I am looking to book flights from Melbourne to Los Angles and back in Dec/Jan with points that I have accumulated and am having a little trouble. When I search the ‘Where can I go’ section it gives me points totals of around 50K each way for economy seats but when I look to book the flights they are significantly more points, approx 150,000 each way. Am I doing something wrong? Also, would you recommend paying for flights and using points to upgrade as a better use of points? I have approx 300,000 Qantas points.
Hence, there wouldn't be many Classic Rewards flights left, if any.
Try clicking on Classic Rewards and Flexible date when you do a Qantas search on a non-mobile browser. It should show you a calendar view of what’s available.
This coming Dec/Jan? If so, you’ve left it too late. There are no classic reward seats left; I know as I struggled to get even premium economy classic reward seats LAX>BNE early Jan '18 and I booked months ago (your only chance is a cancellation by someone who has already booked one).
You need to book 330+ days out on QF and for that you’ll need to be gold/plat if you want business or first class.