Frequent flyers splurge 4 billion points in two weeks as borders reopen

The reopening of international borders has sparked a rush of frequent flyer redemptions, with four billion points used in a fortnight.

A Qantas 787 taking off from Sydney Airport as the airline gets back into the swing of regular international travel. Picture: Getty Images

After more than a year of stockpiling points, Qantas frequent flyers have gone on a spending spree, blowing 4 billion points on over 175,000 airline seats in under two weeks.

The massive redemption blitz included the largest number of points ever used on classic reward seats in a single day, with more than half a billion outlaid.

International destinations were in the highest demand, in particular flights to Los Angeles, London, Fiji and Honolulu.

Domestic routes including Melbourne-Sydney, Brisbane-Sydney, Brisbane-Melbourne and Melbourne-Gold Coast were also popular for flights over the coming months.

Reward seats remained available across domestic services, and to international destinations including London, LA, Vancouver, Fiji, Singapore and Tokyo.

“Points planes”, in which every seat in every cabin was available to book using points, also had availability, including the first three return flights from Sydney to Delhi, Singapore, Fiji, Bangkok and Johannesburg.

Qantas Loyalty chief executive Olivia Wirth said it was clear many frequent flyers had been waiting for international travel to restart to use points saved up throughout the pandemic.

“We’ve seen frequent flyers booking in record numbers,” Ms Wirth said.

Qantas has tried a number of initiatives to help frequent flyers use their points during the extended suspension of international services, from an auction of one-off items or experiences, to the offer of luxury items to points millionaires.

Flight Centre was also seeing a continued climb in demand for international trips, dominated by Fiji, which accounted for half of all inquiries.

Indonesia was next on 18 per cent, then the US (17 per cent) and Thailand (9 per cent) as 61 per cent more bookings were taken compared to the previous week.

As well as the international border reopening, New South Wales and Victoria also reopened to one another on Monday, clearing the way for Australia’s busiest air route – Melbourne-Sydney to roar back to life.

To mark the occasion, Virgin Australia lifted the curtain on its refurbished Melbourne lounge.

As the largest in the Virgin Australia network, the lounge can seat 500 passengers in line with Covid capacity requirements.

The extra room is expected to be needed quickly with demand for Melbourne-Sydney flights leaping 500 per cent since the Victorian government road map was released.

Virgin Australia has opened a new look lounge in Melbourne to mark the restart of Australia's busiest domestic route – Melbourne-Sydney.

Virgin Australia group chief customer and digital officer Paul Jones said travellers could expect to see more “Virgin flair” in the lounge through signage, seating areas, bathrooms and the general aesthetics.

“Since the government announced the easing of state border restrictions, we have seen a surge in bookings for the holiday season, which is great news and demonstrates the pent-up demand we’ll experience from now and throughout the summer holiday period,” Mr Jones said.

“Our plan is to continue to invest and evolve Virgin Australia’s fantastic lounge spaces as part of our focus on creating great guest experiences.”

Since emerging from administration in late 2020, Virgin Australia has reduced its lounge network from 12 to seven, retaining facilities in Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane, Gold Coast, Adelaide, Canberra and Perth.

Originally published as Frequent flyers splurge 4 billion points in two weeks as borders reopen