Award Availability is a popular topic at the Australian Frequent Flyer. The ongoing challenge is to find an award ticket on the flight you want and when you want it.
Qantas Frequent Flyer members can redeem their points to fly with a total of 26 airlines including Qantas, Jetstar, all Oneworld airlines and a host of other unaffiliated partners such as Emirates, WestJet and El Al. This gives frequent flyers lots of ways to spend Qantas points in the air. But not every seat is available … Continued
Finding Business Class award availability out of Australia on Oneworld airlines is often a challenge. But if you’d like to redeem your Qantas points to fly in Business Class to South Asia, the Middle East or Europe, it may be worth considering SriLankan Airlines. Based in Colombo, SriLankan Airlines has been part of the Oneworld … Continued
As the international border reopens, some Australians are starting to redeem the points they’ve been saving up throughout the pandemic to book overseas trips. But post-pandemic award travel is a bit different. The pandemic has turned award availability on its head, and Australians are also using their points to travel to different places than before. … Continued
Thai Airways has released lots of new Business Class award availability on its flights from Sydney to Bangkok, with onward connections available to destinations across Asia and Europe. Thai Airways is a Star Alliance airline, meaning you can redeem points or miles with many Star Alliance frequent flyer programs to book award seats with the … Continued
Velocity Frequent Flyer members can now use their points to book Air Canada flights between Sydney and Vancouver, as well as across the rest of the Air Canada network. When Virgin Australia’s frequent flyer program reinstated partner airline redemptions last week, it said (and still does say) that “the ability for Velocity members to book Reward … Continued
Qantas is bringing back its Airbus A380 with First Class from next March, with 6x weekly A380 flights between Sydney and Los Angeles now on sale from 27 March 2022 (previously 1 July 2022). The Qantas A380 has 14 First Class seats, so the reintroduction of the A380 also means the reintroduction of Qantas First … Continued
Many airlines have introduced Premium Economy Class over the past decade. Even the major US carriers and Emirates, which initially resisted the trend, are now retrofitting Premium Economy seats onto their long-haul planes. But so many frequent flyer programs haven’t caught up yet. Of the frequent flyer programs that still have award charts, most display … Continued
Air New Zealand will take over from Qantas on the routes between Australia’s mainland and Norfolk Island from 30 August 2021, for at least two years. This means you now have just a few months left to redeem Qantas Frequent Flyer points to fly to Norfolk Island, while Qantas is still operating services from Sydney … Continued
If you miss flying on Qantas’ long-haul Boeing 787-9 Dreamliners, there’s some good news for you. Qantas has started running its Boeing 787s on up to nine return Sydney-Perth flights per week, and frequent flyers may even be able to upgrade from Economy to a Premium Economy seat for free! If you’re flying between Sydney … Continued
Earlier this year, Devon Indig’s partner Shalini needed to fly to the Netherlands for three months to care for her ageing mother. With Australia’s border closed and a high risk of getting bumped off a return flight back to Australia, it was a difficult and risky endeavour. It could have also been very expensive. There … Continued
Many Australian frequent flyers would know the struggle that can be redeeming Qantas or Velocity points. But, as difficult as this can seem at times, it’s nothing compared to the challenge of redeeming points or miles in many overseas frequent flyer programs. At least with Qantas, most partner airline awards are available online and if … Continued
Qantas has been awarded the federal government contract to operate regular flights from mainland Australia to Norfolk Island. Qantas will take over from Air New Zealand on the routes from Sydney and Brisbane to Norfolk Island for at least the next three months, and there is a possibility for the Qantas contract to be extended. … Continued
