Hi, I’ve collected almost 500 000 points during covid and am trying to book some flights.
I can see that Melbourne to Tokyo in October is over 500 000 points now, one person, one way. Have Qantas points reduced in value across the board? or is this because Tokyo is still closed?
Hi @jmccrossin
Welcome to the Point Hacks community!
There are two ways to redeem points for flights: Qantas calls them “Classic Flight” rewards and “Any Seat” rewards. Classic Flight rewards are much, much cheaper and most definitely the option favoured by us as the way to get the most value out of your points – by far. Any Seat rewards are much more available (because you can use points effectively like cash to pay for any seat that’s for sale) but exponentially more expensive. This Point Hacks article explains it in a little more detail.
What you’re seeing in your searches are the points required for “Any Seat” rewards. As the money price of these tickets increases, so does the number of points required.
The good news is that Qantas’ “Classic Flight” reward seats have not gone up in price. The bad news is that, with the explosion in demand post-COVID, there are hardly any of them available at the moment.
My advice would be to not waste your hard-earned points on an Any Seat reward. Hang tight, and availability for Classic Flight awards will eventually return to something like normal. Hopefully. At some stage. Alternatively, you could use your points for Classic Flight rewards on domestic flights, where availability is generally pretty good.
I hope this helps!
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Hi - you may find flights 90,000 each way. Try clicking on the ‘Classic reward only’ button and being very flexible with your dates, i.e. if you can adjust your trip click through the available dates to see what’s available.
Honestly though you may find you need to book much further in advance for an award flight to a popular destination. Ok, everywhere is popular right now 