Hoping someone might be able to help me and point me in the right direction.
I have spent hours and hours, day after day trying to figure this out and not getting anywhere fast. I’m new to all this so I feel like I’m going around in circles a bit.
Wanting to go from Brisbane to Rome and then return Athens to Brisbane. Can any one help me figure out which route is best? Looking at using oneworld Classic Flights Rewards for 4 adults in economy Sept/Oct 23 (I know these aren’t available yet but trying to get my head around it all so that I’m ready when they are released).
Ideally trying to find the easiest route with minimal stopovers but not having much luck with working it out.
The other alternative I’m considering is BNE to LA spending a few days here, then on to London and spending a few days there and then travelling London to Rome and spending 3 weeks doing Italy, Malta and Greece. Once we finish up in Greece we are wanting to return home to Brisbane.
I’ve sorted the BNE-LAX-LHR-FCO for this alternative
But it’s the return flight home Athens to Brisbane I’m having trouble with and the first option of going from Brisbane to ROME that I’m having trouble with.
Thx
G’day @av_reeves
Just doing a quick, cursory search, and there it looks like you’ll have a much better time of getting award availability if you can fly out of Sydney rather than Brisbane, just because there’s more capacity and more frequencies. As well as this, Qantas’ online search tool doesn’t tend to pick up some availabilities using domestic connections. When searching using the Qantas Multi City tool, you can choose to search just solely from Brisbane, or input a flight line at the beginning and end for BNE - SYD and SYD - BNE, but up to you.
In terms of stopovers, your best bet for convenience is probably either Doha or Dubai, with Qatar Airways and Emirates, respectively, although reward availability on the SYD - SIN - LHR flights from British Airways seems to be quite prevalent as well. Note that if you fly Emirates, you cannot ticket the flights as a oneworld classic reward.
Overall, there’s always going to be limited availabilty to/from Europe from Australia, due to the distances involved, further limited by the airlines that Qantas partners with and the popularity of the route itself. When trying to book rewards, even in economy, you do have to be flexible with the timing/stopovers though, as airlines don’t tend to make it super easy!
Hope this helps
Thank you for the information. Very informative and gives me something to work on, greatly appreciated. 
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Hi Matt. Thanks for your article on One World, certainly got the travel troll active. I’d really appreciate your comments please, I’ve tried and finally booked return flights for two from Brisbane to Rome in Business class in March 2023. Bris to Dubai EK431, to Rome EK95 then Rome to Dubai EK96, Dubai to Melbourne EK406 then Melbourne to Brisbane QF612. After listening to your podcast, Aust to Barcelona I was shocked with my costing using Qantas FF Points 345,600 and $3,676 per person. Have I done something basically wrong. Thanks in anticipation, best wishes, John Shep
Hi @moorkulla
Matt isn’t a regular contributor to this site any more, so I’m going to jump in and answer your question.
You have not done anything wrong. 345,600 points for the itinerary you’ve booked is correct. It consists of 318,000 points for the return trip to Rome on Emirates (159,000 points each way), plus 27,600 points for the Qantas flight from Melbourne to Brisbane.
The reason it’s costing the extra 27,600 points is that Qantas flights and Emirates flights are on separate points tables: the Qantas flight is on the “Qantas Classic Flight Reward Table”, and the Emirates flight is on the “Partner Classic Flight Reward Table”. So the bookings on the two airlines can’t be combined. You can see the reward tables here.
As for the $3676 per person carrier charges, you can read about that here.
Finally, you should be aware that Emirates isn’t part of Oneworld, so the Oneworld booking rules won’t apply to Emirates bookings.
Hope this helps!
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G’day sixtyeight. Thanks very much for your response, so succinct and clear. I’m much relieved I got it right. I’m planning another trip and will do it with a lot more certainty thanks to your explanation. All the best, John Shep
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Hi All. Many thanks again to sixtyeight for the suggestions. I stumbled on the following article on the Point Hacks website (with my IT skill set I do mean stumble) and found it enlightening. "How to book a reward seat with Qantas Points, Practical tips for booking your next Qantas Classic Flight Reward. Big Thanks to Evin Tan Khiew. Best wishes, John Shep