Following Australia’s decision to reopen its borders after being closed for 19 months, Qantas passengers have spent four billion frequent flyer points in two weeks. Australia’s national flag carrier says its frequent flyers club members have spent enough points to take 15,000 business class flights to London and back in the past couple of weeks.
During the various lockdowns and the fact, they could not travel and use their frequent flyer miles to pay for tickets, Australians were busy accumulating points on credit cards that they could not use. Qantas says that the sudden binge in booking flights to international and domestic destinations accounts for over 175,000 seats on Qantas flights.
Restrictions still apply in some popular destinations
The most popular destinations that travel-hungry Australians are booking are flights to the United Kingdom, the United States, Fiji, and the Hawaiian Islands. Unfortunately for people wishing to travel to New Zealand, it still remains challenging due to COVID-19 travel restrictions. To stop infected travelers arriving in New Zealand, the government operates a restrictive policy that it calls “Managed Isolation and Quarantine (MIQ).” It means anyone arriving in New Zealand must undergo either managed isolation or quarantine for at least 14 days.
While Bali and Thailand have been historically popular destinations for Australians, the public remains hesitant to visit the nearby South Asian nations. Thailand will let fully vaccinated Australians into the country, but the government requires that they have travel insurance that covers costs associated with COVID-19. The coverage must meet the following requirements:
- Insurance cover up to THB 3.5 million ($100,000) that covers you for medical expenses due to injury or sickness, including COVID-19
- The medical insurance must be valid for your entire stay in Thailand
To visit Bali, Australians need an Insurance policy of at least $100,000 that covers COVID-19 and could be forced to undergo quarantine at their own expense if they are suspected of being infected.
Qantas is bringing the Airbus A380 back
Demand for flights to Los Angeles and London has been driven by the news that Qantas will be putting its Airbus A380s on the Sydney to Los Angeles route in March and then to London via Singapore in July. On the SYD to LAX route, Qantas is offering first class suits on the A380 for 168,000 points.
Back in 🇦🇺 for the first time in 593 days. pic.twitter.com/F8ArsRZXpr
— Qantas (@Qantas) November 9, 2021
Regarding domestic flights within Australia, most points were used to book flights between Brisbane-Melbourne-Sydney and some holiday flights to Queensland’s Gold Coast.
People are planning their long-awaited vacations
When speaking with travel website Executive Traveller about the surge of booking using frequent flyer points, Qantas Loyalty CEO Olivia Wirth said:
“With frequent flyers continuing to earn points on the ground throughout the pandemic, we know that many have been saving those points up for travel. After we released the additional seats, we’ve seen frequent flyers booking in record numbers.”
It is not surprising that after months of being unable to travel, people are planning vacations again.
Have you used your Qantas points to book a trip? If so, please tell us about it in the comments.
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