bummer
 

This is indeed a bummer. I had my sights set on a Qantas first class seat, now it won't happen.

Nevertheless, the pricing is now fair. Here is a realistic case study:

I am planning to go SFO to SYD in June, I don't see any other options besides Qantas. My choices are:

* Book a V fare, $1398 in coach. Earn 14,872 CO miles, which I value at $178 using 1.2 cents/mile. Net cost, $1220.

* Book an internet sale, restricted dates, in Q, O, or N class, earning no CO miles. $1225.

* Use miles, 95,000 CO miles at 1.2 cents/mile is $1140.

(Of course, at this exact moment I wish I were instead a United 100K.)

How did I get these miles? Using FareCast as my fishing bob, I caught a recent sale and bought a number of EWR to SFO/SJC round trips for $293, net cost $155 when I value my platinum miles bonus again at 1.2 cents/mile. At such prices I can't afford to try Virgin!

So even though I just lost a bed for this trip, I'm getting a fair deal. I can flexibly consider using miles for each trip, when they work out as the better deal.

If I were a business traveler, never paying for my own travel out-of-pocket, with only one opportunity to take the family somewhere in style on the graft-kickback miles I personally earned from this travel, sure, I'd be hopping mad that someone was messing with my payoff. But I'm not a business traveler, so, paradoxically, these prices are simply a business transaction to me.

Ok, I tried to take your advice. The KE award chart isn't so different from the new Qantas chart, and I still remember gruesome KE biz seats to Bangkok, it woudn't surprise me if Qantas coach was actually more comfortable!

And flyng to CNS would take three days, routing SFO - IAH - HNL - GUM - CNS. Only worth it if one stops over.