Qantas Classic Reward & Upgrade Devaluation on 5 August 2025

[Kangol]

The 5k gets knocked out separately at a weird timing so it's probably just not deducted yet but will be.

That's what I thought, however it's been a couple of weeks and still no deduction.
In previous changes with no "upgrade", the 5k has been charged immediately.

 

[CaptJCool]

Thought this the most useful place to share this schematic
Was looking at the points and economy fare rate as a point of reference for which way to go when booking as sometimes the values in the paid fare and other times in the Classic Reward (eg when I booked Griffith to Perth on CR instead of a revenue fare of $1,434!?!

 

[bussyboy]

I did similar scribbles in Word recently (not pen enabled)


The things us AFFers do!

 

[Noah Count]

The QF booking system never ceases to amaze me. This is just my experience in changing some reward bookings that were made prior to 5 Aug and changed after 5 Aug. I has been a little challenging but from the outset the end result has worked slightly in my favour. Background, all bookings are rewards with the original bookings being LHR-HEL x1J and LHR-HEL x2Y. In early Oct AY opened up another J seat so I split the x2 Y flights and booked MissN into J, so far all good as I was only charged the pre 5 Aug rate (30000 points) and I now have 3 seperate PNRs. Fast forward a month and we decided to make another change and and added an additional sector connecting to TLL and this is where it became interesting. Also the addition sectors were only available in Y as there is no J and it is only a 30 minute flight. Also adding HEL-TLL pushed us into Zone 3 by 14 miles.

• Booking 1 - originally LHR-HEL x1J. The agent advised that for some reason the QF system could not add the additional sector to this booking. In the end it was done by adding it as an additional flight (not as a thru flight) but with in the same PNR. The points required were 10000 which was the pre 5 Aug zone 1 rate. From my experience through flights when mixed travel class is involved the points required is always based on the highest class of travel, for this flight it worked in my favour as the total points required were 40000 where as the thru flight should have been 43800 points.
• Booking 2 - originally LHR-HEL in Y. This one went as I would have thought Zone 2 to Zone 3 change, 6000 points.
• Booking 3 - originally LHR-HEL in Y, then changed to J (post 5 Aug). The points for this change was quoted at 13000 however it is essentially the same booking 1. It turns out although the original booking was made prior to 5 Aug once the booking was split the QF system was recalculating everything based on a post 5 Aug booking date which was Zone 2 (31500) and Zone 1 (11500). In the end I had to accept this however the fee was waived.

So why to I think I am slightly better off, well here goes. If everything the changes were calculated as thought they should/would have been as follows (additional points required only):

• All booking calculated as thru flights (pre 5 Aug)
  • Booking 1 - 13800 + 5000 change fee
  • Booking 2 - 6000 + 5000 change fee
  • Booking 3 - 13800 + 5000 change fee
  • Points Total - 48600
• All booking calculated as thru flights, 2 pre 5 Aug, 1 post 5 Aug
  • Booking 1 - 13800 + 5000 change fee
  • Booking 2 - 6000 + 5000 change fee
  • Booking 3 - 16000 + 5000 change fee
  • Points Total - 50800
• What I ended up paying
  • Booking 1 - 10000 + 5000 change fee
  • Booking 2 - 6000 + 5000 change fee
  • Booking 3 - 13000 change fee waived due to the system not being able to calculate the correct value
  • Points Total - 39000

Sure not a huge saving, but a saving none the less. For some 39000 point may seem a lot to add in a 30 minute flight but that additional flight pushed use into a higher zone, also luggage can just be check through and the flights are on one ticket incase anything goes wrong. Here ends my ramblings.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Award flights are priced either at the through fare, or the sum of the sector fares, whichever is lower.

That also applies to mixed class travel.

Other airlines apply the ‘highest cabin’ rule.

 

[kamchatsky]

I have an existing booking (confirmed and ticketed prior to devaluation) for 4 people for BA J SIN-SYD for Jan next year. If I want to change the route completely to say QF SYD-HKG award (i.e. completely abandon the BA flight), would I be able to do this to keep the same PNR? If so, would it under the old award chart, or the newly devalued award chart?

 

[elanshin]

I have an existing booking (confirmed and ticketed prior to devaluation) for 4 people for BA J SIN-SYD for Jan next year. If I want to change the route completely to say QF SYD-HKG award (i.e. completely abandon the BA flight), would I be able to do this to keep the same PNR? If so, would it under the old award chart, or the newly devalued award chart?

Yes and Yes.

Just the standard change fee, and difference in points between the routes on the old award chart.

I have one banked up that I'm trying to cook up an OWA out of.