Which is better value - Qantas Classic Flights vs Points & Pay?
 

I've currently looked at using my Qantas frequent flyer points and Its not clear whether the classic reward flight option is better/worse than the points and pay? As classic allows for points and pay as well?

Its very confusing!

Almost always points plus pay is more expensive, as it is the purchase fare converted to points using a poor exchange rate; hence varies with supply and demand. Occasionally some sale fare pops up cheaper on points plus pay than classic award ... this is rare (<1% of the time). The ponit of points+pay is that it is always available -- even when rdiciulously expensive. I've seen it go as high as 10x the classic award rate when high-demand exists, so sky is the limit. Conversely it gets cheaper as you pick routes & dates that people aren't buying, for whatever reason.

Answer: If the alternative is an economy sale fare - Do the calculation, remembering that with P&P you still earn points for the flight...

No sale fare - forget it.

Happy wandering

Fred

And status credits too, if you're chasing status. When there are really good economy sale fares going P+P can sometimes work out to be more cost-effective than redeeming an award flight outright (which also doesn't earn you points or status credits). You just have to crunch the numbers and determine what suits your needs best.

If you are interested in Status Credits earnings, points plus pay while poor value, you will be assured of Status Credit earn.
Under Classic Award, there are onerous rules, as to if Status Credits are earnt or not.
Edit:
http://www.pointhacks.com.au/qantas-...lassic-awards/
And earning QF SC on Classic Awards, is not ongoing either.

Both points plus pay and economy classic rewards are almost always poor value. Business or first classic rewards (if you can find them) are far better value.

Any recent experiences with this? I'm looking to use points to offset the cost of 3 business class tickets. Of course, just under a year out, there is already no award availability. One can't tell what the reduction in fare is until you apply the 5,000 point increments. I was planning to transfer a bunch of Citi Thankyou points for this transaction, but as of now, do not have points in my account. I'm not going to speculatively transfer a ton of points if it isn't going to bring the fare down to a reasonable cost. Thanks in advance.

The points + pay option redeems at about 0.7¢ per point.

That is generally poor value as it is difficult to garner points at less then that.