We have 333000 Qantas points and plan to go from Adelaide to London return next March or April. We want to go business or first class. Happy to pay for one ticket. Looking for advice about how to make best use of the points please.
Hi Paulm,
It would be very helpful if you could give us your preferred departure city; someone on this forum may be able to do some specific checking of routes and availability for you.
Speaking generally… you have enough points for one return trip in business class. You don’t have enough for a return trip in first class, but you may have enough points (depending on the airline) to go first class in one direction and business class in the other direction.
Begin by searching on the Qantas website. Qantas releases very few business class seats to London, so be prepared to fly on another airline. Emirates is your next best choice because they require fewer points. If you can’t find availability on Emirates, you’ll need to search further afield for availability with other airlines such as Qatar, Cathay, Malaysian, etc. You should read this Point Hacks article, about using Qantas points on other airlines.
Be aware that some airlines (eg. Cathay) fly into Gatwick as well as Heathrow. As a last resort, look into flying into other cities which, as a general rule, have slightly better availability. Manchester always has better availability than London, and also (to a lesser extent) Paris, Amsterdam, even Dublin. You can then get cheaply and easily into London from the city you fly into.
Hope this helps!
Apologies. I’ve amended my post to say that we will leave from Adelaide.
Thank you very much for the help.
Hi again,
The good news is that Adelaide is one of the easiest cities in Australia to find frequent flyer availability from. And I’ve just popped onto the Qantas website and there’s plenty of availability in business class to/from London in March and April next year. Read the article that I linked to above, head over to the Qantas website and you should be able to find seats in no time at all. Of course, please let us know if you need any more help. And remember to click on “use points” or “Classic Flight Rewards”.
Your help has been great. I’ve found multiple options to both London and Dublin with Qatar and Cathay Pacific.
Could you please let me know which airline you would recommend and also is it best to book the flights now or is there any benefit in delaying booking them?
Many thanks as we’ve never flown business class internationally and are very much looking forward to it.
I’m glad to have been helpful!
Qatar vs Cathay … six of one…
Qatar probably has the better onboard product, but the business lounges at Hong Kong airport are arguably the best in the world. You can’t really go wrong with either. If your layover is going to be long, I’d lean towards Cathay and the Hong Kong lounges. Otherwise I’d go Qatar.
However, you say that you’ll have to pay for one of your flights. In that case, I’d simply go with the airline which requires the least amount of money for the other ticket.
Is there any benefit in delaying? None whatsoever. Book the flights as soon as you can, before someone else does.
We’ll use our points for two business class flights there and pay for the return ones most likely premium economy I think as we’ll only have 42000 left.
Once again many thanks for your help.
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