Trying to use points

[lesmac]

Hi
I am not sure how to make the most of my Qantas rewards. I want to travel from Sydney to Madrid around 30th March 2027 and return around 1st June 2027. When I look for flights I seem to get no flights available. Can you advise if there are ways to do this? I may be using incorrect searching. Any advice appreciated
Thanks

 

[offshore171]

How many travellers and what class of travel?

Are you flexible to travel to other nearby European cities and make the hop to Madrid by fast rail or short haul low cost carrier?

A departure date so close to easter might be limiting your availability. Have you played around with dates. Do you have much date flexibility?

I can see classic reward seats Sydney <> Helsinki

Dep 23 March (no availability after that date, plenty before that date)
Return 1 Jun (plenty of availability several days either side)

Outbound 79,900 points
Return 69,900

Helsinki is an excellent airport for onward connections to anywhere in Europe. Maybe the best.

 

[esseeeayeenn]

Hi
I am not sure how to make the most of my Qantas rewards. I want to travel from Sydney to Madrid around 30th March 2027 and return around 1st June 2027. When I look for flights I seem to get no flights available. Can you advise if there are ways to do this? I may be using incorrect searching. Any advice appreciated
Thanks

You need to research the times Qantas and partner airlines release their reward seats, and try to get in quickly when they do.
There are threads and articles on here which can help.
There are also software tools (apps and websites) which can assist. There are threads on them, as well.

I think Qantas releases them 12 months out so you may have missed the boat. But then QF don't fly to MAD anyway.
Partner airlines such as Emirates and Cathay Pacific often release seats closer to the dates, I think 3 months before from memory.
Cathay Pacific often seem to release some fairly close to the flight dates.
From memory Emirates and Qatar are the main options if you want to fly to MAD on points.
Oman Air is a new Oneworld member and may be another option.
Malaysian can be available and avoids the Middle East.

Another option would be to do it as a multi-city flight from AU to another European airport and then fly a short hop to Madrid.
If you can't book that multi-city you could do it as separate bookings.
Reward flights within Europe are almost always available, and are good value.
The separate bookings shouldn't be a huge inconvenience because you'll be entering the Schengen zone at the first European port anyway.
The intra-EU flight will be like a domestic flight.
Some countries (such as Spain) don't even ask departing PAX for ID, but some (such as France) do.

 

[lesmac]

Thanks for replying
I have quite a bit of date flexibility and can jump from other European cities. I will travel economy and am solo traveller.
Thanks again

You need to research the times Qantas and partner airlines release their reward seats, and try to get in quick when they do.
There are threads and articles on here which can help.
There are also software tools (apps and websites) which can assist. There are threads on them, as well.

I think Qantas releases them 12 months out so you may have missed the boat. But then QF don't fly to MAD anyway.
Partner airlines such as Emirates and Cathay Pacific often release seats closer to the dates, I think 3 months before from memory.
Cathay Pacific often seem to release some fairly close to the flight dates.
From memory Emirates and Qatar are the main options if you want to fly to MAD on points.
Oman Air is a new Oneworld member and may be another option.
Malaysian can be available and avoids the Middle East.

Another option would be to do it as a multi-city flight from AU to another European airport and then fly a short hop to Madrid.
If you can't book that multi-city you could do it as separate bookings.
Reward flights within Europe are almost always available, and are good value.
The separate bookings shouldn't be a huge inconvenience because you'll be entering the Schengen zone at the first European port anyway.
The intra-EU flight will be like a domestic flight.
Some countries (such as Spain) don't even ask departing PAX for ID, but some (eg. France) do.

Thanks so much for your help. I’ll do some searching

 

[lesmac]

How many travellers and what class of travel?

Are you flexible to travel to other nearby European cities and make the hop to Madrid by fast rail or short haul low cost carrier?

A departure date so close to easter might be limiting your availability. Have you played around with dates. Do you have much date flexibility?

I can see classic reward seats Sydney <> Helsinki

Dep 23 March (no availability after that date, plenty before that date)
Return 1 Jun (plenty of availability several days either side)

Outbound 79,900 points
Return 69,900

Helsinki is an excellent airport for onward connections to anywhere in Europe. Maybe the best.

Thanks for replying
I have quite a bit of date flexibility and can jump from other European cities. I will travel economy and am solo traveller.
Thanks again

 

[esseeeayeenn]

Thanks for replying
I have quite a bit of date flexibility and can jump from other European cities. I will travel economy and am solo traveller.
Thanks again

Thanks so much for your help. I’ll do some searching

You could look at this site for a start.

 

[SimonR32]

Flight there, nothing really "easy" without a short Europe transit connection around that date



On the way back you've got more options

 

[esseeeayeenn]

Flight there, nothing really "easy" without a short Europe transit connection around that date

View attachment 520515

On the way back you've got more options

View attachment 520512

There is a lot of award availability LHR-MAD on the 31st.

 

[offshore171]

I have quite a bit of date flexibility and can jump from other European cities. I will travel economy and am solo traveller.

All of that works in your favour

Try this link to find reward seats from Sydney to any major european airport.

https://flightrewardfinder.qantas.com/?pg=1&d=;EU&o=SYD

You might end up with an "open jaw" itinerary (into city X and returning out of a different city)

Once you find what you want, either book two one ways, or use the Multi City Tool.

After you've booked the main flights, then either search for any short hop reward flights in Europe or just book cash fares on Low Cost Carriers. Sometimes these are ridiculously cheap.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Agree with the above, check out Qantas’ award seat finder. It’s pretty good at finding stuff, although at six months before travel a lot of it is limited to emirates by now.

Very closing, as in departures in a few days time, I’ve seen it open up to more carriers. So you could lock in emirates now, and just before departure look for any other options.

 

[esseeeayeenn]

Just for your info, there is absolutely no advantage in booking a return fare with points.
Unlike cash fares, booking it as two separate trips will cost no more.
It's much simpler, and it makes it easier to find multi-sector bookings.

 

[offshore171]

Just for your info, there is absolutely no advantage in booking a return fare with points.
Unlike cash fares, booking it as two separate trips will cost no more.

Just with the caveat that with two separate trips, the trip home may require payment in foreign currency, which might add a small cost depending on what payment methods a customer has available to them.

It's much simpler, and it makes it easier to find multi-sector bookings.

Yes agree totally. Much much easier to find rewards as individual sectors rather than trying to string them all together into a single ticket. The other advantage of booking as separate trips, is that if, for any reason you miss one of your flights, the other bookings will remain intact.

Whereas if they are all on the single ticket, miss one and the rest get cancelled.

 

[esseeeayeenn]

Agree with the above, check out Qantas’ award seat finder. It’s pretty good at finding stuff, although at six months before travel a lot of it is limited to emirates by now.

Very closing, as in departures in a few days time, I’ve seen it open up to more carriers. So you could lock in emirates now, and just before departure look for any other options.

One caveat: you can't use this to find flights within Europe.
Other than by wading through the results of a "to anywhere" search.

 

[esseeeayeenn]

Oh another caveat: beware of the exhorbitant cash co-payment for "fees, charges and fuel" required to redeem a reward seat on EK (Emirates).

 

[Seat0B]

I just search for HEL-MAD on 24 March to line up with the flights found by @offshore171 and got this showing seats on plenty of days around this time.



And then for return MAD-HEL on 31 May to line up with 1 June return flight. Again, a good number of options. So at worst, you could book these connectors separately to the longhaul flights - be aware of the risks of unprotected connections and allow plenty of time for things to stuff up. I suggest this as an option if you are unable to find reward flight legs on a multi-city booking. This has sometimes been the case for me, other times it works just fine and it is better to get them all on the one ticket if you can. There are much worse places to spend a few hours/days that Helsinki!

 

[Seat0B]

BTW, welcome to AFF @lesmac! Do come back and let us know what you sorted out for yourself once you've finalised it all.

 

[offshore171]

MAD-HEL

How can you not love that airport combo?

 

[Seat0B]

….and I’m not going to take it any more!!!!!

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Yes agree totally. Much much easier to find rewards as individual sectors rather than trying to string them all together into a single ticket. The other advantage of booking as separate trips, is that if, for any reason you miss one of your flights, the other bookings will remain intact.

Whereas if they are all on the single ticket, miss one and the rest get cancelled.

There are up and down sides to this.

Separate trips can incur much higher costs in terms of the award price as it may not take advantage of the through fare. And if cancelling your whole trip you’d be up for cancellation fees on each sector rather than only once.

 

[esseeeayeenn]

Just as well I don't want to use points for my flights in December.