Why can't I find any business class Classic Rewards flights out of Australia?

Hi, is it just me or is it next to impossible to find any RTW classic reward ickets in businesses class on qantas?
I have checked 1 year ahead to several O/S destinations from several Australian departure cities and there only seems to be classic plus tickets available, which cant be used as part of the ticket.
I used to be able to book these tickets with some difficulty, but now there literally seems to be nothing, not even for one leg??

Hello and welcome @gary.haas !

The bottleneck is most definitely finding flights into and out of Australia – things should be a bit easier when you’re looking for flights that don’t originate in or fly to Australian airports.

I agree that it’s like looking for a needle in a haystack, but the flights are there if you persist. For example, as I write this, Malaysian Airlines has business class availability between Adelaide and Kuala Lumpur on September 5 and 6, 2025. I think I’ve also seen a tiny bit of Malaysian Airlines availability out of Melbourne, Sydney and Perth to KL.

Once you find something, grab it quickly before someone else does!

Let us know how you go.

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“It looks like something went wrong”
Not just you Gary, it’s everyone and it drives us all nuts.
“It looks like something went wrong”
Seems we’re all searching for long Haul business class classic reward seats, and they are like hen’s teeth!
“It looks like something went wrong”
So Qantas have all but taken away the classic rewards and introduced this stupid “Classic Plus” thing, which they’re bragging about, but no-one’s in the slightest bit interested in it coz it’s three times the number of points! On top of the unrealistic “tax” component.
Disheartened.

You’re right @Mikelus_Maximus it can be a bit disheartening sometimes as you say. However, the effort to learn the tips and hints for successfully building a reward itinerary at the pointy end can all be found in the articles on the Point Hacks website and right here in the community forum. Here’s a quick search I did on the topic of not being able to find rewards flights:

https://community.pointhacks.com/search?expanded=true&q=%22why%20can%27t%20i%20find%22%20order%3Alatest_topic

All the information you need to navigate through the frustrations you describe can be found in these articles… and through continually testing them to find those elusive lie flat seats. Play around with the booking engines and vary your routes and departure/arrival cities. It’s all there waiting for you to discover. Persistence rewards the diligent student.
Best of luck! :+1:

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I’ve been point hacking for the best part of a decade now and Qantas has NEVER been the FF programme of choice for long-haul redemptions. They haven’t “all but taken away” classic awards: if you go back 5-8 years, they weren’t there then either – it was just hidden by the fact that Emirates awards were a whole lot cheaper, and there were more awards on partner airlines such as Cathay Pacific.

Since COVID, Qantas has been part of a trend where airlines increasingly hold back reward seats to members of their own FF programme (eg. Cathay, Singapore, etc) or increase carrier charges (Emirates), or both (Qatar). It’s just that members of Qantas FF are at a disadvantage because Qantas has so few of its own long haul flights out of Australia.

As I’ve been saying in this forum for a long, long time, Qantas FF’s great strengths (and they are huge strengths) are short-haul/domestic redemptions, and redemptions on partner airlines for flights not originating in or flying to Australia. But if you want to use your points for long-haul flights in premium cabins into or out of Australia, you need to understand that Qantas FF is not your best option – and it never has been.