How to book a long stopover with Qantas Points

Australia’s geographic location means that most journeys to Europe, South America, and even destinations in Asia often involve at least one stop. Granted, stops of 4-5 hours or less barely warrant leaving the airport—you’re better off relaxing in an airport lounge instead!

But with Qantas Points, you can book a long layover – a break in your itinerary – of up to 24 hours between flights. This way, you can add in an extra (quick) city visit and pay fewer points than if you’d stopped for a few days.

In this guide, we explain the difference between a transit and a stopover and their effect on award pricing. We’ll also include examples of incorporating long stays in various transit cities on your next trip overseas.

This guide focuses on one-way award redemptions. If you want to book a more extensive round-the-world trip using Qantas Points, here’s how.

Need Qantas Points for your next getaway? Boost your balance with a credit card sign up bonus!

Qantas Frequent Flyer layover and stopover rules and restrictions

The determining factor in the pricing of your award ticket with Qantas depends on how long you stay in a city. There is a difference between a:

• Transit or layover of up to 23 hours and 59 minutes – no additional points.
• Stopover of 24 hours or more – not free and requires extra points.

Most frequent flyer programs, including Qantas, allow free transits when booking reward seats. Some frequent flyer programs, like Singapore Airlines’ KrisFlyer, also allow free stopovers when redeeming points or miles – Qantas Frequent Flyer does not.

But you can use the Qantas multi-city search tool to customise your transit and make it up to (almost) a full day.

Note that Qantas has four different award charts. To book a longer layover using Qantas Points, you’ll need to stick to one of the charts:

• Classic Flight Reward table – For travel on Qantas and preferred partner airlines, including Fiji Airways and American Airlines.
• Jetstar Classic Flight Reward table – For travel on Jetstar and its subsidiaries in Asia.
• Partner Classic Flight Reward table – For travel on all other partner airlines, including British Airways, Cathay Pacific, China Airlines, Emirates, Finnair, Oman Air and more.
• oneworld Classic Flight Reward table – For travel on at least two oneworld Alliance airlines other than Qantas, such as American Airlines and British Airways.

Below, we’ll show three examples of booking long stopovers in Dubai, Sydney and Hong Kong using Qantas Points and the Qantas multi-city search tool.

1. Spend 22 hours in Dubai

Let’s say you want to use your Qantas Points to fly First Class from Melbourne to London. You opt for Emirates via Dubai.

You can get free transit of up to 24 hours in Dubai for the regular 227,500 Qantas Points + fees and taxes. Or you can spend a few days in Dubai by separating your trip into two Classic Flight Rewards, totalling 260,600 Qantas Points + fees and taxes. The first option gives you ample time to explore Dubai for no extra points than you already pay to fly from Melbourne to London via Dubai.

Here’s how to book a long stopover. This method can be applied to other itineraries (including the other examples in this guide).

Booking a long stopover in Dubai using Qantas Points

Firstly, we separate the two flights into the Qantas multi-city search tool, selecting the following day for the second flight.

For this date, there is only one Emirates flight with reward seats from Melbourne to Dubai. It leaves Melbourne at 6:15 am and arrives in Dubai at 1:05 pm on the same day. After selecting this flight, we’re presented with options for our second flight.

Emirates has multiple daily flights from Dubai to London, including three to Gatwick and two to Stanstead. There’s a flight to London’s Stanstead airport at 2:15 pm, which, if booked on the same day as our arrival, would result in a transit time in Dubai of just 1 hour and 10 minutes. Booking this short transit will cost 227,500 Qantas Points + fees and taxes for the entire Emirates First Class journey from Melbourne to London.

But there’s a flight the following day to London’s Heathrow airport departing at 11:25 am, just over 22 hours after we arrive in Dubai, with availability in First Class. Booking this option – which is still within the 24-hour transit threshold – will also cost you 227,500 Qantas Points + fees and taxes.

If you want to pop into the city to see the Burj Khalifa or do some shopping in Dubai Mall, then you’ll have almost a full day to do so. Factor in time to pass through immigration in Dubai (which is reputably speedy) and get into the city.

Also read: Ultimate Emirates First Class luxury to Europe with Qantas Points

2. Spend a night in Sydney

Say you’re flying from Melbourne to the US (or elsewhere) and have family or friends in Sydney.

Some travellers dislike transiting through Sydney because the domestic-to-international (and reverse) transfer process takes some time and can be stressful. So, stretching your transit to nearly a full day can give you a cushion between flights, plus time to visit the city.

The following itinerary flying, to Sydney and then onwards to Los Angeles with Qantas, is the same as a direct Melbourne to Los Angeles flight – 41,900 Qantas Points + fees and taxes in Economy.

Arriving in Sydney at 5:40 pm on Tuesday and departing at 5:35 pm the following day satisfies the less-than-24-hour requirement for free transit. It also gives you a night in Sydney to play with.

If you want to extend your layover to a stopover (more than 24 hours), you will book two separate Economy Classic Flight Rewards. The first flight from Melbourne to Sydney would cost 8,000 Qantas Points, and the second flight from Sydney to Los Angeles would cost 41,900.

Also read: Discover the dreams of Los Angeles with Qantas Points

3. (Almost) 24 hours in Hong Kong

Qantas no longer operates flights between Sydney and Shanghai, handing the route to its partner China Eastern. Finding an Economy reward seat on this direct flight will cost you 37,800 Qantas Points + fees and taxes.

Or, rather than wrestle with the availability calendar, take the scenic route via Hong Kong – which often has good availability – for no additional points. Flying Sydney to Shanghai via Hong Kong with Cathay Pacific in Economy will cost you 37,800 Qantas Points + fees and taxes, and you’ll spend (almost) 24 hours in Hong Kong.

In the example above, we use the multi-city search tool to separate the itinerary into two flights. We select a flight from Sydney to Hong Kong on Tuesday, arriving at 3:05 pm. We then choose a flight departing Hong Kong the following day at 3 pm, giving us 23 hours and 55 minutes in Hong Kong – just under the 23 hours, 59 minutes threshold for a layover.

For this example itinerary, there are multiple departures from Hong Kong to Shanghai, including a same-day flight at 5:25 pm. This one-way Economy redemption would cost the same 37,800 Qantas Points whether you selected the 2 hours 20 minutes transit, or stretch it out to 23 hours.

Finally, for this itinerary to work, we’ve kept the flights to one award chart only – Cathay Pacific as per Qantas’ Partner Classic Flight Reward. If you combined a Qantas flight from Sydney-Hong Kong with a Cathay Pacific flight from Hong Kong-Shanghai, you’d pay for two separate tickets as Qantas and Cathay Pacific appear on different tables.

How to book a free long layover with Qantas Points

1. Go to the Qantas multi-city search tool.
2. Select ‘Book with Rewards’.
3. Enter the departure and arrival destinations of Flight 1 and Flight 2, taking into account time differences when choosing your desired dates.
4. Use the reward seat calendar to find availability.
5. Note the arrival time of the first flight.
6. Please ensure that the second flight’s departure time is less than 24 hours after the first flight’s arrival.

And that’s it! If you’ve allowed a transit time of less than 23 hours and 59 minutes, you shouldn’t pay any extra Qantas Points for a long layover.

If you’re unsure how many points you need for the entire journey (including a layover), you can cross-check with Qantas’ Classic Flight Reward tables. Use a tool like Great Circle Mapper to determine the total distance of your journey, ensuring you factor in the transit point (e.g. Melbourne-Dubai-London, not just Melbourne-London.)

Summing up

Searching for a one-way or return trip on the Qantas website using points will automatically give you options with the shortest connection times. However, using the multi-city search tool, you can customise free transit for up to 24 hours in an intermediate city.

This can be an efficient way to visit destinations that Qantas and its partners connect through, including:

• Singapore, Hong Kong and Tokyo in Asia
• Sydney, Auckland and Nadi in Oceania
• Dubai and Muscat in the Middle East
• Los Angeles and San Francisco in the US

Finally, if you want a longer stopover (of more than 24 hours), you might as well make the most of it by spending at least a few days exploring. That’s because Qantas prices the segments separately.

Need expert assistance finding reward seats or building a long layover into your trip? Point Hacks offers a Concierge service to help you find those elusive Business Class or First Class seats using points.

Also read: 5 of the best stopover destinations between Australia and Europe

Featured image: Vangelis Kovu, Unsplash.

FAQs