How to book return flights from Cairns to Europe for April/May 2023?

Flights & Airfares
1

Hello, we currently have
120000 Qantas points
130000 Velocity points
26000 Krisflyer points
15000 Orchid Royal points
and would like to go to Europe next year with a stopover on our way there and back. We are looking to go to either Spain, Italy or London. What are your recommendation to tackle this? Is it possible to book now and upgrade later if we get more points? Any help would be very much appreciated.
Thanks

2

Based on two passengers, your options are limited. It will cost you 110,400 Qantas points to fly economy on Qantas to London. It will then cost you 130,000 Velocity points to fly economy on Singapore Airlines from Rome back to Cairns. Choosing other airlines or flying to Spain costs more points which you do not have. You do not have enough points to have a stopover.

If you want to have a stop over you can for example purchase a ticket from Cairns to Singapore using cash with the rest of your journey booked using points. Keep in mind however that one way cash fares can be expensive and cost almost the same as a round trip ticket.

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3

Hi @pointirene

Welcome to our community!

You used the word “we” so I’m assuming there are two of you.

At this point you have enough, or almost enough, points for two people to fly to Europe and back, with no stopovers, in Economy class (using your Velocity points to fly in one direction, and your Qantas points to fly in the other direction).

There are a few possible strategies you could use:

  • You could find, and book, direct Economy flights sooner rather than later. That means your flights are booked (= huge peace of mind!), but you’ll be forsaking your stopovers. Almost certainly, you’ll also be forsaking the opportunity of flying Business. Upgrade rules are complicated, but the short version is that you probably won’t be eligible.

  • You could spend 6-8 months doing some aggressive point hacking (each take out 2 or more credit cards with sign-up bonuses, vigorous accumulation of FlyBuys or Everyday Rewards points, etc etc), so you’ll hopefully have enough points by the end of it for Business Class flights with stopovers. Then search for whatever last-minute reward flight opportunities become available. A variation of this strategy would be to delay your trip until 2024.

  • You could pay for flights to/from your stopover destinations, and then use points for reward seats for the other segments of your flight, so you’re paying for 2 segments and using points for the other 2 segments.

Hope this helps!

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