Qantas Classic Plus rewards go live on domestic flights

Qantas is unlocking more points-based seats for frequent flyers across Australia with the roll-out of its Classic Plus rewards platform on domestic flights.

Bookings can now be made for travel from Monday 16 December, 2024.

The airline says Classic Plus boosts the effective value of Qantas Points by making more seats available to frequent flyers compared to scarce Classic reward seats, citing “access to over 20 million new reward seats across the rolling 12-month booking period.”

As a quick recap, while Classic and Classic Plus rewards both let you exchange Qantas Points for a seat, the rates for Classic rewards are fixed and restricted to a relatively small number of seats in each cabin on any flight.

The number of points needed for a Classic Plus reward are instead tied to the cash price of the airfare, at a rate of roughly 1 Qantas Point per 1c in economy and 1.25c in business class (and on selected east-west 787 flights, premium economy).

By default this makes Classic Plus rewards more expensive – often substantially so – than a Classic reward seat, especially during periods of high demand.

However, it also means the points ‘price’ of a Classic Plus seat is lowest around off-peak periods – and actually drops during sales, so at times a Classic Plus seat will require fewer points than a conventional Classic reward seat on the same route.

The Qantas website clearly flags the availability of Classic and Classic Plus seats during flight searches, and a quick check of Sydney-Brisbane flights in mid-January 2024 showed Classic seats in the mornings and evenings with Classic Plus across the rest of the day.

Here’s how the Classic and Classic Plus points rates compare on the Sydney-Brisbane route.

Classic rewards are fixed at 8,000 points one-way in economy and 18,400 points in business (plus a modest payment for taxes, fees & surcharges).

But there’s only a relatively small number of seats on any flight set aside to buy at the low Classic rewards rates, and once those seats are gone they’re gone.

Classic Plus rewards tap into a much larger pool of seats, but the number of points needed is calculated against the cash price of the airfare.

Our Sydney-Brisbane snapshot saw one-way economy fares of $229 equivalent to a Classic Plus reward of 17,300 points, while flights with a $269 economy fare saw the Classic Plus option set at 21,300 points (both with a $57 payment for taxes, fees & surcharges).

$1,035 business class seats on the same flights could be had at a Classic Plus rate of 76,400 points (and an additional $80 in taxes, fees & surcharges).

There’s actually any easy way to estimate the Classic Plus equivalent of any cash domestic fare, given that Qantas sets the Classic Plus rates at around 1 point per 1c in economy and 1.5c for premium economy or business class.

If you look at the $269 economy fare for the 9.30am QF510 flight in the first screenshot, and subtract the $57 fee (listed iin the second screenshot) you end up with $212.

Converting that to points at a rate of 1 point per 1c, that comes out at 21,200 points – which is close to the published Classic Plus rate of 21,300 points.

Taking advantage of Qantas Classic Plus rewards

Qantas says that while Classic Plus bookings will usually require more points than the existing Classic reward seats, “Classic Plus represent some of the best value across the frequent flyer program” because it makes more seats available to book using points.

“The roll-out of Classic Plus to Qantas domestic and regional destinations will make points even easier to use, especially during peak travel periods when reward seats are often harder to find,” says Qantas Loyalty CEO Andrew Glance.

Classic Plus fares are available only on Qantas-operated flights, not codeshare or partner airline flights – and are upgradable to business class.

Fare conditions are also more flexible; you could book an economy reward flight on one leg and business class on the other, which is not possible on Classic Rewards.

Qantas Points Club members can also earn status credits on Classic Plus flights, just as they do on Classic Rewards.

Classic Plus vs Points Plus Pay

The Classic Plus and Points Plus Pay options are similar in that they match the number of points to the cash value of an airfare.

However, Points Plus Pay converts Qantas Points to a cash value at the payment stage of the booking process and allows you to pay for some or all of your fare using a sliding scale (though generally at an unfavourable rate of 0.6 cents per Qantas Point). 

Classic Plus adopts a fixed points-per-dollar ‘exchange rate’, and it’s a much better rate too: generally less than half as many points as a Points Plus Pay fare combo.