Though it may not be very well known among U.S. travelers, Qantas is Australia's largest airline for both domestic and international travel. It was founded over a century ago, with an acronym for Queensland and Northern Territory Aerial Services.

We’ll cover what you need to know in our guide to Qantas Frequent Flyer — the airline's loyalty program — from how to earn and redeem Qantas points for max value to finding the best routes.

About Qantas Airlines

Qantas partners with the low-fare Jetstar, which is also owned by the Qantas Group. Qantas is also part of the Oneworld alliance, which includes the U.S.-based American Airlines and Alaska Airlines to sweeten those Qantas U.S. route options.

Here are a few main features you’ll want to know about Qantas.

Fare types

For flights from the U.S. to Australia, there are four main fare types:

Economy.

Premium economy.

Business.

First class.

Each of these has three fare values:

Sale.

Saver.

Flex.

The primary differences among these three fares are higher fees for flight changes and cancellation on sale and saver fares. Flex fares have no change or cancellation fees. At the economy level, sale fares will also have a seat selection fee.

Main U.S. routes

Currently, Qantas has paused most international travel due to COVID-19 restrictions in Australia. However, before the pandemic, there were a few main U.S.-Australia routes operated by Qantas, though code-share flights were available for other U.S. destinations. The main Qantas U.S. routes from Australia are between Honolulu, Dallas, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Miami, Chicago and New York to Sydney, Brisbane and Melbourne.

Points currency and loyalty program

Join the Qantas rewards program, Frequent Flyer, to earn points for your loyalty. The program allows you to earn Qantas points, as well as status credits, which count toward your elite status. If you earn 150,000 Qantas points, you can join the Qantas Points Club. More on this to come.

How to earn Qantas points

Earn by flying

The primary way to earn Qantas points is by flying on Qantas Airlines or any of its partners. After joining the Qantas Frequent Flyer program, you simply need to book flights. Points earnings are based on a combination of distance, class of travel, fare type and loyalty status.

Qantas has published various charts to make it easy to figure out how many Qantas points you can expect to earn on your trip. For instance, you can earn 11,250 Qantas points on a premium economy flight between Los Angeles and Sydney each way.

Qantas also provides a calculator to help you determine how many Qantas points and status credits you’ll earn on a flight.

Earn by spending on credit cards

Credit cards are a significant way to earn Qantas points quickly; however, Americans will be disappointed to find that there are no co-branded Qantas credit cards currently available for spend in the U.S.

That doesn’t necessarily preclude you from using credit cards to earn Qantas points, as there are multiple transfer options.

Earn by transferring

While there may not be co-branded cards to help you earn Qantas points, you can earn on other cards and transfer them to the Qantas program. Three main programs for transferring points to Qantas are Citi ThankYou Rewards, Capital One Rewards and American Express Membership Rewards.

Citi ThankYou Rewards

Transfer your Citi ThankYou Rewards to Qantas at a 1:1 ratio. The Citi Premier® Card offers a sizable welcome bonus: Earn 60,000 bonus ThankYou® Points after you spend $4,000 in purchases within the first 3 months of account opening. Plus, for a limited time, earn a total of 10 ThankYou® Points per $1 spend on hotel, car rentals, and attractions (excluding air travel) booked on the Citi Travel℠ portal through June 30, 2024. With an annual fee of only $95, this is a mid-level card that can help you quickly earn rewards that can be added to your Qantas points bank.

Capital One Rewards

Transfer Capital One miles to Qantas points at a 1:1 ratio. If you’re new to Capital One Rewards, then consider the Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card. The welcome bonus is also enticing: Enjoy a one-time bonus of 75,000 miles once you spend $4,000 on purchases within 3 months from account opening, equal to $750 in travel. The card earns unlimited 2 miles per dollar on every purchase (plus 5 miles per dollar on rental cars and hotels booked through Capital One Travel), and costs a reasonable annual fee of $95. It’s easy to quickly start accumulating miles to transfer to Qantas.

American Express Membership Rewards

Transfer your American Express Membership Rewards points to Qantas at a 1:1 ratio, starting with a minimum of 500 points. To earn AmEx Membership Rewards quickly, consider The Platinum Card® from American Express. While it charges a hefty $695 annual fee, you can quickly earn the welcome bonus: Earn 80,000 Membership Rewards® Points after you spend $8,000 on purchases on your new Card in your first 6 months of Card Membership.

In addition to a number of other benefits and points earning opportunities, you’ll receive a statement credit every year for Clear, which will help you skip to the front of the security line at the airport. Terms apply.

Other ways to earn

Earn Qantas points with stays at Airbnb and partner hotels. Properties are plentiful and range from Hyatt Regency and Four Seasons to Sofitel.

The airline partners with Avis and Budget so you can earn points with car rentals.

Book tours and activities through Viator to earn 1 Qantas point per Australian dollar (around 75 cents).

Use the Qantas shopping portal to earn bonus Qantas points on your purchases.

How to redeem Qantas points for maximum value

Award flights

Classic flight rewards — which include Qantas and American Airlines flights, among others — are broken into 10 zones based on distance flown. Zone one is for flights between 0-600 miles, while zone 10 includes flights from 9,601 to 15,000 miles. Flight redemptions vary, with one-way economy flights in zone one costing only 8,000 Qantas points, whereas one-way economy flights in zone 10 are a heftier 55,200 Qantas points.

Note that there are three other award charts at play depending on which airline operates the flights you would like to redeem: Jetstar Classic Flight Reward table, Partner Classic Flight Reward table and the Oneworld Classic Flight Reward table. Paying attention to the distance, as well as the airline, is one secret to maximizing the Qantas Frequent Flyer program.