Using Qantas Points to plan and book a round-the-world trip

Here's how to book a round-the-world business class trip for the same amount of Qantas Points as a simple return journey to London

By Chris C., July 22 2019
Using Qantas Points to plan and book a round-the-world trip

This article is part of our ongoing Business Travel 101 series for newcomers to the world of business travel and was last updated in July 2019.

Looking for one of the very best ways to use your pile of Qantas frequent flyer points? Here it is: booking a lavish, round-the-world business class trip for the same amount of Qantas Points as a simple return journey to London.

For example, a return business class flight from Sydney to London with one of Qantas’ many Oneworld alliance partners – such as British Airways, Cathay Pacific, Japan Airlines, Malaysia Airlines or Qatar Airways – commands 318,000 Qantas Points from 18 September 2019: yet a round-the-world business class ticket will also cost only 318,000 points from the same date.

Want to luxe it up in first class? Once again, it's the same amount of Qantas Points compared to a return flight to Europe with the Roo’s partner airlines, and the same pattern is seen with premium economy and economy.

However you choose to travel, here’s all you need to know how and when – to turn your hard-earned Qantas Points into that round-the-world trip of a lifetime. Note that all the rates in this article are based on Qantas' 2019 changes to the number of points needed for booking flights.

Get up to speed here: How Qantas' 2019 'overhaul' will affect you

Jetting round-the-world with Qantas Points: the basics

Under the Qantas Frequent Flyer program, these bookings are known as Oneworld Classic Flight Rewards, and the number of points you’ll need to book them comes directly from Qantas’ Oneworld Classic Flight Reward table.

These aren’t to be confused with the more common Partner Classic Flight Rewards – being ‘normal’ one-way or return bookings with most of Qantas’ partner airlines – or Qantas Classic Flight Rewards, which cover flights booked with only with Qantas, Emirates, and a few other select partners.

Oneworld Classic Flight Rewards are a separate beast, and as such, they come with their own set of rules.

Firstly, every airline you incorporate into your booking needs to be a Oneworld alliance member, so you can’t work in flights with non-Oneworld carriers such as Alaska Airlines, China Eastern, Fiji Airways and others.

That means you can fly with Qantas, American Airlines, British Airways, Cathay Pacific, Cathay Dragon, Finnair, Iberia, Japan Airlines, LATAM (formerly LAN and TAM), Malaysia Airlines, Qatar Airways, Royal Jordanian, S7 Airlines and SriLankan Airlines.

In fact, your Oneworld Classic Flight Reward needs to include two airlines other than Qantas: so you can’t simply fly Qantas from Australia to London; tag on an AA or BA flight to New York, and then fly Qantas home from New York.

You’re not obligated to include any Qantas flights in the booking, of course – you just need to fly with at least two Oneworld airlines other than Qantas as part of the trip.

Flying round-the-world with Qantas Points: how far can you travel?

All up, your round-the-world trip can be up to 35,000 miles in total length, from the time you embark on your first flight until you return to the same place.

This includes both the length of the flights you take, as well as any flights you don’t take because you’ve arranged other transportation, which are known as ‘surface sectors’.

For instance, flying into London, catching a train to Paris under a separate booking and then flying onward from Paris as part of a round-the-world booking pegs ‘London to Paris’ as a surface sector, and the distance between those two cities is included when the system calculates your trip length.

Another thing to watch out for is where you begin the trip in one city (such as Sydney) but conclude it in another city (such as Melbourne), because the distance between the first and last city will also be added to your tally – which, again, needs to be 35,000 total miles or less.

Within the trip, you can plan a maximum of five ‘stopovers’, which is where you remain in one place for 24 hours or more: whether you're there for days, weeks or longer. Each stopover must be in a different city, so you can’t go back to the same place twice on the one booking.

The system also seems to allow up to two 'transits' as well without affecting reward pricing, being where you spend less than 24 hours on the ground, whether or not you leave the airport: useful when flying to multiple destinations near major airline hubs which aren’t otherwise served by direct flights, or where award availability makes a connection necessary.

Flying round-the-world with Qantas Points: a sample itinerary

Considering all the rules around distance, stopovers, transits and the ‘two airlines other than Qantas’ rule, here’s a sample itinerary that ticks all the boxes for a traveller planning to visit Asia, Europe and North America on a single trip:

  • Sydney-Hong Kong with Qantas or Cathay Pacific
  • Hong Kong-Tokyo with Cathay Pacific, Cathay Dragon or Japan Airlines
  • Tokyo-London with British Airways or Japan Airlines
  • London-New York with American Airlines or British Airways
  • New York-Los Angeles with American Airlines, or Qantas, but only if flying Qantas onward from LA
  • Los Angeles-Sydney with Qantas or American Airlines

This keeps things simple without any planned ‘transits’, which keeps those free if connections are needed to work around frequent flyer reward availability.

All up, this trip measures up at 25,811 miles – well within the 35,000-mile cap, giving plenty of room for extra transit detours, or the inclusion of Africa or Central and South America in lieu of other cities, without exceeding the limit.

Flying round-the-world: how many Qantas Points you’ll need

While Qantas’ Oneworld Classic Flight Reward table lists a range of figures for journeys of varying lengths, if you’re flying round-the-world, the numbers you’ll need are at the very bottom in the “19,201-35,000-mile” range.

As such, you’d be looking at 455,000 Qantas Points for a first class ticket, 318,000 Qantas Points for a business class booking and 249,600 Qantas Points for a premium economy journey on bookings made from 18 September 2019. 

Any bookings in premium cabins made before that date will still be priced at the previous rates, being 420,000 Qantas Points in first class, 280,000 points in business and 210,000 in premium economy. 

A round-the-world ticket in economy class has already dropped to 132,400 Qantas Points under the new changes, effective immediately.

The number of points needed is based on the highest class of service flown throughout your itinerary: so if you mostly book business class flights but take one flight in first class instead, choosing that flight bumps your entire booking from the ‘business class’ to the ‘first class’ rate, costing you 455,000 Qantas Points instead of 318,000 Qantas Points.

At that stage, you may as well go back and book your entire trip in first class, because you’d be parting with 455,000 Qantas Points either way – but if you’re happy to keep things at business class, you’d instead shell out the standard rate of 318,000 Qantas Points.

As with any booking made using frequent flyer points, merely having enough points in your account doesn’t guarantee you’ll be able to book any specific flight or travel with any particular airline. Whether or not you can book each flight depends on reward availability, as always.

Because most airlines tend to release flights for reward bookings around 10-11 months before travel, this is when you should consider making those bookings if you can, to maximise your chances of getting the flight you want.

Certainly, you might get lucky and be able to book a set of suitable flights much closer to departure, but when you’re dealing with multiple airlines and flights, planning ahead keeps your options open and gives you enough time to construct a Plan B (and Plan C, or Plan D…) if need be.

When it does come time to book, you’ll also need to pay an amount on the side to cover all necessary taxes, fees and carrier surcharges imposed on your booking.

The exact amount payable will depend on your itinerary, but as a guide, expect to pay at least $800 on the side: more if you’re taking a flight from the UK at the pointy end due to the country’s APD charges; and even more if you’re flying with Qantas or BA, as both airlines’ carrier surcharges are among the highest.

Flying round-the-world with Qantas Points: booking your trip

Because the Qantas website now allows you to search and book reward flights with all Oneworld alliance airlines, these tickets can be secured online rather than having to call.

Begin by clicking “multi-city” on the Qantas homepage – not “round the world”, which is only for round-the-world bookings purchased entirely with money, not points.

On the next screen, your first step should be to select “use points – Classic Flight Rewards only” at the top:

Then, key in your planned journey, including the dates you’d like to travel. Keep clicking the “add a flight” button until your entire trip has been filled out. There’s a lot of data to enter, but if it starts to look something like this, you’re on the right track:

At the bottom, select the number of passengers you’re searching for and the cabin you’d like to fly, then click “search flights”. For our sample itinerary, we’re going to fly business class:

Before you start choosing individual flights, the system gives you a chance to double-check what you’ve entered, so before you continue, make sure the dates you’ve entered are all correct, along with the cities you’ve chosen.

Then, it’s a matter of choosing the most appropriate flight for each part of your journey.

This part can be simple if there’s reward availability on the exact flights you want, but when there’s not, this is where your transits can come in handy.

For example, on the date we wanted to fly from Sydney to Hong Kong, none of the non-stop Qantas or Cathay Pacific flights that day had any reward seats available in business class…

… but scrolling further down the page revealed a different option: flying Qantas from Sydney to Brisbane in business class, and then flying from Brisbane to Hong Kong in Cathay Pacific business class:

Here, Brisbane becomes a ‘transit’ city, getting us on our way. A similar process is followed for the rest of the flights, such as onward from Hong Kong to Tokyo…

… and so on, until all flights are entered. During the process, you’ll notice something changing at the bottom of the screen: the number of points required to make your booking, but in these early stages, the figure shown doesn’t take your full trip into account and can be safely ignored.

If you eventually see 280,000 points (before 18 September 2019) or 318,000 points (afterwards) in this section, you’re on the right path – but if the figure remains above that once all your flights have been entered, it’s a sign that you’ve broken one of the key rules of these bookings, such as by having too many stopovers or transits.

The itinerary shown in this article meets all the rules, but it’s just something you should look out for when planning your own trip. Towards the end of the process, you may also find it tricky to book a flight from North America to Australia on points, if your journey takes you that way round…

… but don’t forget that trick we used for our very first flight – scrolling further down the page to look at connecting flights, which revealed a Qantas business class flight from Los Angeles to Melbourne, with an onward Qantas business class flight from Melbourne to Sydney:

All up, that completed this round-the-world booking, with the maximum of five stopovers (in Hong Kong, Tokyo, London, New York and Los Angeles), two transits (Brisbane and Melbourne), and beginning and concluding in the same place (Sydney).

As every flight is in business class, this ticket costs the expected 318,000 Qantas Points, and once those flights are all selected, you’ll have a chance to look back over them all, and the dates you’ve selected, to make sure they’re correct before continuing with the booking process and finalising your reservation.

That’s all there is to it, but if you run into any problems finding flights that can be booked using points, grab a pen and paper (or open Notepad on your computer), and try searching for flights through the Qantas website one at a time.

For example, to find flights and dates that work to get you from Sydney to Hong Kong, search for a one-way Classic Flight Reward from ‘Sydney to Hong Kong’ only – jot down which flights are available on the dates you want, and start a new one-way search for ‘Hong Kong to Tokyo’, etc.

Repeat the process until you’ve found suitable reward flights for every part of your journey, and then head to the multi-city page to get your mega booking locked and loaded, having done your research and knowing which flights will be available when you need to travel.

Additional reporting by Brandon Loo

Chris C.

Chris is a a former contributor to Executive Traveller.

Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer

21 Mar 2018

Total posts 3

I would also suggest using the Round-The-World option when planning your itinerary. It allows you to understand which carriers fly to where, what options are available in terms of stopovers, and you can save itineraries. It's a good way to test routes before trying to book the reward flights.

Not that I've actually booked one of these yet... But from the advice I've found on various forums and from slowly planning one myself I've found this to be a useful aid!

QFF

27 Jan 2016

Total posts 6

The OW RTW planner is excellent for this purpose!

QFF

27 Jan 2016

Total posts 6

Captn Toast, you are spot on, incremental is the way to go.
We've managed three of these so far and they have been fantastic. You can also add in local carriers to connect to the RTW flights you want. eg getting back from US to AU, also search SFO to Australia, or DFW, and either buy an internal ticket, or you can add flights that do not qualify, just by using a few more points to connect.
Last year, - we were MEL-HKG-FRA-VIE, Air Berlin withdrew that last segment leaving us technically stranded. QF call centre were fabulous, switching us to HKG-DUS-VIE on the same dates and times.
Another great route was MEL-HKG-JNB-VFA JNB-LHR-VCE-JFK then SFO-LAX-MEL. This is where using the RTW planner can help - checking who flys where. Be flexible and creative and you can have really great experiences.

Etihad - Etihad Guest

07 Mar 2019

Total posts 3

Hi to clarify when you say incremental do you mean I can book the first leg then add legs at a later date but still use the rtw 260k cap? even though each leg is costing say 50-70,000 points and 300 dollars?

QFF

27 Jan 2016

Total posts 6

The two difficult legs of the trip are leaving and returning to Australia. We start by booking the outward leg as soon as it is available. Then book it step by step and just treat the change fees as part of the deal. We've never had a call centre fee for J changes. Getting home can be difficult, and by the seat release date rules, you can't book this until the start date + the length of your trip. To be able to setup a One World award however, you can always start with a non-preferred date to secure the fare, then change it later if the right flights or route comes up. Focus on those two legs of the trip, and be prepared to fill in with some paid or sperate redemption legs. Or trains/buses/car rentals.
Have fun!!

Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer

28 Nov 2016

Total posts 4

Great article and much clearer than other articles on this topic. I think the one trick / pitfall is obviously securing the flights. Is there a trick to booking the segments progressively to secure award availability. i.e if my round the world trip is 30-40 days long instead of waiting until all the segments become available for bookign is there away to book the segements and consolidate at the end ?

Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer

13 Jan 2017

Total posts 73

Captn Toast - just remember that every time you call up to amend a booking or add sectors to an existing booking you will have to pay the penalty points for manual assistance (unless the sectors are not bookable on the Qantas engine)

QFF

27 Jan 2016

Total posts 6

From the Classic Rewards fees page on QF: "Service Fees will not be applied when changing Classic Flight Rewards booked for travel in Business or First class."
There is a change fee of 5000pts per ticket, but no call centre fee. On average I make 2 or sometimes three changes to get the right flights home, which still brings in the RTW award at a very reasonable 300,000 points each.

QFF

19 Sep 2013

Total posts 203

On the RTW we travelled on last year, we were allowed to backtrack which was handy. Also we removed a couple of flights, bringing the total points below 280,000, then added two Emirates flights. The total was around 300,000, and the taxes only $1250. A very cheap way to travel business class.

Etihad - Etihad Guest

04 Mar 2019

Total posts 2

Hi there, curious as to how/why you were able to backtrack. Did you do the booking online yourself and just put in the destinations (to see if they worked) and the system OK'd it?

oxy
oxy

03 May 2017

Total posts 25

No problems with backtracking on this ticket, as long as you don't exceed the transit/stopover/mileage limits.

Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer

08 Jun 2016

Total posts 44

you can backtrack within a sector, for example from Heathrow to somewhere in Europe and back again. You cannot retrace your steps across the pacific or the atlantic.

That said, I think there are limits to the number of backtracks you can do within a sector.

I just booked an RTW (with $ not points) in First and really looking forward to it.

Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer

18 May 2011

Total posts 231

Wow, First - I'm sure you'll have an awesome time!

Emirates Airlines - Skywards

07 Sep 2012

Total posts 148

Excellent article and some very helpful comments as well. Just the kind of combination that makes this one of the best airline forums

Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer

17 Jun 2016

Total posts 16

I have used the 280K J class twice now and had some of the best business class flights ever. I have been lucky to fly in J with QF, BA, QR, CX, AA on these trips and even had two op-ups to F with BA on the trips. You can add in Y sectors as well if you need to and no J is available. Surface sectors means if you cant get a Oneworld flight then choose another carrier or surface segment and then pick up the Oneworld trip again from the next appropriate port. Great value. QR J class on last years trip was amazing. Best I have flown

17 Sep 2015

Total posts 388

Excellent article, but the number of sectors (and this comment doesn't just apply to OneWorld, but *Alliance and SkyTeam as well) with first class as we know it (not the USA's) is pretty limited these days, so perhaps it's better just to book a J class RTW due to the large points required difference.


Also QF at times has a bad habit of making one fly on 3K as an 'alternative' even if searching for J reward availability on an Oz to Asia flight or vice versa.

Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer

18 May 2011

Total posts 231

Yup, I noticed that too 3K and Emirates often suggested.
To work around I sometimes had to replace the 3K leg with a 'positioning' leg on QF.
Also, in one case there was a 3K leg and then the following day was the next flight. Simply moving the itinerary forward one day got around the problem for me.
It's definitely fidgety and fiddly and the error messages at the end may as well be in Japanese.

24 Apr 2012

Total posts 2447

Jetstar Asia (3K) flights can't be combined with this ticket: all carriers must be Oneworld airlines, so choosing a Jetstar flight will 'break' the pricing, as such. (It'll still work, you'll just be charged a lot more points.)

15 Mar 2018

Total posts 93

We've done this several times now. Plan ahead and be flexible and it can be a wonderful trip. We did SYD - DFW - LGA - LHR - ROM - HKG - SYD over Christmas - NY on our last trip (2017-2018), with NYC for NYE. When we had trouble with flights, a quick call to the Platinum desk got flights freed up and all was fantastic. Working on the miles for the next RTW trip :)

We also did separate DFW - SFO - LAX and LHR - DUB - EDI - LHR as side trips and did the whole lot on J-Class tickets. Our airlines were Qantas, American, British Airways, and Cathay Pacific. There are OW support desks in LA, DFW, NY, LHR and HK if you have problems, and the support for J-Class travelers is great.

Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer

13 Jan 2017

Total posts 73

I have booked one of these for this year and you can go pretty much anywhereprovided you plan carefully.

Chris - A couple of things I’d like to challenge with your summary.

The fare has hard limit of a maximum of 16 sectors for the round the world journey. This includes the surface sector(s) in your itinerary.

The number of transits is not limited to "two" as in your article. The number of transits is limited by the number of sectors. (My RTW this year has 7 transits, 13 sectors and 5 stopovers in it.)

It is not correct to say all destinations on OneWorld partners are available to book on the Qantas website. However, they can be booked by calling the operator. (e.g. But one example – a large number of smaller airports in the USA in the AA network).

If you point out to the operator the destination is not available online then there will be no manual booking surcharge added.

To book trans pacific, look for alternative transits rather than direct flights with award seats which are very limited. e.g. Toyko, Hong Kong etc. While getting to your destination will take a bit longer, at least you are in Business Class and have access to excellent lounges along the way.

Be creative with routing and you will usually find seats on a flight to suit within a day or so of your timetable. The Qantas website will not present all the possible routings that have award seats on them to get you to your destination. Use the OneWorld site planning tool and it will give you all the possible routings. You can then plug these into the Qantas website as sectors and then the Qantas website will reveal the available seating.

(BTW: Just so people are aware Emirates, although a partner of Qantas, is not OneWorld, so are not eligible)


30 Aug 2013

Total posts 439

What were the total fees and surcharges for the example itinerary above?

11 Mar 2012

Total posts 315

To give you another data point we have the following (3xJ) OWA bookings later this year:


1. PER-JFK (via HKG CX)
2. JFK-FCO (via LGW BA)
3. FCO-PRG (via LHR BA)
4. CDG-SIN (via DIA QR)
5. SIN-PER (via HKG CX)

We booked 1. first, added 2-4 a few weeks later and 5 a few weeks after that. Total points came to 290k (280k + 2 x5k change fees) and $1700 per person.

15 Mar 2018

Total posts 93

smit0847, the total cost for the round world ticket flying out Christmas day was A$1.089. This covered all fees and taxes. Our non-RWT local trips were A$379 and A$489 and we used points to upgrade these from Y to J. The only risk doing them separate, is that if something goes wrong, you don't have quite as much protection, but you can build this into your travel plan.

The key flights were the RWT with OW. Everything else was flexible. Booking well in advance we got to go everywhere we wanted, on the flights we wanted and when we got to our destinations, we never queued and never rushed once.

We pre-booked Alcatraz, the Radio City Rockettes, spent NYE in Times Square and our NYC hotel (it hit -16 outside), the London Eye, Buckingham Palace, the Abbey Road Bealtle's Crossing, several Castles in Ireland, Edinburgh Castle, the Scotch Whisky Experience, the Edinburgh Dungeons and the Outlook Tower, Pompei, Amalfi Coast, and Venice. We took 6 weeks and had a great time. Just took a little planning.

This is, in my opinion, the most valuable use of QFF points, especially with the J redemption at 280k. I have done about 10 of these over the years.


You don’t have to actually to “round the world” with these fares. I often use them but bypass the Americas for EU trips. All you need is two other OneWorld carriers other than QF and you get the points cap. Pretty easy with great options like CX/IB/BA/AA. The next one is an EU trip out of QF to SIN, BA to LHR, land sectors then out of ZRH on CX back via HKG. Of course I can add a bunch of intra EU fights if I want to but the taxes sometimes exceed the train fare which can be more efficient.

20 May 2015

Total posts 5

I see that One World has a number of other multi-continent "Circle" fares including Circle Pacific, Circle Asia, Circle Atlantic, etc. Are the rules for these fares also "built into" the Qantas booking engine and could these OW fares also therefore be booked through the Qantas website using Qantas Points? For example there is a OW Circle Pacific fare which allows 4 stops and up the 22K miles. Could we book this through the Qantas website? If the selected 4 stop itinerary actually came in at less that 22K miles - say 16.5K miles - would we be charged Qantas points applicable to the actual mileage for the trip (ie 16.5K) or would we still have to pay for the standard 22K applicable to the 4 stop 22K max mileage Circle Pacific fare?

oxy
oxy

03 May 2017

Total posts 25

All the OW circle options are completely different using cash not points. Even the round the world option with cash has a completely different set of rules to when using points. If you don't want to travel as far, but still want to use points the same rules as per this article apply but the points will be lower. It's not much of a saving though, hence the strong focus on traveling up to 35,000 miles.

Qantas

07 Jun 2015

Total posts 6

Hi, does the place you end your journey count as a stopover or is it just all the places in between the start place and the end place that are considered stopovers? Thanks!

Qantas

07 Jun 2015

Total posts 6

Oops, I've just re-read the article. I can see now that they don't :)

Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer

18 May 2011

Total posts 231

Anyone had any problems with including Iberia in their itinerary?

When I used Iberia on any leg I'd get an error at the end of choosing all the flights, however, if I swapped the Iberian flights for with BA or AA or LAN then it would go through.

Also, I find it best NOT to use the 'Flexible with dates' option since it just adds an extra useless step to the process.

Chris' tip of finding flights one by one and then bringing it all together at the end is genius and I highly recommend following that approach or you'll go mad.

Etihad - Etihad Guest

04 Mar 2019

Total posts 2

Thanks for a clearly written, v informative article. :)

Etihad - Etihad Guest

07 Mar 2019

Total posts 3

I have an itinerary (or at least 90%) and enough points. Essentially want to leave from Sydney go via Tokyo, Sanfran, NY, London maybe another stop then Sydney. My issue is I want to travel over say 9-12 months everything says book at least a year in advance but my first flight is going to be almost a year before my last? How am I best booking it?

oxy
oxy

03 May 2017

Total posts 25

Book what you can when it is available. Call them up to add the extra flights, you will have to pay a change fee each time though, but probably worth it to get the flights you want.

Make sure you still meet all the conditions listed above, and it will automatically re price when complete.

Etihad - Etihad Guest

07 Mar 2019

Total posts 3

Thanks for your advice. Just to be sure if I use the multi city booking tool and just book my first 2-3 flights using points I can then ring up and add more flights? Have you done this? Sorry I don't mean to doubt but I am about to start booking and I just want to be sure. Or am I best booking all the legs then changing the dates for the last 3 flights as they become available (or is this not even possible?)

QFF

27 Jan 2016

Total posts 6

Josley - I've done both of the ways you ask about. One year I even commenced travel without my preferred date home, but it came up during the trip. As it was just a change of date and not carrier or route there was no reticketing required.

Etihad - Etihad Guest

04 Jul 2019

Total posts 1

Hello,

I am trying to book the itinerary below

The points total is coming in at
I thought this itenary according to this guide would have been 280,000 points. Can anyone let me know what I am doing wrong?

Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer

18 May 2011

Total posts 231

Points required might have increased after last month's changes to the Qantas Frequent Flyer program. One of the changes was an increase in the number of points needed for flying in premium cabins, however, there is likely to be a decrease $costs.
That would be my guess.

Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer

18 May 2011

Total posts 231

I just did a simulation - it is still 280,000 points.
I'll check your itinary now.
My guess is you've picked a leg with a non-One World airline

Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer

18 May 2011

Total posts 231

Hi Mullsey,

This is what you need to do:
1 - Your flight from Tokyo to London either has to leave from Narita instead of Haneda and go via Helsinki
OR
leave a day earlier from Haneda on BA.
Whatever you do avoid those Emirates flights.

2 - Your flight back from LAX has to be 2 days earlier to avoid flights via Shanghai on China Eastern.
3 - You might need to change your date from Chicago to LAX. Sometimes I get business, sometimes I get economy, often I get a mix (one leg business, one leg economy, but none longer than 3 hours).

Here is an itinerary that might work for you if you can change some flights by 1 or 2 days.



oxy
oxy

03 May 2017

Total posts 25

Those taxes and fines are insane! Is that Mostly thanks to BA and ADT at LHR?

Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer

18 May 2011

Total posts 231

I know hey!
The fees are almost as much as RTW economy for one person. However, its still a lot less than $16k if you pay in cash.
I'm not sure exactly what the breakdown of the fees were but I'm sure LHR took it's pound of flesh.

10 Jul 2018

Total posts 105

The pricing should still be 280,000 Qantas Points per person.

The new rates of 318,000 Qantas Points for the business class RTW itinerary doesn't apply until September 18.

Since your quote has blown out to 416,000 Qantas Points per person, it means you've broken one of the rules.

Check:

  • All flight sectors are in business class or lower
  • You have at least two other Oneworld airlines apart from Qantas
  • You don't have any non-Oneworld airlines such as Jetstar or Emirates
I did a quick search of your dates and flagged the following:
  • Tokyo to London on 19 March only has economy options for Oneworld (British Airways). Choosing the Emirates business class option would invalidate the booking.
  • Chicago to Los Angeles on 16 April is only showing some crazy routings on American Airlines economy.
  • Los Angeles to Brisbane on 30 April only has economy one-stop options for Oneworld (Qantas). Choosing the China Eastern business class option would invalidate the booking.
fxdxdy's reply above has alternate dates that would work, but I would double check that 'Chicago to Los Angeles' leg - I too am seeing the strange routing via Phoenix to Ontario even though we've both searched 'Los Angeles'.

Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer

18 May 2011

Total posts 231

It's truly strange. The Qantas booking engine works in truly mysterious ways.

There's no direct flight from ORD to LAX, at least not on that day.
Also, I'd do the search and see 5 flights between ORD and LAX and then 5 minutes later do the search again and see only 1 flight. It's weird how other flights you choose sometimes effect your options later down the track. I've had that problem when booking other flights on points.

But as I say, a single flight out of 12 or so in economy for only 3 hours is a small price to pay for an otherwise awesome luxury trip.

31 Mar 2014

Total posts 1

So just to clarify, if I book say 6 of a 8 sector award on line how do I add the further 2 sectors. Is it online or do I have to call Qantas?

oxy
oxy

03 May 2017

Total posts 25

You will need to speak with then on the phone, and pay the change fee as well.

11 Aug 2016

Total posts 1

Hi Chris, I am seeking to book 2 RTW Business flights and have used your methods above to try and book - even using your exact itinerary all to no avail. I have imputed various itineraries, countries and continents and every time I get “oops sorry something went wrong or there are no flights available”. I have used every month and numerous dates and followed your steps above to the T with no success at all. We have ample points - I don't even get to the stage of looking at the calendar for available reward bookings. Can you suggest a reason why or perhaps what I'm doing wrong. I have redeemed reward flights in the past however not a RTW booking.

Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer

18 May 2011

Total posts 231

You're right, there is a problem with the engine at the moment.
I am receiving a message that says 'too many redirects'.

Hopefully a boffin over there at Qantas notices and can look into it.

13 Sep 2019

Total posts 2

Oh Chris, I need help. i am trying to book a RTW trip for one, business class, for next July. The website is impossible to navigate and I am now on line with a bot I am sure its a cute little bot, but it is not much help. I want to go from Sydney to HK to Europe (any airport I have changed them hoping ...) then to Toronto Canada and finally SF, then home. I have put in dates for June July and August - the result Nada! I can get economy but I need a flat bed. I don't want to drink their bubbles or eat their food, just want to read a book and have a flat bed. Any thoughts?

24 Apr 2012

Total posts 2447

Hi there. We're unable to offer readers 1:1 advice, but can instead suggest you post your question in the Qantas section of the site's Community area, so that more people can see it and respond.

13 Sep 2019

Total posts 2

Hi Chris Thanks for your suggestion. However, I sat my long suffering husband down in front of the computer with a scotch and instructions not to get up until he had my flights done. Well, eventually a haggard looking man managed to get me on part of the trip. We had to decide what was more important and - that was Canada - so Europe and visiting the rellies was out I have to fly to LAX make my own way to Toronto and back again and then leave LAX on JAL to return to Sydney via Narita. At least I have it. I think my main frustration is that Qantas makes it soooo difficult to do. They really don't seem to want you to use the points but they do want your loyalty. I have used airpoints on AirNZ without any problems and their staff are charming to boot. I will somehow use the rest of my FF miles with Qantas and then choose other airlines in future. So disappointing as I was always quite proud of our Australian carrier. Thanks again as I appreciate your prompt response. Regards


Hi Guest, join in the discussion on Using Qantas Points to plan and book a round-the-world trip