Qantas Promises Massive Release Of International Reward Seats

Since October 2021, Qantas says they have made 50 per cent more Classic Flight Reward seats available to its frequent flyer members. In turn, the airline has seen a record number of bookings using points for travel, with one in every eleven frequent flyers carried by Qantas travelling on a reward seat.

Qantas Frequent Flyer has today promised it will release tens of thousands of new international reward seats from 11am (AEST) on 24th February 2023. The huge seating dump comes as the red roo extends its commitment to improving Classic Flight Reward availability on international routes for an additional six months, to December 2023.

Added reward seats are set to be spread across all classes of travel, including Business and First, on the airline’s full international network of more than 30 worldwide destinations.

Qantas Loyalty CEO Olivia Wirth claims that there are more than 5 million reward seats available for booking on the Qantas and Jetstar networks across the next year.

“Our frequent flyers have been using their points to book reward seats in record numbers, and demand for seats on international flights is particularly strong,” said Ms Wirth.

“We’re releasing tens of thousands of new Classic Flight Reward seats to international destinations to make it easier for our members to use their points towards their next overseas trip,” she added.

London, Singapore, Bali, Tokyo and Los Angeles are among the most popular overseas destinations booked using points. Here’s how many Qantas Points you’ll want to set aside for a one-way Business Class redemption;

• Sydney to London: 144,600 points + $443 taxes
• Melbourne to London: 144,600 points + $441 taxes
• Brisbane to Los Angeles: 108,400 points + $334 taxes
• Sydney to Los Angeles: 108,400 points + $334 taxes
• Sydney to Tokyo (Haneda): 82,000 points + $198 taxes
• Melbourne to Auckland: 41,500 points + $157 taxes
• Sydney to Fiji (Nadi): 41,500 points + $107 taxes

For now, the flying kangaroo is yet to share the travel period for its upcoming seat release, but we expect it will be for flights towards the latter half of 2023. Of course, not all dates will and routes will be available, and seats in premium cabins are expected to sell out quickly.

While much of Qantas’ media correspondence is all talk with little substance, we did find pretty good availability for upfront cabins during the last reward seat blitz. There are usually quite a few Business seats available per flight, making it easier to plan a family trip on points.

All that’s left now is to pre-plan your booking strategy before Friday, as all seats will become available to all members at the same time. We are hoping Qantas has upgraded its tech in learning from its previous reward seat dump. Although, with the huge volume of traffic searching for space all at once, we expect the Qantas website will take some patience…

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