Hi gang,
I’m a newby to reward flights and have built up about 700,000 Qantas FF points. I’m trying to book economy reward flights to Oslo or Helsinki around 20 Dec. I’m a bronze member so unsurprisingly, nothing has come up.
I’ve been checking everyday and my question is should I persist or just pay cash? When looking around Oct23 for a Dec23 departure there were plenty of reward flights with Emirates. Am i being crazy for leaving it so late?
Any help would be much appreciated.
Paul
Hi and welcome @pkhamlu.
May I ask where are you flying from, what date ranges you’re looking at, and for how many passengers please?
Have you thought about the route(s) you’re willing to take too? ie. which cities, as this will impact which airlines you can potentially book using your nice pool of points.
Hi jenart, I’ll be flying out of Sydney and have been looking at stopovers in Asia or Middle east. I really dont mind where but trying to limit stop overs to 1 city if i can.
I’ve been looking everyday and it looks like the little red icon on the Helsinki via Finnair route is getting closer to my dates. My wife is getting worried we’re going to miss out on cash flights altogether if we wait until October, but i figure demand will down on last Christmas. Maybe thats just wishful thinking.
Are you using the Multi-City search with “Flexible Dates”? There seems to be some options available (without knowing your exact dates). Searching for 2 reward seats at christmas is going to be difficult. I’d jump on anything you find immediately so you’ve locked in your itinerary. Then keep watching for other flights or higher classes that may become available - you can always amend your booking later if you have enough residual points.
The Finnair route is a great one if you can get it because they have minimal fees and charges. Look for options from Sydney - Singapore for that or Sydney - Hong Kong has possibilities as well as Sydney to Seoul then over to Helsinki.
If you then want to head to Oslo via the middle east start checking all south east asian cities that Emirates flies from ([Emirates Route Map] (Emirates Route Map)) and if there is a suitable flight from Sydney to get you there.
Of course you need to find return flights too, but if you’re game… lock in an outbound itinerary first, and the keep searching for the return legs. Worst case scenario, you’ll pay cash for that if you can’t find anything.
Best of luck 
Thank you so much for your help jenart. I hadnt been looking at breaking up the flights like you suggested and just secured some great Classic reward flights on 22 December (economy) from Seoul to Oslo (via Helsinki) and back, for 4 people with Finnair 
Total cost was 312,400 points and $700 AUD.
I also had enough points left to book Syd to Seoul return for 2 people using Classic rewards plus. Paid cash for the other 2 flights.
Cheers
Paul
Wow!! Great work @pkhamlu!!!
I love it when a plan comes together like that. What an awesome booking - especially for 4 people and so close to Christmas too. This is why we points hack… awesome effort.
Have a great trip. 
