Is it worth paying extra on Jetstar to earn Qantas Points?

Do your sums carefully before paying more purely for the points.

Although Qantas owns Jetstar, you can't earn Qantas Points on a regular Jetstar flight. To do that, you need to purchase either a Flex or Flex Plus bundle. Is that ever worth it?

How much you pay for your bundle will depend on the flight you've chosen. As an example, let's use Sydney to Melbourne, which is Australia's busiest airline route. Here's what you'll get with each bundle. (The non-points inclusions are important, as we'll see.)

If you're paying for the bundle purely to earn points, it's really hard to justify. Let's look at the Flex bundle.

Paying $58 for 800 points is an effective rate $72.50 for 1,000 Qantas Points. We always advise that you get at least $20 in value for each 1,000 Qantas Points when you redeem, which is quite straightforward if you redeem your points for flights. But in this case, you'll need to get at least $72.50 per 1,000 points simply to break even. That's almost impossible to do.

It's a slightly different story once you factor in the other Flex inclusions that you'd otherwise pay for. The seat selection and doubled carry-on luggage included with Flex are worth $44. So now you're paying $14 for 800 Qantas Points - a rate per 1,000 points of $17.50. You could match that by using the points for Qantas flight redemptions, but chances are you'll still just break even.

And the key question is: do you really need those other extras? Would you have paid for them even if you weren't earning points? Personally, I'll always pay for seat selection, but it's very rare for me to pay for extra carry-on.

So in most cases, I'd be better off just paying $12 for the up-front seat and leaving it at that. If you do want that extra carry-on, it's potentially worth it (but read on for the Qantas warning).

• Pedantic note

  If you're a Club Jetstar member, charges for seat selection and baggage will be slightly lower, but that doesn't change the basic argument.
  Similarly, the Flex and Flex Plus fares do let you make changes to your flight, but it's hard to assign a direct monetary value to that. That's especially the case on routes where Jetstar only flies once a day anyway. So I haven't factored that in here - that's a flight choice, not a points choice.

The pricier Flex Plus bundle comes out much the same. With that you get access to an exit row seat (normally $16 on this route) plus 20kg of checked baggage ($30) and a $10 food voucher. That means you're paying $14 for earning the points - the same rate as Flex, and again about the same as the likely value you'll get when you redeem those points.
In other words, you're no worse off, but you're no better off. Ultimately you still really need to want the seats, the luggage and (for Flex Plus) the food.

There's also another factor you need to consider: the actual cost of a competing Qantas flight. The Flex Plus flight I checked on Jetstar was $171, which isn't unusual outside of a Jetstar sale. The equivalent Qantas flight was $185 - not heaps more.

It's not a direct apples-to-apples comparison, since you'd have to pay more for an exit row on Qantas if you wanted one and you'll potentially have fewer meal choices with Qantas' "free" food option than with Jetstar's "paid" deal. But it's a good reminder: if you're keen to earn points, check the competing Qantas fare before paying extra for the bundle.

If you plan to pay for checked baggage, a seat and perhaps a meal anyway, earning Qantas Points on a Jetstar flight might work out as an OK choice. But make sure you check competing Qantas flights first, and don't just sign up for a bundle purely to earn points without comparing carefully.

Jetstar works for cheap flights, but as a points-earning strategy it's hard to recommend as the main game.

We updated this guide on 13 October 2025 to include current Jetstar bundle pricing.