Frequent Miler's latest team challenge, Million Mile Madness, is almost done! The last two weeks Greg, Nick, and Stephen competed to earn 1 Million SAS miles by flying 15 airlines. But who completed the challenge with the most Speed, Affordability, and Style?
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Capital One is currently offering a 20% transfer bonus when you transfer Capital One miles to Qantas Frequent Flyer (as an aside, I get a kick out of that fact that transferring from a bank to an airline program in this case means converting “miles” to “points”).
Like many transfer bonuses, this isn’t worth speculating on. However, Qantas does have a few sweet spots worth looking at, and if you find availability for one, this will make it all the more tasty.
The Deal
- Capital One is offering a 20% transfer bonus to Qantas Frequent Flyer until August 31st, 2024.
Quick Thoughts
The Qantas award chart is distance-based. Miles required are calculated based on the cumulative distance of your trip, whether one-way or round-trip – a refreshing change from some oneworld programs. This means that there is generally an advantage to booking round trip since additional segments will not be priced individually but rather as part of the cumulative distance.
Note that Qantas maintains several different award charts, depending on the airline that you’re flying. Here’s a link to the whole enchilada.
Qantas Frequent Flyer Sweet Spots
- East Coast to Israel on El Al in business for 90,000 points: Qantas offers good partner pricing for El Al flights to Israel with no fuel surcharges. It's 90K points in business class on El Al between Tel Aviv and Boston, Newark, and New York JFK, 104.5K points in business between Tel Aviv and Miami and 119.2K points in business between Tel Aviv and Los Angeles. With a transfer bonus, these rates can get even better.
- Short flights on American Airlines: Qantas offers better pricing than traditional American Airlines award prices on itineraries with a distance of 1200 miles or fewer each way and has no close-in booking fee. This could be especially good for those who need to connect on short itineraries as Qantas measures cumulative distance rather than pricing segments separately. It's 8,000 miles for itineraries covering a distance up to 600 miles or 12,000 miles for itineraries covering a distance up to 1200 miles.
- American Airlines business class to Western Europe: Qantas charges 57,000 for American Airlines business class awards with a distance of 2401-3600 miles each way. This includes the Northeast US to much of Western Europe.
Things to Know
- How to find awards: Search for available space at Qantas.com (you’ll need to create a free Qantas Frequent Flyer account)
- How to book awards: Book online at Qantas.com.
- Key warnings: Avios might be a better value if you have direct flights if you have access to points which transfer to Avios. However, for flights with connections, Qantas can be a better deal.
- Transfer from: Amex, Citi, Capital One, Marriott
Current Transfer Bonuses
| Transfer From | Transfer Bonus Details | End Date |
|---|---|---|
| Amex Membership Rewards | 15% transfer bonus from Amex Membership Rewards to Avianca LifeMiles | 12/31/24 |
| Capital One Miles | 20% transfer bonus from Capital One Miles to British Airways Avios | 12/01/24 |
| Chase Ultimate Rewards | 40% transfer bonus from Chase Ultimate Rewards to Virgin Atlantic Flying Club | 11/30/24 |
| Amex Membership Rewards | 35% transfer bonus from Amex Membership Rewards to Marriott Bonvoy | 11/30/24 |
| Amex Membership Rewards | 15% transfer bonus from Amex Membership Rewards to Cathay Pacific Asia Miles | 11/30/24 |
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Is Qantas now a lot better, since the Qatar devaluation? Does this mean that Qantas and Alaska are now the two best OneWorld programs? Is it now enough better that it’s worth speculating (like with Hawaiian/Alaska)? Or is not marginally good enough to warrant speculation like the current Hawaiian bonus?
Does this actually work out to be a 20 percent bonus to all Avois airlines since you can transfer them?
Unfortunately no, Qantas isn’t a part of Avios. There is a 30% transfer bonus to BA, Iberia and Aer Lingus Avios that’s currently happening via Amex, though.
Sorry, my bad. I mixed up Qantas with Qatar. Too similar for my simple mind.
You mention the benefit of round-trip mileage for awards. Any chance you could cite a couple of examples where this would be worthwhile?
Pretty much any itinerary where there’s a connection. If you fly from Houston to Chicago via Charlotte, the award will be priced based on the distance between Houston to Chicago, not the sum of the separate segments or the price of the separate segments individually (like Avios does).
Ohhh. I missed the part about connections not counting. Knew I should’ve had coffee this morning.