Fly Qantas Australia to Europe For $2329 In Business

Qantas has been very generous lately, opening up last-minute award space on the direct Perth to Paris flight. This used to be a route with notoriously limited availability, but it’s likely that fewer people are booking it during winter. Qantas has been steady at releasing awards on this route for a while now as we've send out a few alerts to our AwardSpy subscribers.

You can of course book this using your Qantas Frequent Flyer points. The flight will cost you 151,800 Qantas Points and AU$626 in taxes and fees, but what if you don’t have enough?

Book Using Alaska Mileage Plan

Right now, Alaska is selling its Mileage Plan points with a 100% bonus. Alaska Airlines is part of the oneworld alliance, which means you can redeem those points to book Qantas flights. For this flight you need just 85,000 Alaska Atmos Points and US$80 in taxes/fees.

With the 100% bonus, your outright cost for a one-way business class flight is US$1,585, including all taxes and fees. While that’s still not super cheap, a business class ticket for around $2,329 on a direct flight to Europe is a solid deal if you ask me.

Ok, great. Hold my hand and guide me through the process.

Step 1: Create a Atmos Rewards account

Visit the Alaska Airlines website and create a Atmos Rewards account. Make sure to set your address to the USA, as they don’t currently appear to be offering the 100% bonus sale to Australian residents.

Step 2: Research award space

For this step, you can use Seats.aero since it has access to Alaska Mileage Plan award space. Within seconds, you should be able to see an entire year of data if you’re a premium subscriber, which is well worth it. You can also use Gyoza, in which case you would then search for Qantas availability which should match what you can get on Alaska Atmos.

Step 3: Buy points

Now that you’ve found your seats, with some flights showing as many as three business class seats available, go ahead and buy your Mileage Plan points. I recommend using a credit or debit card with no international FX fees, as this can otherwise add around 3% to the cost. Cards like ubank, Revolut or Up are my go-to options since they’re free and often come with a cash welcome bonus. With Revolut you would even earn Rev Points which can be converted 1:1 to a few airline programs.

Step 4: Book your flights

Now it’s time to book. Luckily, the Alaska Airlines website makes this very easy. Just make sure you select the “Book with miles” option before searching for flights, then enter the passenger details as you normally would.

Qantas charges around $10,000 for a return business class ticket, so using this method you’re effectively booking for less than half the price. Not bad at all.