How to ensure you fly business class in 2024
Amass enough frequent flyer points and you can travel the world in luxury. Here's how it's done.
Chances are you have heard of a secret society of “loyalty point hackers”; those elusive friends of friends who fly their family to Europe in business class on points each year. The idea that airlines and credit card companies essentially give away free flat-bed seats in exchange for loyalty seems absurd. Where’s the catch? It must be extremely hard to do, or these point hackers are rorting the system.
Those who have put these strategies to use and travelled the world in luxury for the price of a domestic flight will admit that while it’s not always easy, it is 100 per cent legal. In fact, loyalty programs have sparked a global community dedicated to sharing ways in which to amass points. Search terms such as “credit card churning” will bring up pages of Reddit threads and Facebook groups with thousands of members keen to swap tips on the most effective ways to maximise point-earning capacity.
There are also myriad websites offering advice on ways to fly at the pointy end for little more than the necessary fees and taxes. These reward flights may be a bargain for members, but in the end, someone must foot the bill. “If I take out a credit card for example, and I get 100,000 bonus points, someone has to buy those points,” explains Point Hacks editor Daniel Sciberras. “In this case, it’s the bank. Why would they buy those bonus points? Because they want to attract new customers.”
Airlines in turn are doubling their efforts to promote loyalty programs and improve engagement with members. This month, Virgin’s Velocity program and affiliate Flybuys announced their biggest points giveaway. “As cost of living pressures continue to soar, we’re working to find more ways to reward our Flybuys members,” says Flybuys chief executive Anna Lee.
On Thursday, Qantas Loyalty expanded its retail offering with the launch of Qantas Marketplace, a platform for Frequent Flyer members to both spend and earn points. The company has 900 brands in its offering, including women’s fashion label Rebecca Vallance, Creed perfume and homewares retailer MCM House. Points Club members receive three points per dollar spent, up from two, and Points Club Plus members gain six points a dollar until June.
“We know our members are always looking for more value and ways to boost their points balance, so we’ve increased the points-earn rate on the platform too,” says Qantas Loyalty chief executive Olivia Wirth.
Pay with a point-earning credit card, and the value increases. Purchase a Bose soundbar, for example, which costs 2000 points plus $787.50 on the site, and Points Club Plus members will earn 4725 points. If they purchase using a credit card with a one point per dollar spend, they could gain an extra 787.
While you may be able to amass points from pretty much any activity, whether it be wine collecting, grocery shopping, buying insurance and even getting in your daily step count, for the professional point accruers, these endeavours amount to mere pocket change.
“Getting the odd bonus point from your BP fuel stop isn’t going to really move the needle,” says Jordan Michaelides, who rakes in hundreds of thousands of points a year by paying business expenses with a credit card.
The two most effective ways to clock up enough points to book a business – or even first – class international trip, is by taking advantage of credit card sign-up bonuses and using these cards to make purchases.
We asked three Australian travellers to reveal the steps they take to stockpile enough points to book an international business class return or around-the-world flight.
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Daniel Sciberras
The 42-year-old is the Gold Coast-based editor-in-chief of PointHacks.com.au. The former fund manager is taking his parents on a round-the-world holiday in August, flying business class.
I booked us round-the-world business class flights, which is known as a Oneworld Zone 10 booking (it allows passengers to travel up to 35,000 miles and 16 flight segments). Normally these tickets retail for about $17,000 each, so our flights would have totalled $51,000. Using Qantas Classic Rewards, the three tickets were 318,000 points each (954,000 points in total) plus a combined $3000 in fees and taxes.
It’s not really my trip; it’s my mum’s itinerary. My parents have always wanted to see Japan, and I’ve been a few times and think the people and food are lovely. San Diego was chosen because it was the flight I found to get us to the US. My mum has always wanted to go to Yellowstone, but the main aim to go to the US was to visit the East Coast. My parents are practising Catholics and my mum really wanted to visit Lourdes, so we’re flying into France, then visiting Madrid and finally Helsinki. It’s a good base to get back to Australia for anyone who has Qantas points as Finnair is a partner.
I like to take advantage of credit card sign-up bonus offers, but you don’t want to go silly with this. You’re not going to accumulate 954,000 points in a single year. For me it took a number of years of disciplined saving. But not everyone is going to need that many points. If you’re just a couple, you’ll only need 636,000 Qantas points to do this itinerary. This trip is quite elaborate, and for many people, an around-the-world economy class fare will do the trick. These fares went down in cost in 2019, requiring only 132,400 Qantas points, or 264,800 points for two tickets, and that’s something that’s possible to achieve in just one year. You’d need, for example, just two credit card sign-ups within the year where they offer 90,000 points and to book accommodation through Qantas Hotels when they offer triple points. So instead of three points, you’ll earn nine per dollar.
DANIEL’S TIPS
■ When looking for international business class Classic Rewards seats, be flexible with dates and routings. Consider flying with partner airlines and connecting, instead of a direct flight with Qantas, which can be in high demand. For example, fly from Sydney to LA via Nadi on Fiji Airways if a direct flight on Qantas has no reward seats.
■ Use the Qantas multi-city tool to see Qantas Rewards availability in a calendar format, making finding reward seats quicker.
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Adam
The 33-year-old doctor based in Sydney’s inner west has used points accrued from credit card sign-up offers to fund annual around-the-world business class flights for him and his wife since 2017.
I actively started accruing points six years ago, when I figured out I could use credit cards to do this very aggressively. That’s the best and fastest way to do it rather than spending, as with credit cards you can use the sign-up bonuses to build up a vast amount.
Most credit card terms and conditions are virtually the same; you sign up, spend “X” amount in the first three months – usually $3000 to $5000, and then if you do that you trigger the release of bonus points.
With mine and my wife’s credit-card applying power, when we did that efficiently throughout the year, we accrued about 650,000 Qantas points, which allowed us both to fly around the world business class each year that we were doing it. We did these trips in 2018, 2019 and 2020. They’re very hard to organise using points, and can include 15 flights, all business class.
It sounds sneaky, but it’s well within the terms and conditions to sign up for a card, get the bonus points sent to your account and then you close the account and rinse and repeat with other credit cards. Back then I did two cards at a time, and so did my wife, and so that was quite a quick way to build up the points.
It’s hard to book flights through points, though, unless you’re booking a straightforward flight, for example from Sydney to LA. And if there is a problem or change of schedule, to do something about it through customer service can be a nightmare.
ADAM’S TIPS
■ If you are signing up to multiple credit cards at a time, it is crucial to keep across the administration. Creating a spreadsheet that details the dates of when you signed up, when points are due to be released, as well as tracking spending to ensure you are making the required payments, is a good way to do this.
■ Ask for a pro-rata refund of annual fees if you use the card only for a few months. If you’ve held the card for only two months and have obtained the bonus points, then you pay for the time you’ve had the benefit of using the card.
■ Be aware that applying for multiple credit cards may affect your credit rating. “I haven’t experienced this and my credit score has increased, not decreased, but it’s one thing people need to be aware of.”
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Jordan Michaelides
Owner of a Melbourne talent agency, Jordan, 34, has used expenditure from running his small business to earn points for personal and business travel.
Our honeymoon flight cost 400,000 Qantas Frequent Flyer points and $800 in fees and taxes for two people. The flight was to Frankfurt with Emirates and on the way back we flew from Athens to Melbourne with Qatar. A highlight of the trip was definitely connecting to my Greek roots and seeing Crete as well as Cyprus for the first time.
It took me about 10 months of business spend to get that number of points, which covered the both of us. There are millions of ABN holders in Australia, and they’re really the people who can take maximum advantage of this.
I fit in that category; I own an agency with four staff. Through the business I earn roughly 30,000 to 40,000 points a month. We tried to do the whole thing ourselves but coming out of Covid it was so complex we engaged (travel concierge) iFLYflat. That was probably one of the smartest things we did because not only did we get a good set-up for the holiday, but my wife and I travelled Europe return business class the whole way.
People get confused with the difference between a Reward Flight versus paying in points. A lot of people will go on Qantas and look for “Points Plus Pay” as opposed to selecting the toggle that allows you to select “reward flights”. But these seats have been a dime a dozen for international flights, which is why concierge services that focus on booking with points have blown up, because you have to be so much smarter now about finding those reward seats.
JORDAN’S TIPS
■ If you’re new to booking international flights with points, consider a travel concierge company that specialises in the area, and ask a lot of questions.
■ It’s worth considering credit cards that allow more flexibility on where points can be used, rather than just one frequent flyer program, however they may have higher annual fees. Most small and medium-sized businesses should be moving their points-earning to a more agnostic points system than just with Qantas because they can get many more.
■ There are numerous communities dedicated to both credit card “churning” and basic points accrual on Facebook and Reddit that can offer useful tips for those wanting to maximise their points.
This story was originally published in March 2023.
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