In this beginner’s guide, we look at five of the most frequent flyer programs for travellers in Australia, and how to save time by searching for award seats across multiple dates at the same time.
For more information on which website to use for specific airlines and frequent flyer programs, check out our comprehensive guide on how to search for frequent flyer award space.
Why to search by flexible dates
It’s pretty obvious, right?
Given you have flexibility in the date you can fly on—which, admittedly, is not always the case—and the fact that the availability of award seats fluctuates according to the time and day of the flight, you can save time by choosing the right website for your search and clicking the right buttons.
Qantas Frequent Flyer
When searching for a flight on Qantas, first you must login to your account, then select Use points – Classic Flight Awards only:
Click on the date selector and tick Flexible with dates:
You should be able to see results in monthly view:
Alternatives: use British Airways Executive Club, Asia Miles, AAdvantage or Japan Airlines Mileage Bank for oneworld partners; use Emirates Skywards to search for Emirates flights.
Velocity Frequent Flyer
When you search for a flight, you do not have the option of flexible date search:
However, although the results will not show for the surrounding dates, you can easily toggle between days:
Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer
KrisFlyer does not provide a flexible date search option:
However, you can scroll down to the bottom of the results to navigate to the day before and after:
Alternatives: use United MileagePlus or ANA Mileage Club for Star Alliance flights (note that KrisFlyer also now displays Star Alliance availability but it is day-by-day)
Cathay Pacific Asia Miles
Asia Miles provides the best overview of search results of the five programs in this guide. You can opt for fixed or flexible dates:
with results showing for three days each side of your selected date:
and it is easy to jump forward by week using the Change dates button:
Etihad Guest
This program has the second-best flexible dates interface of the programs listed here. Again, you do not need to/cannot click a flexible date search option:
but the handy weekly tabs will show you if availability is open, denoted by the miles required:
Alternatives: as Etihad Guest only shows availability for Etihad-operated flights, use Velocity for Virgin Australia flights and AAdvantage for American Airlines flights
Other tools
Independent aggregators like Award Nexus and ExpertFlyer offer a more complete overview of search results by month or week, respectively, but do charge a price for their services. If you tend to travel frequently and/or are time-poor, investing in a membership may be worth it to you.
HELP – VA Velocity
I want to upgrade for my honeymoon from MEL > LAX with Veigin in April. ( Yes have booked Freedom fares and am a Platinum member)
There are no business rewards seats available or my dates or any dates near it, however there are still regular priced seats for sale, so I know there are business seats still available.
I thought maybe April was too soon for rewards seats, so I’ve tested out future dates but there are no business rewards there either.
Does anyone when or if they will release more award seats , or what Virgin’s regular strategy is for rewards.
Any advice would be appreciated!! Thanks
*Virgin Australia
I would suggest copying this into the Questions section of the website.
Still not getting the monthly view. Does it come up as soon as you tick the flexible with dates button?
Great article – however qantas made a change recently – I used to be able to search London – Sydney in business and first and it showed all options now it just shows economy and premium only and to find first and business i need to do a multi city search eg / London to Singapore / Hong Kong / Bangkok then to Sydney 🙁
Please explain why Qantas fees and taxes Gar out way any other airline?
Surely this is a tort and should be exposed for what it is .
It’s still there. It’s moved to the top of the calendar.
When on the qantas “Search for fights” screen click the calendar in the “Depart” box, on the left hand side of the calendar there is a little box “Flexible with dates”. Hope it helps.
There is a check box up the top right hand corner of the date selection box “Flexible with dates” when I select this it returns available flights for a month/30 days or so around the date I selected.
Am I missing something ?
“Qantas used to show results over a whole month, however, it seems that that feature has been disabled.”
It’s still available. Just for some odd reason they moved it to inside the date selector.
Now, when you click on the depart date to select it, and the calendar display opens up to select the date, at the top of the calendar display it shows “Flexible with dates”.
Tick that and you get the same monthly view as before.
Correct! Was just about to reply with the same advice 🙂
Thanks Manfred, we’ve updated the guide!
There is a way around the Qantas site to look for flexible dates. When you in he Searching for flights screen, you need to click the calendar once the calendar pops up, on the left hand side there is a little box “Flexible with Dates”
I had trouble with it the other night and thought it was removed. It found the toggle switch in the top left corner of the pop up calendar when selecting dates. Easy to miss!
Hi Matt,
On Qantas’ new search format, the ‘flexible date’ option is now located within the outbound date dropdown box once you click into the date field.
Cheers,
Jack
Hi Team, Qantas haven’t removed this option, I’ve emailed your [email protected] email address with more info.
Hi. Re Qantas FF flexible date selection: Hit the calendar to select the departure date and tick the “Flexible with Dates” box. Seems to work fine. Cheers, Daniel
Hi Matt,
From what I can see that Qantas has not removed this functionality but just moved its location – when you click on the date and the monthly calendar opens the check box for flexible dates contained within the calendar.
S
The calendar view still works for dates in December but couldn’t get it to show in the new year.
re: Qantas removes option to search by flexible dates
Hi Matt,
I though that too but after a bit more searching the option has been moved. Send me your e-mail address and I’ll send you the screenshots.
Hey gang. I had a nightmare figuring this out the last few days. It is hidden in the dates box
https://i.imgur.com/iQPY0IA.png
I also found that if you search using the “Use money points or both” option, then when you get the results, you have to click the “View classic rewards” checkbox and then “Select another date” and it does show up with a new dates option at the top. So stupidly complicated!
https://i.imgur.com/LXOq5jq.png
You guys have been a great resource so hoping this can pay you back for how you have helped me!
I had trouble with it the other night but ended up finding the toggle for flexible dates in the actual calendar pop up when selecting dates before clicking search flights.
I just looked on the Qantas Website and I was able to search by Flexible dates. Just click in the date field… and in there is a checkbox – Flexible with dates.