Qantas has a solid frequent flyer program and generally good award availability, particularly on partner airlines. While third-party tools can help find seats bookable with Qantas points, the Qantas website itself offers a few search capabilities that are useful for checking award availability.
Award Search on Qantas Basics
Most travellers start by searching for award flights directly on the Qantas website for a specific route and date. For routes such as Sydney to Hong Kong, where both Qantas and partner airlines operate, the standard award search allows you to view Classic and Classic Plus award availability across different cabins.
The calendar view makes it easy to see availability across a full month. However, there are limitations to this way. Availability is shown for one cabin at a time, so you must switch cabins manually to check each class, and certain combinations of availability may not appear.
This is where an alternative search method becomes useful.
Qantas Multi-City Booking Option to Search Award Availability
Unlike many airline websites, Qantas allows the multi-city booking option even for simple one-way searches. This makes it a powerful tool for discovering award availability.
Using the multi-city search allows Qantas to display availability across multiple cabins and dates more clearly, bringing all availability together.
Here’s how to do it.
Enter the details. In our case, it is Sydney to Hong Kong in November, so I enter the departure and arrival cities and a midpoint date, i.e., 11 November 2026, to find all dates on which an award flight is available with an available cabin.
Voilà, you get the complete award availability for November 2026. See, whichever cabin is available is shown with Icons. I have the option to book economy, premium economy, or business class on 12 November 2026. I chose that date and went ahead.
I can choose my desired flight and book.
For travellers focused on flexibility rather than a specific cabin, this approach can significantly improve the chances of finding usable award seats.
Search Multi City Directly on the Qantas website here.
Mixed Class Award Flight Availability
One notable advantage of the multi-city search is its ability to search and find mixed-class award availability. These itineraries combine different cabins across segments and often do not appear in the default award search.
Mixed-class options can be particularly useful when no single-cabin award seats are available on a desired date. Rather than blocking availability entirely, Qantas may offer combinations that include a lower cabin on one segment and a higher cabin on another.
Importantly, Qantas does not price mixed-class itineraries at the highest cabin level. The required points are often lower than those for a full premium cabin redemption, making these options more practical than many travellers expect.
Bottomline
Searching for award availability with Qantas points is not limited to the standard one-way award search. Using the multi-city booking option can bring together all availabilities and hidden mixed-class itineraries, and provide a more complete picture of what is actually bookable. For travellers with flexible cabin preferences or fixed travel dates, this approach can meaningfully improve award search results.
