You Can Now Earn Qantas Points & Status Credits on Oman Air

Three months after the Muscat-based airline joined the Oneworld alliance, you can now finally earn Qantas Points and status credits on Oman Air.

While Qantas Frequent Flyer switched on redemptions with Oman Air last year, Qantas had not added the new Oneworld member to its earning tables until this month. All other Oneworld frequent flyer programs had already set this up in July.

Still, it’s better late than never! This is particularly good news for Qantas Frequent Flyer members interested in booking one of Oman Air’s great value two-stop airfares from Australia to Europe, via Southeast Asia and Muscat.

“Qantas Frequent Flyers already have access to tens of thousands of reward seats across the Oman Air network, and we’ve seen strong demand from members since launching our partnership last year,” Head of Qantas Airline Loyalty Kate Sherwood said.

“Now, with the opportunity for members to earn Qantas Points and Status Credits, travel with Oman Air across Asia, Europe and the Middle East will be even more rewarding.”

Which Oman Air fare classes are eligible to earn Qantas Points & status credits?

When booking on a partner airline, if you want to earn frequent flyer points and status credits, you often need to pay close attention to the fare class. Also known as the Reservation Booking Designator (RBD), this is a letter such as N, Q, Y or P which corresponds to your airfare.

Not all fare classes are necessarily eligible to earn anything when crediting to a partner airline’s loyalty program. For example, you typically can’t earn Qantas Points on the cheaper Economy fares sold by Qatar Airways, Malaysia Airlines or Cathay Pacific.

Luckily, as it happens, every fare class corresponding to a commercial airfare bucket on Oman Air is eligible to earn Qantas Points and status credits. That’s very welcome news.

This table from the Qantas website shows how the different Oman Air fare classes map into the various Qantas Frequent Flyer earning categories:

How many Qantas Points and status credits can you earn on Oman Air?

Until last week, Muscat was not listed on any of Qantas Frequent Flyer’s partner airline earning tables. This meant that, in theory, you would have earned points and status credits based on the distance flown.

However, Qantas has now added Muscat to its earning tables. In many cases, this means you’ll earn fewer points and status credits than you would have otherwise. For example, you’ll now earn 60 status credits for a one-way Oman Air Business Class flight from Muscat to London. This is instead of the 120 status credits you would earn if the distance-based table applied.

Here’s one example of a table that recently had Muscat added to it:

You can find the full suite of earning tables on the Qantas website.

Oman Air’s great value airfares from Australia to Europe

This latest development makes Oman Air an even more attractive option for Australians who want to fly to Europe. The airline often has well-priced fares available from Australia to European cities including Rome, Milan, Zurich, Frankfurt, Paris, Amsterdam and London.

Oman Air doesn’t fly to Australia. Therefore, these fares use a partner airline between Australia and Southeast Asia. For example, you could fly Qantas to somewhere like Jakarta, Manila or Bangkok. For there, you would connect onwards to Europe via Muscat on Oman Air.

Another option is to fly Malaysia Airlines from Australia to Kuala Lumpur, and then Oman Air from there. This often has better pricing.

Oman Air also offers attractive mixed-cabin fares, using a mix of Economy/Business or Business/Business Studio. (Business Studio is Oman Air’s version of First Class).

When searching for flights, beware that Oman Air uses a mix of Boeing 787s and 737s on its medium-haul routes. If booking Business Class, try to book the 787 wherever possible for a much better product!

These airfares have already been attractive for years due to their often low pricing. Now, the ability to earn status credits on these fares which count towards your Qantas Frequent Flyer status make them extra appealing.

A sample itinerary

For example, you could book the following Business Class fare from Perth to Milan, via Kuala Lumpur and Muscat, for under $6,000:

On the above itinerary, you could earn 4,250 status credits and 100 Qantas Points on each sector between Kuala Lumpur and Muscat. Between Muscat and Milan, you’d earn 5,000 points and 60 status credits each way. The earn rate on the Malaysia Airlines sectors would depend on the fare class, and whether you book an a WY codeshare or an MH flight number.

For what it’s worth, a similar itinerary to the one above is available from $4,084 round-trip in Business Class if you use Batik Air between Perth and Kuala Lumpur! You just wouldn’t earn any Qantas Points or status credits on the Perth-Kuala Lumpur sectors as Batik Air is not a Oneworld airline.

For comparison, you’d earn at least 14,100 Qantas Points and 240 status credits in each direction when flying Qantas Business Class from Perth to Rome. However, you’d also likely pay a lot more for that privilege!