Qantas Brings Back Points Planes in 2027

Qantas will bring back its popular Classic Reward “Points Planes” every month throughout 2027. On these flights, Qantas makes every seat available as a Classic Flight Reward, including normally difficult-to-find Business and First Class seats.

The first promotional flights have already come and gone, but keep an eye out for the next ones!

What is a Qantas Points Plane?

Firstly, to be clear, Qantas isn’t operating additional flights for this promotion. Instead, Qantas is highlighting a handful of existing timetabled flights where every unsold seat across all cabins is available for booking at the Classic Rewards points rate for a limited time. Taxes and carrier surcharges apply in addition to the required point spend.

It’s worth noting that cash fares are still available for purchase on the flights identified as Points Planes. So anyone buying a cash fare during the promotion period will be purchasing from the same inventory. Also, Qantas’ terms for this promotion do state that “Seats are subject to capacity controls, and availability is limited.”

The announcement promises that there will be Points Planes every month on both domestic and international routes.

Frequent flyers will need to be willing and able to buy impulsively because the booking window will only be a few days, if the first flight drop is any indication. The first announcement came on the morning of 6 November with the promotion closing at 11:59pm on the 8th. Of course, if inventory is exhausted before this window then you’re out of luck!

What flights are included?

Qantas will offer Points Planes on different routes each month.

In the first promotion Qantas offered flights from Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane to Tokyo on 5 January 2027 and corresponding return flights a week later on 12 January.

The second route in the first promotion was QF255, Sydney to Paris via Singapore on 22 February with the return QF34 Paris to Sydney leg on 18 March routed via Perth.

Domestically, Qantas listed flights on 12 January from Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane to Hobart and back to the mainland exactly a week later.

We checked availability around 12 hours before the first promotion window closed.

The only Classic Rewards left on Tokyo flights on the advertised dates were in Economy Class departing from Brisbane. Sydney and Melbourne searches showed results with domestic tag flights – the direct flights were all taken.

QF255 to Paris on 22 February had availability in Economy and Premium Economy. Coming back to Sydney on 18 March we found Classic Rewards in Economy, Premium Economy and Business on QF34. Though due to a website error, I had to search on the return leg separately.

A cursory look at the Hobart Points Plane flights showed good availability remaining across numerous flights.

Why is this an appealing promotion?

Classic Rewards generally offer the best value when spending Qantas points. For many frequent flyers, a Classic Reward redemption in international First or Business Class is the holy grail of point redemptions. Unsurprisingly, demand usually far outstrips supply of seats available for Classic Rewards. This promotion allows Qantas to do some high profile promotion on the one hand. On the other hand, the airline can fill seats that were otherwise selling sluggishly.