Want to Fly to Europe? Collect a Flexible Points Currency!

Travelling to London, UK
Photo: Benjamin Davies on Unsplash.

A few years ago, Qantas Frequent Flyer points were a very useful currency if you wanted to fly from Australia to Europe in Business Class. You could relatively easily redeem points for Business Class seats to Europe on Emirates, Qatar Airways or China Eastern. Unfortunately, this is no longer the case.

Qantas points still have value, and there are still options if you want to use your points to get to Europe. But finding Qantas Classic Flight Reward availability in premium cabins has become supremely difficult, especially if you want to fly during peak periods.

Qatar Airways is now blocking Qantas Frequent Flyer members from accessing most of its Business Class reward seats. In addition, Emirates is releasing very few seats to Australia (plus, those that do exist now cost more points and come with insane fuel surcharges). And with China still closed to tourists, China Eastern is off the table for now.

Emirates Boeing 777-300ER Business Class
Redeeming Qantas points on Emirates is no longer as easy – or as good value – as it used to be. Photo: Emirates.

Instead, most of the Business Class reward flight options that are available to Europe on Qantas points now involve multiple long layovers and blown-out travel times.

Redeeming Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer miles to Europe

At the same time, redeeming Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer miles to Europe is relatively easy. You can often find up to four Business Saver award seats – and sometimes even six seats – on many Singapore Airlines flights from Australia to Europe.

Singapore Airlines award availability SYD-LHR
Want to take your family of six from Sydney to London in Business Class? You can with Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer miles!

Plus, the number of KrisFlyer miles required is lower than the amount of Qantas points you’d need for an equivalent Qantas Frequent Flyer redemption. To top it off, Singapore Airlines has no carrier or fuel surcharges!

Great Credit Cards for Earning KrisFlyer Miles

American Express Platinum Card
Earn
2.25

American Express Membership Rewards points on everyday purchases

Signup Bonus

150,000 bonus Membership Rewards points

Apply by 28th Jan 2025

Annual Fee
$1,450 p.a.
Go to offer
American Express Explorer Credit Card
Earn
2

American Express Membership Rewards points on everyday purchases

Signup Bonus

50,000 bonus Membership Rewards Points

Annual Fee
$395 p.a.
Go to offer
St.George Amplify Rewards Signature
Earn
1.5

Amplify Rewards Points on everyday purchases

Signup Bonus

150,000 Amplify Rewards Points

Apply by 30th Oct 2024

Annual Fee
$199 in the first year, $295 p.a. ongoing
Go to offer

Redeeming Velocity Frequent Flyer points to Europe

Meanwhile, Velocity Frequent Flyer has re-emerged this year as a useful points currency for travel to Europe. You can now book many of the Qatar Airways reward seats that were taken away from Qantas Frequent Flyer members using Velocity points. Velocity points can also be redeemed to fly with Etihad and Singapore Airlines to Europe.

There are often up to two Business Reward seats available to book on Qatar Airways or Etihad out of Australia with Velocity points. Unfortunately, Velocity does now impose carrier charges on Etihad, Qatar Airways and Singapore Airlines redemptions. But at least there is some reward seat availability.

Etihad Airways business class
You can redeem Velocity points to fly with Etihad. Photo: Etihad.

For Velocity members, that’s a vast improvement over the situation throughout most of 2020 and 2021 when you couldn’t redeem Velocity points to fly on any partner airlines. Compare this to the situation less than three years ago, in April 2020, when many panicked Velocity members could not “cash out” their points fast enough!

Earlier this year, Velocity also switched back on transfers to the Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer program. This provides another useful avenue for Velocity members to be able to use their points to fly to Europe.

Points collected today are for use in the future

If you were trying to redeem points to fly to Europe right now, you’d have to say that Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer miles (or Air Canada Aeroplan points) would arguably be the most desirable currencies to have. But that doesn’t necessarily mean that will still be the case a few years from now.

Here’s the thing: If you’re collecting points now, you’re probably collecting them because you want to redeem them to travel in the future. Looking at current and past award availability trends is useful. But as they say, past performance is not a reliable indicator of future performance.

In a few years’ time, the tables could have turned completely. Qantas Frequent Flyer might have much better reward seat availability to Europe, or Singapore Airlines may have drastically increased their prices or decreased availability. Who knows!

Indeed, Qantas Frequent Flyer actually did release a rare batch of Classic Flight Reward seats in Business Class to London last week. The airline has also hinted that it will create more Points Plane opportunities in the coming months. That said, at this stage Qantas has only committed to releasing “up to 50% more” Classic Flight Reward seats until 30 June 2023. After that date, Classic Flight Reward availability could plummet again… we just don’t know yet.

Qantas Boeing 787-9 Business Class cabin
Qantas released a rare batch of Business Classic Reward seats to London last week. Photo: Qantas.

Credit card rewards programs offer great flexibility

For this reason, if you’re earning many of your points through credit cards, it’s a really good idea to collect a flexible points currency such as Amex Membership Rewards, ANZ Rewards, NAB Rewards or Westpac Altitude points.

By earning points with a bank-operated rewards program, rather than a co-branded credit card that exclusively earns Qantas or Velocity points, you can spread the risk of one particular frequent flyer program currency losing value through price increases or a lack of award availability.

Most Australian bank loyalty programs provide the option to transfer points to multiple different airlines, as you need them. Those points generally don’t expire as long as your card account remains open. (The exceptions are ANZ Rewards, NAB Rewards, HSBC Rewards Plus and Bankwest More Rewards points which expire after 3 years.)

This gives you the ultimate flexibility, allowing you to transfer the points into whichever frequent flyer program has the best reward flight pricing and availability when you actually want to use the points.

Transferring Australia credit card reward points

The AFF Credit Card Points Transfer Matrix shows a full list of the frequent flyer programs that you can transfer Australian credit card reward points to.

AFF's Australian Credit Card Points Transfer Matrix as of March 2023.
AFF Credit Card Points Transfer Matrix as of March 2023.

Many Australians seem to just collect Qantas points by default. Some people will indeed get good value out of their Qantas points, but others may realise several years later that the points are harder to use for their desired redemption than they thought. This is partly because so many Australians only collect Qantas points – meaning a huge number of people are competing for finite award availability on Qantas and its partner airlines.

If you collect Qantas points exclusively, you’re stuck with Qantas points. But if you collect a flexible points currency, you have other options.

If you’re collecting points because you want to travel in a few years’ time, have a good think about which currency you’re collecting and why. It may be wise to switch to a credit card that lets you earn a flexible points currency which can be transferred at a later time to multiple different airlines, as this gives you much greater flexibility and a better chance of attaining your travel goals.


You can leave a comment or discuss this topic on the Australian Frequent Flyer forum.

To learn more about the current situation with award availability and the benefits of collecting a flexible points currency, you may also be interested in the most recent episode of the AFF on Air podcast!

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 economics, aviation & 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.
________________________

Community Comments

Loading new replies...

Excellent article (and podcast episode).

One of the challenges of attaining flexible points currencies in Australia is the structure of the credit card market.

For most people, the only reasonable way to attain the ~260K KrisFlyer miles necessary to fly business class Australia - Europe return is with credit card sign-up bonuses. (The obvious exceptions being business owners with very large credit card spend and very infrequent flyers who are happy to fly business class once every couple of years.)

Thus, one could attain the 260K KF from the following currently available bonuses:
- Amex Platinum: 150K MR = 75K KF
- St George Signature: 150K Amplify = 75K KF
- ANZ Rewards Black: 150K ANZ = 50K KF
- NAB Rewards Signature: 140K NAB = 46K KF

The challenge is the only way to repeat that for a second or third time is to sign up for the same cards again — there aren't very many credit card issuers with flexible points currencies that have large sign-up bonuses.

That means the best course of action is to close these credit cards as soon as possible to start the clock on eligibility for the sign-up bonus again.

But what happens when you close the credit card? You lose the flexibility! You have to transfer the points to an airline partner or lose them. (That would be an easier pill to swallow if KrisFlyer didn't have a hard 3 year expiry on points.)

This stands in contrast to the US market where credit card sign-up bonus eligibility is typically based on the time since you attained your last bonus, not the time since you closed the card. That means you can keep the card open (and therefore the points in a flexible currency) while waiting to be eligible again. They also can get multiple cards that earn the same flexible currency (eg they can get many sign-up bonuses for earning Amex MR). The Americans have it so easy compared to us!

I also think that's one of the reasons Qantas points are so popular in Australia. They used to act a little bit like a flexible currency — you warehouse points from Woolworths, credit cards, insurance, electricity, AirBNB/hotels, etc in Qantas, they don't expire (in comparison to KF) and they can be redeemed for flights on a range of airlines. The problem, of course, is that all of Qantas' 'transfer options' (ie flight redemptions partners) have currently disappeared ha!

Reply 7 Likes

click to expand...

Isn't Qantas usually excluded from most flexible points currencies, as in you have to choose either Qantas exclusively or not at all? Qantas points could potentially be useful in the future for anyone based in Australia but excluding it from flexible points currencies doesn't seem very flexible at all.

But if the goal was to diversify away from Qantas then I agree that flexible points currencies is a good strategy.

Reply 3 Likes

I'm someone who is sitting on a stack of QF points I struggle to redeem, and I'm making sure that where possible all my future points earn is going to other airlines. What do people put the lack of partner availability down to? My theory is that back around 2019~ QF dramatically expanded the ways to earn QF points - over the last few years I've earned them from paying my energy bills, health insurance, business insurance and eating at restaurants - this is on top of any credit card points for the dollar spend. I think this may have created a QF point inflation and partners have moved to isolate QF points holders as a result, though I'd love to hear better informed views.

Reply 2 Likes

click to expand...

What do people put the lack of partner availability down to?

It is both a demand and supply problem.

Demand for award travel has increased due to more people sitting on larger piles of points, having been able to collect points, but not redeem points, for 2+ years. Also, the attraction of flying business class has only increased due to an enhanced desired to sit further away from strangers.

Supply for award seats has dramatically decreased. On Qantas' own flights, they have only half the number of seats flying to key destinations, such as the US, compared to pre-COVID.

On Qantas' partners, supply has dramatically decreased for different reasons:
- Qatar because Qantas appears to be in a dispute with them and because Qatar appear to have shifted allegiances to Virgin
- Cathay because of the HK lockdown (slowly getting better)
- JAL because of Japan's lockdown (slowly getting better)
- Emirates for some unknown reason (presumably because they are filling their planes with cash passengers)
- AA because it has shifted to dynamic pricing, leaving few classic flight rewards
- UL because the airline is teetering on the brink of financial collapse
- LATAM left oneworld and has aligned with Delta (though some availability is coming back)

Reply 1 Like

click to expand...

Premium cabins or economy?

Forget using points on any carrier. Too many issues.

Purchase cash airfare if possible although at some point I'd like to take daughter to Greece for 1 week on one of the Thailand trips and would love to use QFF points. EK used to have good availability but I think their schedules are still limited.

Reply 1 Like