Frequent flyers will be able to take advantage of thousands more reward seats as Qantas and Jetstar celebrate the reopening of Japan for international travellers following years of COVID restrictions. Qantas Loyalty CEO Olivia Wirth said the business was focused on giving its frequent flyers every opportunity to use the points they’ve been saving for their next trip.

“Australians have been waiting to be able to return to Japan and having access to thousands of reward seats will help our frequent flyers travel to one of their most loved destinations,” said Wirth. “We saw a record number of points used recently when we extended our commitment of up to 50 per cent more Classic Reward seats with strong demand for travel to Japan.

“Our members love to redeem their points on travel, and we’re excited to expand their opportunities with more reward seats, as well as hotels, holidays, and curated experiences. “There are also still millions of reward seats available across many other domestic and other international routes for the next year on Qantas, Jetstar and our partner airlines.”

In August, Qantas extended its commitment of up to 50 per cent more Classic Reward seat availability until 30 June 2023, and saw Frequent Flyers use more than 1.2 billion Qantas Points to book flights in just 48 hours. Over the past year, one in every 11 passengers carried by Qantas travelled on a Reward seat and frequent flyers have redeemed more than 80 billion Qantas Points.

Both airlines will make every Economy seat between Australia and Japan available as a Classic Flight Reward over a six-week period from 11 May to 20 June 2023.  All Economy seats on Jetstar flights between Australia and Japan between 11 October to 30 November 2022 will also be available as Classic Flight Rewards.

Up to 100,000 reward seats will be available across six routes. Qantas flights between: Sydney and Tokyo (Haneda), Brisbane and Tokyo (Haneda), Melbourne and Tokyo (Haneda). Jetstar flights between: Cairns and Tokyo (Narita), Cairns and Osaka (Kansai), Gold Coast and Tokyo (Narita)

To mark the beginning of the six weeks of reward seats, Qantas will operate two Points Planes between Sydney and Tokyo (Haneda) on 10 May 2023, meaning every seat in every cabin, including Business, can be booked as a Classic Flight Reward. Qantas will also offer Points Planes between Sydney and Hong Kong on 30 January 2023 when the airline restarts its Hong Kong flights.

The additional Classic Flight Reward seats and Points Planes will be available for booking from 10am today until 13 October 2022. Seats on these flights can also be purchased with cash.

To celebrate easing border restrictions, today Jetstar has also launched a Japan Sale, with one-way fares from Cairns and the Gold Coast to Tokyo and Osaka from USD289. The five-day sale runs from 12.00 noon to 11:59pm AEDT Tuesday 11 October 2022, unless sold out prior and travel dates vary per route but include mid-October to mid-December 2022.