Qantas is the largest carrier in Australia. But does the program from the land down under offer any competitive awards with Qantas points?

For this post, I’m not going to get into the details of the elite status aspect of the program and instead focus on the redemption side of the program.

Three banks transfer to Qantas Frequent Flyer

If you need Qantas points in a hurry, you might be glad to know that three bank programs transfer points to the Qantas Frequent Flyer program:

• American Express Membership Rewards (1:1)
• Capital One (1:1)
• Citi ThankYou (1:1)

As is typically the case, both Amex and Capital One will transfer the points over instantly. Meanwhile, Citi always tends to lag more (between 1 and 3 days).

Award flights booked with Qantas points can be booked 353 days in advance

As a planner, I love being able to book awards well far in advance. I feel like I can lock down my preferred dates of travel before the majority of other award seekers. And so the earlier the schedule is released, the better it is.

But perhaps what matters more is being able to book awards before those with a large balance of miles with U.S. programs are able to book. Those programs generally open schedules and award bookings 11 months in advance. So if you can find a program that allows awards weeks before the comparable U.S. airline (here, American or Alaska), you can generally book what you want.

Award flights booked with Qantas points can be booked 353 days in advance. That’s awesome if you can take advantage!

Award change and cancel fees will cost you points

Looking to change or cancel your award flight? The Qantas terms state that it will cost you points.

• Award change fee: 5,000 Qantas points per passenger
• Award cancel fee: 6,000 Qantas points per passenger

If you need to adjust your flight by calling a service center, it will cost you an extra 4,500 points (domestic) or 7,700 points (international).

Is it better to pay fees in points instead of with cash? I think it depends on how easily it is to acquire those points. If you had the right number of points to book your flight and need to change dates, it’s a little annoying to have to fund your account with more miles to rebook. That’s especially true if you’re using Citi points and it takes several days to transfer.

Awards booked with Qantas points are distance-based

Qantas has four award charts for you to ponder. The thing to note first is that the distance is not computed by segment–it’s the entire one-way length of your journey. That makes it better than, say, British Airways, which charges by the segment.

Also, there is a devaluation taking effect starting August 5, 2025, where award prices are going up by nearly 20%. The prices listed in the charts below already reflect that devaluation.

Let’s walk through each of the award charts.

Awards on Qantas, Jetstar*, Fiji, and American

The first award chart is what you’ll expect to pay if you’re flying on Qantas or its preferred partners. This also includes flights on Jetstar where a Jetstar flight is in the same itinerary as a Qantas flight. Distance is listed in miles.

Jetstar (JQ), Jetstar Asia (3K), and Jetstar Japan (GK)

Jetstar is Qantas’ low-cost carrier. If you’re flying a Jetstar flight and not including a segment on Qantas, you’ll pay points based on the following award chart. It’s a cheaper price for economy class and the business class price on Jetstar is equivalent to the premium economy price on Qantas.

Partner award chart

If you’re looking to fly on a partner airline (other than Fiji and American), you’ll pay a higher rate than on Qantas. This includes all of Qantas’s other oneworld alliance partners, Air France, Bangkok Airways, China Airlines, China Eastern, EL AL, Emirates, KLM, LATAM Airlines, and WestJet.

oneworld classic award chart

If you want to book a oneworld classic award, you’ll pay twice the rate of the one-way partner rate. You might wonder what’s the point of this award chart, since it implies it’s just a roundtrip fare. Well, this award type allows up to 5 stopovers per journey. So you can think of this as a round-the-world fare under a different name.

There are a few restrictions to note. All flights must be on oneworld partners, so airlines like Air France are not eligible. You must also fly at least two oneworld airlines other than Qantas to get this fare. Additionally:

• More than five free stopovers are not permitted
• Only one stopover is permitted in any one city in the itinerary
• Only two transfers may be taken at any one city in the itinerary
• The itinerary cannot be longer than 35,000 miles in length

What are the sweet spots?

Booking the oneworld classic award

The single best award for you to consider is the oneworld award. Thinking about bouncing around Europe? How about flying British Airways, Iberia, and Finnair to qualify you for this award? I wouldn’t bother taking business class on those flights since it’s just the regular economy seat with a blocked middle.

Or what about a trip through Asia? You could easily pair together local airlines JAL, Cathay Pacific, and Malaysia to develop a fun trip. Start in Japan and then move to southern Asia in a great rate for premium economy or business class.

The good thing is that there is so much coverage in oneworld that it’s not difficult to find at least two airlines to carry you around. However, I think it works best for taking a deeper dive within the same region rather than truly flying around the world.

Potentially cheaper flights than American charges

American charges its own members based on a dynamic methodology, so you might end up ahead if you first check the price with Qantas. This includes short-distance flights where the cash flights might be high (think the Caribbean). Personally, I think the economy price is more attractive than business class pricing for these short-hauls.

North America to Europe from 23,300 miles in economy or 68,400 in business

If you want to get to Europe at an efficient price, booking with Qantas points is one of the better options. If you’re flying from Boston to London, you’re only going to be paying 23,300 for the journey in economy. That’s not a bad price to pay, but stick to American to get the cheaper price.

Business class also isn’t unattractive these days for the shorter journeys. Sure, American or Alaska could charge less for the same journey. But those programs don’t allow transfers from banks. So if you’re looking for a good option with points that are easier to get, this isn’t a bad price at all.

Infant awards are mostly free

Back when we flew internationally with an infant, we ended up sometimes paying a pretty penny to allow our child to sit in our lap. Without getting into the debate on the safety of the lap child, I can say it sometimes got expensive.

With most airlines, you would be forced to pay 10% of the cash price of the ticket. Say you found a flight for 75,000 miles in business class one-way. But if you want to bring your lap infant, you’d have to pay 10% of the cash fare, which could be thousands of dollars. A one-way flight is painfully priced high, and you might pay less if doing a roundtrip, but it’s still quite a dent. I’d say the rough average of what we paid for an infant was around $600 for the ticket.

But with Qantas, you actually just need to pay the taxes and fees for the infant. If the infant isn’t taking up their own seat, the price is just about the lowest price you could hope for. Just see what Qantas says on their website:

Infant passengers under two years and not occupying a seat travel are not required to redeem Points to travel as long as the accompanying adult is travelling on a Classic Flight Reward. Taxes, fees and carrier charges may be payable for Infants accompanying other passengers travelling on a Classic Flight Reward booking.

That makes this one of the best programs for parents bringing their kids with them on flights. Happy hunting!

How to best search for availability?

I always start with the website to figure out availability patterns. The Qantas website is actually quite simple to use. I like that it does not require logging in to search for award flights. When you choose your itinerary and dates, results will populate for a whole week. Want to switch between different cabins? It’s easy to just click the dropdown (boxed in red below) and make the switch. All results in the calendar will also reflect the desired cabin.

Since Qantas Frequent Flyer is a transfer partner of Amex, the free point.me award tool can help you out. Beyond that, you can certainly use whichever third-party tool you’re most comfortable with using to track down partner availability.

Do Qantas points expire?

Yes, Qantas miles expire after 18 months. Thankfully, you just need account activity (earn or redeem) to refresh the expiration date. I like it when programs make it easy to save points from expiration.

Suggested reading:

• Destinations we’ve visited
• How to Travel with Kids
• How to Book Award Travel Like a Pro