Qantas Rewards Trip to London in May 2023 - Is Points Deal Likely to Happen Again

Ldivljo76 on 22/01/2023 - 15:08
Last edited 22/01/2023 - 19:34 by 1 other user

Hi everyone, I would appreciate some advice for booking reward Qantas seats for a trip to London.

Girlfriend and I had a look and last week the reward seats were available for 55000 Qantas points and $250. This deal has disappeared since. Now we can see 66000 and $550 seats.

I guess my question is; does anybody know the likelihood of a 55000 points seats being offered again?

Any other suggestions how to fly mid May to London the cheapest? Anything constructive will be appreciated. Eurostar tickets, what to see in London. Rent or Lease car in France, what to see, where to eat cheap and so on.

Thanks

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  elgrande on 22/01/2023 - 15:29

  +3

  Anything constructive will be appreciate.

  That's me out.

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  Tech5 on 22/01/2023 - 15:32

  +5

  The closer you get to the date, the lower the chance any reward tickets will be available at all, let alone for a cheaper price.

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  [Deactivated] on 22/01/2023 - 15:52

  +1

  Why do you type out the $ after the number?

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  cashless on 22/01/2023 - 16:20

  +1

  No chance of plane seats getting cheaper as deadline approaches, they’ll only go up in price.
  You can buy Eurostar tickets now, online, provided you know your travel dates. Again, they increase in price as the dates nears.
  You don’t need OzBargain to tell you what to see in London, that is what Google is for.
  Driving in France? Are you hiring the car in France? If so, you can do that in advance, but read T’s & C’s (in English) if you do. Could be a lot of hidden traps if you don’t know what you’re doing. Remember they drive on the right over there😉
  Eating in France? Eat locally, the food is fantastic on the whole.

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  Drakesy on 22/01/2023 - 16:28

  Yeah, they've peaked.
  Take them while you can.

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  theoracle30 on 22/01/2023 - 16:47

  +4

  The 55,200 + $250 tickets would have been on Qantas metal, Economy to London.

  The 66,200 + $550 tickets are on partner airline metal (e.g. British Airways, Emirates, Qatar Airways, etc).

  It sounds like the Qantas metal reward seats have been booked out, so now you're just left with partner airlines.

  It's possible Qantas will release more Economy reward seats, but no one can say when that would be. You would be safer booking the partner airline award so at least that's locked in. If Qantas metal seats come up again, you can change for a fee of 5,000 pts per person, so you'd still be up by 5,000 points + around $300 in cash refunded per person after fees.

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  Stewardo on 22/01/2023 - 18:40

  +2

  You can fly to Paris in economy with Vietnam airlines in May for $1300, I wouldn’t bother with Qantas, they aren’t what they pretend to be.

  • 

    vodamerc on 22/01/2023 - 19:36

    Yep, I fly with anyone BUT Qantas to Europe. My only exception would be a price error J seat.

    • 

      Stewardo on 22/01/2023 - 19:40

      The “we are doing you a favour” attitude is the same in business class.

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  sumyungguy on 22/01/2023 - 23:12

  Suggest you try an alternative community: https://www.australianfrequentflyer.com.au/community/
  BTW, I'm seeing SYD/LHR return as 121,400 plus $995. Assume you know about the Qantas Oneworld Classic Flight Reward?

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  Will146 on 23/01/2023 - 08:33

  +3

  To be honest, any reward seats still left for May should be grabbed asap. I am surprised there are still any left. I am heading to London in May & booked reward seats with Singapore airlines 12 months out. Most of Singapore airlines reward seats have been waitlisted for months now due to the high demand. SQ have recently swapped there A380's from the Frankfurt route over to Sydney due to the huge demand out of Australia & most have high occupancy already for months.

  I find Qantas have huge fuel surcharges which I personally feel are not great value once this is factored in with reward flights.
  You will also find hotels have become very expensive in London / Europe & prices are going up fast, I was surprised at the huge increase from pre-Covid. I used my Qantas points to book hotel accommodation as found the redemption rate far better. You could also use your Qantas points to book European flights with British Airways which also have a good redemption rate, I think I used 7000 Qantas points + 10euros for a BA from London to Barcelona which I thought was great as the value is around 300 euros. I did see China Airlines had some good fares (Around $1800) for May a few weeks back although the Stopover in Taipei was 6hr!!

  I would also budget double the spending money for Europe compared to pre-Covid travel as the cost of everything has gone up in Europe :-(

  Sign up for Revolut as you can transfer money for free when the exchange rate is good & then just use your Revolut debit card in Europe with no surcharge or ATM fees.

  Don't forget to apply for a international driving license through the NRMA as no hire car company will let you collect a car without one. Driving in Europe is easy as you just follow the traffic flow. Just be careful at intersections as this is where the highest number of crashes happen due to people looking the wrong way & pulling out.

  Take out top travel insurance that covers hire car excess (usually up to $4000) This way you do not need to pay for the extra rip off insurance through the hire car company.