

I‘d add two things:
1. if the UATP doesn’t cover the full cash component, you can pay the difference on one other card (only one UATP + one other card per booking in my experience).

2. mixed award and revenue should be technically possible to Europe but finding those unicorn premium seats is the challenge. Note: the limitation is what‘s presented during the revenue seat booking engine (which doesn’t show all award options).

 

[AirportRail]

Thank you for all of the advice team. Unfortunately I have a "Flight Credit" not a "Travel Pass" or "Qantas Pass" so from your detailed summary @encryptededdy it looks like I have fewer options available.

I think I will have to try @astrosly's suggestion of getting out of Australia to Asia and seeing what awards seats are available out of Asian ports.

 

[SYD]

Thank you for all of the advice team. Unfortunately I have a "Flight Credit" not a "Travel Pass" or "Qantas Pass" so from your detailed summary @encryptededdy it looks like I have fewer options available.

I think I will have to try @astrosly's suggestion of getting out of Australia to Asia and seeing what awards seats are available out of Asian ports.

You could try calling(!) QF and see if they will convert the voucher to a UATP? They were offering incentives at one point such as 10% extra value and/or DSC.

 

[patrickw]

So I guess the first question is - is your Qantas credit a "Flight Credit" or a "Qantas Pass" / "TravelPass"? Some Flight Credits were converted to Qantas Passes, which are just an UATP card and is much more flexible than a regular Flight Credit.

Anyway I think these are the ways you can book a premium cabin with a combination of points and money from a voucher

Method	Flight Credit	TravelPass / Qantas Pass	Notes
Book an economy seat with cash, then request an upgrade (Classic Upgrade) using points	Yes, bookable online using normal Flight Credit portal	Yes, bookable online using normal booking process (pay with Qantas Pass at the end)	If you do not have Qantas status, it is highly unlikely that the upgrade will clear. Good value for your points.
Book a premium cabin with Points + Pay, where the Pay part is your credit + any remainder	Not doable online. Unlikely that call center can do it either.	Yes, make a normal Points + Pay booking, then enter your Qantas Pass at the end to pay for the "Pay" part	Very poor value for your points. They will be valued at ~0.6 cents per point.
Book a classic rewards return flight, and pay the taxes and fees using your credit	Not doable online. Unlikely that call center can do it either.	Yes, make a normal classic rewards booking, then pay for the taxes using your Qantas Pass at checkout	Good value for your points. Relatively difficult to find premium cabin availability (although may be possible if you're travelling by yourself). Can book on partner carriers
Book a mixed cash / classic rewards in one booking (Cash one way, Reward the other way)	Not doable online. Unlikely that call center can do it either.	Yes, normal checkout process	I don't actually think this is possible for flights to Europe. I've only seen the booking engine allow this on domestic and TT flights. Still limited by classic reward flight availability
Book two one-ways, one cash, one reward	Yes	Yes	Still limited by classic reward availability Pricing for the cash leg will be unusually high due to it being one-way

If you have a Flight Credit and not a Qantas Pass, then I suspect none of these options would really work. In that case, @astrosly's suggestion is probably the best option you have.

Very informative table, thank you.

My question on the highlighted booking method, would this apply as well if the reward fare is with a OW partner? "Book a mixed cash / classic rewards in one booking (Cash one way, Reward the other way)"

My dilemma:
* I want to purchase a return SYD - SIN flight, QF 81 Cash Y to SIN, and BA15 Y Award fare back to SYD
* Ideal payment: $50 return "sorry" voucher + UATP + Credit Card for difference...

I think I will have to call to check, but thought I'd ask people with experience before I join the long queue...

 

[TheInsider]

Can't use a voucher like the 'thank you' one on classic rewards at all.

Post automatically merged: Oct 17, 2022

You could try calling(!) QF and see if they will convert the voucher to a UATP? They were offering incentives at one point such as 10% extra value and/or DSC.

Qantas has stopped issuing the UATP credits completely unfortunately. Very bad idea IMO.

 

[SYD]

Very informative table, thank you.

My question on the highlighted booking method, would this apply as well if the reward fare is with a OW partner? "Book a mixed cash / classic rewards in one booking (Cash one way, Reward the other way)"

My dilemma:
* I want to purchase a return SYD - SIN flight, QF 81 Cash Y to SIN, and BA15 Y Award fare back to SYD
* Ideal payment: $50 return "sorry" voucher + UATP + Credit Card for difference...

I think I will have to call to check, but thought I'd ask people with experience before I join the long queue...

Plus, you might have to call for that combo if it’s at all possible.

I‘ve only managed to get the classic rewards pts one way/pay cash the other combos using the standard booking engine.

 

[encryptededdy]

* I want to purchase a return SYD - SIN flight, QF 81 Cash Y to SIN, and BA15 Y Award fare back to SYD

I don't believe this is possible. Reasoning is;

• To book a one way cash and one way award on one ticket, you need to use the regular Qantas booking engine
• The regular Qantas booking engine will not display BA awards in the list of regular results, since Qantas does not sell cash fares on these flights
• To show BA awards on the regular booking engine, you must engage the "Rewards Only" option
• However, engaging the "Rewards Only" option clears all cash fares in your booking
• Therefore, you can't mix cash fares and reward flights that require the "Rewards Only" option

Although also in general I do suspect you can only mix in QF rewards with QF cash fares.


With that said, as you can see QF Y awards can be mixed in, and you can definitely pay for this with UATP + Credit Card (sadly $50 voucher can't be used on award flights).

 

[encryptededdy]

BA15 Y Award fare back to SYD

Another thought though: From what I can tell, BA wants ~$270 in fees for a Y award on this route. Personally I think that's quite outrageous and I would just buy a cash ticket on that route. Plus, you can use your $50 voucher in that instance.

I don't know what the cash fare is on the day you're flying, but given it's 30,200 points + $270, I would only say the award is worth it if the cash ticket is at least $570 one way, if not more (given $50 voucher use and the 2600 points back you earn). I would say it's not worth it at all if you're getting <1c per point value for your points.

 

[patrickw]

Thank you for all the insight, really appreciate it - my travel dates make it very tricky for cash fares...
I haven't seen a BA cash fare via QF? Unless it's possible to request paying cash over the phone?

I don't have access to EF so not sure if there are any OW cash fares available on that flight right now.

QF81 Jan 18 2023
BA15 Feb 11 2023

 

[encryptededdy]

I haven't seen a BA cash fare via QF

No, you can't book BA cash fares on this route via. QF. My question was going to be why don't you just book a QF cash fare back, but now that I see your dates, that makes sense.

 

[AirportRail]

Thanks everyone for your input on this one.

Just to update, I called Qantas and tried to have my $1,500 Flight Credit turned into a Qantas Pass to enable more flexibility but they couldn't/wouldn't.

I ended up not using the Flight Credit for these flights as I found a business rewards flight out of Asia to the Mediterranean (70k points & $60 taxes), and another rewards flight all the way from Europe to Melbourne (160k points & $300 taxes).

I still need to find a one-way flight from Melbourne to my Asian departure port, which probably be the most expensive part of it all.