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225,000 Reward Seats Released on Qantas Points Domestic Flights (from 8,000 Points) @ Qantas

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225,000 Reward Seats Released on Qantas Points Domestic Flights (from 8,000 Points) @ Qantas
Go to Deal
capslock on 29/11/2022 - 07:37 qantasnewsroom.com.au (5218 clicks)
Last edited 02/12/2022 - 13:14 by 1 other user

Seats will be released at 11am today (Tuesday) and lasts for 72 hours.

Travel period is 9 - 22 January and 1 - 28 February. Includes business class seats.

You can use your Qantas points to book any available seat on the following Qantas routes.

  • Melbourne to Hamilton Island, Merimbula, Townsville, Devonport, Burnie and the Gold Coast
  • Sydney to Byron Bay, Hamilton Island, Merimbula, Townsville and the Gold Coast
  • Brisbane to the Whitsunday Coast, Hamilton Island and Townsville
  • Adelaide to Townsville, Kangaroo Island, Mount Gambier, Whyalla, Port Lincoln and the Gold Coast
  • Perth to Broome
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closed Comments

  • Mr BoMBAStiG on 29/11/2022 - 07:52
    +22

    This is a decent recession signal and shows interest rate rises are working. Qantas discounting flights over the busiest travel period of the year, 1 month before that period. Hmmm.

  • JoeyJoeJoe on 29/11/2022 - 07:56
    +43

    Points planes on low occupancy domestic routes? A new low for Qantas Marketing.

    • chrism238 on 29/11/2022 - 08:11
      +33

      Harsh; a company wishes to both fill its aircraft on some routes and reduce its liability on its loyalty scheme; no-one is forced to participate. Were's the harm?

      • TheFyrd on 29/11/2022 - 09:38
        +2

        I thought loyalty schemes are ridiculously profitable for airlines though.

        • anawth on 29/11/2022 - 10:37
          +2

          They are

          • TheFyrd on 29/11/2022 - 11:22
            +4

            @anawth: Exactly they sell the points at a profit to CC companies and banks while releasing horrible seat availability. I could see having too many banked-up points potentially being an issue only and if only they could all be redeemed which they can't because of no availability. The only real risk is that people catch on that their points are essentially worthless but with the majority of "casuals" exchanging them for vouchers and other less valuable rewards I mean what's the risk here?

            • b2dz on 30/11/2022 - 07:17
              +1

              @TheFyrd: My last three international flights have been paid on points. Cost me almost nothing, just the taxes. Hardly worthless. You just need to book well in advanced and be somewhat flexible with dates.

              • soob on 30/11/2022 - 07:49

                @b2dz: Oh BS! I wanted to fly ADL-SYD return over a weekend, I could fly any time, any day the week before and any day the week after. There was a total of 2 flights available with points.

                • b2dz on 30/11/2022 - 10:04

                  @soob: Do you mean BS as in BS I am lying? I'm not, but hey whatever.

                  I do have status with Qantas, which does help, though I did notice a few times when I wasn't logged in that there were still good options available. I booked 9-10 months in advanced. I'm talking like ~21,000 points for Sydney > Singapore route one way + tax. Great price.

                  Peak times during school holidays are much harder to find, even with status.

                  If you don't want your Qantas points anymore, i'll buy them from you.

              • tolchok on 01/12/2022 - 09:24
                +1

                @b2dz: I’ve flown Emirates in First to NY a few times using points, as well as part way to Europe. This is something that I would never be able to afford/be willing to pay for if I could afford, and I value the points highly (well, at 1c+ each at least).

                It does take planning and some flexibility, but the rewards are worth it.

                Edit: accidentally replied to wrong post. I’ll leave it as is, and just frame it as agreeing to the post I’m replying to.

                • b2dz on 01/12/2022 - 09:41

                  @tolchok: Yes exactly. I usually travel around SE asia and upgrading to business for a mid-haul flight to or from Sydney is well worth it. Equates to a few hundred dollars usually, much cheaper than shelling out for a business fare.

    • countmein on 29/11/2022 - 08:37

      Most of destinations are for summer. I would complain if the travel period is in winter for those destinations. We unfortunately dont have many local carriers for domestic, lets talk about jetstar and virgin

      • Techie4066 on 29/11/2022 - 10:50
        +1

        We unfortunately dont have many local carriers for domestic, lets talk about jetstar and virgin

        Yeah, we do, and the market is considered oversaturated with 3.5 airlines. Rex is operating on trunk routes, Bonza is launching soon and we have a wide array of regional carriers (Link Airways, Alliance, FlyPelican).

    • ldcan on 29/11/2022 - 10:25

      initially upvoted but only saw routes after, no deal!

  • Danstar on 29/11/2022 - 07:59
    -1

    There is already very decently priced (with points) domestic fares.

  • sajidmib on 29/11/2022 - 08:00
    +18

    I’m looking for seats for overseas, they are fully booked not a single seat is left behind. But locally we have no interest in travelling.

    All overseas flights are expensive as hell and still go full

    • Onemoredeal on 29/11/2022 - 08:20
      +13

      Everyone wants overseas business class with all those points they saved up over Covid, but Qantas have one of the lowest availability of international business rewards, usually about 2 per flight, and the highest taxes to go with them

      • Captain Hindsight on 29/11/2022 - 09:03
        +1

        So true, had around 1000,000 qff a few years ago and looked to book a family of 4 to Europe business and all we couldnt find 4 seats on 1 flight no matter how far out we tried. Ground a workaround in the end but was not easy.

        • cathalm8 on 29/11/2022 - 09:43
          +1

          What was the work around??

          • Captain Hindsight on 29/11/2022 - 11:29
            +2

            @cathalm8: No matter what we tried all classic reward flights had 2 business seats only whenever you tried to book anywhere in Europe from Sydney.

            My wife did some research and we booked 2 seperate flights and instead of going via Singapore went on qantas then Cathy from HK which had an aircraft that was about 75% business with a smaller economy at the rear.

            Amazingly there were plenty of seats when you book about 12 months out. Went Sydney HK Zurich, Dusseldorf/HK/SYD.

        • Onemoredeal on 29/11/2022 - 11:26
          -1

          Exactly, I bet if you were Platinum One they would find 4 seats lol

          • Banana on 29/11/2022 - 14:48

            @Onemoredeal: On Platinum you can ring them and get extra rewards seats released.

      • DingoBlue on 29/11/2022 - 09:24

        bingo

      • beeroll on 29/11/2022 - 09:31
        +2

        100% agree about availability, but Emirates have overtaken Qantas on the reward surcharges these days. For a business ticket to a given destination, you'll pay about the equivalent of an economy airfare in "fuel surcharges".

        • [Deactivated] on 29/11/2022 - 09:45
          +1

          Yeah
          I paid $190 taxes with Krisflyer return business Europe.
          My mate through QFF paid $1,200.

          • Flintz on 29/11/2022 - 11:23

            @[Deactivated]: Yea but Qantas points don't expire like Krisflyer does

          • Onemoredeal on 29/11/2022 - 11:28
            +4

            @[Deactivated]: I used Virgin points in June to book Singapore business to Syd to Munich and the taxes were $300 return, QFF is like $700+ one way it’s extortion they just do it to devalue the points

    • vodamerc on 29/11/2022 - 08:40
      +21

      Yes and Qantas is manipulating the market. Qatar and Etihad have both said they want to nearly double their capacity in and out of Australia but Qantas won’t let it happen. All they care about is recovering every single dollar they lost during Covid and the government will do whatever they ask.

      • pensionday on 29/11/2022 - 09:43
        +1

        I guess they're a business

        • nickj on 29/11/2022 - 10:45
          +20

          But the government should act in the interests of Australians as a whole, not just one business in Australia. And Australians as a whole would prefer a competitive well-functioning marketplace, with available seats, that are not at exorbitant prices. Excluding solid competitors like Qatar and Etihad from increasing their capacity is diametrically opposed to that. Qantas is no longer a government-owned business, it received loads of legal & financial help during covid (from being able to legally "stand down" permanent employees, to reduced airport fees, to ~$2 billion in government support without giving up any ownership stake - https://www.theguardian.com/business/2021/jul/22/qantas-on-t…), it has been treating its customers appalingly (see recent Choice shonky award), its employees terribly (e.g. illegally outsourcing ground crew, and a seeming general pattern of treating employees poorly), and in 2022 it has utterly reamed the traveling public with crazy high airfares. It's time to say "Enough!", in fact it's long overdue. Qantas needs to stand on its own two feet, put on its big boy pants, work on staying out of the news for all the wrong reasons, and face increasing top-notch competition.

          • deva5610 on 29/11/2022 - 11:41

            @nickj: Etihad are allowed a total of 56 services a week to split as they choose between the 4 "major" airports - Syd, Mel, Bris and Per, with no capacity limits on "secondary" airports like Adelaide.

            They're not even using 50% of what they're allowed, so if they are whinging about wanting more frequencies they're full of crap.

            Qatar's complaints I can understand a bit more, they're limited to 21 iirc so they can't even operate a daily flight to each of the 4. They're technically operating more flights than allowed at the moment, but that was a bit of COVID leniency from the Government and might not be continued.

            They could operate via a secondary airport (Adelaide, Darwin, Cairns, Canberra, etc) and get around the restrictions a bit too, but who really wants to do that?

            • nickj on 29/11/2022 - 11:59

              @deva5610: I don't know the details of Etihad's allowed services. I'll accept everything you said on face value, but it seems weird that they're asking for something they don't need or wouldn't use, and I'm trying to understand what they're playing at.

              Qatar, on the other hand, are being hindered by their current restriction of 21 services per week, and it seems pretty self-evident they want to and easily could fill more flights, if they were allowed to do so, from the following articles:
              https://simpleflying.com/qatar-airways-brisbane-australia/
              https://www.executivetraveller.com/news/qatar-airways-wants-…

              • vodamerc on 29/11/2022 - 12:41
                +2

                @nickj: Either way, we are being denied some healthy competition by our government that would only benefit us, the consumers. The other airlines typically provide a vastly better service than Qantas these days anyway and usually a lot cheaper!

                • peter05 on 29/11/2022 - 22:57
                  -1

                  @vodamerc: I'm not entirely sure that opening the market for government subsidised airlines is "healthy" or fair competitively when QANTAS has to stand on their own two legs

              • deva5610 on 29/11/2022 - 14:43

                @nickj: You can google the UAE Australia bilateral if you want to check and verify, it was updated in 2015 give or take.

                The UAE gets a total of 160ish, 56 for Etihad and the rest for Emirates.

                Qatar are the ones absolutely getting screwed.

            • Cyphar on 29/11/2022 - 16:32

              @deva5610: Qatar are cancelling their Brisbane route as of early next year. I think go boost flights from Melbourne or Sydney

              • deva5610 on 29/11/2022 - 17:58

                @Cyphar: I'm don't think they can at the moment. They're going back to daily Perth from next week, that with their daily Mel and Syd means they're using up all of their 21 flights.

              • Moo Deng on 29/11/2022 - 22:06

                @Cyphar: Have you got a source for this? I can’t find any info on it. If so it would be hugely disappointing

    • zzzman on 29/11/2022 - 08:51
      +1

      It's impossible to get any business class seats anywhere really, even if planning for a trip a year in advance.

      Don't know what we're gonna do with all the credit card sign up bonus points that we all accured over the last couple of years.

      • ajole on 29/11/2022 - 09:19

        Qantas points are near useless at the moment for business redemptions.

        Hoping that with the return to ‘BAU’ for Cathay and JAL that some good non-QF one world redemption opportunities spring up - generally better on the tax/fees portion of the redemptions too.

        • vawiyoci on 29/11/2022 - 12:05

          Yeah with the lack of Emirates and Qatar rewards seats to Europe for the forseeable future (prob 2024?), I'm just pretty much waiting for the other Asian alliance airlines (MA,CA,CI,JAL) to resume their pre-covid australian flights next year, even if the routes aren't as direct and short. Unless you need to travel as far as London on BA or Paris on AF.

          In the meantime though still plenty of reward seats available heading into Asia itself so still plenty of options to spend points on at least for me.

          • ddhar on 29/11/2022 - 12:12

            @vawiyoci: I saw business class seats on Emirates to some European cities BUT the taxes are $1.8k! Not so enticing.

            • vawiyoci on 29/11/2022 - 12:15

              @ddhar: Especially a farce considering these are oil rich ME nations, while eg Finnair fees are still only in double figures lol.

      • Maz78 on 29/11/2022 - 09:36

        Just use them at the Qantas store.. I gave up trying to ever use points for Business/flight upgrades.

      • TheFyrd on 29/11/2022 - 09:41
        +7

        I advise cutting your losses and switching to Virgin now that they're back. Plenty of availability on SQ and now they offer Qatar also it's a no-brainer for me. You can still trickle in your Qantas points to keep them topped up, there's some availability on premium economy redemptions and they're good for domestic.

        • vawiyoci on 29/11/2022 - 12:37
          +1

          I advise cutting your losses and switching to Virgin

          Would be a tough pill to swallow for people sitting on 6-7 figures of points and trying to accrue the same again with velocity. Especially when a lot of the card reward schemes only convert at 3:1 rates if you want to supplement.

          • vetopower on 29/11/2022 - 12:54

            @vawiyoci: What's the point of sitting on a 7 figure sum of QF points if you can't redeem them for the flights you want?

            • vawiyoci on 29/11/2022 - 13:33

              @vetopower: Depends on your usage circumstances. I might have to hold off on the europe trip for a while but still plenty of availabilities for Asian destinations which I have already redeemed this year and booked for the next.

          • spal on 29/11/2022 - 13:14

            @vawiyoci: No wonder, that would be the reason why I have seen classifieds on OzB requesting :1 swap from Qantas for Velocity.

          • TheFyrd on 29/11/2022 - 14:13
            +2

            @vawiyoci: Not saying to just dump the QF platform but I would personally start moving to spend over to VF. There's no point putting in extra points into QF when availability is shit and will probably always be so. Qantas only has problems ahead, I don't see the company improving things dramatically over the next 12-36 months. Especially when you factor in their old fleet. Also if you have a 7 figure balance with QF you're sort of covered, just let the points dribble in so they don't expire and you're good to go.

      • Ozymandias on 29/11/2022 - 11:18
        +4

        Agree with TheFyrd - I just booked a reasonably direct business class fare to Europe for August 2023 with Velocity points, whereas my brother had to settle for economy and some horrible routing using Qantas points. Virgin's where it's at right now.

      • VantageXL on 29/11/2022 - 12:08
        +2

        It’s much easier to redeem business and first flights with points so long as they begin and end outside of Australia. Just this month I flew home from Europe short notice on Emirates in first class but the last leg of my flight from Japan was Jetstar economy.

        I know it’s annoying but I always recommend that people consider flying economy (either cash fare or with points) to an Asian hub then flying first or business class the rest of the way.

        • alphanumericbargains on 29/11/2022 - 13:06
          +1

          This is quite true. We(2 adults, 1 toddler, 1 infant) were able to redeem MNL-NRT-CTS, NRT-KUL, SIN-DPS-SIN, ICN-HKG-SYD all in biz class using our qantas points for travel in the 1st half of next year.

          Was also looking at SYD-DXB for Oct/Nov next year. There's still a few biz/first class(Emirates) redemptions available.

        • TheFyrd on 29/11/2022 - 14:14
          +2

          Agreed! If you can get to the Asian hub you have so many more options.

        • zzzman on 02/12/2022 - 10:59

          Do you still book One World alliance flights out of an Asian city hub via the Qantas website?

      • Innately Incognito on 29/11/2022 - 12:28

        Guess it depends where you're going. I've done plenty of business redemptions to Asia including China, Singapore, Indonesia and Taiwan.

        Worst case if you're willing to black market the points I'm sure you can get 1c per point at minimum.

        • vawiyoci on 29/11/2022 - 12:34

          Yep still plenty of rewards seats to Asian destinations, and prob even more once the partner airlines resume their routes out of Aus back to pre-covid levels. And don't have to wait a year beforehand to book like the europe stuff, still stuff available as early as 2-3 months out.

      • Drj55 on 29/11/2022 - 14:07
        +1

        Just before COVID I changed our FF earning cards from general rewards points to Qantas. This was against the wishes of my wife who prefers to travel Singapore Air. I also signed up for two cards with Qantas points and so basically went all in.

        Then Covid hit and Emirates pulled out of Adelaide. Travel was off for 2 years and my FFs built up to 1.1million points. I was expecting some kind acknowledgement of my momentous achievement! I couldn't wait to book family return tickets to Europe next year on business or at least premium economy.

        No such luck. There were no available redemption flights for any cabin class on any fare to Europe that I could find (with silver FF status) between May and September.

        Economy return for a family of 4 was $15,500 for crap flights as, without Emirates, there are no Qantas international flights out of Adelaide. I cashed in all $1.1m and got the bill down to $7K for 4 and so at least I can feel slightly happy that I am flying for near 2019 prices.

        We're going back to general rewards points with a massive told you so from my wife!!

        • TheFyrd on 29/11/2022 - 14:18

          That's a pretty impressive earning rate! Business expenses? Good to keep an Amex on hard for that sort of spend to give you flexibility and I would just churn and burn the other cards for the sign-up bonus. Citi prestige also has pretty good earning rates.

    • AusGP on 29/11/2022 - 11:29
      +1

      Theres plenty of availability to Singapore just very recently opened. April/May onwards

      • niiko on 01/12/2022 - 13:51

        Yeah, also saw them and almost was hooked. But then I noticed that they are operated by… jetstar where business is equal or worse than premium economy on other airlines. So, it is a waste of miles.

        • AusGP on 01/12/2022 - 21:24

          No i am referring to the legit Qantas flights (I booked my wife one of these flights - A330 business class)

    • niiko on 01/12/2022 - 13:49

      I've just booked SYD-BKK-SYD on April for $500 + 136k points which is very good deal considering the market price for those tickets is almost $8k (although, you can book Thai Airways for $3-4k). So, it is possible to find overseas tickets but you need to book months in advance.

  • Xizor on 29/11/2022 - 08:04
    +33

    Pretty crap list of routes really. Qantas have absolutely awful points redemptions availability post covid restrictions and even worse for international. Almost non existent. This is just a poor attempt at marketing spin to get some suckers to use points on a route theyd like not otherwise bother about.

    • [Deactivated] on 29/11/2022 - 08:22
      +5

      This is just a poor attempt at marketing spin to get some suckers to use points on a route theyd like not otherwise bother about.

      Breaking news: Companies dial-up marketing effort and reduce prices on products and services where their supply exceeds demand. More in our main bulletin at 6pm.

      • sidoz on 29/11/2022 - 09:38

        Yep. But given the routes its going to have very limited appeal to points holders so i wouldn't call it a dialed up marketing effort in the least. But hey, maybe they may have some data insights for a particular segment of points holders that its meant for.

    • adrianhughes1998 on 29/11/2022 - 09:49

      Maybe so but if looking in the right place they will turn up.

      Bunch of UK and USA turned up last week but sold out by now.

  • [Deactivated] on 29/11/2022 - 08:27
    +12

    Planes from 8,000 Points

    Thought today was my day to scoop-up a lightly-used Boeing 717 for 8,000 points, or maybe an Airbus A330 for 24,000 points.

    Disappointed.

    • muncan on 29/11/2022 - 08:52
      +2

      Ahem!

      • [Deactivated] on 29/11/2022 - 08:54
        +6

        Can't seem to filter for 1:1 scale?

        • muncan on 29/11/2022 - 09:00
          +1

          Yeah, they’re deals for ants.
          But still, an A380 for 7,650 points, or a Dreamliner for 6,780 points. You know you want them!

    • drfuzzy on 29/11/2022 - 09:06
      +1

      I'm sure you can negotiate a $100m payment for your back pocket to take an entire fleet of 737 MAX from Boeing and the associated responsibilities.

    • raj koothrappali on 29/11/2022 - 09:24
      +3

      I am still collecting Pepsi Points for the Harrier

      • pongie on 29/11/2022 - 17:17

        Will you settle for $1mill?

  • michael128 on 29/11/2022 - 08:28
    +4

    Never fly with Qantas again, even budget airlines (except Jet) are way more reliable than Qantas.

    • smoothymcmellow on 29/11/2022 - 09:54
      +1

      Not last month, Qantas getting back on track

      https://www.bitre.gov.au/statistics/aviation/otp_month

    • pingponged on 29/11/2022 - 10:00

      Yep I'm overseas on a 3 leg trip to get here, one of them is with a partner airline. Guess which one was the only one not cancelled or without significant delay…

      • scuderiarmani on 29/11/2022 - 10:23

        Qantas.

        Only flight I never had issues with in the USA coming home. Blizzard and all in NYC.

  • Wiadro on 29/11/2022 - 08:39
    +3

    I have literally only booked points flights for the last year.

    I’m going bris for Christmas, points fare on the 23rd dec and coming back on the 2nd with a points fare.

    Then in Feb going Melb return on a points fare.

    Time to churn another credit card.

    • Mr BoMBAStiG on 29/11/2022 - 15:37

      When did you book? I have never paid more for Christmas travel interstate this year as no points were avail and flights were expensive. I booked a week ago though.

  • bbbargain1 on 29/11/2022 - 08:43

    Broome can sugma

    • Alderson on 29/11/2022 - 09:45
      +1

      Broome is awesome… but probably not in Jan/Feb.

      • bbbargain1 on 29/11/2022 - 10:10
        +1

        Yeah that's irikanji season I think 🤔 😂

      • greennick on 29/11/2022 - 12:23

        Yeah, terrible time for Broome. And of course it is the only Perth destination, so this is just about a useless promotion for WA unless you live in Broome.

  • bargainator9 on 29/11/2022 - 08:45
    +10

    Prediction - the qantas website will not be able to handle the “unprecedented customer interest” and trying to actually book anything will be near impossible and highly frustrating. That’s the Qantas way.

    • Headless on 29/11/2022 - 10:37

      I gave up booking a reward flight with Qantas back in September / October, despite using 3 separate computers (no trackers or blockers) I couldn't get the booking to work - used Virgin, bam went straight through

      In addition to waiting an hour on the phone before I gave up with Qantas

  • dogzilla on 29/11/2022 - 09:44
    +8

    Meh….same old story again #joyced

    Qantas' has literally flushed their rep down the toilet - not to mention domestic flights are now the same cost as international in many cases (Perth-Sydney return $980 each way anyone).

    Agree with the other poster, have started moving to Virgin - whilst they are only incrementally better - its an alternative to what is literally a legalised racket at these prices.

    • dtpearson on 29/11/2022 - 10:09
      -3

      Yep, when I started collecting Qantas points you could get business class flights to the UK return for 150,000 points some times, I just checked, and the best I could find late next year was almost 2 million points. Scam.

      • Tony-Abbott on 29/11/2022 - 11:52
        +3

        When someone clearly doesn't know the different between a classic reward and a cash fare using points…

        • vawiyoci on 29/11/2022 - 12:13

          Yeah qantas reward seats definitely aren't as cheap as other programs (a lot of the asian routes I search only cost about 2/3 points elsewhere), but cash for points definitely isn't the way to use it. Though 159k per leg to europe is already increased from what it used be, and nothing to stop them from further raises in the future.

      • Repstar on 29/11/2022 - 16:41

        You're doing it wrong chief. Learn how to use your reward points properly hint hint google classic reward.

    • Ononono on 29/11/2022 - 15:13
      +1

      Reputation down, customer service down, employees down
      However the profits and exec bonuses are up! Makes you think…

      https://michaelwest.com.au/qantas-profits-soar-but-little-ro…

  • DingoBlue on 29/11/2022 - 09:56

    Regarding the thumbnail picture, would a civilian flight generally ever lean that much? What would it feel like in the cabin?

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