Author: Matt Graham

Matt Graham

Matt was the editor of Australian Frequent Flyer from 2015 until 2025. His passion for travel has taken him to more than 100 countries - with a lot of help along the way from frequent flyer points! Matt's favourite destinations (so far) are Germany, Brazil, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan. His interests include aviation, economics & foreign languages, and he has a soft spot for good food and red wine. You can connect with Matt by posting on the Australian Frequent Flyer community forum and tagging @Mattg.

Air Canada Boeing 737 MAX 8

Aeroplan Award Chart Changes from 1 September 2022

Since relaunching in 2020, Air Canada’s Aeroplan program has become popular with frequent flyers for its wide range of partner airlines, reasonable reward flight pricing and the ability to buy Aeroplan points with regular discounts or bonuses. Put simply, it’s possible to buy Aeroplan points at a good price, and redeem them easily through Air … Continued

Cheap flights to Hawaii

Epic Premium Economy Deal to Hawaii (via LA) for Under $2k

Flights to Hawaii (and the USA, generally) are expensive right now. Economy fares on Qantas, Hawaiian Airlines or even Jetstar are selling for well over $1,000 return, and Business Class fares start from around $3,000 return on Jetstar, whose “Business Class” is more like Premium Economy. A Business Class ticket to Honolulu on Qantas or Hawaiian … Continued

Rome, Italy

Podcast #90: So You Want to Use Qantas Points to Europe…

As airlines start to release award seats for travel to Europe during next year’s peak summer period, many points collectors are eager to redeem their points and lock in a good redemption. After all, the traditional advice has always been to get in early when booking flights on popular routes during peak periods because the … Continued

AFF on AIR podcast artwork

So You Want to Use Qantas Points to Europe… – AIR090

  Over the coming months, many Qantas points collectors will attempt to redeem their points for Business Class flights to Europe during next year’s peak northern hemisphere summer season. It’s a great redemption… if you can get it. That’s where the problems start… In this episode, James Green from Frequent Flyer Solutions explains how you … Continued

room service at hotel

Hotels Cut Back on Housekeeping

During the pandemic, many hotels stopped offering daily housekeeping citing health and safety reasons. This was largely understandable at the time, but it now appears that many hotels have no intention of resuming this service for their guests. And no, prices haven’t come down proportionately. I’ve stayed at many hotels this year in Australia and … Continued

The Challenges of Booking Qantas Reward Tickets By Phone

The Challenges of Booking Qantas Reward Tickets By Phone

Many Qantas customers are already well aware of the major problems right now with the Qantas call centre. To Qantas’ credit, the horrifyingly long wait times have now started to come down. But even if you can get through to somebody and don’t get hung up on, trying to make or change a Classic Flight … Continued

QantasLink Dash 8 Economy class

Qantas Considers Points Subscriptions

Qantas’s loyalty business is now much more than just the Qantas Frequent Flyer program. There’s also Qantas Business Rewards, Qantas Club, Qantas Points Club, the Green Tier program, and alongside this, Qantas now sells everything from wine to insurance. There’s not much more that can be added, but that hasn’t stopped Qantas researching the possibility … Continued

Velocity Platinum, Gold, Silver and Red cards

Velocity Upgrading Members Slightly Short on Status Credits

Velocity Frequent Flyer members would normally need to earn at least 250, 500 or 1,000 status credits during a 12-month period to upgrade to Silver, Gold or Platinum status respectively. But Velocity routinely upgrades frequent flyers who are still just a little bit short of the published status credit target, provided they’ve flown the minimum required … Continued

Qatar Airways Boeing 787-9 Business Class

Qatar Airways Awards Vanish from Qantas Website

Update (24 September): Limited Qatar Airways award availability has returned to the Qantas website, but only for certain travel dates and cabin classes. It appears that Qantas Frequent Flyer members now only have access to the full suite of Qatar Airways award availability for Economy bookings up to 249 days in advance, and Business/First Class … Continued