Qantas Reward Bookings on Emirates Getting Harder & More Expensive

You’ll soon have to pay more Qantas Points to book Classic Reward seats on Emirates.

It comes as Emirates also makes it harder for Qantas Frequent Flyer members to access Classic Reward seats in First Class. Effective immediately, you can no longer redeem Qantas Points for Emirates First Class bookings for children under 9 years old. And from next month, only Qantas members with Silver or higher elite status will have access to Emirates First Class rewards.

New restrictions on Emirates First Class reward bookings with Qantas Points

In May 2025, Emirates placed new restrictions on First Class redemptions made through its own Skywards loyalty program, with just a couple of days’ notice. At that time, it began limiting Skywards reward bookings in First Class to members with Silver or higher Emirates Skywards status, and to passengers aged at least nine years old.

When Emirates quietly announced that change on a weekend, just two days before it was due to take effect, there was initially some panic that Qantas Frequent Flyer members could lose access to Emirates First Class reward seats completely. This is a very popular redemption, so it would have been a big blow for people saving up their Qantas Points.

In the end, those changes didn’t impact members of Qantas Frequent Flyer or Air Canada Aeroplan (at the time). These are the only partner airlines of Emirates whose members get access to Emirates First Class reward seats. But it was only a matter of time until Emirates closed that “loophole”.

New age restriction on Emirates First Class redemptions

Effective immediately – and with no notice given – Qantas Frequent Flyer no longer allows Emirates First Class reward bookings for passengers aged under 9 years old.

As it happens, Air Canada Aeroplan has also just introduced the same policy. I haven’t seen this reported elsewhere yet, but sure enough, Air Canada has quietly added the following fine print to the information on its website about its partnership with Emirates:

You can redeem Aeroplan points for flights across the airline’s network. Please note, however, that infants and children under the age of 9 are not eligible to travel in the First Class cabin on a redemption ticket and accordingly, such redemptions are not permitted.

This change only affects redemption bookings. Emirates still allows young children in its First cabin – but only on cash fares or upgrades.

Elite status requirement

From 18 February 2026, Qantas Frequent Flyer Bronze members will no longer be eligible to redeem Qantas Points for Emirates First Class. You’ll need to hold at least Qantas Silver status to gain access to these reward seats.

I suspect that Emirates is trying to stop people who’ve never flown with the airline before from simply transferring credit card points into Qantas Frequent Flyer, and accessing its First Class reward seats that way.

Qantas says that existing bookings won’t be impacted by this or the new age restriction. But changes made to existing bookings will be subject to the new restrictions.

I haven’t yet seen Aeroplan announce a similar elite status requirement to book Emirates First with Aeroplan points, but I suspect it’s on the way.

While it’s unusual for frequent flyer programs to restrict certain redemptions to frequent flyers with status, it’s not unheard of. Air France doesn’t allow anyone except Flying Blue members with elite status to redeem points in its La Première (First Class) cabin.

While this change was almost certainly forced upon Qantas Frequent Flyer by Emirates, it has the unintended consequence of actually making Qantas Silver status slightly more valuable. Hopefully, it will also increase the number of seats available to those frequent flyers who are still eligible to book them!

New Qantas Classic Reward pricing for Emirates flights

From 31 March 2026, Qantas Frequent Flyer will also increase the number of points you need to book Emirates flights in all cabins – not just First Class.

Last year, Qantas Frequent Flyer moved Emirates from its partner reward table to the Qantas reward table. This meant that Emirates flights would cost the same number of points as Qantas flights, resulting in a small price reduction for some redemptions. It also meant that you wouldn’t be penalised for combining Qantas and Emirates flights onto a single Classic Reward ticket.

Well, that didn’t last very long. Qantas is now moving Emirates redemptions to their own, separate pricing table. This means that, from 31 March 2026, Qantas Frequent Flyer will have five different Classic Flight Reward pricing tables:

1. Redemptions on Qantas, Jetstar, Fiji Airways and/or American Airlines
2. Redemptions on Jetstar (only)
3. Partner Classic Flight Rewards (except on Qantas, Jetstar, Fiji Airways, American Airlines or Emirates)
4. Oneworld Classic Flight Rewards
5. Redemptions on Emirates

This is the new Emirates Classic Flight Reward table, as published on the Qantas website:

How bad are these changes?

Once the Emirates Classic Flight Reward table takes effect on 31 March 2026, you’ll need more Qantas Points to book Emirates flights. The increase depends on the cabin class you’re booking:

• Economy redemptions increase by ~10%
• Premium Economy redemptions increase by ~30%
• Business redemptions increase by ~6-10%
• First redemptions increase by 20%

Compared to current Classic Reward pricing on other Qantas partner airlines, Emirates Economy redemptions will still be a bit cheaper – and Business Class redemptions will be the same price. But Emirates Premium Economy (once it goes live) and First Class redemptions will be more expensive than equivalent rewards on other partner airlines.

In fact, if you look closely at the Emirates Class Flight Reward table, the number of points you’ll need for a Premium Economy reward is only slightly less than a Business Class reward. However, the carrier charges are significantly lower on Emirates Premium Economy rewards.

At this stage, the only way to book Emirates Premium Economy rewards is with Emirates Skywards miles. But Qantas Frequent Flyer members should soon get access to them. Call me cynical, but I suspect this will happen soon after the new, much higher Qantas Points pricing comes into effect. 😉

Another blow to the value of Qantas Points

The average value of a Qantas Point dropped in Australian Frequent Flyer’s most recent point valuations, after Qantas increased Classic Flight Reward pricing, upgrade pricing and its carrier charges in August 2025.

One of the factors that led to Qantas’ poor showing was the poor value that members are now getting when redeeming points to fly to Europe in Business Class. With Emirates’ eye-watering carrier charges adding around $4,000 per person to the cost of round-trip Business Class redemptions from Australia to Europe, we calculated that you’d be getting just 1.57 cents of value per Qantas Point on this “reward”.

With Classic Reward seats on Emirates soon set to cost even more points – and no word about any reduction in the carrier charges – it could soon make even more sense just to use your points for domestic flights instead.

Book now to get in before the devaluation

Want to use your Qantas Points to fly Emirates?

If you want to cash in your points for Emirates First Class, and don’t hold any status with Qantas Frequent Flyer, you can still book until 17 February 2026.

And you can continue to access the current, lower pricing for Classic Reward seats on Emirates until 30 March 2026.

Qantas Frequent Flyer’s own terms & conditions state that it will give at least 90 days’ notice before making changes within its control. Sadly, that doesn’t seem to have happened here. But at least you do still have some time to book before the price increase takes effect.