Want to make your Qantas frequent flyer points fly even further? Here's how you can use them to book a flight with Emirates and travel to scores of destinations via its Dubai hub.
If you're looking to travel with a dash of luxury you'll certainly appreciate the popular business class bar and the shower suites available to first class passengers.
Best of all, complimentary chauffeur transfers are still offered with every Emirates business class and first class booking made with points (except for purely trans-Tasman itineraries).
This is a major benefit which isn’t usually given on reward bookings with other airlines, and will certainly make your journey flow a lot smoother.
For Australian travellers, the main attraction of Emirates’ network will undoubtedly be its forty destinations in Europe – all of which can be reached through one stop in Dubai. These mostly eliminate the need to backtrack from a major hub such as London.
Connections through Dubai to the USA and Africa are also viable options from Australia, particularly if it’s hard to redeem points for more direct routes.
Closer to home, Emirates operates a number of what are called ‘fifth freedom’ flights – direct flights between Australia, New Zealand and Asia which don’t go through Dubai – and can be booked on their own as a one-way or return journey. These include:
- Sydney to Christchurch and Bangkok
- Melbourne and Brisbane to Singapore
- Auckland to Denpasar/Bali
This opens up the possibility of enjoying Emirates’ long-haul aircraft on routes usually served by smaller planes, such as those seen across the Tasman.
Booking Emirates flights with Qantas Points: key routes
Emirates flies from Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth to Dubai, before connecting to destinations in Europe, Africa, the USA and beyond.
If you don’t live in one of those five capital cities but are near an airport served by Qantas or QantasLink, you can usually add a connecting flight to one of those cities for no extra points and a minimal increase in taxes.
Here’s a map showing just a few examples of routes from Australia – you can check Emirates’ website for a full list of destinations.
Dubai’s location makes it an ideal transit point between Australia and Europe. Passengers from Adelaide or Perth may also find it easier to fly to New York with Emirates, rather than making two inconvenient stops through an Australian east coast city and then through another hub within the United States.
Booking Emirates flights using Qantas Points: how many points you’ll need
To start planning your next trip, here’s how many Qantas Points you’ll need to book one of Emirates’ direct flights between Australia, New Zealand and Asia. For a return journey, simply double these figures.
Route (one-way) |
First Class |
Business Class |
Economy Class |
Sydney ⟷ Christchurch |
54,000 Qantas Points |
36,000 Qantas Points |
18,000 Qantas Points |
Sydney ⟷ Bangkok Melbourne ⟷ Singapore Brisbane ⟷ Singapore |
90,000 Qantas Points |
60,000 Qantas Points |
28,000 Qantas Points |
Auckland ⟷ Denpasar |
90,000 Qantas Points |
60,000 Qantas Points |
28,000 Qantas Points |
If you’re just headed one-way to Dubai from Australia, this is what you’ll need.
Route (one-way) |
First Class |
Business Class |
Economy Class |
Sydney ⟷ Dubai Melbourne ⟷ Dubai Brisbane ⟷ Dubai |
144,000 Qantas Points |
96,000 Qantas Points |
45,000 Qantas Points |
Adelaide ⟷ Dubai |
126,000 Qantas Points |
84,000 Qantas Points |
40,000 Qantas Points |
Perth ⟷ Dubai |
108,000 Qantas Points |
72,000 Qantas Points |
35,000 Qantas Points |
If you’re connecting through Dubai and heading further afield, here’s how many points you’ll require on routes to London or New York. Emirates’ other European destinations will be priced the same or slightly cheaper, depending on the distance from Dubai.
Route (one-way) |
First Class |
Business Class |
Economy Class |
Australia (except Perth) ⟷ London Australia (all cities) ⟷ New York |
192,000 Qantas Points |
128,000 Qantas Points |
60,000 Qantas Points |
Perth ⟷ London |
168,000 Qantas Points |
112,000 Qantas Points |
55,000 Qantas Points |
The points required for Emirates flights are identical to the amounts required for equivalent Qantas flights, making it marginally better to book with Emirates rather than other Qantas partner airlines such as Cathay Pacific and Qatar Airways.
However, note that Emirates reward bookings attract high carrier charges, just like Qantas. Using Sydney to London as an example, Emirates’ carrier charges range from $287 in economy to $647 in first class for a one-way redemption.
Because it’s extremely difficult to get premium reward availability across the Pacific to the USA, Australia to New York on Emirates is a good option to keep in mind with plenty of business and first class availability through Dubai. It also doesn’t cost any more points than flying to London, although you’ll need to allow for up to seven more hours in the air.
How to book Emirates flights with Qantas Points
Here's a walkthrough for booking an Emirates flight using your Qantas frequent flyer points. This can be a bit tricky, as certain routes (such as Sydney-Dubai-New York) don’t show up by default – you’ll need to use a multi-city tool to find them.
Log into your Qantas Frequent Flyer account, enter your proposed flight details – in this example it's Melbourne to Singapore in first class – and ensure the ‘Use Points - Classic Flight Rewards only’ button is selected.
It also pays to be flexible when looking for reward seats, so check that box too if you have some leeway in your dates.
A calendar pops up where you can filter the search results down to first class seats only. Luckily, there's already availability on the date specified plus plenty of availability for the whole month.
In fact, there are first class seats available on both Qantas and Emirates for 90,000 points each. If you're working during the day you may find Emirates’ evening departure to be more convenient. Then it’s as simple as checking the flight details and taxes owing (in this case, $325.58), entering your passenger details and payment details… … and voilà, your booking is confirmed. You’ll notice in your Manage Booking page, Qantas will also issue you with another booking reference (PNR) to use on Emirates’ website to choose seating and make other requests.
However in practice, either airline booking reference will work fine on Emirates’ website. Because Qantas and Emirates reward flights are priced identically in points, you can seamlessly add domestic connections to your itinerary and access an Emirates flight from any Australian airport served by Qantas, all on the one booking. This can be particularly useful for regional travellers who use Qantas or QantasLink to connect to major cities, often at hefty prices. It’s not looking good as the calendar reveals there is not a single business or first class seat available on that route for the whole month. Closer examination reveals that there are no Emirates options at all, as the system is trying to route me eastwards with Qantas, American Airlines and Jetstar in economy. But I know QantasLink flies to Melbourne, and from there Emirates should have some availability around those dates, so it's time to bring the multi-city tool into play. Enter each individual flight segment and the dates required. Ensure Classic Flight Rewards is selected again. Then go through and select each individual flight, depending on what’s available. Launceston to Melbourne is operated by a Dash-8 which only has Economy... ... but from Melbourne, there's an Emirates flight with First Class seats available for Qantas Points (this is on the EK405 Airbus A380 service which travels via Singapore)...
... as does the onwards Emirates flight (another A380) from Dubai to New York.
Once selected, the pricing is confirmed at 192,000 Qantas Points for all three flights from Launceston - the same cost as if I had started my journey from Melbourne, and essentially giving the QantasLink flight for free. Almost any Emirates route can be booked using your Qantas Points through one of these two methods, and with such a wide network available, it’s easy to see how those Qantas Points can get you to any corner of the globe.Booking Emirates flights with Qantas Points: making multi-city bookings
The multi-city tool lets you find and choose flight combinations that might not be automatically presented when you search initially. In this example, the search is on for first class availability on Emirates from Launceston to New York.
05 May 2016
Total posts 601
Just be aware that Emirates is not a OneWorld airline so it can’t be included in a OneWorld Round The World award.
Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer
10 May 2017
Total posts 87
I find it strange that occasionally award availability shows a follows: say I have searched MEL - AMS (for example) in F
Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer
25 Sep 2013
Total posts 1244
Might be married segment logic at work. Best to then do a multi-city search.
Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer
25 Sep 2013
Total posts 1244
"Best of all, complimentary chauffeur transfers are still offered with every Emirates business class and first class booking made with points (except for purely trans-Tasman itineraries)."
05 May 2016
Total posts 601
I suspect most QF members flying to HKG would choose to take a direct QF flight unless they're visiting Europe/Middle East on the same trip.
Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer
25 Sep 2013
Total posts 1244
There are QF members who are based in Hong Kong or Bangkok that could be booking these EK flights to/from their home city.
20 Jan 2017
Total posts 42
I was about 20 minutes away from hassling the 'community' about this very scenario so thanks very much for the above.
10 Jul 2018
Total posts 118
The Qantas calendar tool would be useful for this, selecting 'Flexible with dates'.
Using the month view, I can see 2x business class seats SYD-DXB on June 9 and June 11 (19:20 departure via Bangkok), and June 10 (06:00 non-stop flight).
But there's currently nothing else for the rest of the month, which may be due to various reasons including school holidays/peak season travel, haven't been released yet, or snapped up by Skywards members first.
QFF
19 Sep 2013
Total posts 165
Although you can't use an Emirates flight within a OW RTW, you can "tack it on" to a partly-completed RTW itinerary to complete the RTW, often with not that many more points. Where a J RTW was capped at 280k points, using Emirates for the final leg back home only cost us a total of 300k points.
24 Apr 2014
Total posts 273
I find it frustrating that Qantas points can’t be used for seat selection on QF marketed flights where the metal is EK
Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer
10 May 2017
Total posts 87
I think you can
24 Apr 2014
Total posts 273
I've never succeeded, let me know if you find out how.
01 Mar 2017
Total posts 1
doing this very thing in 7 weeks time... BNE-PER-DXB-ZRH in J with limo service, was easy enough to book. return is Etihad using Velocity points. Cheaper co-payment with Etihad/VA.
Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer
31 Jan 2014
Total posts 14
I recently flew Emirates Melbourne to Amsterdam in 1st - I was the only passenger in 1st on the Melbourne to Dubai leg - what a treat!!!
Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer
31 Jan 2014
Total posts 14
...using my QF points 😊 Returned from Manchester - no problem with availability, couldn’t find seats into/out of Heathrow or Gatwick
Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer
16 Mar 2016
Total posts 39
I managed a one-way multi city business class booking OOL/SYD/BKK on 01 MAY 2018 staying in Bangkok a few days and then BKK/DXB/CDG all on Emirates except the OOL/SYD, got limos in BKK and CDG and an overnight connect at the Le Meridien in DXB. Coming back n about 10 days AMS/DXB/SYD/OOL. The multi city took is great for getting availability but each time and I had the same problem last year is that when you go to finalize and pay the fees it errors as the mutli city tool expects you to stay more than 24 hours at each city but a call to the Qantas call centre always manage to book it without any fee.
Qantas
15 Jul 2015
Total posts 3
11 Oct 2017
Total posts 9
I have tried for two years to use my Qantas points to travel from Adelaide to Dubai and have been told (repeatedly) that this is not possible so I have had to travel via Melbourne. I have yet to fully digest the article and replies, so hopefully there has been some change.
QFF
19 Sep 2013
Total posts 165
For lind26: I was able to select our EK seats after booking using Qantas points. Forgotten how, but I think I accessed the EK website for the seats. IIRC, the flight booking had both a QF and EK flight numbers.
24 Apr 2014
Total posts 273
Did you book through Qantas, Emirates or a travel agent? I booked through Amex, with QF numbers on all 4 flights. 2 flights are QF metal, 2 flights are EK metal. Qantas website won't allow me to select seats on EK metal using Qantas points. EK website won't allow me to select seats on EK metal using QF points.
Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer
28 Sep 2011
Total posts 7
when does EK release their FF seats, how far ahead of the flight date?
04 Oct 2018
Total posts 2
How far ahead are the melb-Dubai-Rome seats put up for sale? Im looking for Sept 19 and comes up blank. Also, will i have more success booking a Mleb-Dubai for business reward and then Dubai - Rome., the shorter leg, in economy?
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