Has it got much harder to get decent points value for 2024?

[jonedwards80]

Hi all,

Last year I started on my journey of points accumulation. I got my work CC working for me (Amex Platinum) and was very lucky to be able to get away a bit in 2023.

With a bit over 1 million Amex points I was able to:
- Fly business return Brisbane to Noumea (2 ppl)
- Stay 3 nights in high end resort in New Caledonia
- Fly economy return Brisbane to London (3 ppl)

And here we are, wanting to book 2024 travel plans and it’s a bit of a struggle. I have around 750k Amex points and all I want to book 2 return business class flights to Tokyo for myself and my partner.

Yet it seems to be a struggle with a similar ish points value. Qantas seems to be 1 million FF points (2 million Amex) and other airlines are similar.

Has there been a massive rise in points required this year? I’m super sad I can’t really get close to this in 2024…

 

[levelnine]

You need classic flight award availability with Qantas. Sadly you just missed a massive release of classic flight awards. Keep looking. Seats to Tokyo pop up with relative frequency outside of peak travel seasons.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Yeah… 1 million points is an ‘anyseat’ ticket, converting the retail value into points. Perhaps transfer AMEX points to another partner with better availability, for example star alliance.

 

[jonedwards80]

You need classic flight award availability with Qantas. Sadly you just missed a massive release of classic flight awards. Keep looking. Seats to Tokyo pop up with relative frequency outside of peak travel seasons.

Thanks. So one way to Tokyo for 500k seems way too much for you? I swear I saw them for about 130k up until recently….

Do they tend to release more sporadically? Or is it just a one-off promo dump of classic reward seats?

 

[jonedwards80]

Yeah… 1 million points is an ‘anyseat’ ticket, converting the retail value into points. Perhaps transfer AMEX points to another partner with better availability, for example star alliance.

Thank you. Please excuse my ignorance, I’m quite new to this. What do you mean by “anyseat” ticket?

Amex seems to mainly have One World partners, I’d love to see what JAL or EVA could offer for instance, but they don’t transfer to them. Is there a way around this?

 

[RooFlyer]

Thank you. Please excuse my ignorance, I’m quite new to this. What do you mean by “anyseat” ticket?

The price you were looking at is the price Qantas will charge you to purchase any seat on the plane using points. Ridiculous amounts.

What do you need to look for is a ‘classic reward seat’ which is priced along the lines which you remember from before.

To see these only, after selecting ‘use points’ at the start, you then also have to click the ‘classic seat reward’ button when the first display comes up.

 

[Silvia]

Have you tried via other Asian ports? There is availability but you may need to be flexible and look at other options

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Thank you. Please excuse my ignorance, I’m quite new to this. What do you mean by “anyseat” ticket?

Amex seems to mainly have One World partners, I’d love to see what JAL or EVA could offer for instance, but they don’t transfer to them. Is there a way around this?

as rooflyer states, an ‘anyseat’ award is any seat in the plane, calculated at the current $$ selling price, but converted into points. It’s not actually an ‘award’ per se, it’s just a way to use your points.

The conversation rate or value is .06c for each qantas point (just over half a cent per point).

If you could buy an airfare SYD-Tokyo in economy for $1000, the ‘anyseat’ price on qantas is therefor likely to be around 166,000 points. A big difference from the 40k or so points needed under a classic award.

There are some minor advantage of an anyseat award… it’s treated like a cash fare, so you earn status credits. BUT, standard cancellation fees apply for the revenue fare… not just 6000 points to cancel like a classic award.

But you need to look for classic awards, you get much better value.

 

[jonedwards80]

The price you were looking at is the price Qantas will charge you to purchase any seat on the plane using points. Ridiculous amounts.

What do you need to look for is a ‘classic reward seat’ which is priced along the lines which you remember from before.

To see these only, after selecting ‘use points’ at the start, you then also have to click the ‘classic seat reward’ button when the first display comes up.

Hello,

This is what I am seeing. There is an option to choose flights at 68,400 but they are all Jetstar out of Cairns - not the business class experience I am looking for!

I was able to choose 'use points' on the previous creen but cannot for the life of me find 'classic seat reward' button. I am sure I did this correctly when I booked our flights to Noumea! lol

Post automatically merged: Nov 8, 2023

Have you tried via other Asian ports? There is availability but you may need to be flexible and look at other options

I had a look at going via Singapore, but they seem to be now 3:1 so the value isn't there for me. Would have been happy to do this!

Do you have other suggestions? I am very open to a stopover

 

[RooFlyer]

This is what I am seeing. There is an option to choose flights at 68,400 but they are all Jetstar out of Cairns - not the business class experience I am looking for!

You are searching from the Qantas 'business rewards' site. Is that necessary? Can't search from an ordinary Qantas log-in?

Unfortunately I can't log into my business account right now (not sensing me verification SMS - I wonder if they use Optus?), but using my ordinaty Qantas account, I see this. Note the 'rewards seat' button on the left. I haven't checked it at this stage, but its still seeing 'any seat' awards availability. The cheaper numbers along the top reveal that there is an economy seat available most days.




Now, checking the 'classic rewards' button:



Scrolling dow, there is more J availability, but as you say, involving JQ from Brisbane.

So, you either need to be more flexible on dates, OR, if you have the bank of points and are prepared to use them, claim a 'any seat' award at the very high price.

 

[jonedwards80]

You are searching from the Qantas 'business rewards' site. Is that necessary? Can't search from an ordinary Qantas log-in?

Unfortunately I can't log into my business account right now (not sensing me verification SMS - I wonder if they use Optus?), but using my ordinaty Qantas account, I see this. Note the 'rewards seat' button on the left. I haven't checked it at this stage, but its still seeing 'any seat' awards availability. The cheaper numbers along the top reveal that there is an economy seat available most days.


View attachment 352882

Now, checking the 'classic rewards' button:

View attachment 352883

Scrolling dow, there is more J availability, but as you say, involving JQ from Brisbane.

So, you either need to be more flexible on dates, OR, if you have the bank of points and are prepared to use them, claim a 'any seat' award at the very high price.

Its not necessary - just user error! Thanks for your detailed response, I really appreciate it.

 

[RooFlyer]

OK, I got into my Qantas Business account. The results I see are a bit different from your screen shot, cost-of-points wise, but obviously there isn't a 'classic rewards' button.

Probably can't help you much more, sorry, but as far as I can tell, there just isn't 'classic reward' type pricing available near that date except for using JQ from Cairns.

 

[jase05]

Do you have other suggestions? I am very open to a stopover

Normally plenty of availability to Jakarta. That’s one of my favourite go to spots.

 

[jonedwards80]

Normally plenty of availability to Jakarta. That’s one of my favourite go to spots.

So would you book a multi-city with Qantas on this?

Bris - Jakarta - Toyko?

 

[serfty]

Do you have other suggestions? I am very open to a stopover

When you search, select "Use Points":

 

[serfty]

When you search, select "Use Points":

View attachment 352884

Or, for multi City:


...

 

[jonedwards80]

Normally plenty of availability to Jakarta. That’s one of my favourite go to spots.

Hmm.... I think I have done it! I can get there and back now for just under 400k Qantas points!

I did it using the Multi City tool. Thanks so much

 

[jonedwards80]

Hmm.... I think I have done it! I can get there and back now for just under 400k Qantas points!

I did it using the Multi City tool. Thanks so much

Turns out I am 56k Amex points short at the moment lol. Here is hoping for a spending boost at work so I can get to the 800k point level i need for this

 

[jase05]

Hmm.... I think I have done it! I can get there and back now for just under 400k Qantas points!

I did it using the Multi City tool. Thanks so much

400k for one person?
Should be well under that.
Also look at Sydney to Taipei for 75k or Sydney-Taipei-Tokyo for 118k each way

 

[jonedwards80]

400k for 2 ppl

Okay will look at this too