Qantas Classic Rewards London and Rome sale: Grab the best seats
Thousands of extra rewards seats released.
Qantas says it has released thousands of extra Classic Rewards seats for the European 2024 peak season, opening up new possibilities for folks keen to spend their Qantas Points on a summer vacation.
Classic Reward seats on Qantas' European routes are normally very limited and sell out quickly. When I checked the London route last week, there was almost nothing available, even when looking at late August 2024 flights.
Qantas says it has added additional Economy and Business seats on Sydney-London flights from 1 June to 31 August 2024, and for Melbourne/Sydney-Rome flights from 15 June to 31 August 2024.
When I looked today, there were indeed plenty of Classic Reward Economy seats available on the London route, priced at 55,200 Qantas Points plus $243-odd in carrier charges.
Business seats were still pretty thin on the ground. But booking Economy is still a high-value way to use your points, and a more realistic goal if you're not a Platinum or Platinum One frequent flyer.
You'll get around $21 in value for each 1,000 Qantas Points you spend for on a one-way Economy Classic Reward flight from Sydney-London during that period. That's above my $20 threshold, and again I'll note it's unusual to see reward seats on those routes at all during the European summer.
You can also see rewards bookings for flights out of other capital cities connecting into Qantas' London flights from Sydney and Perth, though availability for these seems a little more limited.
Last month, facing heavy pressures over its record profits and allegations of not informing passengers when flights had been cancelled, Qantas said it would be increasing the number of reward seats available on popular routes.
Qantas is also discounting the number of points needed for Points Plus Play flights in Premium Economy, Business and First by 50% on some routes.
That's still a much lower-value option than using your Qantas Points for Classic Rewards, so I'll be sticking with Classic Rewards for now.
Research shows cash-strapped Australians are increasingly leaning on points when booking holidays.
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