Qantas disguises first class seats as $20 ‘cabin in the clouds’ on Airbnb

[tuesday_]

Qantas has just revealed the details of its latest frequent flyer perk — first class seats disguised as a $20 accommodation listing on Airbnb.

From today, and during the next two weeks, The Qantas Frequent Flyer Team is registering as an Airbnb host and secretly posting first and business class redemption seats on the accommodation site.

Qantas Frequent Flyer hides points seats on Airbnb | escape.com.au

It’s the upgrade most passengers would do just about anything for. Now Qantas is letting savvy flyers score first and business class flights for insane prices.

www.escape.com.au

 

[sudoer]

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www.airbnb.com.au

Looks like they're all gone

 

[sudoer]

Do better, Qantas.

 

[Rusty776]

Hopefully there will be more. Surely you just don't just search for the Qantas link.... it has to be harder than that?

 

[sudoer]

Surely you just don't just search for the Qantas link.... it has to be harder than that?

You can't just search for the Qantas profile, but you can link directly to it like I've done above. Once you've got it anything they list on Airbnb (under that account) will show up there. Just doing everyone a favour

 

[Rusty776]

sweet... look like I'll be refreshing quite a bit over the next few days!!

 

[renatts]

I found one available to book to LAX this morning. The dates didn’t suit so I sent it to a friend who’s more flexible. It’s disappeared now, so I’m hoping it was him who booked it!

 

[Rusty776]

Hopefully they add a few more. They will be very tough to find

 

[Rusty776]

I found one available to book to LAX this morning. The dates didn’t suit so I sent it to a friend who’s more flexible. It’s disappeared now, so I’m hoping it was him who booked it!

That's awesome... I've never used the Air BnB site.. any search tips on ho you found it? I'm flexible with dates.. can you enter a large date search or does it have to be specific?

Cheers

 

[renatts]

That's awesome... I've never used the Air BnB site.. any search tips on ho you found it?

I just searched Los Angeles homes with a max of $20 and it showed up in the list. Was obvious because the photo was two people in business class. Tested the booking process and didn’t confirm because it was 11th March, which is exactly two months too soon for me.

They’re meant to be doing it for two weeks, so hopefully something useful becomes available!

 

[Rusty776]

I just searched Los Angeles homes with a max of $20 and it showed up in the list. Was obvious because the photo was two people in business class. Tested the booking process and didn’t confirm because it was 11th March, which is exactly two months too soon for me.

They’re meant to be doing it for two weeks, so hopefully something useful becomes available!

Great so you didn't put in any specific dates? Just the city and price search for max $20?

 

[renatts]

Great so you didn't put in any specific dates? Just the city and price search for max $20?

Yep, exactly that. I’d say the ones listed in the link above are the next ones, just haven’t been made available to book yet.

 

[kpc]

Rather than these gimmicks which only benefit a very, very few lucky people who have flexibility, I wish Qf would release more Premium international award seats at their normal rates!

 

[33kft]

Rather than these gimmicks which only benefit a very, very few lucky people who have flexibility, I wish Qf would release more Premium international award seats at their normal rates!

The problem with that is for QFF, they don't get to position the unsold inventory and would have to take a bit of a revenue haircut. This way, they can put unpopular dates up but dress them up as a competition so people feel compelled to book them on the spot lest they let it slip through.

 

[kpc]

The problem with that is for QFF, they don't get to position the unsold inventory and would have to take a bit of a revenue haircut. This way, they can put unpopular dates up but dress them up as a competition so people feel compelled to book them on the spot lest they let it slip through.

I agree to a point but QF are making hundreds of millions by selling QF freq flyer points, and then people can't redeem premium award flights....basically Qf are printing money with their freqent flyer points and there are no government regulations to keep them in check,,,if I didn't have Plat status and get premium award seats released, I would have long given up on the Qf freq flyer program!

 

[33kft]

Whilst this is also true, keep in mind that we as a community know the worth of a point, a lot of other people don't. They come across them inconsequentially - from a flight here or a credit card spend there. To them, this is free money. They try a classic rewards search for their next holiday, realise that it isn't quite that easy, and then quickly redeem for a gift card before they expire. That way QFF makes money during the sale and the redemption of the points. QFF would not be profitable if everyone were getting 3.5c value per redemption by definition unless something like 60 odd percent of points were expiring without redemption, so as best I can understand this is a necessary evil unless you're prepared to position your FF program as a loss leader.

 

[sudoer]

This way, they can put unpopular dates up but dress them up as a competition so people feel compelled to book them on the spot lest they let it slip through

Yep. Qantas comes out way ahead on these gimmicks by:

- Offloading less desirable inventory
- Oodles of free publicity - although this promo hasn't (yet) been picked up as widely as the Points Plane was
- Driving traffic to Airbnb (++ client satisfaction) and increasing consumer awareness of their partnership
- In many cases, charging an arm & leg for 'lucky ones' to get a one-way flight home

What does it cost Qantas? A few hundred thousand points in award discounts and absorbing associated taxes - which they already artificially inflate anyway. Peanuts for what they're getting.

 

[moa999]

The three 'properties' are now gone as well

 

[33kft]

What were the 3 out of interest @moa999? I saw SYD to LAX in F for 2 but the others must have been and gone by the time I checked around 11am

 

[sudoer]

What were the 3 out of interest

SYD-LHR and SYD-SCL, both in J, from memory.