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Qantas is the leading Australian carrier, operating a range of long-haul routes to Europe, North America, and beyond. Due to Australia's location, Qantas operates some of the longest airline routes in the world. The airline currently operates the fourth-longest flight in the world, offering a direct service from Perth to London. Qantas plans to operate a non-stop service from Sydney to London in late 2026. This transpolar route is expected to be the longest flight, taking a whopping 19 hours.
Qantas Frequent Flyer is the airline’s loyalty program, and like many other programs, it has its own points expiration policy. Here is all you need to know to answer the question Do Qantas Frequent Flyer Points expire? And what you can do to keep your points active.
Do Qantas Points Expire?
Your Qantas points will expire if you have no qualifying activity on your account for 18 months. Per the Qantas information page:
“To ensure you keep your Qantas Points from expiring you'll need to earn or use Qantas Points through your account at least once every 18 months. This includes earning or using Qantas Points with our program partners, but does not include transferring points to or from an Eligible Family Member (Family Transfer) or the transfer of points from Qantas Business Rewards.”
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How To Ensure Your Qantas Points Don't Expire
You need to earn or use your Frequent Flyer points at least every 18 months to ensure your points don't expire. All the following ways of earning Qantas points count towards keeping your points active:
- Take a Qantas flight.
- Fly with Oneworld partners like British Airways and non-alliance partners like Emirates.
- Earn points through a hotel partner, including IHG, Airbnb, Choice Hotels, World of Hyatt, Marriott Bonvoy, Hilton Honors, and Accor.
- Rent a car from partners like Avis and Budget.
- Shop with Qantas Shopping.
- Spend on select health and leisure activities.
- Earn points with Qantas insurance partners.
- Use partner utility services.
- Earn points for property sales and rentals.
- Purchase fuel from BP and other automotive services.
- Buy food and wine from select partners, including HelloFresh and Qantas Wine.
- Earn points for everyday spending with Qantas co-branded credit cards.
Redeem your points
Additionally, using your points in the following ways will ensure your Qantas points don't expire:
- Book award flights or upgrades with Qantas or one of its airline partners.
- Use your points for car rentals with Avis and Budget.
- Pay for Qantas Holidays or Qantas Hotel stays using your points.
- Use your points at the Qantas Rewards store.
- Redeem points Qantas Wines.
- Use your points and cash to pay for your Qantas travel insurance.
One thing to remember is that transfers between family accounts and transfers from a Qantas Business Rewards account will not qualify toward keeping your points active.
Boosting Your Qantas Points Balance
If you have points about to expire but not enough for your desired redemption, you have a couple of options to boost your Qantas points balance rapidly. Fortunately, the airline is a partner with multiple transferable points patners. This allows you to transfer points from one or multiple programs to reach the balance needed for your award.
Related: How To Consolidate Transferable Points for an Award Ticket
Use AwardWallet to Track Your Qantas Points Expiration
18 months is on the short end of things, and you are best advised to keep a close eye on your account to ensure your Qantas points don't expire. The easiest way to do this is to use AwardWallet to track your Qantas points and receive timely reminders when your points are in danger of expiring.
To track your points, link your Qantas account to your AwardWallet account, and you are set. This way, you will have ample notice if any of your points are in danger of expiring. You'll also get other important notification, like changes to your elite status or upcoming flights.
Related: How To Track Your Rewards Using AwardWallet
Our Take
Even though Qantas points expire after a short period, keeping them alive isn't too hard since there are many options to earn or use Qantas points. The most important thing to do is keep track of your Qantas balance and activity to ensure you always stay within the 18-month activity window. This way, your points shouldn't ever expire.
Related: How Loyalty Program Expiration Policies Work, and How You Can Avoid Your Miles Expiring
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So . . . those of us with transferrable points who dont travel to Australia but find favorable partner award redemptions are best advised to transfer only those points needed after identifying the specific flight and several alternates for the same points.
Too bad they didn’t extend the expiration for points. I will stick with airlines with no expiration (when I can).
Considering how flying is the best, if not only way for anybody to get to and from Australia, it’s always good to hear about the numerous ways for customers of that airline to keep their accumulated reward points valid for future international or domestic travel.
I am looking to earn Qantas miles so this is really helpful. I will be trying to build miles with them and eventually have redemptions. I am dreaming of Australia and planning on going once it’s completely open again.
The Australian Ebay webiste is a Qantas shopping partner which makes it very easy to keep points alive by buying something at a dollar once every 18 months. It generally seems to take about four months for the transaction to post, so the purchase needs to be made well in advance of the 18 month expiry date to keep the points safe.
A suspension from Qantas in COVID´s time would be a breaking news
Woow, only 18 months? Why this decision so frustrating?
These aren’t customer friendly policies. I prefer airlines with more favorable point expiration terms.
At any rate, Qantas should have implemented more friendly expiration policy or even done away with it altogether, especially in light of the recent “events.”
Thank you for the reminder. I had almost forgotten about these during the pandemic. A quick purchase using quantas shopping helped.
-AJ
Does seem a bit backwards – I appreciate airlines like United and Delta that don’t have expiration anymore.
With so many options, earning to stop expiry has been easy but Qantas haven’t done anything to (temporarily) lower status thresholds while international travel has at times been impossible. Formal removal of the requirement to fly four QF/JQ segments for a year for members outside Australia would have been useful too.