Stop Copying Influencer Points Math: The Real Cost of Business Class

Author’s note

I wrote this because I see the same pattern play out again and again: people doing “all the right points things”, earning a decent balance, and still feeling confused or short when Business Class becomes the goal. This isn’t about calling anyone out — it’s about putting the missing context back into the conversation. The numbers, the trade-offs, and the reason systems matter more than shortcuts if you actually want this to work long term.

If you’ve been watching frequent flyer points influencers fly Business Class every other week, here’s the uncomfortable truth: you’re not seeing the full spreadsheet.

You’re seeing the outcome — not the inputs.

The points required.
The shortfalls.
The cash costs.
The failed searches.
The flexibility.
The years of setup.

All of the unsexy parts that make “free Business Class” look effortless on Instagram.

So let’s do what most content creators won’t and start with the actual numbers, then follow the maths all the way to its conclusion.

Business Class With Qantas Points: The Post-2025 Reality

From August 2025, Qantas Frequent Flyer Classic Reward pricing increased across many long-haul routes. If you’re planning Business Class travel in 2026, these are the new numbers you’re working with — whether you’ve realised it yet or not.

This isn’t a takedown of Qantas or points influencers.

Business Class with points is possible. But it’s not free, it’s not effortless, and it’s not something most people can sustain by “just churning a few cards”.

1) Start With The Uncomfortable Part - The Points Required

Let’s ground this in some real examples.

Example A: The goal most couples actually want - a European adventure

Sydney (SYD) → London Heathrow (LHR), Business Class — one way

• 166,300 Qantas Points per person

So for a couple:

• One way (2 people): 166,300 × 2 = 332,600 points

• Return (2 people): 332,600 × 2 = 665,200 points

Target: 665,200 points for a couple, return SYD–LHR in Business Class

Example B: A solo benchmark - AUS-USA

Sydney (SYD) → Los Angeles (LAX), Business Class — one way

• 130,100 points for a single traveller

This is a useful anchor for what long-haul Business Class costs even on ‘shorter’ routes.

From here on, we’ll carry forward one example only for the maths that follows:

A couple travelling return from SYD–LHR in Business Class, requiring 665,200 points.

If you can make that work, everything else becomes easier.

Quick Reality Check (for skim readers)

If you only read one section, read this:

• Target: 665,200 points (couple, return SYD–LHR, business)

• Credit card bonuses can help — but they’re finite and hard to repeat year after year

• If you’re short 300,000 points and earning ~1 point per dollar, that shortfall equals roughly $300,000 of spending

• The only lever that meaningfully changes the outcome is your effective points-per-dollar

2) The Common Plan: “We’ll Churn Credit Cards”

This is where most people start — and it’s not wrong.

Credit card sign-up bonuses can be powerful. In a good year, a strong bonus might deliver:

• 70,000–120,000 points per card, depending on offers and promotions

Stack a couple of cards and you can build momentum quickly.

But this is the part that matters if your goal is Business Class more than once.

Credit card bonuses are a boost, not an engine

Bonuses slow down because:

• Eligibility rules and cooling-off periods apply;

• Approvals get harder over time;

• Annual fees add up; and

• Constant churn becomes admin-heavy

So yes — credit cards bonuses can help you start. But they rarely sustain the outcome year in, year out.

That’s where the shortfall appears.

3) The Shortfall: Where Most Plans Quietly Break

Let’s return to our example.

Target: 665,200 points (couple, return SYD–LHR)

Now imagine you’ve had a strong year and earned ~365,200 points through a mix of bonuses and everyday earning.

That still leaves:

665,200 – 365,200 = 300,000 points short

This is the moment most people stall.

Not because 300,000 points is impossible — but because people underestimate what it takes to earn that many points without another lucky run of bonuses.

So let’s do the maths properly.

4) The Reality Check: Credit Card Spend Alone Won’t Get You There

Most everyday spend earns around 1 point per $1 (sometimes less, often capped, and frequently excluding government payments, ATO, certain billers, etc).

So if you’re short 300,000 points, and you try to earn it the “normal way”:

300,000 points ≈ $300,000 of spending

Read that again.

If your plan is “I’ll just put everything on my card”, then unless you’re running very high household spend or business spend, you will hit a ceiling quickly.

Even if your earn rate is better — say 1.5 points per $1 — you’re still looking at:

300,000 ÷ 1.5 = $200,000 spend

This is the part that makes people go quiet.

Not because it’s impossible — but because it exposes the gap between:

What people think points earning looks like
and what it actually demands.

5) The Only Lever That Changes The Equation: Points-Per-Dollar Leverage

If Business Class is more than a one-off goal, you need leverage.

And leverage comes from increasing your effective points per dollar across the spending you were already going to do.

What that looks like in simple maths

Spend required to earn a 300,000-point shortfall:

| Effective earn rate | Spend required |

| 1 point / $1 | $300,000 |

| 2 points / $1 | $150,000 |

| 3 points / $1 | $100,000 |

| 6 points / $1 | $50,000 |

This table is the entire game.

Not hacks.
Not vibes.
Effective earning rate.

If you can build a setup where your real earning rate averages 3–6 points per dollar across key categories, the shortfall stops being a brick wall and becomes a planning problem that can be solved.

6) Why This Has To Be A System (Not A Trick)

At this point, most people do one of two things:

1. They start improvising.
   Random offers. Random cards. Random shopping portals. Random advice.

2. They build a system.

A system is simply a repeatable way of routing spending so you’re consistently earning at a higher effective rate.

When the system is complex, improvisation is expensive

If you’re wrong, you don’t just lose points. You lose:

• Time

• Momentum

• Fees; and

• Often the opportunity when availability appears

This is why “reinventing the wheel” is such a costly approach in points.

When something is simple, experimenting is fine.
When something is complex, experimenting gets expensive.

So yes — the points world is necessarily complicated.

Which leads to the most useful takeaway in this entire post:

Once the reality sets in, leverage doesn’t come from hacks.
It comes from having a system — ideally one that someone has already stress-tested.

That’s not about hero worship. It’s about avoiding avoidable mistakes.

I made plenty of them early on. Most people do.
The difference is whether you keep paying the same tuition fees for years.

7) The Reframe Most People Need

If you want to fly Business Class with points in 2026, here’s what’s true:

• The points required are bigger than most people expect (especially for couples)

• Credit card bonuses can help, but they’re not infinite

• Credit card spend alone rarely fills the shortfall

• The only sustainable path is improving your effective points-per-dollar across your spending

• That requires a system, not constant improvisation

This isn’t meant to discourage you.

It’s meant to prevent the most common outcome I see:
People doing “all the points things” for a year… and still being short when it matters.

So what does this mean in practice?

If this post has done its job, you’re probably realising two things at once.

First, flying Business Class with points is achievable.
Second, trying to piece it together ad-hoc is an expensive way to learn.

The people who make this work consistently don’t rely on tricks. They follow a system — one that’s already been stress-tested, refined, and adapted to real-world constraints like income, spending patterns, and time.

That’s exactly why everything on this site is built around systems rather than hacks.

• Points guides for people who want a clear, self-directed path to earning points efficiently

• Consulting sessions for people who want their setup reviewed, optimised, and tailored to their situation

Different formats. Same goal:
Turning Business Class from a vague aspiration into a predictable outcome.

If you want to go deeper, start with whichever approach fits how hands-on you want to be.

What’s coming next…

This post covered the earning reality.

The next reality check is the one that catches people off guard:

Even if you have the points, booking Business Class flights with points is its own game.

Availability.
Timing.
Flexibility.
Partners.
Routing.
Fees.

And the reason so many people end up saying:

“I had the points… but I couldn’t find seats.”

That’s the next layer.