Two decades ago, Qantas had 26 partner airlines that you could earn and redeem Qantas Frequent Flyer points with. Today, you can still redeem Qantas points to fly with 26 partner airlines… but the list looks very different!
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Qantas’ partner airlines today
There are currently 14 Oneworld alliance member airlines, including Qantas, meaning Qantas has 13 partner airlines through its alliance membership. This is significantly more members than when Oneworld first launched in 1999.
These are the current Oneworld member airlines:
Today, Qantas also partners with many other airlines in addition to those shown above. Some of these are just codeshare partnerships, but there are 13 non-Oneworld partner airlines that you can redeem Qantas points to fly with:
- Air France
- Air New Zealand (New Zealand domestic flights only)
- Air Tahiti Nui (Auckland-Papeete & Papeete-Los Angeles codeshare routes only)
- Bangkok Airways
- China Airlines
- China Eastern
- El Al
- Emirates
- Jetstar (including Jetstar Asia and Jetstar Japan)
- KLM
- LATAM Airlines
- Oman Air
- Westjet
You can also see a full list of airlines that you can currently earn Qantas points with (when flying on that airline’s flight number) on the Qantas website.
How this compares to Qantas’ partner airlines 20 years ago
The following screenshot from the Qantas website in May 2005 shows, by comparison, the airlines that you could use Qantas points with twenty years ago:
This excerpt from a Qantas Frequent Flyer brochure sent to members in 2005 also shows the airlines that you could earn Qantas points with two decades ago, as well as the earning rates from that time:
What happened to Qantas’ previous partner airlines?
Interestingly, around a dozen of the airlines Qantas used to partner with in 2005 have since either rebranded or ceased operations entirely. Others have simply parted ways with Qantas.
Of the 26 partner airlines Qantas had in 2005, only seven of these are still partners today. (I’m not counting QantasLink as a separate partner airline here, as it’s just Qantas’ wholly-owned regional arm.)
Here’s what happened to the rest of those airlines…
- Aer Lingus left the Oneworld alliance in 2006 and ceased its partnership with Qantas in 2019
- LAN merged with TAM, rebranding in 2015 as LATAM
- MacAir, a regional airline based in northern Queensland, went out of business in 2009
- National Jet Systems has been folded into the QantasLink brand and today operates QantasLink’s Airbus A220s
- US Airways merged with American Airlines in 2013
- South African Airways ended its Qantas partnership in 2014 when the airlines stopped codesharing on each others’ flights between Australia and South Africa
- Alitalia ended its partnership with Qantas in 2016 (and has since rebranded as ITA Airways)
- Polynesian Airlines became part-owned by Virgin Blue, rebranded as Polynesian Blue, eventually closed down and in 2017 relaunched international flights as Samoa Airways
- Air Pacific rebranded as Fiji Airways in 2013, and has just joined the Oneworld alliance under its new name
- O’Connor Airlines, a regional carrier based in Mount Gambier, ceased operations in 2007
- Airnorth decided to end its partnership with Qantas at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020
- Air Vanuatu went into liquidation in 2024
- Brindabella Airlines, a regional airline based in Canberra, suspended operations in 2013 over safety concerns
- Airlines of South Australia was purchased by Airnorth in 2003, and shut down later in 2005
- Swiss International Air Lines had originally planned to join the Oneworld alliance in 2003, but eventually decided not to after a dispute with British Airways. Lufthansa ultimately bought the airline in 2005 and Swiss ceased its partnership with Qantas in 2006
- SAS ended its partnership with Qantas in 2011
- Air Niugini stopped being a Qantas partner in 2020
- Sunshine Express, a Queensland-based regional airline, ended scheduled operations in 2006
How much did Qantas reward flights cost in the 2000s?
In 2005, reward flights on Qantas and selected partner airlines cost the following amounts:
Flights on other partner airlines and Oneworld Classic Flight Rewards (then known as Oneworld Awards) were priced as follows:
These prices largely remained unchanged (apart from small modifications) until 2019, when Qantas most recently increased Classic Reward rates. Qantas will again increase its reward prices in August 2025.
Before this, from 2001 until 2005, the following round-trip reward flight pricing applied (note that one-way awards weren’t available):
If you’re interested, this article on Qantas award flight pricing in the 1990s goes back even further!
