Qantas, Jetstar Japan sale: 'Points planes', 100,000 frequent flyer seats launched

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Qantas, Jetstar Japan sale: 'Points planes', 100,000 frequent flyer seats launched

By Katherine Scott
Qantas will fly two 'points planes' to Tokyo.

Qantas will fly two 'points planes' to Tokyo.Credit: Getty Images

Qantas will fly a 'points plane' to Tokyo and, along with subsidiary Jetstar, make 100,000 seats available for frequent flyer bookings to mark the reopening of Japan to mass tourism.

The airline's 'points plane' flights make all seats on board available for booking using frequent flyer points (regular flights typically only have a limited number of reward seats).

The national carrier will operate two points plane flights between Sydney and Tokyo (Haneda) on May 10, 2023.

Additionally, both Qantas and Jetstar will be offering 100,000 reward seats across six routes to the Land of the Rising Sun, over a six week travel window. The seats will be available for booking until October 13.

The six Japan routes will include Qantas flights from Sydney, Brisbane and Melbourne to Tokyo (Haneda), and Jetstar flights between Cairns and Tokyo (Narita), Cairns and Osaka (Kansai), and Gold Coast and Tokyo (Narita).

Loyalty members can book economy, one-way Qantas fares from Brisbane to Tokyo from 25,200 points (plus $148 in taxes), and Melbourne to Tokyo from 31,500 points ($147 taxes). Sydney to Tokyo economy seats are priced from 31,500 points ($147 in taxes), and business class fares from 82,000 points ($197 in taxes).

Jetstar one-way flights to Osaka and Tokyo will start from 21,500 points (between $132-$147 in taxes).

The budget carrier has also launched a five-day Japan flight sale, until midnight on Tuesday, with one-way fares from $289 (Cairns to Osaka and Tokyo; Gold Coast to Tokyo).

Qantas Loyalty CEO Olivia Wirth said the business recently saw a record number of points bookings, noting a strong demand for travel to Japan.

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"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.

"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," she said.

In August, frequent flyers used up more than 1.2 billion points over 48 hours after Qantas extended its pledge of up to 50 per cent more rewards seats through to June 2023, according to the airline.

Qantas also announced it will operate points planes between Sydney and Hong Kong on January 30, 2023, to mark the carrier's official restart of the route. The move follows the recent lifting of the city's border restrictions.

Hong Kong tourism officials just announced a 500,000 flight giveaway to help lure tourists back, following the recent axing of hotel quarantine for foreign visitors.

The incentive is slated to launch in early 2023, at a cost of $HK2 billion ($A400 million) to the Hong Kong government.

Travellers no longer face mandatory hotel quarantine but are subject to a three-day surveillance period, and must take COVID tests every week.

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