Qantas Classic Reward & Upgrade Devaluation on 5 August 2025

[kangarooflyer88]

Qantas OWA awards are honestly good value at the moment, on paper, if you can get the maximum value (which can be impossible). On paper, 318k points for 16x segments in J is a better deal than any other airline in the world is able to offer. SQ no longer offers their Star Alliance RTW-equivalent redemption, for example.

ANA does and their program is far more attractive than Qantas’. For one thing you can book round the world tickets for up to 50,000 miles flown for 300,000 ANA miles in business. For comparison flying up to 34,000 miles in business just sets you back 200,000 in business. British Airways (not to be confused with BA) has a round the world award again up to 50,000 miles flown with the 35,000 band costing 280,000 points in business. Air Canada Aeroplan whilst not offering a round the world award per se does allow stopovers in their itineraries allowing you to effectively craft a round the world ticket with 3 stops along the way for 240,000 Aeroplan points in business. What’s more those flights can be operated not just by Star Alliance partners but all of their partners including Etihad, Emirates and Virgin Australia to name but a few.

On this basis alone, a price increase, even something like ~30% is not entirely unreasonable, compared to local and international peers in pricing.

The problem is finding the partner availability on OneWorld carriers. There is very spotty coverage to Europe (from Australia). Additionally, Qantas charges carrier surcharges for a number of airlines including British Airways and most egregiously BA (Emirates) particularly in First. Other programs charge a carrier surcharge but simply eat the cost.

 

[pyramidforce]

My understanding is that NH and BA are not nearly as flexible as QF. On BA, your routing has to be "sensible" or "the most direct route", up to the discretion of the agent. On NH, you actually need to go around the world (no backtracking) with semi-sensible routing and a lower number of segments (although you would struggle to fit 16 sensible flights into an OWA anyway).

Price on the NH product is admittedly nominally much better

Surprisingly, QF has above average availability on partner airlines. QF and BA get earlier access to JL first class compared to AA, for example. If you can find an MH flight on BA or AA, you should be able to find it on QF. QF-QR childish tantrum not included.

 

[WilsonM]

I want to know what the increase will be on a J OWA, since as I was planning to start process of booking next one later this year. And whether if I start the OWA pre increase date, whether changes will cap out at 318k or some new rate.

@admin @Mattg I think AFF need to amend the article as the author (Wilson) has used RTW (a term that relates to a cash fare with stricter rules) instead of OWA (which has no requirement to fly around the world) when talking about a 15% increase in the points cost of a whY OWA.

It should say "Oneworld Award (OWA) prices will also increase as a result of these changes. For example, we expect that Economy pricing for a round-the-world Oneworld Award itinerary which caps journey cost will increase from 132,400 Qantas points to 152,200 Qantas points.

Thanks for the pickup - fixed it to read "For example, we expect that Economy pricing for a Oneworld Classic Reward itinerary in zone 10 will increase from 132,400 Qantas points to 152,200 Qantas points."

 

[WilsonM]

@AFF Editor can we confirm the MEL - DFW cost increases or is it conjecture?

Mainly because the QF example to London is nowhere near as expensive of an increase. ($473 > $648)

As @levelnine said, the carrier charges are increasing to match Classic+

From the email: "Carrier charges, part of the cash component of booking a reward seat, will also increase for bookings in Business and First cabins aligning with Classic Plus Flight Rewards."

Matt's already done a breakdown of QF carrier charges here Full List of Qantas Carrier Charges for Reward Flights

 

[elanshin]

As @levelnine said, the carrier charges are increasing to match Classic+

From the email: "Carrier charges, part of the cash component of booking a reward seat, will also increase for bookings in Business and First cabins aligning with Classic Plus Flight Rewards."

Matt's already done a breakdown of QF carrier charges here Full List of Qantas Carrier Charges for Reward Flights

Cheers. Perhaps @Mattg you might want to consider updating the table when you have time as some of the costs have obviously increased since Apr last year and we're now referring to it to check for the new copay.

 

[shuuy]

Feeling the increased valuation of my flexible Chase, Amex and program agnostic points where I can pick the program to deploy them at the optimised rates.

Big sigh of relief not to be beholden to QF!

 

[Tay]

One aspect of the frequent flyer program changes that Qantas announced today was an increase in Classic Flight Reward, Classic Upgrade Reward and carrier charge prices taking effect from 5 August 2025.

This thread is specifically for discussion about these price increases.

You can read the full details here:

Qantas Devaluing Classic Rewards & Upgrades in August 2025

Qantas is increasing co-payments on reward tickets by as much as 91%, while also increasing Classic Reward and Classic Upgrade Reward prices. Read on to find out exactly what is changing.

www.australianfrequentflyer.com.au

It’s frustrating to see these changes, especially when securing business class rewards seats already feels like an uphill battle. The effort required to accumulate points and optimise partnerships doesn’t seem to match the diminishing rewards. Considering how much revenue Qantas generates from frequent flyer partnerships, it feels like loyal customers are being undervalued. Exploring other frequent flyer programs might be a good idea—loyalty should go both ways.