You Can Now Book Qantas First Class for 50% off on Airbnb
Looking to fly in the front of the plane on your next trip? Airbnb can help you with that.
For the next two weeks, Qantas will be listing some of its first and business class seats on Airbnb for a fraction of the normal price; some bookings are more than 50 percent off. The listings, all for fully lie-flat seas, will be somewhat difficult to find on Airbnb and will only be open to Qantas frequent flyer members.
The redemptions will be disguised as normal accommodation listings on the site, with Qantas Frequent Flyer registered as the "host." An example of a possible redemption through the Airbnb promotion, Qantas says, would be "Two First Class seats one way Melbourne to Los Angeles 50,000 Qantas Points, normally 144,000 Qantas Points per seat," or "Two Business class seats one way Sydney to London for 50,000 Qantas Points, normally 128,000 per seat."
The secret listings will include imagery of Qantas lounges and aircraft and include information on the flight details, destination and Qantas Points required to secure the booking. Listings include seats in pairs and groups of four.
Here's how the promotion works:
• Qantas Frequent Flyers search the Airbnb website for a Qantas Frequent Flyer secret listing.
• When a member locates a secret listing they click on request to book.
• Once a member's request to book has been received, a Qantas Frequent Flyer team representative will then get in contact to confirm their Frequent Flyer number and necessary points balance.
• Once the information is verified, a Qantas customer care agent will book the flights.
"Some of our members fly with us more than 100 times a year so it can certainly feel like they're living on one of our planes, eating, sleeping and working at 35,000 feet," Olivia Wirth, Qantas Loyalty CEO, said in a release. "Our business and first class suites have all the hallmarks of a typical Airbnb house with comfortable beds, movies, quality cooked meals and experienced friendly hosts."
The promotion only includes flights out of Australia, but destinations include "dozens" of destinations across Qantas' international route network, including London, Los Angeles, Hong Kong and Santiago. The airline has 12 A380s that still feature first class, which is also found on one of its 747s, otherwise its long-haul fleet features business class only. This is a good opportunity to book coveted premium-class seats on a carrier that can be notoriously difficult for award redemptions.
Since Qantas is a member of the Oneworld alliance, award seats can also be booked using American Airlines miles.
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