Article: Last Minute Award Availability to Europe: How to Still Make Euro Summer Happen (2026)

[AFF Editor]

Canonical URL

https://www.australianfrequentflyer.com.au/last-minute-award-availability-to-europe-euro-summer/

Last Minute Award Availability to Europe: How to Still Make Euro Summer Happen (2026) is an article written by the AFF editorial team:

Last Minute Award Availability to Europe: How to Still Make Euro Summer Happen (2026)

Still hoping to reach Europe this July or August? Last minute award availability is possible. You can look at alternatives to secure Business Class flights to Europe using Qantas, Velocity Points and Qatar Airways Avios.

www.australianfrequentflyer.com.au

You can leave a comment or discuss this topic below.

 

[freqflyer77]

The options given are convoluted and ridiculously expensive.

The Vietnam Airlines option needs over 1 million Amex points plus $1,600 in fees.

The Qantas option requires 400,000+ points, over $2,000 in fees per person and 8 separate flights.

I get that AFF needs to promote points to make money via affiliate links and their relationship with pay. com, but these examples are exactly why people are nowadays better off saving the mental time & energy, alongside all the costs of earning points, and just paying cash and flying on the dates they actually want.

 

[Beer_budget]

The options given are convoluted and ridiculously expensive.

The Vietnam Airlines option needs over 1 million Amex points plus $1,600 in fees.

The Qantas option requires 400,000+ points, over $2,000 in fees per person and 8 separate flights.

I get that AFF needs to promote points to make money via affiliate links and their relationship with pay. com, but these examples are exactly why people are nowadays better off saving the mental time & energy, alongside all the costs of earning points, and just paying cash and flying on the dates they actually want.

Well yes, last minute redemptions are usually expensive. So are last minute cash fares, most of the time. Euro summer 2026 has already started, after all!

Most of us doing "Euro summer" on points booked at T-355 (or whatever tempo applies to your FFP of choice), but if you're points rich, cash poor and still want a holiday, there isn't nothing, which is the point of the article. This year especially, there will be plenty of people who did plan ahead and book a better value redemption, whose plans are now in disarray due to the tantrums of a man with control of the largest military on the planet. It is what it is, and some of those folks might just want to salvage their plans at any cost. We're certainly paying more than we intended to keep our plans on track.

Is it good value? Nope. Personally if I were considering an impulsive points break to escape the Canberra winter, I'd give up on Europe and keep an eye on Spontaneous Escapes options to SG or elsewhere in SEA, but that's me.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

The options given are convoluted and ridiculously expensive.

The Vietnam Airlines option needs over 1 million Amex points plus $1,600 in fees.

The Qantas option requires 400,000+ points, over $2,000 in fees per person and 8 separate flights.

I get that AFF needs to promote points to make money via affiliate links and their relationship with pay. com, but these examples are exactly why people are nowadays better off saving the mental time & energy, alongside all the costs of earning points, and just paying cash and flying on the dates they actually want.

The only semi-convoluted option was the VN tickets via AMEX to VS.

All the other options… EK, QR, KL, AF, WY… all straightforward and easy to book with QF points.

It takes me a couple of hours to research and book my Europe flights… I’m paying $4400 return on SQ and VA. Current pricing is around $10500, or slightly less if I fly Scoot to Singapore and pick up Swiss from there.

I don’t earn $6000 in two hours… so it’s defo worth my while!

 

[AFF Editor]

The options given are convoluted and ridiculously expensive.

The Vietnam Airlines option needs over 1 million Amex points plus $1,600 in fees.

The Qantas option requires 400,000+ points, over $2,000 in fees per person and 8 separate flights.

I get that AFF needs to promote points to make money via affiliate links and their relationship with pay. com, but these examples are exactly why people are nowadays better off saving the mental time & energy, alongside all the costs of earning points, and just paying cash and flying on the dates they actually want.

For what it's worth, this article is purely written with reader service in mind. We didn't link out to any particular credit cards, and Pay.com.au isn't mentioned or even hinted at all.

As mentioned, yes it's not your simple QF SYD-SIN-LHR but this is Australian Frequent Flyer after all - someone will hopefully find it useful.