You’ve been working hard to build up your points balance, read our best uses of points guides, and now have your eye on a specific redemption. But is it possible to know how many points that flight will need, in advance?
The answer is yes for most cases, but you may be in a situation where the airline makes it hard to find the right award chart or perhaps doesn’t publish one at all, which is sadly becoming more frequent.
At Point Hacks, we’ve all had that problem before too. So, here is your one-stop-shop for all the main award charts relevant to Australian travellers.
How do award charts work?
Award charts tell you precisely how many points (or miles) you’ll need in your account to pay for a particular flight reward, depending on route, distance and cabin class. However, taxes payable aren’t usually mentioned in the charts.
Even in countries that use the metric system instead of imperial (i.e. the majority of the world), almost all air travel distances are measured in miles for the purposes of earning and using frequent flyer points.
There are a few free tools you can use in this points game — we’re not affiliated with any of them, to be clear. To calculate the distance between two airports, try the Great Circle Mapper (GCMaps).
It’s a bit bare-bones, but as long as you know the airport codes for the places you’re flying between, then it’s quick and easy to see the approximate mileage distance.
Note that most frequent flyer programs like Qantas and Velocity will have its own mileage figures for calculations, which may vary from GCMaps.
If you want to compare pricing across a number of programs at once, you may consider a tool like AwardHacker. However, note that the site is not always accurate — at the time of writing, its figures for Qantas Points were still not updated.
Lastly, devaluations by programs are announced periodically — like Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer in April 2019 and United MileagePlus in April 2020, as just two examples.
We’ll always aim to update this guide with new links if and when future devaluations occur.
Qantas Frequent Flyer award chart
Qantas has a few Classic Reward charts depending on which airline/s you are flying with. However, all four tables are easily accessible through the one link. From the top, you’ll find:
- Qantas Classic Flight Reward table: for travel on Qantas and preferred partners like Emirates and American Airlines
- Jetstar Classic Flight Reward table: redemptions on Jetstar are 20% less than those on Qantas
- Qantas Partner Classic Flight Reward table: for travel on most other partner airlines like Cathay Pacific and Japan Airlines
- Qantas oneworld Classic Flight Reward table: for travel on two or more oneworld airlines apart from Qantas
As a distance-based chart, you’ll need to work out what the mileage of your route is, before cross-checking that with the airline, cabin class and travel zone. Alternatively, use the Qantas Calculator here.
Velocity Frequent Flyer award chart
Compared to Qantas, Velocity has just two award charts, again depending on which airline you are flying with. Both are accessible on the same page.
- Table 1: for travel on Virgin Australia, Alitalia, Delta Airlines and Virgin Atlantic
- Table 2: for travel on Beijing Capital Airlines, Etihad, Hainan Airlines, Hawaiian Airlines, Hong Kong Airlines, SilkAir, Singapore Airlines and South African Airways
Note that extra carrier fees may apply, and are also detailed on the same page as the two award charts.
Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan award chart
Alaska has a quite simple and attractive award chart for travel on its own aircraft as well as partners such as Qantas and Cathay Pacific. All you have to do is select which regions you’re flying between, and it will bring up a list of eligible airlines and the miles needed.
- Interactive award chart: For all allowable reward seat bookings made through Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan
American Airlines AAdvantage award chart
AAdvantage keeps it easy-to-understand with just two award charts. One is for travel on American Airlines-operated services, while the other covers all other partner airlines including Qantas and Etihad. This is a regional-based chart, rather than distance.
British Airways Executive Club award chart
Unfortunately, British Airways no longer publishes an award chart and has a really poor Avios calculator. You could also try searching and booking your desired route to check pricing.
Otherwise, there are third-party award charts you can use, though it won’t come with any guarantees on whether the pricing is up to date. and use this award chart. It’s broken down by distance and peak/off-peak pricing.
- Chart 1: British Airways and Iberia awards by The Miles Genie
- Chart 2: Partner airlines awards by One Mile At A Time
Cathay Pacific Asia Miles award chart
Asia Miles revamped its award charts in June 2018. While there are tables for Cathay Pacific flights, plus oneworld bookings, partner airlines no longer have a table and must be searched through a calculator.
- Table 1: Cathay Pacific awards
- Table 2: Oneworld multi-carrier awards chart
- Calculator: Partner flight awards
Etihad Guest
This program doesn’t publish an award chart for Etihad flights, but it does for most other partner airlines including Virgin Australia. You’ll need to use a calculator for Etihad’s own flights.
- Calculator: Etihad award flights
- Table 1: Virgin Australia flights [PDF]
- Table 2: Other partner airlines (click the logo to see the table)
JAL Mileage Bank
Japan Airlines has quite a number of interactive award charts, of which the most useful ones for you may be:
- Table 1: Japan Airlines international flights
- Table 2: Partners such as Qantas, Cathay Pacific and Emirates
Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer
KrisFlyer has the most award charts out of all of the programs listed here but the most important and relevant to you may be:
You’ll also find individual charts for partner airlines (including Virgin Australia) through this link. Also, learn more about KrisFlyer’s round-the-world award, which is fixed-price.
Summing up
Being able to accurately price a flight redemption is important. This is especially the case when transferring the correct amount of points from flexible points currencies like American Express Membership Rewards.
Unfortunately, a few programs such as United MileagePlus and Delta SkyMiles have moved to dynamic pricing for awards, so it’s not easy to tell how many miles you’ll need until you do a dummy booking.
But thankfully, most of the other programs relevant to Australians do still publish award charts or interactive calculators, which we have linked to in this guide.
Feel free to comment below if you become aware of any updated award charts for any of the programs above, or any new programs altogether that you feel should be included.
This article was previously written by Matt Moffit.
I think you should include the JAL award chart, this is my new go to for Qatar & Emirates award flights.
I’m still learning about the various points programs but have redeemed a couple of times with qantas and velocity programs on business class to Europe. My understanding is that not all programs allow upgrades (most don’t) and if they do allow it, you have to have a particular economy fare which is the most expensive one usually fully flexible and usually the ticket will have to be with the program’s carrier rather than partner carrier. And then there is little value in using points to upgrade. Readers please correct me on any details I have wrong.
Been an avid follower of Point Hacks for a while now.
Have accumulated a few points on Virgin and Amex. Thought everything was falling into place when to my surprise my points dreams of upgrading were dashed recently by Velocity!
I called velocity about how many points I would need to upgrade from a paid return economy ticket to the USA.
They informed me very quicky in no uncertain terms that I would not be able to upgrade irrespective of how many points I had unless I was a silver or gold member of Velocity-im bronze!
Could you please inform me and other followers if this is the same for all airlines and frequent flyer schemes?
Im a little shattered,’was hoping to upgrade from economy to business on either Singapore or Cathay Pacific next year to Europe but not sure if I can? I dont remember reading about having to be a silver or gold member to be available for upgrades before?
Outright flight redemptions cost more points than upgrades but are available to all frequent flyer members (for the most part). These are what we generally talk about on Point Hacks when it comes to trying to redeem points for higher classes of travel.
Its important to remember the airlines first priority is to their “Frequent Flyers” in the true sense of the word and those are the people that they prioritise.
Don’t give up though – you know yourself if your flight is unpopular on a quiet day you never know.