Looking for a Qantas Reward Flight to South America or USA as a first timer

I have about 140k Qantas Points, currently overseas and looking to find a flight back to Australia from South America (first choice) or Central/North America (second choice) towards the end of Feb/Early March 2016.

I’d like to experience Business or First class as I never have done so before. What’s the best way of knowing what routes have the Classic Reward seats available, and how to find and buy them as soon as they become available?

Or, am I doing it all wrong - is there a better way I should be approaching it?

Thanks!

Cam

Hi camyorke. What cities are you flying out and into? Qantas has a distance bases chart and will charge you more to fly its one world partner 139000 points. However qantas charges you less points to redeem on emirates 128000 points from south america to Australia via dubai. And emirates a380 business class is the ultimate redemption because you can indulge in the onboard bar.

The best way to search for award availability is still through Qantas website. Just tick “search or Qantas and partners’ award” and “flexible with dates” that will give you a calendar view of availability throughout the month.

I agree with Nelson that Emirates will be a good choice. Other choice would be by LAN. You don’t have enough points for F so you should focus on J. However I suspect that you won’t find any availability for next Feb/Mar. Be careful with Qantas search engine, even if it says business class is available. Watch out for the “!” mark. Click on it and it will usually say “your flight from SYD-LAX will be in economy”. So your only business sector is MEL-SYD but Qantas charges you business fare for the whole trip.

Emirates to Perth should be easier to find than to East Coast. But as I said, if you can’t find anything, it’s normal, just gotta be quick next time. Sometimes some airlines will release seats they can’t sell on the last 2 weeks, but that’s not guaranteed and you need to have a back up plan if the seats don’t get released.