A Glimpse of What Could Be
As I stepped onto the plane, ticket in hand, I was greeted by the Qantas staff with the usual protocol: left for business class, right for economy. As the staff member checked my ticket, my path was to the right. As I am about to turn down the aisle to economy, I catch a glimpse of what lay to the left…. a world I could only imagine to be part of. Those couple of seconds peaking into the Business class cabin were a glimpse into spacious seats with pillows and no neighbours to encroach on your personal space, attendants offering glasses of chilled champagne, and seats that transformed into comfortable beds.
Why Do Those People Get to Fly Flat?
As I made my way to my assigned seat in economy, the reality of the next 14 hours began to sink in. I would be sharing my personal space with ten passengers to a row. Shortly after the seat belt sign disappears, I would almost certainly have the seat in front of me recline limiting my personal space even more. The stark contrast between the two experiences was striking, and it set my mind racing. How could those people in Business Class be sitting up there? Those seats are worth close to $10,000 each… Who is paying that much? How could I earn my place in the front of the plane, experiencing the comfort and luxury I had just glimpsed?
The Change
That flight to America wasn’t just another long-haul journey; it became the catalyst for a change. It sparked a deep desire within me, a determination to find a way where I can also travel around the world in comfortable lie flat seats.
After brainstorming for a few hours, I stumbled across a few people recommending frequent flyer points. It was discovered that Qantas has a loyalty program called the Qantas Frequent Flyer program which had it’s own currency of Qantas Points. There were many people suggesting these points could be redeemed for flights saving significant amounts. I was intrigued…. So I signed up to the loyalty program (do it for free here) and discovered I would need roughly 100K Qantas points to fly business class one way to the USA. It began to feel like flying in those big plush lie flat seats was starting to be achievable. I didn’t need to pay $10,000 for it. I could just pay with points!
The Solution
With my goal of flying business class starting to look realistic, I began researching methods on earning these Qantas points quickly and efficiently. Eventually after incorporating a few methods of earning points into my lifestyle, I amassed those 100K points I needed! I thought I had finally done it! I had earned the points and now I was ready to redeem those points for those luxurious business class seats. As I logged into my Qantas account I began searching for flights when the reality quickly set in…. Where were all the seats? As I began searching, most of the seats I could book were asking for 1 Million points not 100K….. I realised that the cheaper rewards flights ‘Classic Rewards Fares’ were extremely limited on popular routes. Everyone was trying to bag these seats given the huge savings on them. If my dream was going to be reality, I would need a good strategy around planning & finding these reward fares before anyone else. After consistently looking for a couple of weeks, I eventually found a classic reward fare in Business class pop up and jumped on it! The flight confirmation hit my email and the excitement began building.
A Different Type of Holiday
In the past, the anticipation of an upcoming holiday had always been slightly dampened knowing that an uncomfortable flight had to be done first. This trip was different, it was exciting knowing that for the next 14hrs it would be spent in a luxurious lie flat seat, served with upscale alcohol & premium service. As I stepped onto the plane, this time when the staff member checked my ticket, they pointed to the left where my seat was gifted with an amenities kit and pyjamas. Shortly after settling in, the staff offered me a drink of my choice before take off. Instead of feeling cramped and uncomfortable like I had in the past when flying long haul economy, I was feeling incredibly pampered and didn’t want that feeling to end. I knew in that moment that I needed to figure out how to make this lifestyle sustainable so that all future trips were spent the same way. Once I had a glimpse into how good it was travelling in Business class, I didn’t want to go back. So when I got back home I incorporated a method to regularly earn Qantas points into my lifestyle & then mastered how to search and redeem those points.
This set the stage for learning everything I could about earning, searching & redeeming Qantas points. For almost 10 years, I have been sharpening my strategies to keep that lifestyle alive. All I have learnt throughout those years I have shared in Mastering Qantas Points: The Complete A-Z Guide for Earning, Searching & Redeeming Qantas Points. If you’d like to learn more, there are plenty of free articles in the Everything Qantas Points section of the site or head to the Mastering Qantas Points course to fast track those learnings.
