QANTAS: Reward seats – ready, set, GO!

Today at 11 am AEDT (Friday 24 February) is when an avalanche of Qantas Reward Seats becomes available, as we reported earlier this week. Qantas is talking 50% additional seats, mainly in Economy, but some will be available in premium cabins.

Reward seats require redemption of the lowest number of Qantas Frequent Flyer points per destination. Traditionally, its the way to nab long yearned for First Class seats on the A380. I did it back in 2016 for a special Christmas-time trip to London and to see the northern lights.

Strategy

If you have your sights on London or Los Angeles in Business or First – good luck. They are probably the most popular routes for Classic Reward redeemers. If you are going for these – best to avoid peak seasons and days, and be prepared to accept Premium Economy if you fail to get First or Business. Singapore, Bali and Tokyo are also high on the popularity list according to Qantas.

If you are serious about this, you might want to invest in a subscription to a service like Expert Flyer that allows you to look at individual flight and reward seat availability. You need to know your stuff though, but there are a range of sources to help you with this, anything from the Point Hacks website to the collective wisdom of Australia Frequent Flyer.

Oh and manage your rage at the slowness and clunkiness of the Qantas website. There is some speculation about whether these Classic Reward fares will be made available on partner booking sites, like American AAdvantage and Alaska Mileage Plan. We don’t know, but it’s worth a try, while you are waiting for the Qantas site to load or calculate.

Roll out

Qantas is not releasing every Reward Seat it has to offer at 11 am today. Instead, it is going to roll out the inventory across its routes every month, giving more frequent flyers a chance to nab a seat.

2PAXfly Takeout

I’ll be trolling the Qantas site today, and trying to negotiate trips with my husband at the same time. Just remember that if you fail to nab what you are after today – you can try again another day, as Qantas rolls out more Classic Rewards over time.

Good luck!