Qantas Points Planes to Japan

Qantas A330-300 Economy Class
Qantas is making every Economy seat to Tokyo available to book as a Classic Reward for six weeks in 2023. Photo: Qantas.

Japan is reopening next week, and to celebrate, Qantas has released six weeks worth of Points Planes to Tokyo where every seat is now available to book as a Classic Flight Reward in Economy.

All Business Class seats between Sydney and Tokyo on 10 May 2023 are also being made available to book as Classic Rewards with Qantas points, to mark the start of the six weeks of Economy Points Planes. (Those Business seats will likely sell fast, so get in quick!)

Until 13 October 2022, you can book any available Economy seat on Qantas’ flights between Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Tokyo (Haneda) between 10 May and 20 June using Qantas points at the Classic Reward level. However, the extra Business Class reward seats are limited to the flights on 10 May.

Unfortunately, these travel dates fall just after the end of Japan’s cherry blossom season and between school holiday periods. But if you can make these dates work, it could be a good deal.

It would cost 63,000 Qantas points, plus around $278 in taxes & carrier charges, for a return Economy ticket with Qantas from Sydney or Melbourne to Tokyo. From Brisbane to Tokyo, due to the shorter flight distance, a round-trip ticket costs 50,400 Qantas points and around $279 when booked as a Classic Flight Reward.

These seats are available to book now on the Qantas website.

Every Economy seat on Jetstar flights between Australia and Japan are also now available to book as Classic Flight Reward tickets, for travel between 11 October and 30 November 2022. Jetstar flies from Gold Coast and Cairns to Tokyo (Narita), as well as Cairns-Osaka. When redeeming points on Jetstar, you’ll get 20kg of checked baggage included with your ticket.

Jetstar 787 economy overhead locker carry-on bag
Jetstar Boeing 787 Economy Class. Photo: Jetstar.

“Australians have been waiting to be able to return to Japan and having access to thousands of reward seats will help our frequent flyers travel to one of their most loved destinations,” Qantas Loyalty CEO Olivia Wirth said.

Japan is reopening next week

From next Tuesday, 11 October 2022, Japan is finally reopening to tourists. From this date, overseas tourists will once again be able to enter Japan without a visa, without needing to pre-book a package tour from a Japanese travel agency and without quarantine on arrival.

Japan Mt Fuji
Japan is reopening to tourists next week! Photo: David Edelstein on Unsplash.

Travellers heading to Japan who have received at least three COVID-19 vaccine doses are also no longer required to get a pre-departure COVID-19 PCR test.

Ahead of this milestone, Qantas resumed 3x weekly Sydney-Tokyo (Haneda) flights last month. These flights will increase to daily at the end of October.

Qantas is also resuming Brisbane-Haneda flights in December, and Melbourne-Haneda services at the end of March 2023. All Qantas flights to Japan are being operated by Airbus A330-300 aircraft with Economy and Business seating.

 

Join the discussion on the Australian Frequent Flyer forum: Qantas Points Planes to Japan

The editor of Australian Frequent Flyer, Matt's passion for travel has taken him to over 80 countries… with the help of frequent flyer points, of course!
Matt's favourite destinations (so far) are Germany, Brazil & Kazakhstan. His interests include economics, aviation & foreign languages, and he has a soft spot for good food and red wine.

You can connect with Matt by posting on the Australian Frequent Flyer community forum and tagging @AFF Editor.
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Frequent flyers will be able to take advantage of thousands more reward seats as Qantas and Jetstar celebrate the reopening of Japan for international travellers following years of COVID restrictions.

Both airlines will make every Economy seat between Australia and Japan available as a Classic Flight Reward over a six-week period from 11 May to 20 June 2023. All Economy seats on Jetstar flights between Australia and Japan between 11 October to 30 November 2022 will also be available as Classic Flight Rewards.

Up to 100,000 reward seats will be available across six routes:

  • Qantas flights between:
    • Sydney and Tokyo (Haneda)
    • Brisbane and Tokyo (Haneda)
    • Melbourne and Tokyo (Haneda)
  • Jetstar flights between:
    • Cairns and Tokyo (Narita)
    • Cairns and Osaka (Kansai)
    • Gold Coast and Tokyo (Narita)

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The small exceptions:

To mark the beginning of the six weeks of reward seats, Qantas will operate two Points Planes between Sydney and Tokyo (Haneda) on 10 May 2023, meaning every seat in every cabin, including Business, can be booked as a Classic Flight Reward.

Qantas will also offer Points Planes between Sydney and Hong Kong on 30 January 2023 when the airline restarts its Hong Kong flights.

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Too bad no more free cancellations/changes...

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A good gesture. But I will need to wait for Dec 23 tickets to open.

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Qantas will also offer Points Planes between Sydney and Hong Kong on 30 January 2023 when the airline restarts its Hong Kong flights.

I wonder what Qantas means by this. Are they pre-announcing that they are going to make SYD-HKG points planes available to book next January?

There are currently no Classic Reward seats to book on QF127 or QF128 for travel on 30 January next year, which is the next currently scheduled QF flight to Hong Kong.

I also wonder if this is Qantas hinting that they're actually planning to resume HKG flights then, i.e. that the current restart date for that route won't get pushed back again.

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I wonder what Qantas means by this. Are they pre-announcing that they are going to make SYD-HKG points planes available to book next January?

There are currently no Classic Reward seats to book on QF127 or QF128 for travel on 30 January next year, which is the next currently scheduled QF flight to Hong Kong.

I also wonder if this is Qantas hinting that they're actually planning to resume HKG flights then, i.e. that the current restart date for that route won't get pushed back again.

They published a new commercial policy yesterday re: HKG flights

This policy is for providing information on managing customers that are impacted by Qantas cancellations of services between Sydney/Melbourne and Hong Kong.

The following commercial policy is available to customers holding a valid 081 ticket for flights QF127/QF128 and QF29/QF30 issued on/before 9 September 2022 for travel between 30 October 2022 and 29 January 2023.

That would indicate that any QF metal HKG flights won't resume until after 29JAN23. Obviously could change if HKG drop the remaining COVID measures more quickly, but not sure QF have the aircraft available at the moment anyway!

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They published a new commercial policy yesterday re: HKG flights

That would indicate that any QF metal HKG flights won't resume until after 29JAN23. Obviously could change if HKG drop the remaining COVID measures more quickly, but not sure QF have the aircraft available at the moment anyway!

Yeah, I saw that they've cancelled all flights up to 29JAN23.

So, does Qantas have aircraft available to launch this route on 30 January as currently being sold?

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Yeah, I saw that they've cancelled all flights up to 29JAN23.

So, does Qantas have aircraft available to launch this route on 30 January as currently being sold?

Yes, three times a week to HKG on weekdays. With most days being at a discount to what CX is charging. Also interested how they can free up an A330 to run this route, somewhere must have been downgraded.

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Also interested how they can free up an A330 to run this route, somewhere must have been downgraded.

PER?

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