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How to maximise your points on your next flight

Published on November 20th, 2020
  Written by 
Bill Tsouvalas
Bill Tsouvalas is the managing director and a key company spokesperson at Savvy. As a personal finance expert, he often shares his insights on a range of topics, being featured on leading news outlets including News Corp publications such as the Daily Telegraph and Herald Sun, Fairfax Media publications such as the Australian Financial Review, the Seven Network and more. Bill has over 15 years of experience working in the finance industry and founded Savvy in 2010 with a vision to provide affordable and accessible finance options to all Australians. He has built Savvy from a small asset finance brokerage into a financial comparison website which now attracts close to 2 million Aussies per year and was included in the BRW’s Fast 100 in 2015 as one of the fastest-growing companies in the country. He’s passionate about helping Australians make financially savvy decisions and reviews content across the brand to ensure its accuracy. You can follow Bill on LinkedIn.
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Reward program offers some pretty sweet incentives when it comes to using your points to book a flight, upgrade seats, get lounge access and more. If you have accumulated enough points, but still wondering what is the best way to maximise your points for your next flight, this guide can help you out.

Why fly the normal way when you can upgrade?

Aaah, have you ever wondered what it would be like to sit beyond the curtain in business class? Your points may get you there if you have accumulated the necessary points. Both Velocity and Qantas offer the opportunity for reward card members to upgrade their flights once they have hit a certain threshold of points. For Qantas members, the most common way to upgrade Qantas tickets is through Classic Upgrade Rewards. Whether you will get the upgrade or not will depend on a range of factors such as; the type of ticket that you have purchased, the distance, if it's an international or local flight, and the cabin you wish to upgrade to.

Using points and pay

You can consider saving your cash when it comes to using the point and pay feature that frequent flyer programs offer. What this means is that you can use a combination of points plus a cash payment when you log in to your account.

One thing to keep in mind is that you will need a minimum amount of points in your account to do this. For example, Quantas requires that you have a minimum of 5,000 points for Qantas flights and 3,500 points for Jetstar. You can also choose to pay for your flight entirely with points.

However, keep in mind that there is a basic conversion rate for points, which is similar to a currency conversion, which can lower the value of your points once converted. For example, the conversion rate for 1 point equals 0.7 cents. This will depend on your reward program and where you are converting your points to.

International love

Maximise your points better by flying internationally can help you increase the value of your redemption. Once you have accumulated enough points to book for your flight you can use them to take care of the full flight fare which will add more value than using them to redeem seats or upgrading classes. You could consider family pooling your points with other family members who share the same program to help you build your points more quickly. It can also be a great way to prevent your points from expiring.

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This guide provides general information and does not consider your individual needs, finances or objectives. We do not make any recommendation or suggestion about which product is best for you based on your specific situation and we do not compare all companies in the market, or all products offered by all companies. It’s always important to consider whether professional financial, legal or taxation advice is appropriate for you before choosing or purchasing a financial product.

The content on our website is produced by experts in the field of finance and reviewed as part of our editorial guidelines. We endeavour to keep all information across our site updated with accurate information.

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