The Block mega-bidder spends 6m Qantas points at auction

He spent $12m on The Block and now Melbourne entrepreneur Danny Wallis has splashed millions of points at a Qantas auction to fly his friends to a winery.

A Melbourne IT entrepreneur with a passion for auctions has splashed out more than six million frequent flyer points to buy two items in Qantas’s inaugural Points Auction.

Held over five days last week, the auction offered five items or experiences to the highest bidder, using the airline’s coveted frequent flyer points.

Danny Wallis was happy for the airline to identify him as the “buyer” of a Boeing 787 simulator session with a Qantas captain, and the private charter flight for 30 people.

Mr Wallis is no stranger to auctions, having bid a jaw-dropping $12 million to buy three houses renovated during The Block TV show last year.

He then donated one property, worth $3.8 million, to a children’s cancer charity.

Mr Wallis bid more than 1.2 million points for the simulator session, and 4.84 million points for the charter flight.

He said he planned to use the flight on a QantasLink Dash 8 to take 30 friends to a winery in Tasmania.

Danny Wallis inside one of the South Melbourne houses he bought for 1.4m from The Block reality TV show.

“Normally I spend my points to upgrade my family to first class on our annual trip to Europe but with international travel off the cards at the moment, the Points Auction was a fantastic way to break the monotony of lockdowns and give us an experience to look forward to,” he said.

The bank worker turned IT whiz sold his company DWS to India’s HCL Technologies in September 2020 for $126 million.

Sydney’s Matthew Hartley was the successful bidder on the children’s soccer clinic with Socceroos’ coach Graham Arnold, lodging his winning bid of 500,001 points with three seconds to spare.

He said he was excited to spend his points on a unique experience that his son’s soccer team could enjoy in their local area while travel remained on pause.

“My son is an enthusiastic eight-year-old soccer player for the Sutherland Sharks, and with the soccer season coming to an abrupt and early end due to Covid, it is a great opportunity for the team to train together again when restrictions ease,” Mr Hartley said.

“Typically, I would use my points for redemptions on Qantas wine and business class tickets, but this coaching clinic is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity that will mean a great deal to both our kids and our coach.”

Danny Wallis splashed out more than six million Qantas frequent flyer points in the airline’s inaugural Points Auction.

The successful bidders in the auction for the Queenstown family holiday and the two used A380 skybeds, opted to remain anonymous.

However Qantas revealed the Queenstown holiday, with business class flights and three nights accommodation at a luxury hotel, attracted the most bids, including five in the last 60 seconds.

Competition for the pre-loved skybeds also went down to the wire, with six bids in the final minute pushing the “price” up to 2 million points.

In all, a total of 12.3 million points were burned during the five-day auction with tens of thousands of people visiting the website.

Qantas Loyalty chief executive Olivia Wirth said the excitement generated by the auction showed how much frequent flyers valued those types of exclusive opportunities.

“We are absolutely thrilled by the response to this initiative and are already planning what prizes we will offer for our second Points Auction later in the year,” said Ms Wirth.

“Early requests include more luxury travel experiences and Qantas memorabilia so the challenge is on to see what we can come up with.”

Originally published as The Block mega-bidder spends 6m Qantas points at auction