Article: Why Frequent Flyer Points Should Expire

[AFF Editor]

Hot Take: Why Frequent Flyer Points Should Expire is an article written by the AFF editorial team:

Hot Take: Why Frequent Flyer Points Should Expire

This may be an unpopular opinion, but frequent flyer programs that allow unredeemed points to expire generally offer better and more consistent value to members.

www.australianfrequentflyer.com.au

What do you think: Should points be allowed to expire under some circumstances? Or do you prefer a program where points never expire?

 

[Big John]

I don't mind programs that have expiry dates, as long as customers are kept INFORMED about them.

A reminder via automated email or text message 3-6 months before expiry would be nice.

 

[aikman]

TL;DR
Points like Krisflyer can offer better award availability because of their hard expiry date policy but the policy shouldn't be too harsh and there should be exemptions for people with genuine excuses.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

The interesting thing out of the last five years or so is that points don't necessarily devalue.

Pre-covid your return business class points would have saved you somewhere between six and seven thousand dollars return on Qantas to London.

Today that's closer to 10,000 dollars.

Sure there's a small devaluation coming up soon on Qantas but it's still a massive price difference for almost the same amount of points.

 

[Aeryn]

I was an Ansett FF before switching to Qantas FF. When Ansett collapsed I initially switched to Kris Flyer but without a domestic airline partner or compelling CC partner I found it impossible to earn enough points to redeem for anything worthwhile before points started expiring.

So programs with hard points expiry dates are a no no for me.

I'm fine with requiring a minimum of ~ 1-4 flights per year and points activity to stop points expiring, as it is not unreasonable to expect a loyal customer to have some regular business with the airline.

 

[Scash]

I mainly agree with this but FF programmes need to have more flexibility and/or more rewards. After all isn’t that its purpose. We are in the position of being retired and flexible with travel, so a time stamped programme may well work for us, as long as more reward seats are opened up. We have a substantial cache of points with QFF, but as we all know finding premium seats is a challenge. Could always fly Y but whY .

We have enough activity to stop our QFF points expiring but would struggle to meet any minimum flight criteria as we fly mainly jetstar domestically (home port is MCY and we book best fare). OS flights are on points and generally with Asian or ME airlines.

 

[Dr Ralph]

Was this written by someone that has zero understanding of how points work?

 

[Glennmcd1]

Let’s understand loyalty FF programs. The airline encourages you to accumulate points via flying, credit card offers, health insurance offers etc etc. as a result, you grow the customer base and therefore you grow the demand for FF seats. If you don’t grow the number of seats commensurate with the growth of points accumulation then simply you get demand exceeding supply and then the airline WILI devalue your points rather than honoring the implied contract they offered when making all these offers to you. QANTAS is very guilty of these practices. Their program now leaves many members with large points accumulation with poor ability to utilize points at sensible levels and what happens when you can only pay cash for the ticket you want? Simple, you buy from another airline who has a cheaper equivalent ticket that’s not incentivizing loyalty. Quite the opposite. Much smarter for an airline to encourage customers to use their points by increasing say Classic Reward availability so that you are incentivized to buy the cash ticket at the higher price from your FF aiirline so you can get future FF flights. Short term pain for long term gain. It’s just simple Supply & Demand economics QANTAS.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

The airlines are doing their best to promote economy rewards. Story in news.com.au yesterday that a mother and her family of four haven’t ’paid a cent’ for everseas travel in the last five years or something. Her kids have special needs so she also pays for family friends to go along.

The mother accrues 2 million velocity points every two years and uses them to fly free. So presumably including taxes and fees. Which means eco travel.

There are always plenty of economy awards. Which is probably where the market is aimed?

 

[JackMiles]

I'm stating the obvious here but this thread, and parts of the article* just reinforce how unapt the title "Frequent Flyer" is for these programs.
*Eg, and with no criticism or disrespect intended to Matt: "It’s unfair to occasional flyers without access to credit cards who may not be able to save up enough points or miles within 3 years to ever redeem a meaningful reward."
Like, why should a frequent flyer program be fair, or even appealing, to an occasional flyer? Put another way, and I think to take the point of the article a bit further, FF programs would probably be waaaay better for actual frequent flyers if they went back to more purely rewarding only those same flyers. (I know this is not gonna happen.)
These programs would be better termed as simply Points or Rewards Programs, or maybe Frequent Accumulator Points Program.