Travel is exciting but it is also like a job when you’re on a budget and need to go to such lengths to find the reward pt flights needed. I’m exhausted listening to all the pieces of the puzzle but intend to gather the momentum to make the most of it. Thanks for all the tips, Raymond; much appreciated.
It’s a lot of work, but it’s definitely worth it. I found return flights to Japan from Australia in jal business class for myself, partner and two kids. This will be our first time in business class and I’m so looking forward to it :). I did have to spend abit of time trying to find these. Looking everyday, multiple times a day.
Going to Canada next year, as money is tight at the moment I used 110,000 qantas points to fly return from Adelaide to vancouver return in USA summer in economy. I'm thrilled with the value I got from my points there but it's sacrilege for frequent flyer points fans to use nearly all of my points for one economy flight but I save $1000 which can be used for accommodation for the nearly 2 weeks I'll be there
Hi, if you book your first flight 340 days out from departure but your next flight is 3 months later does it still comply with the rule of 12 months? Or is it refer to months from the departure date of ticket?
Travel. Im glad you explained that it’s time consuming and tricky and almost certainly need to contact Qantas by phone to complete the full itinerary. I have tried this a few times and always given up as I thought I had to fully book in one go. You didn’t explain how it exactly works because I think booking individual legs will be lots more than the quantity of points you mentioned. Will this be where the Qantas call centre assesses all the flights and adjusts the points needed? If I only have just enough points then I won’t be able to book fully online and would need Qantas to coordinate the full trip.
HI RAYMOND, I NOTICED WHEN I WAS PLANNING MY TRIP THAT THE REWARD SEAT POINT REQUIREMENT INCREASED FROM 25200 TO 57000 THE SAME FLIGHT OVER THE LAST 3 MONTHS. DO YOU KNOW WHY AND HOW TO FIND THE LOWEST REWARD POINT REQUIREMENT DATE? THANK YOU!
@@raymondla Thanks Raymond. I've tried using Cathays website "redeem multi city tool" but it gives me an error saying to contact their team. Upon contacting the support team they said it was not possible and each leg would need to be booked as a separate booking. Have you heard of this before?
Unfortunately, there’s no direct earning KrisFlyer credit card in Australia. My recommendation is to earn Velocity points and transfer them over to KrisFlyer at a rate of 1.55:1
I need advice. I want to get a FF credit card, solely to get my family of 3 to Japan in July 2025. Where do I start as we probably need to book flights asap, but probably won’t have enough points until January/Feb. Not sure how to go about it.
Try and get a credit card with a good points signup bonus and a relatively low signup fee. Hit the minimum required spend and once you get the bonus points, cancel that card and apply for another. Rinse and repeat. You probably need to be looking nearly 12 months out for reward flights in business class. Economy are a lot easier to find. All depends how you want to travel.
Yes you will probably need somewhere between 500k- 1mil points to get a nice redemption to fly to Japan. I would not recommend redeeming rewards flights in economy, the taxes and airline surcharges will cost you around $700 return. Whilst a return flight in economy costs $1.1 in July with ANA Log into Qantas and search for flights 360 days in advance. The business class rewards are scarce for Qantas members on bronze status. But you may find some luck in booking 1-2 business class or premium economy reward flights. Every minute counts, there is a certain time of the day when the rewards for 360 days in advance become available.
Has anyone ever even actually been able to book one of these? Goodluck being able to find 5-7 business class seats, all available to book at around the same time. Not a chance I say. I resorted to having to just book a bunch of individual flights. Rather spend an extra 100-200k more points doing it that way (and spending $400-$500 more in credit card fees for those points) than to spend hooouurs online searching, on the phone to Qantas etc.
Don't know how people manage to book these flights. Have 700k points and can't find the availability for myself and wife. First flight March, last flight Sept but now in July, can't find any flights remotely close to when I want it
I was going to sign up to the NAB qantas business credit card a month ago, but realised it’s extremely hard to even use the points. Peak times, holidays, etc don’t allow you to use them. So I scrapped the idea after finding this out and my mum who is a frequent traveler said the same thing.
I agree with you on this! It looks like they are blacking out days or weeks for July 2025 flights, especially for flights to and from Australia. My plan is to find a juicy business class flight that connects from Europe to Asia to Aus. Once that is available , I will book business class flights from BKK to AMM to Europe with Royal Jordanian for the first leg of my flight. So yes I plan to start my flight in BKK, so when I arrive back in Aus, I will still have two more stopovers to use to fly to Tokyo and back to Aus. I am on the daily lookout for direct flights on Cathay to Europe. Otherwise, I might have to settle with flying from SIN-HEL-Europe with Finnair (which from my experience are not too scarce)
Hi Raymond This info is quite inaccurate. It clearly states that when booking, you must do both a trans Pacific and trans Atlantic crossing and only do it in the same direction. In essence, you can not do Australia-Dubai-Europe back to Asia and then return to Australia. You literally have to go around the world and cross oceans.
Great explanation and understanding of all this but who else is dizzy after trying to absorb all this info 😂.
Travel is exciting but it is also like a job when you’re on a budget and need to go to such lengths to find the reward pt flights needed. I’m exhausted listening to all the pieces of the puzzle but intend to gather the momentum to make the most of it. Thanks for all the tips, Raymond; much appreciated.
It’s a lot of work, but it’s definitely worth it. I found return flights to Japan from Australia in jal business class for myself, partner and two kids. This will be our first time in business class and I’m so looking forward to it :). I did have to spend abit of time trying to find these. Looking everyday, multiple times a day.
Going to Canada next year, as money is tight at the moment I used 110,000 qantas points to fly return from Adelaide to vancouver return in USA summer in economy. I'm thrilled with the value I got from my points there but it's sacrilege for frequent flyer points fans to use nearly all of my points for one economy flight but I save $1000 which can be used for accommodation for the nearly 2 weeks I'll be there
Hi, if you book your first flight 340 days out from departure but your next flight is 3 months later does it still comply with the rule of 12 months? Or is it refer to months from the departure date of ticket?
What a great video!
Glad you enjoyed it!
Travel. Im glad you explained that it’s time consuming and tricky and almost certainly need to contact Qantas by phone to complete the full itinerary. I have tried this a few times and always given up as I thought I had to fully book in one go. You didn’t explain how it exactly works because I think booking individual legs will be lots more than the quantity of points you mentioned. Will this be where the Qantas call centre assesses all the flights and adjusts the points needed? If I only have just enough points then I won’t be able to book fully online and would need Qantas to coordinate the full trip.
Excellent video !
HI RAYMOND, I NOTICED WHEN I WAS PLANNING MY TRIP THAT THE REWARD SEAT POINT REQUIREMENT INCREASED FROM 25200 TO 57000 THE SAME FLIGHT OVER THE LAST 3 MONTHS. DO YOU KNOW WHY AND HOW TO FIND THE LOWEST REWARD POINT REQUIREMENT DATE? THANK YOU!
Fantastic video, heaps of information but very useful. Could you do an updated video on round the world with Cathay?
The same rules here apply regardless of whether it’s Cathay or Qantas as they are all part of the Oneworld Alliance
@@raymondla Thanks Raymond. I've tried using Cathays website "redeem multi city tool" but it gives me an error saying to contact their team. Upon contacting the support team they said it was not possible and each leg would need to be booked as a separate booking. Have you heard of this before?
Could you also do video on RTW award tickets from Star alliance for those who lives in Aus?
Hi Raymond. Do you have a suggestion of an Australian credit card that is link to Singapore airlines?
Unfortunately, there’s no direct earning KrisFlyer credit card in Australia. My recommendation is to earn Velocity points and transfer them over to KrisFlyer at a rate of 1.55:1
@@raymondla thank you so much mate
Excellent video and presentation Ray but honestly this is just WAY too much work for an average jo blo like myself.
Do you know if I can use the 318k point and buy tickets for 2 people?
Yes but, the additional fees and charges can be very steep.
I need advice. I want to get a FF credit card, solely to get my family of 3 to Japan in July 2025. Where do I start as we probably need to book flights asap, but probably won’t have enough points until January/Feb. Not sure how to go about it.
Try and get a credit card with a good points signup bonus and a relatively low signup fee. Hit the minimum required spend and once you get the bonus points, cancel that card and apply for another. Rinse and repeat. You probably need to be looking nearly 12 months out for reward flights in business class. Economy are a lot easier to find. All depends how you want to travel.
Yes you will probably need somewhere between 500k- 1mil points to get a nice redemption to fly to Japan.
I would not recommend redeeming rewards flights in economy, the taxes and airline surcharges will cost you around $700 return. Whilst a return flight in economy costs $1.1 in July with ANA
Log into Qantas and search for flights 360 days in advance. The business class rewards are scarce for Qantas members on bronze status. But you may find some luck in booking 1-2 business class or premium economy reward flights.
Every minute counts, there is a certain time of the day when the rewards for 360 days in advance become available.
@@z3219825 rewards are usually available at 10:00am est
Has anyone ever even actually been able to book one of these? Goodluck being able to find 5-7 business class seats, all available to book at around the same time. Not a chance I say. I resorted to having to just book a bunch of individual flights. Rather spend an extra 100-200k more points doing it that way (and spending $400-$500 more in credit card fees for those points) than to spend hooouurs online searching, on the phone to Qantas etc.
World
Don't know how people manage to book these flights. Have 700k points and can't find the availability for myself and wife. First flight March, last flight Sept but now in July, can't find any flights remotely close to when I want it
Wow! 700k pts! Incredible, you’ve done so well. I hope you find the flights you’re after. Perhaps Raymond’s tips will get you there.
I was going to sign up to the NAB qantas business credit card a month ago, but realised it’s extremely hard to even use the points. Peak times, holidays, etc don’t allow you to use them. So I scrapped the idea after finding this out and my mum who is a frequent traveler said the same thing.
I agree with you on this! It looks like they are blacking out days or weeks for July 2025 flights, especially for flights to and from Australia.
My plan is to find a juicy business class flight that connects from Europe to Asia to Aus. Once that is available , I will book business class flights from BKK to AMM to Europe with Royal Jordanian for the first leg of my flight.
So yes I plan to start my flight in BKK, so when I arrive back in Aus, I will still have two more stopovers to use to fly to Tokyo and back to Aus.
I am on the daily lookout for direct flights on Cathay to Europe. Otherwise, I might have to settle with flying from SIN-HEL-Europe with Finnair (which from my experience are not too scarce)
You have to book 11-12 months out
The rules must have changed as your used to have to keep going in the 1 direction around the world, which ever way you started with the 1st flight.
travel
World travel
Hi Raymond
This info is quite inaccurate.
It clearly states that when booking, you must do both a trans Pacific and trans Atlantic crossing and only do it in the same direction. In essence, you can not do Australia-Dubai-Europe back to Asia and then return to Australia. You literally have to go around the world and cross oceans.
Incorrect, that's for the normal one world rtw ticket