Most people in Australia that you speak to would have or, at one point, had a collection of Qantas Points. They’re easy to acquire through everyday spend from grocery shopping, filling up petrol, and even taking out a mortgage. Despite this, one of the most common things I hear from people is that they can’t redeem their Qantas points for overseas flights. It is true that international Qantas “Classic Reward” seats, as they’re termed, are challenging to find, especially if you’re looking for a business or first-class seats, but Qantas points can be used for a lot more than Qantas flights. Qantas has a vast (and growing) list of international airline partners, allowing many redemptions you may not have otherwise considered. I will tell you how to take advantage of these partners to fly almost anywhere in the world using Qantas points.
Who are Qantas’ International Partners?
Qantas has two types of partners: Oneworld alliance and non-alliance partners. Oneworld is the airline alliance Qantas belongs to. This group of airlines joined together, intending to provide more seamless connections between their members. This includes, most importantly, reward seat redemptions and lounge access. Oneworld members include British Airways, American Airlines, Japan Airlines, Qatar Airways, Finnair and Cathay Pacific, among many others. Most of these partners have good reward seat availability, easily bookable through Qantas’ website. A notable exception to this is Qatar Airways which has reduced reward seat availability compared to what other partners have (including Virgin Australia). Those that don’t have reward seats visible to book online may still be able to be booked via the call centre.
Non-alliance partners are those that Qantas has formed relationships with individually, so the benefits may not be as standardised as the Oneworld partners. These partners often still have reward seat availability. The main ones to look out for are Emirates, Westjet, Air France, KLM, China Airlines, and so on.
How do I Redeem These Reward Seats?
Most of these reward seats are visible through Qantas’ website, although the website can be temperamental and glitchy, making booking a bit difficult. The other unfortunate fact is that more reward seats are viewable through Qantas’ “Multi-City” booking tool than on the regular search engine, although this seems to be improving. When in doubt, the call centre should be able to help you book and look for seats if you are struggling. The first trick to try when looking for seat availability is to search only for Classic Rewards by hitting the toggle saying “Reward Seats,” as this will show more flights to you than usual.
For non-alliance partners, predicting award availability in all cases is difficult. Emirates is generally good because reward seats are the same as those available to Skywards members. Other airlines, such as Air France and KLM, will release fewer award seats to Qantas than they do to Flying Blue members. It is, therefore, challenging to look on other websites to see if seats are present, and the only way through this, if the website needs to be fixed, is to call Qantas.
Oneworld seats are a different story, however. Qantas’ booking engine will not show all airline or seat availabilities, but in this case, an available seat on the Oneworld alliance is always bookable with Qantas points. The best way to look for these is to use the British Airways Executive Club search engine. It shows all the Oneworld alliance seats available and clearly indicates how many seats are available in each class and each flight. It is the best reward seat search engine to look for these seats. Once found, you can call Qantas, and they should be able to book it for you. Note that the points and taxes you see won’t necessarily be the same as what Qantas will charge you.
Which Airlines are Worth Booking?
The sheer number of airline partners that Qantas has can be overwhelming. Not all of these
are good value, however. Taxes can be extremely high on some flights making it not worth
your time. Some outstanding redemptions are as follows:
- Japan Airlines – minimal taxes and good route network to Europe and West Coast
USA - Finnair – Good network between Asia and Europe and extremely low taxes
- Westjet – Very low taxes and an excellent way to connect between North America
and Europe - Fiji Airways – A new partner providing an alternative one-stop route to the West
Coast USA
I would also steer clear of the following as their extra charges make the seats particularly
poor value:
- Emirates – A recent increase in carrier charges makes some redemptions eye-wateringly expensive to the point where often you’d be better off paying cash.
- Qatar Airways – Limited award availability and relatively high taxes mean it’s
generally a poor use of points. If you’re looking for business-class redemptions, try
redeeming these via Velocity.
The other partner airlines vary depending on the route, with some excellent value routes and some you should avoid. It comes down to trial and error, but the key to finding the seats is knowing where to look and which routes the partner airlines fly. For instance, we know that Finnair provides cheap flights to Europe from Asia, so looking in the Qantas engine for flights from Singapore to Helsinki or Helsinki to London will show you if a seat is available on Finnair. Then you can look separately for a flight from Australia to Singapore or book this section in cash. Because of the quirks of the Qantas booking system, without looking at each leg separately, these flights will often not show up without knowing how to search for them.
More Information
Here is a more in-depth exploration of the big Qantas partners and their value propositions.
Qantas has many partner airlines that allow you to use your Qantas points for international flights much faster than you would for Qantas flights. Some excellent deals can be found. You just need to know how to look for them and which partners provide the best value.
This post was written by Murtaza Khanbhai, founder of Reward Flight. Reward Flight is a website focussing on helping people find cheaper travel deals and using their reward points to reach their dream destination.
