Top ways to fly to London using PayRewards Points

When planning a trip to London with PayRewards Points, there are so many options at your fingertips. But with this degree of choice, the array of possibilities can be overwhelming. You’ve already done the work in earning those valuable PayRewards Points. Let us help you spend them in style!

In this handy guide, we’ll highlight the most valuable ways to secure your next flatbed flight – of course, without paying full price. Whether you want to get to London in comfort for as few points as possible, or want to avoid the UK’s hefty departure tax, we’ve got you covered.

London for the fewest points

Qatar Airways Privilege Club

When it comes to using points to London, Qatar Airways Privilege Club wins at the pointy end. Just 90,000 Avios can be enough to land you a one-way flight from Australia to London in Qatar Airways Business Class. With PayRewards Points converting into Avios at a 3:1 rate with Privilege Club, that’s 270,000 PayRewards Points for your one-way ticket.

For this journey, you’ll travel from Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide, Perth or Canberra to London via Doha. You’ll have the flexibility to fly into either Heathrow Airport or Gatwick Airport – Qatar Airways serves both.

Carrier charges apply, but they’re reasonable. For instance, from Melbourne to London one-way, the total co-payment is currently $554.35 aside those 90,000 Avios. If you book Economy at 45,000 Avios, you’ll currently pay $362.85, one-way.

Taxes, fees and charges vary by departure port. Examples based on Melbourne departure.

When booking your flights, keep your eyes peeled for services marked as ‘Qsuite’. That’s the airline’s award-winning Business Class cabin with closing privacy doors, and the ability for centre pairs of Qsuites to combine into a double bed. Keep this one as a nice surprise when travelling with your partner!

Hot tip: On the Qatar Airways website, we’re currently finding that the month-by-month search isn’t reliably returning results. But, if you search for a specific date and ensure you keep the ‘flexible with dates’ option unchecked, you may be in luck. Be mindful that any reward flights marked ‘Flexi’ are at higher prices than usual. The seats you want will be listed at 90,000 Avios, one-way.

Avoid the cash crunch to London

Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer

If you’d rather minimise those co-payments, set your sights on Singapore Airlines to London. You’ll find the best reward seat availability through the airline’s KrisFlyer program. There are no carrier charges to pay on these bookings, so you’ll only need to cover the genuine taxes and fees. This makes KrisFlyer the cheapest way to book reward flights to London.

On a one-way business class ticket from Sydney, the tax bill is just $130.39. (Yes, less than you’d spend buying an economy airfare on most Australian domestic flights, but for Business Class to London!) When booked as a KrisFlyer Saver award – the program’s best-value option – you’ll part with 141,000 miles from most major Australian cities, and 131,500 miles from Perth and Darwin.

While the number of miles needed through KrisFlyer is higher than the Qatar Airways option above, KrisFlyer’s transfer rate from PayRewards is more generous at 2.5:1. This will see you transferring 352,500 PayRewards Points to travel from most cities, or 328,750 PayRewards Points from Perth and Darwin. Here’s a look at your breadth of travel options from Australia.

Pricing is based on KrisFlyer’s Saver award rates, for travel on Singapore Airlines.

Taxes, fees and charges vary by departure port. Examples based on Sydney and Perth departures.
*First Class / Suites only available on selected flights from Sydney and Melbourne, and be warned, reward seats at Saver rates are scarce on this route.

Hot tip: Singapore Airlines also offers reward seats at ‘Advantage’ and ‘Access’ rates, alongside the Saver offerings above. Saver is always the lowest price – think of it as the traditional reward seat. Advantage is a way of spending more miles to gain increased reward seat availability, still at a fixed price. Access is more of an ‘any seat’ option, using miles to offset the cash fare.

Get the best of both worlds

Air Canada Aeroplan

If you think Air Canada’s Aeroplan program can only take you to North America, think again. It’s a powerful Star Alliance frequent flyer program – and as it happens, it’s a very attractive option for journeys from Australia to London. When booking most of Air Canada’s Star Alliance partners, Aeroplan combines attractive reward rates with no carrier charges.

Given the 2.5:1 conversion rate from PayRewards, that’s akin to 275,000 PayRewards Points. (The Qatar Airways option, by comparison, is 270,000 PayRewards Points).

On the side, you’ll pay only the genuine taxes and fees as converted to Canadian dollars, plus a modest CAD$39 (AUD$43) Aeroplan partner airline booking fee. For instance, use your Aeroplan points to fly Business Class from Sydney to London via Delhi with Air India and pay only CAD$151 (AU$165) on the side.

That’s an option to keep in your pocket as Air India is currently being very generous with reward seat availability. We’re seeing at least one seat on most dates we’ve searched. But the same 110,000-point reward rate also applies on many other partner airlines flying from Australia to London. Among them, Asiana Airlines, EVA Air, Turkish Airlines and more. You can even book Singapore Airlines, but reward seat availability may differ from what’s seen through KrisFlyer.

Economy flights are typically 65,000 Aeroplan points one-way, plus similar taxes and fees.

Taxes, fees and charges vary by departure port. Examples based on Sydney departure, via Delhi.

Hot tip: Watch out for reward seats marked ‘mixed cabin’ in Business Class. Quite often, this means you’ll get business class on a short connecting flight but will be shunted to Economy for the longer leg(s) – for the same price as flying Business Class the whole way! You can also save yourself from paying a second partner airline booking fee on your return leg by making a single round-trip reservation, as the fee applies per person per ticket, not per journey.

Honourable mention

Asia Miles with Cathay Pacific

Cathay Pacific can have quite reasonable reward seat availability between Australia and London, especially if you’re organised and book in advance. In PayRewards Points, the cost is slightly less than KrisFlyer from the most populous Aussie capitals, and while there are carrier charges, they’re quite modest.

For instance, Melbourne to London via Hong Kong clocks in at 115,000 Asia Miles for Business Class, one-way. Given the 3:1 conversion rate from PayRewards, that’s on-par with 345,000 PayRewards Points. (KrisFlyer, for the same route as a business Saver award, is akin to 352,500 PayRewards Points).

On this one-way journey, taxes, fees and charges currently come to HKD$1,976 (AUD$382.75) – more than what’s payable through the likes of KrisFlyer and Aeroplan, but less than the ~$555 charged through Privilege Club for Qatar Airways.

If you’re looking for more options, you can also fly Cathay Pacific Premium Economy to London for 75,000 Asia Miles, or Economy for 38,000 Asia Miles, one-way. This applies from all Australian cities to London via Hong Kong.

Taxes, fees and charges vary by departure port. Examples based on Melbourne departure.

Hot tip: When searching for reward flights, Cathay Pacific usually places a ‘seat’ icon on dates where there is availability using Asia Miles. But you won’t normally see these when searching for London, so you’ll have to click specific dates and check each one. You can book partner airline flights using Asia Miles as well, but slightly higher reward rates apply.

Stuck for options? Consider these alternatives

With so many ways to fly between Australia and London, we can’t get close to listing them all. But if you’re hunting for reward seats and not having any luck with the great options above, considering these alternative options could get you sorted.

• The British Airways Club: Book BA’s Sydney-Singapore-London flights in Business Class from 145,000 Avios plus $644.59, one-way. That’s 435,000 PayRewards Points converted at a 3:1 rate. Booking on ‘peak’ dates is less appealing at 170,000 Avios.
• Qantas Business Rewards: Qantas offers flights to London through Perth and Singapore, but you’ll seldom find a Classic Reward seat in Business Class outside of promotional periods. But Qantas Points can be valuable to secure bookings on partner airlines – particularly Emirates, Japan Airlines and Malaysia Airlines, when the stars align. Redemption rates and carrier charges vary, but expect the latter to be very high on Emirates. Convert from PayRewards at a recently improved 2:1 rate.
• Virgin Australia Business Flyer: Jet to London with Japan’s All Nippon Airways (ANA), Singapore Airlines and Qatar Airways, and with a great 2:1 conversion rate from PayRewards. Just keep in mind that reward seat availability on these airlines can differ from what other programs can access – and Singapore Airlines applies carrier charges when booking through Velocity as well. But if you already have stacks of Velocity Points, it’s a decent option.

Tips and tricks to get the best value to London

We’ve packed in a helping of final hints to help make your dream trip a reality, while saving you time and money.

• There’s more to London than Heathrow. Sure, Heathrow is the big gateway and it’s where most airlines fly. But Emirates also flies into Gatwick and Stansted airports in London (handy for Qantas Points), while Qatar Airways flies into Gatwick too (great for Privilege Club and Velocity). From March 2026, Turkish Airlines is also adding a new Istanbul-Stansted route (get those Aeroplan points ready!).
• Transits beat stopovers. The reward seat prices we’ve highlighted are all for straight ‘Australia to London’ journeys. That is, where you merely change planes along the way, rather than spending days on the ground at that connecting hub (like Doha or Singapore). If you do this, most programs will charge you the points for ‘flight A-B’ plus ‘flight B-C’ separately, rather than ‘flight A-C via B’, which is usually less. Enjoying a stopover could make the journey more enjoyable, but it’ll generally cost you more points.
• The UK’s Air Passenger Duty (APD) is brutal. This is the UK’s departure tax, and the highest rates apply to those boarding the longest flights at the front of the plane. For instance, the APD adds £253 (AUD$511) to the cost of a London-Singapore-Sydney trip. If it’s practical for your journey, consider starting your return trip from elsewhere in Europe to minimise or avoid this tax. For instance, I often fly into London, but fly back from Paris.
• Heathrow Airport has a Plaza Premium arrivals lounge. If you have the American Express Platinum Card, Business Platinum Card or Centurion Card, flash that card for free access when touching down on any airline into any Heathrow terminal. You’ll find the arrivals lounge landside at Terminal 3, open daily from 6am to 2pm. When you’re landing before hotel check-in time, it’s the perfect place to venture after an early morning arrival for breakfast and a shower.
• Check for reward seats before you transfer. Your PayRewards Points are flexible – you can choose exactly how many points to transfer, when to transfer them, and more importantly, which partner program – or program(s) – you’d like to transfer them to. So do the smart thing and check that reward seats are available via your preferred partner program before converting points from PayRewards to keep your options open.
• Keep a lookout for bonus points promotions at PayRewards. Your PayRewards Points could take you even further if you convert them to partners during bonus points promotions. For instance, a recent offer gave a generous boost of up to 40% when converting from PayRewards to Qatar Airways Privilege Club. That can make a terrific deal even better!

Written by Chris Chamberlin

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About the author

Chris enjoys making the most of frequent flyer points, which have taken him around the world – usually, at the front of the plane. He’s travelled over 1.5 million miles sampling the best in Business Class and First Class. That’s further than three return trips to the moon! Chris is based at Point Hacks' Melbourne office as News Editor, and shares his experiences via @chris_chamberlin on Instagram. When he’s not travelling, he enjoys tennis, keeping fit, and discovering new gins.