How to fly from Brisbane/Sydney to Vancouver with Qantas points?

[helbelw]

Hi, Bit of a newbie to using Qantas points. I am hoping to find classic reward seats from Brisbane or Sydney to Vancouver in September 2023. When I search for earlier dates availability, it doesn’t show any classic rewards available at all. In fact it requires 1.5 million points for a one way journey. Am I better of searching for a more popular destination like Los Angeles and then flying onto Vancouver or is there a simpler way of looking for classic reward flights? Thanks for your help!

[w.hiew]

There are some good pointers here even though the post is for flights to Europe.

How can I fly from Brisbane to Athens 2023 using Qantas points?

G’day @tcford10 For starters, you’re probably not doing anything necessarily wrong. Europe is quite popular from May → September, and airlines recognise this, so they don’t tend to release as many seats available for using points, so it’ll be harder to find. Secondly, make sure you’re choosing the fare type “Classic Reward” - these point values are set in stone, and don’t change, but they are harder to find. If you see it costing a lot more points, then it can be because there aren’t any Class…

Looking up Google Flights, there a a few oneworld routes to Vancouver. There is a direct flight with Qantas. Others are via HKG, NRT/HND and LAX.

If trying to redeem business class with Qantas flights, unless you have Gold status or higher, you usually see reward seats ~10 mths in advance. Gold and above members have first dibs ~11/12 mths in advance.

Being a low status member myself, I’d likely try my luck via partner airlines like Cathay Pacific or JAL. Hopefully, travel restrictions will be lifted by then. Japan should be fine by Sep 2023, is my guess. Who knows about HKG.