Hi Ozb, I am wondering the best bang for my buck for a Europe trip. Should I buy the tickets and then use points to upgrade to business or should I use them to just get economy rewards tickets. The flight are circa 80k qff for each way for return economy reward flights (total 160 qff) and 2.2k dollars for the same flight.
Thanks in advance
QFF - Best Use of Points?
jstar168 on 10/11/2024 - 20:25
Last edited 10/11/2024 - 22:44 by 1 other user
Last edited 10/11/2024 - 22:44 by 1 other user
Comments
While that is true i rather have 2 return flights in economy than 1 business class flight but thats just me
Is that 160,000 return for one person? A oneworld Classic Flight Reward is 132,400 in economy
Best value is Dubai - Europe in First class around 90000 points +$600 in fees.
That would be amazing:)
To second what @Ynk says, the best bang for the buck is getting a business class ticket directly one way (or - even better - first class on Emirates because having a shower on a plane is a wonderful novelty) or return from SE Asia (e.g. on Finnair to Helsinki).
(If you book one way, you can generally find decently priced one way fares to/from Europe through Scoot although almost other airline would be better.)
Worth pointing out too that upgrading using points is not guaranteed (and isn't available on Emirates services to Europe anyway - only Qantas' very limited services to Europe).
Using points to upgrade is a waste of time and money. Firstly you have to buy an upgradeable economy fare which is not going to be the cheapest fare. Then you go into a lottery and will find out the day before the flight if you have been selected. Bronze members have a very low chance of success.
How much are the taxes on the reward flight you have found? It might be worth it to book that instead of paying $2.2k.
Business class reward flights are better value but it's almost impossible to find those.
2 x return flights on economy, easily best bang for buck
One world around the world is the best value if you can make it work
Economy: 132,400 Qantas points
Premium Economy: 249,600 Qantas points
Business: 318,000 Qantas points
If flying business need to be flexible, find start and end flight and then work on the middle. If you get the start and finish flights you can edit the fare for 5000 points when other flights come up.
I managed to get 7 business class flights for the 3 of us to and from Europe via Japan, was a great tripThanks for all the tips, I love this community.
I think the way forward is to just grab the rewards tickets for economy. I searched for any business but had no joy. I am only a bronze member with points club so nothing for business for me :(
Thanks againUse seats.aero or pointsyeah.com to dig up business seats. Also, you'll do better finding business out of SE Asia than Australia.
Thanks for that. Points yeah looks decent.
Interested to know… what city pair was redeemable for 80K? I tried a few common ones and couldn't see that points value in Classic or Classic Plus.
Certainly SIN-HEL and BKK-HEL on AY are 90K points in J (if you can find it). Not sure about connections elsewhere though.
KUL-LHR and BKK-CDG are 104.5K one way.
Australia to London is 55.2K one way in cattle.
It was Mel to dub can't remember the stops but cheapest involved Helsinki if inrecall
MEL-DUB is tricky, definitely less points if you can make it work as a oneworld Classic Flight Reward but you need to have date flexibility
The best bang for your buck is to save more points and use them to book business class. The chances of you being able to use them to upgrade to business is extremely low (especially if you have no status with Qantas but excellent value) - Otherwise booking an economy rewards ticket as mentioned with the pricing above values the points at 1.37c each if you have accounted for taxes which is better than using them on anything else.