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Young Aussie turns drink shout into $160 flight to Spain: 'Saved $1,600'

Ever wanted to fly business? Here's how used shouting drinks, customer service calls and points to pay for my dream Euro summer trip.

Joshua Godfrey
·Contributor
Updated ·6-min read
Euro Josh
Josh made some changes after being burned by $3,000 flights. (Supplied)

If you’re longing to enjoy a Euro Summer holiday you only really have one option. Cop the 22+ hour flight and be prepared to fork out thousands of dollars on airfares.

I took a last-minute trip to Europe in 2023 which cost me $3,000 for flights alone. I promised myself then that I would apply for a rewards credit card and use points to pay for my next trip.

But firstly, a quick about me.

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I am not on a six-figure salary and I graduated from university less than two years ago.

People seem to think reward cards are only for big earners. There definitely are cards for them. But there are plenty for younger people who spend less.

I applied for the Qantas American Express Ultimate Card which promised 100,000 points after I met the opening spend minimum.

Using the points I earned, I purchased my recent flight from Spain in June for just 99 euros which is about $160 here. The kicker? I sat in business class for half of the flying time.

Here’s how I did it and the things you need to consider if you want to attempt my feat.

Three men on a beach and a another photo of two men in a bar.
Josh had to overcome some hurdles but ended up in Spain for an amazing price. (Supplied)

Firstly you need a decent income.

Most reward credit cards will have a minimum income to be eligible. The Amex card I used required a minimum annual earning of $65,000.

Next, you better be prepared to be flexible.

This is important when using your points. To get the best value you'll want to book Qantas Classic Rewards seats which can be difficult to find.

To give yourself the best chance, you’ll need to be flexible with the dates and route.

In my case, I had to leave two days earlier than planned.

Being a Finder employee, I naturally used the site to compare credit cards. I sorted by bonus points and income requirements.

Applying for the Amex Ultimate was straightforward enough and (anecdotally) is similar for other cards.

All up it took me 30 minutes. Do this at home: you'll need access to documents to prove your identity and income.

Amex approved my application within 24 hours and I received my card in the mail after a few days.

I connected it to my Apple Pay straight away and tried to break the habit of tapping my Up Bank debit card. This meant every round of drinks or cheeky take away I bought was getting me to my goal.

Luckily for me, Amex offered more ways to earn points.

These should really be viewed as incentives to spend.

As long as you’re not spending outside your habits, explore your options.

For example, I could earn five points per $1 spent on Uber when I linked my card and I ride regularly.

There was also a bonus if I could get a mate to use my referral code. My friend Sarah used mine and I got 40,000 points for it. Amex is still running this offer but it now gets you 20,000 points.

Keep an eye out for perks like this when researching cards.

I successfully hit the $3,000 minimum spend and the points were deposited into my account shortly after. When all was spent and done, I had earned a little over 150,000 points (100,000 in bonus points, 40,000 for referring Sarah, and another 10,000 from spending).

It was finally time to start looking for flights. I jumped onto Qantas Classic Flight Rewards and ... couldn't find any flights back from Europe.

I knew I was missing something or doing something wrong so I turned to two main resources for help.

  1. Reddit

  2. Angus Kidman (Finder's Editor-at-large and very frequent flyer)

I was competing against all the other Aussies trading winter in Oz for summer in Sorrento. I had to get creative if I was going to score a deal.

After speaking to Angus and reading his expert guide, I discovered the multi-city flight booking platform.

It's clunky but helped me quickly experiment with different routes. It also showed more partner airlines.

Armed with the right resources, I just needed to enter each route combination.

This task would've ordinarily been soul-crushing, but a potential $1,600 savings gave me plenty of energy.

I began my search at 10:00 pm and found a route that worked four hours later.

While I will never get back that time, I knew I’d catch up on sleep lying flat in business class.

I was quite flexible with the flights I ended up choosing, I flew out two days earlier than anticipated and the route was far from direct:

  • Malaga (Spain) -> Helsinki (Finland) on Finnair Economy class (4 hours)

  • Helsinki (Finland) -> Tokyo Haneda (Japan) on Finnair Business class (13 hours)

  • Tokyo Haneda (Japan) -> Sydney (Australia) on Qantas Economy (10 hours)

This cost me 136,000 points and $160 in taxes and fees.

Entering your details and booking the route should be simple, right? Wrong.

The Qantas portal repeatedly crashed.

It could've been my end, but the many similar experiences I saw made me assume otherwise.

So I did what every Gen-Z person fears and called the Qantas number.

If you have issues, I highly recommend you do the same. Take down the details of the itinerary you want to book and the Qantas rep can book it for you.

Make sure you tell them that you are only using the phone service due to a site error and they should waive the 7,700-point assistance fee for phone bookings.

After roughly 20 minutes on the phone with Qantas, my itinerary was booked and loaded into my Qantas app.

  • Avoid overspending: keep a record of your spending habits

  • Don’t ask don’t get: simply asking can help you maximise your benefits

  • Save time - get on the phone: calling help centres saved me hours

  • Avoid falling into a debt trap: always make sure you have enough savings to cover any unexpected costs.

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