QANTAS to launch their own credit card in tie-up with Citibank

[fairbasa]

I wondered how long this would take! Lets just hope it's offers some competitive sign-up bonuses. If it's anything like their Travel Money Card it will be a waste of space.

Article here: Qantas in talks with Citi on credit card push

No doubt Dr Ralph will be thrilled with Qantas' choice of lending partner! ()

 

[opusman]

I wonder if this will be the long-mooted card that gives SCs as well as points.

 

[samh004]

I'll be interested in seeing where this goes.

Isn't the SC trial ongoing?

 

[Dr Ralph]

No doubt Dr Ralph will be thrilled with Qantas' choice of lending partner! ()

Run away now Qantas whilst there is still time. You'd be extraordinarily foolish to hitch your wagon to Citibank, who truly are incompetence personified.

 

[TonyHancock]

Run away now Qantas whilst there is still time. You'd be extraordinarily foolish to hitch your wagon to Citibank, who truly are incompetence personified.

I fear you are overestimating Citibank's competence.

 

[Danger]

Run away now Qantas whilst there is still time. You'd be extraordinarily foolish to hitch your wagon to Citibank, who truly are incompetence personified.

I fear you are overestimating Citibank's competence.

Run away now Qantas whilst there is still time. You'd be extraordinarily foolish to hitch your wagon to Citibank, who truly are incompetence personified.

This is an absolute disaster in the making. But then again, with the off-shoring of the call centre, perhaps operators for both products will be housed under the one tarpaulin.

 

[Supersonic Swinger]

If lounge access or status credits were benefits, that would be appealing, BUT:

- Seems like I'm not the only who realises that Sh*ttibank can't organise their way out of a wet paper bag
- Qantas 'Loyalty' have made clear in the business press that they want to move more to dynamic pricing, so that they can price according to the purchasing power and spending habits of the individual who's using their site. Running their own credit cards will allow them to know not just how much you spend each month but who you're spending with and what sort of things you are buying. Much more than Qantas Cash, shopping portals or other points acquisition methods do. Spend more, put big expensive purchases on this credit card to meet the status credit earn thresholds, and they'll know you're someone they can tweak the pricing they show you a little higher. Not sure that sort of specific financial data is something I want my airline to freely have access to.

 

[Danger]

If lounge access or status credits were benefits, that would be appealing,

Providing any measure of SCs would be equally disastrous, as far as I'm concerned. I was dead against Qantas giving SCs for spending at, what is it, Woollies? One or two people said five SCs here and there aint gonna make much difference. But it's a slippery slope.

BUT:

- Seems like I'm not the only who realises that Sh*ttibank can't organise their way out of a wet paper bag
- Qantas 'Loyalty' have made clear in the business press that they want to move more to dynamic pricing, so that they can price according to the purchasing power and spending habits of the individual who's using their site. Running their own credit cards will allow them to know not just how much you spend each month but who you're spending with and what sort of things you are buying. Much more than Qantas Cash, shopping portals or other points acquisition methods do. Spend more, put big expensive purchases on this credit card to meet the status credit earn thresholds, and they'll know you're someone they can tweak the pricing they show you a little higher. Not sure that sort of specific financial data is something I want my airline to freely have access to.

I suspect Trippin_the_rift might have some valuable insight as to the benefits to QF of this approach.

 

[Supersonic Swinger]

I suspect Trippin_the_rift might have some valuable insight as to the benefits to QF of this approach.

I know that a few years ago under the old Woolworths Rewards iteration, Woolworths wanted to share their customer purchasing data with Qantas' customer purchasing data but Qantas didn't want to, they thought theirs was way more valuable than Woolworth's data. I think having their own credit card directly would give them a massive data boost.

 

[kamchatsky]

I actually don't have problems with Citibank at all. I have had their card for many years, starting with Lifetime Annual Fee Free Gold Visa, in 2008 I think, then I got upgraded to Fee Free Platinum Visa. Then they had at the family friends offer for Fee Free Signature which I applied and still got. They did upgrade my Signature card to Infinite last year. Transfer of points to VA and KF is easy, and still one of the best earning Visas around.

 

[trippin_the_rift]

Providing any measure of SCs would be equally disastrous, as far as I'm concerned. I was dead against Qantas giving SCs for spending at, what is it, Woollies? One or two people said five SCs here and there aint gonna make much difference. But it's a slippery slope.

It will happen. Basically, when people have status, or are close to obtaining FF status, their propensity to fly Qantas skyrockets. This is the major reason why Qantas has a soft landing status system. So if you can get Silver by doing stuff you already do every day - you're nX more times likely to book a Qantas flight.

I suspect Trippin_the_rift might have some valuable insight as to the benefits to QF of this approach.

Qantas 'Loyalty' have made clear in the business press that they want to move more to dynamic pricing, so that they can price according to the purchasing power and spending habits of the individual who's using their site. Running their own credit cards will allow them to know not just how much you spend each month but who you're spending with and what sort of things you are buying. Much more than Qantas Cash, shopping portals or other points acquisition methods do. Spend more, put big expensive purchases on this credit card to meet the status credit earn thresholds, and they'll know you're someone they can tweak the pricing they show you a little higher. Not sure that sort of specific financial data is something I want my airline to freely have access to.

My bet is Qantas would copy the Delta cobrand model, essentially making the card such a good value product that it doesn't make sense not to use it.

I agree with the sentiment about data and privacy, but let's be frank. It's not the airline which will have your data. It's Qantas Loyalty, Taylor Fry and Data Republic. The latter have clients in most sectors including insurance, telco, government, banks and energy. Make no mistake that your personal data insights are being sold for profit.

If frequent flyer members knew what data was being extracted from their personal information, their activity data, shared partner data and app data...well, let's say it's a major surprise to most people. I know Danger learned a thing or two recently ;-)

 

[lovetravellingoz]

I actually don't have problems with Citibank at all. I have had their card for many years, starting with Lifetime Annual Fee Free Gold Visa, in 2008 I think, then I got upgraded to Fee Free Platinum Visa. Then they had at the family friends offer for Fee Free Signature which I applied and still got. They did upgrade my Signature card to Infinite last year. Transfer of points to VA and KF is easy, and still one of the best earning Visas around.

So you have a Free For Life Citi Prestige Visa Infinite?

 

[oz_mark]

I was dead against Qantas giving SCs for spending at, what is it, Woollies?

It's news to me that this happens.

 

[OzEire]

So will Qantas Cash be discontinued in favour of the new card. I ask because if the new product is so valuable to QF they could ensure a high "take up" rate by doing the QFF card double side trick that was used to initially roll out QCash. Benefit now is that people are used to having a financial card on one side of their FF card.

Of course they could think in this century and roll out a virtual Visa card using the QF app and smartphone NFC to tap and pay (I do know that not everywhere in the world has tap option).

 

[Jeffrey O'Neill]

could be interesting after the RBA changes come into effect with interchange fees dropping again.

Banks need to make money from the financial side of a CC, where as QF own the rewards scheme and can likely gain a lot of value from the information gleaned from the spending habits of potentially hundreds of thousands of customers, which could be a new revenue stream to subsidise the cost of the points.

May p!$$ off some of their banking partners though.


Will be an interesting year as things unfold.

 

[ragingsheep]

May p!$$ off some of their banking partners though.

Qantas pissed all their bank partners off 14 years ago when they forced everyone to move to direct earn. It still pisses a lot of senior banking staff off today.

Longer term, I think the banks will just end up migrating everyone to their own proprietary rewards programs. If you want Qantas points, then your choices will be Amex and Qantas itself.

 

[Ansett]

Qantas to issue own credit card

https://www.ausbt.com.au/qantas-to-issue-its-own-premium-credit-card

I wonder if it comes with Status Credits.

Its interesting that they mention Lounge access.

Will be interested to see the sign on bonus and earn rates.

 

[fairbasa]

Seems imminent:

https://www.ausbt.com.au/qantas-to-issue-its-own-premium-credit-card

 

[Deleted member]

Re: Qantas to issue own credit card

I wonder if they will market it as a pre approved card to targeted QFF members?
cant see that lounge access is a big deal if you're already a WP or up and / or LTG or LTQP (as I am for example)
I suspect if they do it right it could be a real winner.
I'm not a fan of them getting into Life and Health Insurance, I can't see the connect.

 

[RooFlyer]

Re: Qantas to issue own credit card

Here's a tip. When it comes out, read all the fine print before posting. If its a product from Qantas Loyalty, it will be designed to drive spending to their Partners, who will have to price their wares to include the cost of the points Qantas will be selling them.