Using Qantas points to book non-stop flights to London

One morning in February next year, Qantas will flick a switch on its website and begin selling tickets for non-stop ‘Project Sunrise’ flights between Sydney and London, ahead of flights taking off in late October.

Leading the click-frenzy will be a legion of eager frequent flyers, hoping to trade their Qantas Points for seats at the airline’s lowest Classic Reward rates.

The private business class suites will be on their hit-list, but the Holy Grail will be snaring one of the six first class ‘roomettes’ at the pointy end of the ultra-long range Airbus A350 jet.

Eyes on the prize: a Qantas A350 first class suite at Classic Reward rates?

Qantas Group CEO Vanessa Hudson promises there will be Classic Reward seats, “even in first class” – just don’t expect to find them on every flight, even from day one, when bookings will actually be open almost a year in advance, through to January 2028.

The same goes for business class – seats will appear under the Classic Rewards flag, but “that doesn’t mean we’re going to flood the market with them,” Hudson remarked on the sidelines of last week’s Project Sunrise announcements in Toulouse.

“When we launch a schedule, that schedule is selling for 12 months in advance… so yes, absolutely there will be frequent flyer seats on Project Sunrise.”

“Some commentators had an assumption that because this would be our flagship premium product, we would cut off access to all frequent flyer redemptions,” Hudson noted, saying this would certainly not be the case.

“We’ve got to be surgical and make sure there are opportunities there… because it’s going to be such an aspirational aircraft that our frequent flyers will want to use their points (on it), so we want to make sure our members are getting those aspirational rewards.”

How many points for a Project Sunrise flight?

There won’t be any ‘Project Sunrise premium’ applied to Classic Reward redemptions on these marathon flights, which will fall within the same distance range as Qantas’ current flights from Sydney to London via Perth or Singapore.

So if you’re keen to use points to book a berth on a Project Sunrise flight, here’s what you’ll be looking at for a one-way trip at Classic Reward rates:

• first class: 227,800 points
• business class: 151,800 points
• premium economy: 113,900 points
• economy: 58,900 points

Qantas won't be applying a points premium on Classic Reward rates for Project Sunrise.

Also read: Qantas A350 gets Economy Plus, and ‘economy minus’

Of course, there’ll also be seats available at substantially higher Classic Plus rates, which unlike the fixed-rate Classic Rewards are tied to the going cash price in any given class.

This makes significantly more seats available, but for significantly more points.

As a benchmark, expect to pay upwards of 850,000 points for a one-way Qantas Sydney-London A350 flight in first class.

(Ttry not to think too hard about that, because it breaks down to a ‘burn rate’ of almost 40,000 points per hour, so just make the most of the experience!)

However, before the A350 embarks on that globe-striding route, it will also be doing familiarisation flights from Sydney to Melbourne, Auckland and Los Angeles.

The first Qantas A350 will spend some time flying from Sydney to Melbourne, Auckland and LAX.

These flights are also expected to see a release of standard Classic Reward seats, with Qantas also considering a special Points Plane flight where every single seat is available using Qantas Points, and at low Classic Reward rates.

“We’re considering some proposals on those,” Qantas International CEO Cam Wallace told Executive Traveller.

“We haven’t confirmed anything, but that’s one of the options that we have. The Points Planes have gone really, really well.”

At the same time, many people will be happy to pay regular fares for their chance to fly on a scheduled A350 service.

“I’d say there will be some individuals tracking the aircraft, so I think there will be a willingness to pay on that sector as well. So we’ve just got to balance those two things up.”

Also read: Qantas A350 early flights: Sydney-Melbourne, Auckland, LAX

David Flynn travelled to Toulouse as a guest of Qantas and Airbus.