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Qantas Releases New Award Charts With Higher Redemption Prices

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Alberto Riva
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Alberto Riva

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Alberto is an editorial expert with a passion for points and miles. Based in Brooklyn, he also enjoys skiing, mountaineering, and flying.
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Ryan completed his goal of visiting every country in the world in December of 2023 and is letting his wife choose their destinations, including revisiting some favorites. Over the years, he’s written ...
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Qantas Airways is introducing new award charts, taking effect later this year. The airline announced this in late 2024, and now we have a date for the new prices.

The good news is that the new charts will come into effect in August, giving travelers several months to plan any future award flights. The bad news is that award prices are higher, up to 20% in some cases, affecting even U.S. domestic redemptions.

Let’s look at the new Qantas award charts in more detail.

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How Qantas Award Charts Are Changing in 2025

Qantas is the latest major international airline to raise its award prices. This is known as a devaluation since it often makes points less valuable compared to cash prices for a flight.

Yet, the changes to the Qantas Frequent Flyer program aren’t as bad as we’ve seen with some competing loyalty programs lately. As announced previously, Qantas is also retaining award charts with fixed amounts of points for a given flight distance. Other programs have adopted dynamic pricing, which changes with demand and makes it difficult to know in advance how many points you’ll need for a flight.

The new Qantas award charts are coming into effect for bookings made on or after August 5, 2025. You have until then to book award tickets at the current prices. Qantas is also retaining several separate award charts, differentiating between flights on its own airplanes and flights on partner airlines.

Here is the new Classic Flight Rewards chart that applies to Qantas, its low-cost subsidiary Jetstar, Emirates, Fiji Arways, and — most importantly for U.S. flyers — American Airlines. This table lists the amount of Qantas points needed before and after August 5 in economy (Y), premium economy (W), business (C), and first class (F).

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Zone

One-way distance

New/old price (Y)

New/old price (W)

New/old price (C)

New/old price (F)

1

0-600

9,200 / 8,000

14,500 / 13,800

19,300 / 18,400

29,000 / 27,600

2

601-1,200

13,800 / 12,000

21,600 / 20,600

29,000 / 27,600

43,600 / 41,500

3

1,201-2,400

20,700 / 18,000

32,600 / 31,000

43,600 / 41,500

65,300 / 62,200

4

2,401-3,600

23,300 / 20,300

50,600 / 42,200

68,400 / 57,000

102,600 / 85,500

5

3,601-4,800

29,000 / 25,200

61,600 / 51,300

82,100 / 68,400

123,100 / 102,600

6

4,801-5,800

36,200 / 31,500

73,800 / 61,500

98,400 / 82,000

147,700 / 123,100

7

5,801-7,000

43,200 / 37,600

85,300 / 71,100

113,900 / 94,900

170,800 / 142,300

8

7,001-8,400

48,200 / 41,900

97,600 / 81,300

130,100 / 108,400

195,400 / 162,800

9

8,401-9,600

58,900 / 51,200

113,900 / 94,900

151,800 / 126,500

227,800 / 189,800

10

9,601-15,000

63,500 / 55,200

124,700 / 108,400

166,300 / 144,600

249,400 / 216,900

Los Angeles (LAX) to Sydney (SYD), a Qantas route on which people often redeem points, is 7,500 miles long and falls within zone 8. Under the current chart, a coveted Qantas first-class redemption costs 162,800 points. After August 5, it will go up to 195,400, an increase of 20%. The same percentage increase applies to business and premium economy on this route, while economy class is up 15%.

Qantas Frequent Flyer has a lot of partners, too, with several of them outside of Qantas’ own alliance, Oneworld.

These partners have their own Classic Flight Rewards award chart, which includes Air France, Alaska Airlines, Bangkok Airways, British Airways, Cathay Pacific, China Airlines, China Eastern, El Al, Finnair, Iberia, Japan Airlines, KLM, LATAM, Malaysia Airlines, Oman Air, Qatar Airways, Royal Air Maroc, Royal Jordanian, SriLankan, and WestJet.

Here is the award chart that applies to them from August:

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Zone

One-way distance

New/old price (Y)

New/old price (W)

New/old price (C)

New/old price (F)

1

0-600

11,500 / 10,000

16,600 / 15,800

21,000 / 20,000

31,500 / 29,000

2

601-1,200

16,100 / 14,000

24,900 / 23,700

31,500 / 30,000

45,700 / 43,500

3

1,201-2,400

23,000 / 20,000

36,200 / 34,500

46,000 / 43,800

67,700 / 64,500

4

2,401-3,600

28,200 / 24,500

58,200 / 48,500

73,400 / 61,200

107,800 / 89,800

5

3,601-4,800

34,700 / 30,200

70,800 / 59,000

90,000 / 75,000

129,200 / 107,700

6

4,801-5,800

43,500 / 37,800

85,000 / 70,800

108,000 / 90,000

155,200 / 129,300

7

5,801-7,000

51,800 / 45,000

98,200 / 81,800

125,400 / 104,500

179,800 / 149,800

8

7,001-8,400

57,800 / 50,300

112,200 / 93,500

143,000 / 119,200

205,000 / 170,800

9

8,401-9,600

70,700 / 61,500

130,800 / 109,000

167,000 / 139,200

239,200 / 199,300

10

9,601-15,000

76,100 / 66,200

143,500 / 124,800

182,900 / 159,000

261,600 / 227,500

This award chart does not include bookings on Hawaiian Airlines, which Qantas said ought to be possible from October 2025.

Domestic U.S. Redemptions Are Increasing

A particularly sweet spot for Qantas Frequent Flyer points redemptions has been for short, round-trip economy hops on American Airlines, which required just 16,000 points in economy class.

This is especially good for flights from Miami (MIA) because some Caribbean destinations fall within this range, and 16,000 points is a lot less than what other programs charge for these same flights. Under the new chart, those round-trips on American will cost 18,400 points, a 15% increase.

Similar increases are happening for other American Airlines routes for which Qantas points have typically been a good redemption.

For example, New York-JFK to Los Angeles (LAX) in economy falls into zone 4 of the award chart, which is increasing from 40,600 to 46,600 points. That’s also a 15% increase. The same percentage is true for Alaska Airlines, with economy from Newark (EWR) to LAX going from 49,000 to 56,400 points.

The increase is far more dramatic in business class. To fly in a lie-flat bed from JFK to LAX, you’ll need 136,800 points after August 5, an increase of 31.5%.

Hot Tip:

You don’t have to use Qantas Frequent Flyer points to book the airline’s excellent first class. Check out some of the other best ways to book Qantas first class.

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Final Thoughts

Qantas has published new award charts that will go into effect from August 5, 2025. Redemption prices that are likely to interest U.S. flyers will go up by 15% or more. In the case of coast-to-coast redemptions for American Airlines business class, they’ll go up by more than 30%.

The good news is that you have nearly 5 months to plan a redemption before award rates go up.

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About Alberto Riva

Alberto joined UP in 2024 after serving as the international editor in chief of Forbes Advisor. His passion for points and miles began when he moved to the U.S. from Italy in 2000, leading him to become the first managing editor of The Points Guy in 2017. He previously worked at Vice News, Bloomberg, and CNN.

Originally from Milan, Alberto has lived in Rome and Atlanta and now resides in Brooklyn, New York. He speaks Italian, French, and Spanish, has traveled to every continent except Antarctica, and enjoys skiing, mountaineering, and flying—often with his wife, Regan, and always in a window seat.

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