Interested in some thoughts as to how best use 100,000 Qantas points. Both me and my wife have 100,000 points each. Neither of us have status at the moment - I might reach silver within the next 12 months.
In May/June 2018 we’d like to go to Europe, with a possible stop over in either Hong Kong or Dubai.
Do we:
Use our points to book as much as we can in economy and save a couple of thousand dollars?
Pay for an economy fare, and use points for an upgrade? If we do choose this option, are only certain types of fares upgradable? And how hard is it to get an upgrade?
Not sure what kind of prices we are looking at for fares this far out - also wondering whether the difference between a sale economy fare and a normal economy fare is worth paying for the ability to then be able to bid for an upgrade.
You cannot use sale economy fares for upgrades. however, you can use sale premium economy fares.
Qantas points can only be used to upgrade Qantas operated flights. so if you are flying via Hong Kong, Qantas doesn’t operate from HK to Europe. Also you cannot upgrade on Emirates flights even on a QF number
As for chances of upgrades, it’s a lottery, but if you have bronze status only your chances are much lower. your best chance of upgrades are in off peak season. so be prepared to fly in your original class if you are hoping for an upgrade.
My personal preference is to redeem business or first class to maximise point worth and to avoid the upgrade lottery.
Everyone’s preference and priorities are different so there is no right or wrong. Last thing you want to do is hold yourself back from travelling. Here, we generally advocate how to optimise point usage to either:
reduce the out of pocket costs
travel better or in more comfort
so that you would enjoy the travelling experience more and hence travel more.