With Australia’s restrictions on overseas travel ending, flag carrier Qantas has sharply increased the number of seats its offering its frequent fliers who have piled up the miles while waiting on the ground.
The airline says it’s increasing the number of award seats per flight by 50% through the end of 2022, claiming it’s the largest release of award flights in the airline’s history. In addition to the increase on regular flights, it will also fly a number of ‘points planes,’ with every seat on the flight open to award redemption.
Qantas loyalty chief Olivia Wirth told media that “Throughout the pandemic, many Qantas frequent flyers have been stockpiling points they have earned on the ground so they can use them to travel once travel restrictions are lifted. With members keen to travel internationally and domestically, we have released more reward seats to make it easier for our frequent flyers to use their points to go on holidays and be reunited with family and friends in 2022.”
And it appears they are planning to do just that: since the airline announced it would resume international flights in December, over trwo billion points have been redeemed. London, Los Angeles and Fiji are, so far, the most popular destinations.
