QANTAS & CHINA AIRLINES: You can now book Classic Reward Seats to and onward from Taipei

Now Qantas Frequent Flyers can use their points to redeem Classic Reward seats on all China Airlines flights. That means you can now use Taipei in Taiwan as a transit point for flights to Asia or Europe. The Airline runs an international operation covering 23 countries with Business, Premium Economy and Economy cabins, so no First Class option.

Previously

Up until now, Qantas Frequent Flyers could only redeem their Qantas Points on flights between Australia and Taipai on China airlines, but not for onward travel on the Taiwan-based airline.

Examples

Here are some examples of one-way redemptions for Classic Rewards on China Airlines using Qantas Points:

• Sydney to Da Nang in Economy = 37,800 points
• Melbourne to Amsterdam in Business = 159,000 points
• Sydney to Taipei in Business = 75,000 points

You need to add taxes, fees and carrier charges to these figures. Bookings will also be able to be made through the Contact Centre shortly.

Here is a Qantas supplied chart of some options:

	ECONOMY		BUSINESS
Route (one-way)	Qantas Points	Fees	Qantas Points	Fees
Sydney to New York	66,200	$248.70	159,000	$248.70
Brisbane to London	66,200	$192.60	159,000	$192.60
Melbourne to Amsterdam	66,200	$179.77	159,000	$192.60
Brisbane to Tokyo	37,800	$167.60	90,000	$192.60
Sydney to Osaka	37,800	$165.30	90,000	$192.60
Melbourne to Ho Chi Minh	45,000	$154.77	104,500	$192.60

Qantas has 45 Partner Airlines!

I didn’t realise it was so many. Below are all 45 of them listed, or you can see them visually above in a Qantas-supplied map. The list includes all of their alliance partners through membership of the OneWorld Alliance.

• Air Calin
• Air France
• Air New Zealand
• Air Tahiti Nui
• Air Vanuatu Alaska
• Airlines
• American Airlines
• Bangkok Airways
• British Airways
• Cathay Pacific
• China Airlines
• China Eastern
• El Al
• Emirates
• Fiji Airways
• Finnair
• Iberia
• IndiGo
• Japan Airlines
• Jetstar
• Jetstar Asia
• Jetstar Japan
• KLM
• LATAM
• Malaysia Airlines
• Qatar Airways
• Royal Air Maroc
• Royal Jordanian
• Solomon Airlines
• SriLankan Airlines
• WestJet

More Reward Seats

Qantas announced recently that it would have 50% more reward seats available on international flights, which it has extended by another 6 months, apparently. Pity many don’t seem to be in premium cabins

“There are more than 5 million reward seats available for booking over the next year on Qantas, Jetstar and our partner airlines.”

Olivia Wirth, Qantas Loyalty CEO

2PAXfly Takeout

This is good news for Qantas Frequent Flyers because it offers another way to spend your hard-earned frequent flyer points and to spend them well on flight redemptions.

China Airlines has a great reputation, especially for its premium cabins. Prior to the pandemic, it was offering competitive Business Class airfares to European destinations from Australia via Taipei.

I’ve got a few Qantas points laying around, and some free time . . .