Buy & Fly with Airline Points and Miles – Save Up to 75% on Business & First Class

BUY AND FLY WITH POINTS AND MILES AND SAVE BIG!

NO POINTS? NO WORRIES!

Buying airline points and miles from the airlines and using these points and miles to pay for flights is a great way of saving big compared to the regular cash price.

Although not recommended for economy class, as savings are minimal or non-existent, when points and miles are bought and used to fly business or first class you can save up to 75% compared to the regular cash fare. With regular cash fares as high as $20,000, and the cost to buy these points and miles as low as $5,000, this means you can save up to $15,000 on a single return flight!

Buy and fly is ideal if you struggle to earn enough points and miles through flying or credit card spend, or if you simply want to take a flight now rather than wait to earn enough points and miles.

Pointrs has thousands of “Spend Less” Pointrs that tell you what it will cost to buy points and miles to use to book flights. These “cash (via airline points and miles)” Pointrs can save you thousands and even tens of thousands of dollars per person per flight and even far more when travelling as a family or with friends.

Here’s some examples:

• Pointr #15102: - Fly Sydney to London First Return with Japan Airlines (via Tokyo) for only $5,599 - Save up to $14,401!

• Pointr #9486: Fly Melbourne to New York Business Return with Singapore Airlines (via Singapore) for only $2,899 - Save up to $9,101!

• Pointr #6: Fly Brisbane to Doha Business Return with Qatar Airways (non-stop) for only $2,699 - Save up to $7,301!

WHICH AIRLINE LOYALTY PROGRAMS ALLOW YOU TO BUY POINTS AND MILES AND WHAT DO THEY COST?

Pointrs supports 19 leading airline loyalty programs and 16 of these allow you to buy points and miles.

All these points and miles can be bought at a bonus and/or discount during special promotions. The key to saving big when buying airline points and miles and using these points and miles to pay for flights is to buy these points and miles at their maximum bonus or discount. You can still save when buying points and miles at their full price, but with bonuses up to 175% and discounts up to 50%, you will be far better off waiting for these promotions.

For the 16 airline loyalty programs, the table below shows the cost to buy their points and miles at full price and at their highest special bonus / discount, along with the currency used.

* When bought through British Airways Executive Club and transferred to Qatar Airways Privilege Club

WHICH AIRLINE LOYALTY PROGRAMS DON’T ALLOW YOU TO BUY POINTS AND MILES

Of the 19 leading airline loyalty programs that Pointrs supports, 3 don’t allow you to buy points and miles: Cathay Pacific Cathay, Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer and ANA Mileage Club.

WHICH AIRLINE LOYALTY PROGRAM SHOULD I USE TO BUY POINTS AND MILES FOR MY FLIGHT?

As shown in the previous table, different airline loyalty programs charge different prices to buy their points and miles. Also, different airline loyalty programs charge a different number of points and miles for different flights. And as mentioned, airline loyalty programs run special bonus/discount promotions and you need to take advantage of these promotions to pay the lowest price for the points and miles for your flight. 

Taking all this into account, buying points and miles and using them to book flights for their lowest price can be very tricky indeed.

For a particular flight, you need to:

• Know which airline loyalty programs you can use

• For each program, know what it costs to buy their points and miles at full price, and at their current currency conversion rates

• For each program, know their highest special bonus and/or discount when on promotion 

• For each program, calculate what it costs to buy their points and miles after their highest special bonus and/or discount, and at their current currency conversion rates

• For each program, know many points and miles are required for the flight

• For each program, calculate the total cost for the flight when points and miles are bought at their highest special bonus and/or discount, and at their current currency conversion rates, so you can work out the cheapest program to use

• For the cheapest program, know when their promotions are on so you can buy their points and miles at their lowest price

Up for the challenge?

Fortunately, Pointrs has done all the work for you, making it very easy.

In a few clicks of the mouse:

• We’ll tell you which airline loyalty program is the cheapest to use for the flight
• We’ll tell you what special bonus and/or discount you need to buy their points and miles at their lowest price and what this price is
• We’ll tell you when these promotions are on
• We’ll tell you alternate airline loyalty programs you can use and what special bonus and/or discount you need to buy their points and miles at their lowest prices and what these prices are
• We’ll tell you what each airline loyalty program charges to buy their points and miles at full prices, in case you can’t wait for a promotion
• We’ll give you step-by-step instructions on how to buy points and miles and how to book flights using points and miles, for each airline loyalty program
• HOW DO CASH (VIA AIRLINE POINTS AND MILES) POINTRS WORK?

1. Search “Spend Less” Pointrs for the flights you want to take, using the filters.

For example, assume you want to fly Sydney to Denpasar (Bali) in Business Class.

2. Sort the Pointrs by “Lowest Price (Cash)”.

This shows all the Cash (Via Airline Points) first, from the lowest price.

3. Select the airline you wish to fly and click on that Pointr.

Assume you want to fly Virgin Australia, which is the second Pointr shown, Pointr #14489. This Pointr says you can fly Sydney to Denpasar business return with Virgin Australia (non-stop) for only $1,399 - save up to $1,601.

4. Scroll down to Instructions where you will be told, step-by-step, which airline loyalty program’s points and miles to buy and how to do it.

Instructions Step 1 - instructs you to buy Virgin Australia Velocity Points at their lowest price and use these points to book your flights.

Instructions Step 2 - show you how to sign up to Virgin Australia Velocity Frequent Flyer for free.

Instructions Step 3 - instructs you to wait until a special 40% discount promotion for buying points is on. You’ll need to buy the points at 40% discount so that you only pay $1,399.

Step 3 also instructs you to look under “Promotions” in your Dashboard to see if a there is a current special 40% discount promotion. At the same time you can see previous promotions to get a sense of when the next promotion will be. Pointrs will also notify you via our weekly emails. You can see from the below that there is no current special 40% discount promotion and that the last special 40% discount promotion ended on 25 Feb 2025.

Instruction Step 4 - instructs you to login to your Virgin Australia Velocity Frequent Flyer account to buy the points.

Instruction Step 5 - instructs you to buy the points for $14.04 per 1,000, which is 40% discount.

Instruction Step 6 - tells you what it would cost to buy the points at full price, $23.40, in case you cannot wait until a promotion is on.

Instruction Step 7 - instructs you to book your flights when ready, using the points you just bought.

Instruction Step 8 - tells you the total cost of buying the points used to book your flights, rounded up to the nearest $99, which is $1,399, plus any taxes, fees and surcharges.

The total Velocity Points required for the return flight, as shown under “Flights”, is 99,000. Each 1,000 points costs $14.04. Hence, the total cost is 99 x $14.04 = $1,389.96, which is $1,399 when rounded up to the nearest $99. With the regular cash fare of up to $3,000, this is a saving of up to $1,601.

By selecting different airline loyalty programs under “Flights” you can see the price to buy their points and miles. For example, you can buy Air Canada Aeroplan points for $797 one-way, which is $1,594 return, not much dearer than using Virgin Australia Velocity Frequent Flyer Velocity Points.

As you can see, Pointrs makes it easy to save big when buying and flying. 

POINTRS INSIDER TIP #1 – BUY AND FLY RISK-FREE WITH MALAYSIA AIRLINES ENRICH

Malaysia Airlines Enrich does not run occasional buy points promotions. Instead, at any time you can buy a minimum of 500,000 Enrich points to receive their highest special discount of 35%. This means you never need to wait for a promotion to take advantage of buying Enrich points and using these points to pay for flights.

There are nearly 800 Pointrs where Malaysia Airlines Enrich points are the cheapest way to buy and fly. For these Pointrs you don’t need to wait until a promotion is on. This means you can find flights available using Enrich points and then immediately buy Enrich points and book these flights, whilst saving up to 75%. This removes the risk of buying points and miles and then finding it difficult to find flights, making this a risk-free way of buying them and using them to pay for flights. 

Here are some examples:

• Pointr #598: Fly Sydney to Los Angeles Business Return with American Airlines (non-stop) for only $3,599 - Save up to $6,401!

• Pointr #16731: Fly Melbourne to Maldives Business Return with Malaysia Airlines (via Kuala Lumpur) for only $3,599 - Save up to $4,401!

• Pointr #14202: Fly Brisbane to London Business Return with Cathay Pacific (via Hong Kong) for only $4,499 - Save up to $5,501!

POINTRS INSIDER TIP #2 – BUY POINTS AND MILES FROM THE AIRLINE LOYALTY PROGRAM OF THE AIRLINE YOU INTEND TO FLY

This is because the airline's airline loyalty program normally has the highest number of award/reward seats available to book using points and miles, and often considerably more seats than any other airline loyalty program. For example, if you intend to fly Qantas, you’ll normally find that Qantas Frequent Flyer has the highest number of award/reward seats available using points and miles when compared to other airline loyalty programs, such as Cathay Pacific Cathay and Qatar Airways Privilege Club. So, if you intend to take a Qantas flight, you’ll normally find it easier to buy Qantas Frequent Flyer Qantas Points and use these points to take the flight.

This tip works best when the airline loyalty program in question is the cheapest; however, you can still save big compared to the regular cash fare even if it is not.

Here are some examples where the airline loyalty program of the airline is the cheapest:

• Pointr #14496: Fly Sydney to Honolulu Business Return with Qantas (non-stop) for only $2,999 - Save up to $7,001!

• Pointr #214: Fly Melbourne to Paris Business Return with Qatar Airways (via Doha) for only $3,499 - Save up to $6,501!

• Pointr #27859: Fly Brisbane to New York First Return with American Airlines (via Dallas) from only $5,399 - Save up to $18,601!

POINTRS SEAT RADAR, SEAT SEARCH AND PERSONAL POINTRS

Once you have bought your points and miles, we can help you find award/reward seats so you can book your flights!

• Pointrs Seat Radar – look out for our weekly Seat Radar emails where we search for award/reward seats for selected popular Pointrs on selected dates

• Pointrs Seat Search – let us search for award/reward seats for any Pointrs and dates of your choice

• Pointrs Personal Pointrs – request a Personal Pointr if you want us to find award/reward seats for more complicated itineraries

Happy buying and flying!