Japan is reopening next week, and to celebrate, Qantas has released six weeks worth of Points Planes to Tokyo where every seat is now available to book as a Classic Flight Reward in Economy.

All Business Class seats between Sydney and Tokyo on 10 May 2023 are also being made available to book as Classic Rewards with Qantas points, to mark the start of the six weeks of Economy Points Planes. (Those Business seats will likely sell fast, so get in quick!)

Until 13 October 2022, you can book any available Economy seat on Qantas’ flights between Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Tokyo (Haneda) between 10 May and 20 June using Qantas points at the Classic Reward level. However, the extra Business Class reward seats are limited to the flights on 10 May.

Unfortunately, these travel dates fall just after the end of Japan’s cherry blossom season and between school holiday periods. But if you can make these dates work, it could be a good deal.

It would cost 63,000 Qantas points, plus around $278 in taxes & carrier charges, for a return Economy ticket with Qantas from Sydney or Melbourne to Tokyo. From Brisbane to Tokyo, due to the shorter flight distance, a round-trip ticket costs 50,400 Qantas points and around $279 when booked as a Classic Flight Reward.

These seats are available to book now on the Qantas website.

Every Economy seat on Jetstar flights between Australia and Japan are also now available to book as Classic Flight Reward tickets, for travel between 11 October and 30 November 2022. Jetstar flies from Gold Coast and Cairns to Tokyo (Narita), as well as Cairns-Osaka. When redeeming points on Jetstar, you’ll get 20kg of checked baggage included with your ticket.

“Australians have been waiting to be able to return to Japan and having access to thousands of reward seats will help our frequent flyers travel to one of their most loved destinations,” Qantas Loyalty CEO Olivia Wirth said.

Japan is reopening next week

From next Tuesday, 11 October 2022, Japan is finally reopening to tourists. From this date, overseas tourists will once again be able to enter Japan without a visa, without needing to pre-book a package tour from a Japanese travel agency and without quarantine on arrival.

Travellers heading to Japan who have received at least three COVID-19 vaccine doses are also no longer required to get a pre-departure COVID-19 PCR test.

Ahead of this milestone, Qantas resumed 3x weekly Sydney-Tokyo (Haneda) flights last month. These flights will increase to daily at the end of October.

Qantas is also resuming Brisbane-Haneda flights in December, and Melbourne-Haneda services at the end of March 2023. All Qantas flights to Japan are being operated by Airbus A330-300 aircraft with Economy and Business seating.

Join the discussion on the Australian Frequent Flyer forum: Qantas Points Planes to Japan

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.