Frequent flyer jackpot sees biggest ever release of Qantas award seats

Qantas frequent flyers who have been hoarding points during the pandemic will have a chance to spend them in 2022 with the airline’s biggest ever release of classic award seats. The flag carrier is promising millions of seats will be available across international and domestic routes after keen travellers have redeemed almost two billion points since October 1. It says Qantas frequent Flyer members will have access to up to 50% more reward availability on international, trans-Tasman and popular domestic routes until the end of the year. READ: Bonza's Kazakh roots underscore business plan This includes seats across the group and on 45 international partner airlines such as alliance partners Emirates and  American Airlines. Classic redemptions start at 8000 points plus $38.17 in taxes fees and charges for a one-way Sydney-Melbourne economy flight but can be as high as 144,600 points plus $462.10 for a one-way Melbourne-London business class fare. The airline will also release more “points planes” where every seat in all cabins is available as a reward seat. “Throughout the pandemic, many Qantas Frequent Flyers have been stockpiling points they have earned on the ground so they can use them to travel once travel restrictions are lifted,’’ said. “With members keen to travel internationally and domestically we have released more reward seats to make it easier for our frequent flyers to use their points to go on holidays and be reunited with family and friends in 2022. “We’ll also be announcing more domestic and international Points Planes. It’s our way of thanking our frequent flyers for their ongoing loyalty.” As an added incentive, the Australian carrier is not charging fees to change or cancel international Classic reward seats bookings for travel until the end of next year. The deal comes as Qantas last week brought forward the resumption of international scheduled services to London and Los Angeles to November 1. Flights to Tokyo, Fiji, Canada and Singapore are scheduled to resume from December 18 with other destinations such as San Francisco, Bangkok, Hong Kong and Dallas expected to resume by April next year. Flights between Australia and New Zealand are scheduled to resume from mid-December 2021.