Article: A Brief History of Qantas Frequent Flyer

[NM]

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

Just the numbers with or without the leading zeros works.

 

[SYD]

Just the numbers with or without the leading zeros works.

I received something from QF years ago advising that you don’t need to enter leading zeros on QF website *but* it did recommend including them on 3rd party sites. So I do that as a matter of course and I rarely miss out on points/SCs.

 

[Supersonic Swinger]

Post automatically merged: Apr 13, 2023

Hoping they will come back into use someday

That's marked in my calendar for the day I can redeem my 380,000 Ansett Global Rewards points...

 

[BjJames]

Makes me feel old.
My membership number is low five digits, transferred across from TAA Flight Deck, as I recall. I joined TAA fairly soon after the "Flight Deck" was started, as I was then doing a lot of domestic travel.
As soon as I could (I forget when) I purchased and still have a lifetime Qantas Club membership - but the later introduction of "Status" levels has devalued that somewhat.
But my loyalty goes back further ... my first international flight on QF was in 1964. Who can remember getting one of these? I guess they stopped giving these some years ago !!

I'v never worked out how to claim my "rights, benefits, and perquisites".

VH-EBC "City of Canberra" was one of Qantas' first batch of 707-138's

 

[RooFlyer]

How should I claim my "rights,beneftis, and perquisites"?

Just phone the call centre; they'll fix you up, no worries

 

[SydneySwan]

Just phone the call centre; they'll fix you up, no worries

Just be sure to ask for Hobart!

 

[albatross710]

It looks great, but I imagine the accommodation and even airport shuttles would start to add up - plus if you could only get points from flying, 37,500 would feel very precious.

In the early nineties I must have been generating heaps of points. I arranged for both of my parents to have a lovely retirement trip around Australia. I think the trip was something like BNE-DRW // DRW-PER // PER-ADL //ADL-MEL //MEL-BNE. At the time the fare supported multiple stops. I don't recall 'taxes" being a thing

Due to my frequent career moves I recall first making Gold in Jan '92. The Qantas regional manager dropped the frequent flyer bag and gold card to my office. I assume must have been a rare thing in those days.

 

[albatross710]

Another event I recall which hasn't made it into the history, although may have been Australian Airlines at the time.

I'm thinking it is August 1991 and there is spate of contaminated orange juice causing havoc with airline passengers of all persuasions.

 

[turnip666]

In the late 80s there was a two tier qualification system i.e you had to qualify for FF (12 sectors or X miles flown).
I was working for a consulting firm that did a lot of work in NZ and it was a status symbol to receive your Qantas FF bag that was issued when you qualified with your 12 sectors.
There were no flight redemptions, but Qantas issued a glossy magazine of products you could earn with miles or sectors. Some of our senior people would fly to NZ twice a week over a year and earn themselves multiple household appliances; fridges, washers, tv's etc....and the next year they'd try and kit out another room.
I never did enough to earn anything more than the fancy cabin bag, but I do recall in the Gate lounge at LA a staff member greeting random people and telling his offsider that he knew who to talk to based on their bags.
At about the same time, my PM flew to BNE to PER in Business every week for the year and received a letter and a box of wine from the CEO as he was one of their top100 flyers. Being American he wasn't impressed as he was used to US FF programs and earned no benefits at all from all the domestic travel...and he didn't drink wine.

 

[albatross710]

There were no flight redemptions, but Qantas issued a glossy magazine of products you could earn with miles or sectors. Some of our senior people would fly to NZ twice a week over a year and earn themselves multiple household appliances; fridges, washers, tv's etc....and the next year they'd try and kit out another room.

oh you are right. I still have and use an authentic Drizabone which I redeemed 1992 from that catalogue. I'm not sure if it was Qantas then though.

 

[justinbrett]

My first commercial flight was in 1995 (as a teenager) BNE-SYD-LAX-LHR on NZ - Airpoints had a double points offer at the time so I joined them (not Ansett). I'd be in the old school club too had we flown QF or BA. Had Ansett never gone bust I would never have joined QF - I joined straight after they did, and have a 367xx_x number. I suspect the numbers went up very quick after Ansett, with a lot of people I know having 8 digits.

It is funny that those with 7 digits don't have a leading zero, when 8 digit numbers are also in use, but those with even fewer digits report having leading zeros (even if not required for entry on the QF site).

 

[jpp42]

t is funny that those with 7 digits don't have a leading zero, when 8 digit numbers are also in use, but those with even fewer digits report having leading zeros (even if not required for entry on the QF site).

Seems the leading zeros might have been for compatibility with other airline systems which had minimum field length limitations.

QFF is now issuing 10-digit numbers, which at least makes me happy with my seven-digit one

 

[RooFlyer]

Had Ansett never gone bust I would never have joined QF - I joined straight after they did, and have a 367xx_x number.

As far as I recall, I also joined QFF when Ansett went under. Or maybe sometime later as I was doing some work in the USA at the time. FWIW, my number is 153xx_X.

 

[Flyfrequently]

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!

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.

Similar to us @SYD , given QFF membership in 1994 after an April family holiday to USA on Continental Airlines.

Mr Flyfrequently has May anniversary date and 04xx_xx.
My anniversary date is end June with 05xx_xx - cannot remember what (our now 42 year old) daughters' numbers were ..... they must've had some sort of system though!!

 

[Mr H]

Similar to us @SYD , given QFF membership in 1994 after an April family holiday to USA on Continental Airlines.

Mr Flyfrequently has May anniversary date and 04xx_xx.
My anniversary date is end June with 05xx_xx - cannot remember what (our now 42 year old) daughters' numbers were ..... they must've had some sort of system though!!

I’m a Johnny Come Lately but I’m still pleased to have a seven digit number.

 

[Bundy Bear]

Thanks to AFF editor for writing the story, a few bits I already knew but there is always new parts I hadn’t heard of. Also links to previous AFF threads with member numbers gives an idea on the growth.

Always nice to see a frequent flyer card starting with 00 and even saw one with a 000.

 

[Mr H]

Always nice to see a frequent flyer card starting with 00 and even saw one with a 000.

Oooh.

 

[Kremmen]

My membership number is in the mid 6 digits. With the Qantas Telstra Visa earning double points overseas, earning tons of points in the late 90s was easy. I did a business class multi-city trip each year, such as MEL-ADL // ADL-DRW // DRW-ADL-PER // PER-MEL or MEL-HBA // HBA-SYD // SYD-PER // PER-MEL.

While it was much better value than today, the flight upgrade certificates that came with status were awful. Most of the time, QF wouldn't let me use them, even when there were spare business class seats. One time, the plane even had the whole business cabin empty and they refused to upgrade anyone. (That way they didn't have to provide any meals or service in that cabin.) When I went to the USA, the contrast was massive. While US domestic airlines were overall worse than Australian ones, their attitude to upgrades was the opposite, with pretty much every "first class" cabin going out full. That was when I started shifting all possible frequent flyer activity to US carriers.

 

[serfty]

QF wouldn't let me use them, even when there were spare business class seats.

That's because the certificates even then had to book into award Business/First class. (ISTR T being Economy - I'll have to look at some old statements for the others)

Did you know they once used to put each segment's fare bucket on the monthly frequent flyer statements!

 

[Kremmen]

That's because the certificates even then had to book into award Business/First class.

The certs were garbage. The technical reason they were garbage is not really important. The important thing is that QF are cheap mongrels who minimised value to members while other airlines maximised value.

Also, I'm pretty sure the one with the empty business cabin had availability and they rescinded it on the day!