Passive points collectors can amass 20,000 Qantas Points without flying quite easily. Day-to-day activities like grocery shopping, stocking your wine cellar or online retail therapy can help you stack points with minimal effort. Throw a points-earning credit card into the mix, and you’ll likely have a decent balance to play around with.
With 20K Qantas Points, you could take off overseas or interstate, or even enjoy a Business upgrade on a domestic flight. Here are a few ways to use your points.
1. Fly for ‘free’ in Japan
Japan is a hotspot for Australians, and it’s not hard to see why: a diverse culinary scene, hidden gems and buzzing nightlife are just a handful of its drawcards. Plus, it’s easy enough to fly there using points (or by jumping on a cheap cash fare), and you can sample some of the best service in the sky by flying in Business Class.
But once you arrive in Japan, you can essentially fly around the country for ‘free’. That’s because Japan Airlines, a oneworld member, doesn’t charge any fees or taxes on Qantas Classic Flight Reward seats. So, you can use your Qantas Points to book flights with JAL and not pay a single cent.
This applies to JAL domestic flights only (unfortunately, that means no ‘free’ flights between Australia and Japan) and doesn’t apply to Jetstar Japan bookings made using Qantas Points, which incur a cash co-payment.
Of course, it’s not always feasible to fly between every destination in Japan, given the country’s incredibly efficient train network. But if you’re using Tokyo as a landing base to venture further to prefectures like Hokkaido, Fukuoka or Okinawa, it could make logistical and economic sense to fly.
From Tokyo, you won’t pay more than 14,000 Qantas Points for a one-way domestic flight with JAL to major cities in Japan. Even flying top-to-tail – that’s from Sapporo in the north to Okinawa in the south, via Osaka/Tokyo – will set you back just 20,000 Qantas Points.
Also read: How to use Qantas Points to fly to Japan
2. Venture to the Pacific Islands, New Zealand or Southeast Asia
Bali, New Caledonia, Fiji and New Zealand are just a handful of destinations that you can fly to from Australia for around 20,000 Qantas Points (give or take.)
Qantas and its partners operate direct flights to a number of neighbouring countries, making it easy to hop abroad for a holiday. Granted that 20K Qantas Points will likely have you sitting in Economy (you’ll need to push for around 40,000 Qantas Points for a pointy-end seat), but it’s still better than no holiday at all, right?
Our non-exhaustive table below shows how many Qantas Points you’ll need for some popular destinations.
| Economy | |
| 601-1,200 miles E.g. Darwin-Dili Brisbane-Noumea | 12,000 |
| 1,201-2,400 miles E.g. Perth-Denpasar (Bali) Sydney-Noumea Canberra/Cairns/Sydney/Brisbane-Nadi Melbourne/Sydney/Brisbane-Queenstown | 18,000 |
| 2,401-3,600 miles E.g. Perth-Singapore Adelaide/Melbourne-Nadi Brisbane-Apia Melbourne/Sydney-Jakarta | 20,300 |
Also read: How to redeem Qantas Points for flights to Fiji
3. Upgrade to Business on a Qantas domestic flight
Booking a Business Classic Flight Reward outright is always a better use of your points than upgrading from an Economy Classic Flight Reward. But there are some instances where you may have booked an Economy cash fare (for example, if your work is paying for the flight), or a Business reward seat was unavailable at the time of booking.
Most fare classes are eligible for a Business upgrade on Qantas domestic flights. Our guide to what Qantas fare classes to book if you want to upgrade with Qantas Points covers this in detail. But depending on your fare type and the distance flown, you could upgrade a Qantas domestic flight from Economy to Business from 5,400 Qantas Points.
Also read: How to upgrade Qantas flights with points
4. Explore Europe
Use your Qantas Points to fly with oneworld members Finnair or Iberia, or Qantas partners Air France or KLM. You could even head slightly further afield with Royal Air Maroc or British Airways (just watch out for BA’s notoriously high fuel surcharges!)
Indeed, Avios can also be used to book reward seats with many of the airlines mentioned above, and at a lower rate. But if you’ve only got Qantas Points (which are easily earned in Australia through your everyday expenses), you have lots of redemption options in and around Europe.
Fees and taxes are payable on all routes, depending on the airline and point of departure. But using Qantas Points for intra-Europe flights can often be more efficient than a lengthy train ride, and more comfortable than a budget airline.
We won’t list all the routes here. But the table below will give you an idea of how far 20,000 Qantas Points can take you in Europe.
| Economy | |
| 0-600 miles E.g. Paris-Venice Edinburgh-Paris | 10,000 |
| 601-1,200 miles E.g. Munich-Helsinki Geneva-Casablanca | 14,000 |
| 1,201-2,400 miles E.g. Helsinki-London Heathrow Amsterdam-Budapest | 20,000 |
Also read: British Airways Airbus A320neo Economy (London – Amsterdam)
5. Discover somewhere new in Australia
Qantas flies to more than 60 destinations across Australia, including major cities and regional hubs. While 20,000 Qantas Points is enough to shuttle you between Australia’s east and west coast and everywhere in between, there are places you can fly to using Qantas Points that you’ve probably never considered.
Lord Howe Island is an exotic destination off the coast of NSW that clocks in at 16,000 Qantas Points return for one person. Fees and taxes sit at a mere $200, which is a massive saving off the cash fare of around $1,100. QantasLink operates this route until February 2026, after which Skytrans will take over (but still codeshare with QantasLink.)
Kangaroo Island, a short 30-minute flight from Adelaide, is bursting with native wildlife, pristine beaches and spectacular scenery. QantasLink operates twice-daily flights between Adelaide and Kangaroo Island, with a one-way Classic Flight Reward setting you back 8,000 Qantas Points + $53 in fees and taxes. You’ll also pay the same amount of points when flying from Melbourne via Adelaide, with a slight bump in the cash co-payment.
You can set your sights on other destinations like Exmouth, Norfolk Island, or browse Qantas’ domestic flight network.
Also read: Why regional flights are a great way to spend points
Summing up
A balance of 20,000 Qantas Points might not seem like a lot if you have your heart set on flying Qantas First or soaring to Los Angeles in style. But if your goal is to save cash on domestic or short-haul international holidays, fly around Japan for less, or upgrade a flight from Economy, then 20K Qantas Points can go a long way.
This guide isn’t exhaustive, and there are countless other ways to redeem 20,000 Qantas Points that we haven’t covered. But if your points-collecting goals are loftier, here are our favourite ways to redeem 75,000 Qantas Points and 100,000 Qantas Points.
Also read: Five ways to redeem 20,000 Velocity Points
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