Qantas cuts points, status; hikes upgrades on some domestic fares

[levelnine]

Executive Traveller is reporting a small set of 'enhancements' to the QFF program to do with the reclassification 'M' class fares.

Qantas cuts points, status; hikes upgrades on some domestic fares

Some domestic flyers will soon net fewer Qantas Points and status credits, with more points needed for some flight upgrades.

www.executivetraveller.com

Qantas Frequent Flyer members will soon earn fewer Qantas Points and status credits on some domestic flights, while also requiring more Qantas Points for selected business class upgrades.

On affected fares, those upgrades will cost more than twice as many Qantas Points as they do today, with status credits similarly slashed in half for impacted travellers.

Does this mean the average flex fare will increase now that K rather than M is the lead-in fare bucket?

 

[calmelb]

The article says it’s going to keep the same price

 

[sudoer]

I'm struggling to see any meaningful impact from this if prices stay the same?

 

[dylarr]

At face value it seems like there's not really that much different at the end of the day?

I mean you can still book a Flex fare with the new lead-in K fare with the same points, status credits, upgrades etc and according to the article the K fares will be repriced to be comparable to that of today's M fares.

K becoming a Red e-Deal fare means it falls into Discount Economy for Frequent Flyer purposes so points, status, upgrades will be at the lower rates. However the article also implies that K fares will be priced comparable to current Red e-Deal prices.

I wonder what is driving this change that will be invisible to the everyday punter. If anything perhaps it's the groundwork for something more significant?

 

[calmelb]

Maybe its a start to having more discount fares available (assuming a more cost focused market). But yeah from the surface it doesn't seem worthy of a "Qantas cuts earnings" when its more just "Qantas moves a fare class, nothing changes from the user end"

 

[dylarr]

Maybe its a start to having more discount fares available (assuming a more cost focused market). But yeah from the surface it doesn't seem worthy of a "Qantas cuts earnings" when its more just "Qantas moves a fare class, nothing changes from the user end"

Yeah that's a good point actually. More Red e-Deal buckets will give Qantas more flexibility with fare prices in this category which is probably an important strategy when it comes to getting people back in the air. There's likely not much more to it than that.

 

[Mattg]

That's a pretty decent effort at a clickbait headline for what is essentially just a change to the classification of "M" class fares!

Anyway, the implication is basically just that you'll now earn fewer points/SCs and the cost of upgrading with points increases if you're booked on a "M" fare. And that the cheapest available "Flex" fare could now be a little more expensive (unless QF adjusts down the "K" fare, which it may well).

 

[sudoer]

the cheapest available "Flex" fare could now be a little more expensive (unless QF adjusts down the "K" fare, which it may well).

According to the article K 'will be priced at the same level as M class is today, in almost all cases' but I guess we'll see whether Qantas maintains that moving forward. They might bump K back up to pre-covid levels when enough demand returns.

 

[Mattg]

According to the article K 'will be priced at the same level as M class is today, in almost all cases' but I guess we'll see whether Qantas maintains that moving forward. They might bump K back up to pre-covid levels when enough demand returns.

Well if K does remain the same as current "M" fares, then this is truly the non-event of the year. We'll see though..

 

[Matt_01]

I never really understood fare buckets and what they all mean, other than the redemption buckets when searching on EF. Unless something has changed in QF I do not think I have ever seen what fare bucket is getting issued during the booking process and in general do not care that much after the booking has been made. This seems like no big deal as you still earn points and SC based on the fare being Red-e-Deal or Flex. Have I missed something.

 

[Mattg]

I never really understood fare buckets and what they all mean, other than the redemption buckets when searching on EF. Unless something has changed in QF I do not think I have ever seen what fare bucket is getting issued during the booking process and in general do not care that much after the booking has been made. This seems like no big deal as you still earn points and SC based on the fare being Red-e-Deal or Flex. Have I missed something.

Qantas deliberately doesn't even display this information when you make a new booking on their website.

 

[sudoer]

This seems like no big deal as you still earn points and SC based on the fare being Red-e-Deal or Flex. Have I missed something.

You haven't missed anything. If K is being priced at the same level as M, and K earns the same points/SC and has the same upgrade requirements as M, then it will make zero difference to the overwhelming majority. The most noticeable difference may be a higher pricing jump from K to the next class when K inventory is exhausted.

FFs using partner programs could potentially use the change to their advantage if they can snag a cheap M fare and their program takes a while to update its SC or equiv earn tables.

I don't believe discounts negotiated between QF and large corporates would be affected as from what I've seen they are structured as a % off e-Deal/Flex categories instead of specified booking classes. I guess it's possible that some organisations may have (poorly worded) internal policies or EBAs which explicitly mandate booking class which need updating to reflect the change.

1300 words on the topic seems excessive and the ET comments section demonstrates the insignificance of the change hasn't been widely understood.

 

[calmelb]

That's a pretty decent effort at a clickbait headline for what is essentially just a change to the classification of "M" class fares!

And you can see those who didn't read the article in the comments of the article too. Saying that since QF is cutting everything for their loyal flyers they're going to stop flying QF. I find it pretty poor journalism to put such a clickbate headline for what is really a non-issue.

Though I also see Sudoer has managed to beat me on that point too! I think a proper headline would be "Qantas shuffles fare classes" and making it very clear that the same discount/ flex fares earn the same but now you may have M on discount instead of flex

 

[Mattg]

I think a proper headline would be "Qantas shuffles fare classes" and making it very clear that the same discount/ flex fares earn the same but now you may have M on discount instead of flex

Ah, but that wouldn't generate as many clicks or faux outrage

 

[ChrisMars]

Yea so I read the ET article within the hour it was published. I had the feeling it wasn't relevant yet I wasn't sure. What I was sure of is that within a day or two, the AFF experts would have provided a real analysis of this non event. Thanks AFF community!

 

[RichardMEL]

headline is rather misleading IMO. So the real "news" is M fares have moved from Flex to Discount Y. That's it.

ALl the rest is noise imo

 

[Matt_01]

Ah, but that wouldn't generate as many clicks or faux outrage

Yea so I read the ET article within the hour it was published. I had the feeling it wasn't relevant yet I wasn't sure. What I was sure of is that within a day or two, the AFF experts would have provided a real analysis of this non event. Thanks AFF community!

I, like many other regular business travellers and general frequent fliers look at AFF and ET on a regular basis, daily at least. ET provides good content and although I signed up to AusBT prior to signing up to AFF my posts or comments on the other site is around 100. On this site generally chat/questions seem to be far more open and normally do read as pompous entitlement.

 

[Spongbob]

... I signed up to AusBT prior to signing up to AFF my posts or comments on the other site is around 100. On this site generally chat/questions seem to be far more open and normally do read as pompous entitlement.

au contraire

 

[SydneySwan]

Qantas deliberately doesn't even display this information when you make a new booking on their website.

Which I also regard as quite a misleading and dishonest business practice.

 

[sudoer]

Which I also regard as quite a misleading and dishonest business practice.

I think "misleading and dishonest" is excessive - for Qantas FFs it makes virtually no difference what the booking class is for Qantas operated flights?

There are some fringe exceptions where it can make a difference, e.g. FFs using partner programs, and itineraries including non Qantas coded flights, but for the vast majority of cases there's no disadvantage.

You can always take a booking all the way to the payment page, not complete payment, then go find the booking in MMB to check the booking class if it's critical before making payment.