Wednesday, January 31, 2024
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When does Qantas release reward seats? [2024]

When it comes to booking Qantas reward seats, knowing a few tricks of the trade can give you a huge advantage.

That’s truer than ever in 2024, with so many Aussies collecting Qantas Points and wanting to use them to travel overseas.

To give our readers an edge with finding the optimal seats, here are some tips you need to know.

Love Qantas Points? Don’t miss the rare offer of 100,000 bonus points and a $450 travel credit with our favourite Qantas card, the Qantas Amex Ultimate Card!

Qantas domestic and short-haul international 

Qantas is reliably releasing economy and business class reward seats on domestic routes at 353 days out from departure.

These seats are available to all frequent flyer members regardless of status.

Once they’re snapped up though, Qantas rarely releases any additional seats, except in occasional ‘batches’ – but that occurs sporadically at best.

So, book your reward seats as soon as you know your travel plans otherwise you risk missing out.

This also applies to some short-haul international destinations (e.g. New Zealand).

Qantas long-haul international

Getting reward seats on long-haul flights is the goal of most travellers.

Qantas used to automatically release seats from 353 days out from departure, but that is no longer the case on most international routes. The exception in 2024 appears to be certain flights to the USA (eg Los Angeles) and Asia – but definitely not New York, London, Paris or Rome.

At 353 days out, those seats are only accessible by Gold frequent flyers and above. If any seats aren’t snapped up by these elite frequent flyers, they can be booked by Silver members at 323 days out, and Bronze members at 297 days out.

For most Qantas international flights, though, by far the best way to book reward seats is via batch releases.

In 2023, Qantas on several occasions made thousands of seats available to all frequent flyers, like in February and October.

This was the best way to book seats in 2023, and is likely to continue in 2024.

Usually, these batch releases are not announced ahead of time, which makes it hard to plan. So your best bet is to monitor availability closely and be ready to book (we always alert our readers via email – sign up at the end of this article!).

Partner airlines

Qantas doesn’t control how partner airlines release reward seats. Those airlines are responsible for the timing and quantity of seats released, and their methods vary.

When they are released, they are available to all Qantas frequent flyers. Status doesn’t matter.

Other things to know

Qantas seats are released at exactly midnight GMT, which is 8 am in Perth and 10 am in the east (or 11 am during daylight savings).

When searching for international seats, we recommend using the multi-city tool on Qantas’ website, even if you’re only looking at one route. The advantage is that it gives you results in a handy monthly calendar view, unlike the default search tool on Qantas’ homepage. Just make sure to select “Use points – Classic Flight Rewards only” and “Flexible with dates for all flights”.

When there’s a big release of seats, we always let our readers know. If you’d like to be informed, subscribe to our weekly newsletter below.

Love Qantas Points? Don’t miss the rare offer of 100,000 bonus points and a $450 travel credit with our favourite Qantas card, the Qantas Amex Ultimate Card!

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10 COMMENTS

  1. I keep looking for reward seats for Santiago or Buenos Aires for end of 2024 and there is nothing. Do they not release reward seats during the high season/Xmas/school holidays?
    20 Dec to 10 Jan – zero seats 🙁 I checked 353 days prior, and have been checking ever since but still nothing.
    any suggestions or tips?

    • Hi Lucy, yes, airlines (incl Qantas) often won’t release any seats during Xmas and school holidays. With Qantas, you may need gold status or above to see seats 353 days out on this route.

  2. I was happy to read, “Bronze members at 297 days out.”
    I want to travel from St. Louis, United States, to Sydney on reward seats in February 2025. If I were to travel February 2024, a one-way flight is 51,000 points (+$100), yet if I go in December 2024 (the farthest the Qantas site shows), the cheapest is 300,000 points. I was worried that Qantas may have permanently raised their reward rates and my 300,000 price would continue into February 2025. But now that I read in your informative article, “Bronze members at 297 days out,” that makes me wonder if I check the rewards price within 297 days of February 2025, will the rewards price likely be close to 51,000? Or is my guess all wrong?
    I’m a bronze member.
    I just signed up for your e-mail list.

    • Hi Jill, the 300,000 points pricing isn’t a reward seat – it’s using points in lieu of money to pay for a regular cash fare (Qantas calls this “Points plus pay”). Also, Qantas doesn’t fly to St Louis, which means you’ll need to use one of its partners like American Airlines for the first leg of your trip. That means both Qantas and the partner airline need to make the relevant seats available. Just keep checking regularly. Good luck!

  3. Hi Kris. Looking for 2 reward seats London return in premium economy (should have enough points) for Sept 2024 (flexible with dates) so sounds like I must do a daily check from the start of Feb onwards and hope for a flight to become available. Thanks for the info.

  4. OK. Bad news! But what else could we expect from Qantas! I managed to cash in my voucher from 2020 for a quick trip to Melbourne a fortnight ago – but I suspect only because I’d booked through Amex Travel who got me flights with ease. However, I had to pay an extra $200 of course. So when is a voucher not a voucher?! Also I had booked a return flight myself with points in Business on the Dreamliner Perth-London direct in 2020 which I had to cancel. I did get all my points and taxes costs back but now it looks like I’ll never get that flight again and I plan to go next year. It was to be my first Dreamliner flight at 77 years of age. I have a feeling I’ll be using points to fly Emirates as per usual – if they are still a partner! Do I feel loyalty to Qantas? Not any more. No one has a good word to say about them. Maybe a new CEO will help. 🤞🤞🤞

  5. Does Qantas tend to release last-minute long-haul premium awards for seats that don’t end up selling, like Lufthansa and Cathay often do?

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