Article: A Brief History of Qantas Frequent Flyer

[ThePointyEnd]

I still have some old Flight Deck lounge member's guest passes (the blue ones) in a drawer somewhere.

Post automatically merged: Apr 13, 2023

Hoping they will come back into use someday

 

[NM]

Hoping they will come back into use someday

Yep, I have been holding out hope, but nothing materialised yet.

 

[craney]

I've still got my QP welcome pack from 1996 or so (will dig it out tonight). I joined QFF in 1995 so have a membership number <900,000. Oh and I still have my carry-on bag from being Silver. It was great as a laptop bag when they were a lot less portable than they are now! Someone said above that QP used to be like being Gold now... I totally agree.

 

[BCons]

There was a sort-of loyalty program prior to '87. My father was a very frequent Intl flyer in the late 70/early 80's, from Aust to London and USWC 3 or 4 times a year always with QF, usually with a few colleagues and in F. I can remember dropping him at Syd Intl and coming up with him to a Qantas lounge upstairs from check-in (before Immig), obviously before airport parking became a revenue monster.. But the main manifestation of this freq flying was an annual 'thank you' present from Qantas. One year, probly 80 or 81, it was the 'wall of sound' - a multiple component TV and stereo setup that took up most of one end of the TV room.

 

[NM]

There was a sort-of loyalty program prior to '87. My father was a very frequent Intl flyer in the late 70/early 80's, from Aust to London and USWC 3 or 4 times a year always with QF, usually with a few colleagues and in F. I can remember dropping him at Syd Intl and coming up with him to a Qantas lounge upstairs from check-in (before Immig), obviously before airport parking became a revenue monster.. But the main manifestation of this freq flying was an annual 'thank you' present from Qantas. One year, probly 80 or 81, it was the 'wall of sound' - a multiple component TV and stereo setup that took up most of one end of the TV room.

The Qantas international lounges in those days were called the Qantas Captain's Lounge and First and Business class passengers were invited to the lounge after check-in. They also had arrangements with lounges at off-shore ports for their premium cabin passengers to use, but I am not sure if these were operated under the same name or if they were own/run by Qantas or a generic lounge service at the airports. Entry was based on ticketed cabin.

I visited the BNE Captain's Lounge in 1989 prior to a BNE-HNL-LAX flight, and during transit at HNL. I do not recall if there was a lounge offered for the return journey.

 

[roncritch]

I joined QFF via Australian Airlines in April 1991. At that time, AA offered free Executive Club which gave you a leather boarding pass holder and leather luggage tags. You also had access to economy seats up front where they blocked off the centre seat. This was to counter Compass and it didn't last after compass failed.
However my number stayed with me when I joined Qantas Club. Nice low number midway between 15,000 and 20,000 with 2 zeros before the number. Jealous of those with 3 plus zeros, but age catching up to us! Although did all my flying with Qantas, only had one job which gave me WP for 2 years, but now in retirement have to contend with lifetime silver. Not getting any status credits as utilising my built-up points.

 

[Beano]

Does your membership number represent your place in the membership list? If there were 300,000 by 1994 and 14,000 joining per month, in the short few years before I joined my number should be in seven figures but it is not much greater than 300000. Even if the 14,000 per month were only for a short time, I recon it would have been for not more than two months then very few thereafter. Even so 14,000 per month seems very high.

 

[pagingjoan]

The start date of 1987 is a little off.
My partner and I both have four digit numbers and September 1986 start dates.
(We are ancient, obviously!)
Not much flying since Covid struck but heaps before that - and loads of memories.

 

[tuapekastar]

Nice article. I recall a work colleague (I think it was late 80s) emerging quite excited from an IT technical training course delivered by an American guy, telling me that the guy flew from US to Oz for nothing! He used miles! That was the first we had ever heard of FF schemes. I do recall QF points being awarded by the km not the mile. And while it may not be exactly germane to the conversation, I recall when J pax did not get access to the Qantas Club - only paid up QC members (bit like the big legacy US carriers today).

 

[Princess Fiona]

A Brief History of Qantas Frequent Flyer is an article written by the AFF editorial team:

A Brief History of Qantas Frequent Flyer

Qantas Frequent Flyer began with just 50,000 members in 1987. It has since evolved significantly from its original model of only targeting business travellers.

www.australianfrequentflyer.com.au

You can leave a comment or discuss this topic below.

Brilliant article @AFF Editor

I must confess to knowing nothing about the history of QFF.
I joined QFF in 1998 when I moved to Australia. I remained a firm NB until 2008 when I went swiftly to WP which I think is roughly when I joined AFF.

The golden (platinum one) handcuffs are definitely a thing.
But I am always learning new tricks here.

 

[SYD]

Does your membership number represent your place in the membership list? If there were 300,000 by 1994 and 14,000 joining per month, in the short few years before I joined my number should be in seven figures but it is not much greater than 300000. Even if the 14,000 per month were only for a short time, I recon it would have been for not more than two months then very few thereafter. Even so 14,000 per month seems very high.

SYD+1 and I joined in July 1994 before doing our first QF RTW trip. But somehow we ended up with a 03xx_xx number and a 05xx_xx number!

Someone said above that QP used to be like being Gold now... I totally agree.

Yep, I mentioned it up thread.

To the point that I wasn’t chasing status because QP gave good perks and recognition. For me, QP was also cheap on a Gov rate! Even when I was Gold, I used to think that it was no drama dropping to Silver because I had pre-purchased several years of QP in the late 90s as a safety net.

 

[SydneySwan]

Does your membership number represent your place in the membership list? If there were 300,000 by 1994 and 14,000 joining per month, in the short few years before I joined my number should be in seven figures but it is not much greater than 300000. Even if the 14,000 per month were only for a short time, I recon it would have been for not more than two months then very few thereafter. Even so 14,000 per month seems very high.

As a reference point my number is 0252nnn and I joined in May 1993.

Great article @AFF Editor.

 

[serfty]

There's some discussion of Qantas Frequent Flyer numbers here:

Lowest QFF Account Numbers

I'm wondering when the QFF scheme started. I am a 142**** number and I joined just before the masses in Oct 95. Anybody here in the really low numbers? Was it free when you joined? I sure do miss the old around-Australia-jaunt for 30k points.. those were the days!

www.australianfrequentflyer.com.au

 

[Stewey]

I joined QFF in Aug 1992 and my membership number starts with an 010xx_x

 

[leetripper]

I was in the TAA Junior Flyers Club from the early 1960s and always flew TAA or Qantas simply because I felt it was "my" airline. Remember the TV ads with some guy looking wistfully up at a Qantas plane passing overhead, saying something like "I own an airline"! I didn't join QFF until early 1994 and therefore I still have a 6 digit membership number with zeros in front now. Occasionally I flew Ansett through necessity and was surprised to see my Ansett boarding pass had printed on it "QFF Gold". What other information were they sharing?
I was flying slightly more than twice per week during the late 1990s but any flights taken prior to September 1998 don't count for lifetime status. That still rankles a bit given my loyalty at a time when there was a direct choice between two similar offerings!
Flying on the corporate tab I always swore I wouldn't fly on the budget airlines but when I set up my own business I always booked ahead on Jetstar flights with the Status Credits bundle and paid extra for an exit row seat. I actually had very few bad experiences and saved a lot of money!
In the early days of the QFF program there were lots of special deals when new partners came on board. For a while the telcos were awarding 3 or 4 points per dollar spent. I also remember booking two RTW tickets in First Class for myself and my wife. Only restriction was you had to travel in one direction (more or less) and had to use at least 3 One World partners. Total cost 600,000pts plus $700 odd in taxes. We did SYD-SIN-HKG-NRT-JFK-EWR-LHR-CDG-LHR-HKG-SYD in c.10 days. Dirt cheap hotels but FC lounges and flights! Best FC flights Cathay. Best FC lounge Cathay HKG. Worst FC American Airlines.

 

[Flying Fox]

My LTG card says I joined in January 1983. It was the TAA Flight Deck club in those days if I recall correctly. Also 4 digits preceded by 3 zeros.

Just as an aside, when you log onto the QF website are your required to enter your membership number as 0001234 or simply 1234?

 

[SYD]

Just as an aside, when you log onto the QF website are your required to enter your membership number as 0001234 or simply 1234?

You can drop leading zeros on QF sites/apps but it pays to enter full number on partner sites/airlines etc.

 

[ayebee]

I signed up for the international FF program pretty early after hearing about it, but my recollection is you needed to qualify with a number of miles (was it 70k??) before getting the cabin bag and perks.
My memory may be faulty but I also thought the lounge was the "Captain's Club" with access on every flight after qualification. ie not 1 or 2 invitations annually. Maybe that happened after the merger with the new QP structure.

Post automatically merged: Apr 14, 2023

PS - excellent article and thanks for the memories ...

 

[leetripper]

I signed up for the international FF program pretty early after hearing about it, but my recollection is you needed to qualify with a number of miles (was it 70k??) before getting the cabin bag and perks.
My memory may be faulty but I also thought the lounge was the "Captain's Club" with access on every flight after qualification. ie not 1 or 2 invitations annually. Maybe that happened after the merger with the new QP structure.

Post automatically merged: Apr 14, 2023

PS - excellent article and thanks for the memories ...

By the early nineties QFF would give you a new cabin bag every year if you requalified for Gold Status (equivalent to Platinum today) plus a couple of upgrade certificates. I think for Silver they gave you a big leather passport wallet.

 

[Ikara]

Just as an aside, when you log onto the QF website are your required to enter your membership number as 0001234 or simply 1234?

Simply as 1234.