When booking a flight, there are numerous reasons why your fare class might be important. For example, if you want to credit a Qantas flight to a partner airline’s frequent flyer program, you need to make sure it’s not an “E” class fare which won’t earn anything.

If you’re a Qantas Frequent Flyer member and your Qantas itinerary includes flights on partner airlines, your fare class also determines how many Qantas points and status credits you can earn – among other things.

Fare classes are officially known as reservation booking designators (RBDs). They’re a single letter such as J, C, Y, Q or N that identify the type of fare you’ve booked. You can read more about fare classes and why they matter in our dedicated guide.

Frustratingly, Qantas does not display your fare class anywhere during the booking process on Qantas.com.

So, how can you work out what you’re actually booking? Here are a few workarounds…

Use the Qantas Business Rewards booking portal

Although Qantas doesn’t display the fare class you’re booking on its main website, it does when you book in the Qantas Business Rewards (QBR) portal.

To use this booking engine, you need to be logged into a Qantas Business Rewards account. You need an active Australian Business Number (ABN) to join Qantas Business Rewards and there is a joining fee, but it’s easy to avoid paying that.

If you’re a Qantas Business Rewards member booking a flight for yourself or an employee, you can obviously just complete the booking using the QBR website. Otherwise, simply cross-check the fares shown there with those on the Qantas website. (Note that any Qantas Business Rewards discounts showing in the QBR portal won’t carry over to the main website.)

Pay using BPay

After you’ve completed your booking, you can see your fare class on the “Manage Booking” page of the Qantas website:

Unfortunately, you can normally only access this page after you’ve paid for your booking and received a PNR (booking reference). However, if you opt to pay using BPAY, you’ll receive your booking reference before you pay.

You can then enter this booking reference into the Manage Booking page on the Qantas website and check the fare class. You’ll find this in the Flight Details section beside “Travel Class”.

After checking your fare class, you can pay the airfare via BPAY to complete your booking. Or, if you no longer want to purchase the flight, Qantas will automatically cancel your booking if you haven’t paid within a few days.

Cross-check the fare on ExpertFlyer or ITA Matrix

AFF member encryptededdy has helpfully explained another method for finding your Qantas booking class on our forum.

When booking on the Qantas website, you can view the fare breakdown and note the base fare. If you have an ExpertFlyer account, you can then search for fare information on that website and find the base fare that matches what you found on the Qantas website.

Alternatively, you could try searching for the same flight on ITA Matrix. The ITA Matrix website displays fare classes, and if the base fare is the same as on the Qantas website then it’s a match.

Checking without knowing the base fare

In general, the Qantas website will offer you the cheapest available RBD within the fare family (e.g. Red e-Deal or Flex) that you wish to book.

If you have an ExpertFlyer subscription, you can search there for flight availability and see which fare classes are available. The lowest available fare class is probably the one that Qantas is selling. (Just make sure you set the Point of Sale on ExpertFlyer to the country where the first flight on your ticket departs.)

Book with a travel agent

Some (but not all) online travel agents display the fare class when you book on their websites. Expedia is one such online travel agent.

Alternatively, if you book in person with a travel agent, they should know what fare class they are booking for you.

Why doesn’t Qantas show the fare class when you book on its website?

Australian Frequent Flyer members have been asking Qantas to add this functionality to its website for a long time.

They feel that the information should be there because it’s important to some people. At the same time, it makes no difference to people who aren’t interested in this information.

It seems like a simple enough change to the website, so why doesn’t Qantas do it?

We put this question to Qantas. A spokesperson told us that it’s one of the many things Qantas might consider adding to future versions of the Qantas.com booking flow.

“We appreciate any ideas or feedback that might enhance our booking flow for customers. Right now, we are focused on simplifying our online experience and featuring the most important and relevant information,” the Qantas spokesperson said.

The airline noted that Qantas Frequent Flyer members can see the number of points and status credits they’ll earn when searching for flights. However, this doesn’t address the concerns of frequent flyers with Oneworld partner airlines.

Qantas has recently made some significant changes to its website booking flow, including moving “Points Plus Pay” to the final payment page. Over recent months, Qantas has also been testing quite a lot of different changes to its website, and has just launched a new Qantas Frequent Flyer account page.

With a new type of Classic Reward launching soon, adding fare class information to the booking flow probably isn’t a priority for Qantas at the moment. Hopefully, one day, those who need this information won’t have to resort to using one of the workarounds in this article.

Matt Graham

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 aviation, economics & 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.