That's 100% correct. However, the crucial part missing from this answer is that they've basically stopped releasing classic awards on large number of routes/cabins, so they've essentially hung out to dry the other 99% of their membership base.
It would be nice to know when the batch days are, even if it is the 2nd Wednesday after a full moon at 1.54am.
The previous 11am 353 days in advance only advantaged a very select group of frequent flyers. Increasingly that group was points hackers displaying inherently disloyal behaviours. They may be a different "1%" of the frequent flyer base, but that was still to the disadvantage of the remaining 98%. The sporadic release patterns actually increase the likelihood of the broader membership base acquiring CR seats.
Gold/Platinum/P1 (ie those able to take advantage of T-353) represent far more than 1% of frequent flyers.
Up thread I mentioned that I saw CRs for a flight SIN-SYD in June, just 5 months away. Yes, they are in Y, but the flight showed X9 in EF, This seems to point towards seats being released on a more ad-hoc basis, as when I was originally booking for a flight SIN-SYD on that same date it was X0.
I think your statement that they've basically stopped releasing classic awards on large number of routes/cabins needs to be expanded to say on the usual 353 days out.
But those that actively and repeatedly do hit at T-353 are a small sub-segment of those ABLE to. There's plenty of SG/WP/WWP1 that, for a variety of reasons, don't have the flexibility to manage their travel to allow this. In fact, typically the more valuable customers are often the ones with the LEAST flexibility, so this behaviour locks them out in favour of lower value, but equally higher tier customers.
On SOME routes and in SOME cabins I'm sure that is true. Yield management doing its job. No reason redemption seats shouldn't be subjected to the same pricing/availability fluctuations that paid seats are.
The current state of affairs ensures neither sub-segment is able to acquire classic reward seats with any reliability.
Ive noticed the first criteria is route - some routes will see awards appear but some won't even for I booking class (so that you can request as WP) or there's initial blackout dates. I believe madrooster gave examples of some blackout routes and dates in other threads like the WP release one.
Therein lies the problem QF are trying to address.
Huh? I'm a lowly bronze but relied on the T-353 rule to snare my SYD to LHR (albeit back then in whY) when released so I could lock in dates and plan ahead with work etc. Maybe I'm part of that very select cohort who like to plan ahead? I was just wanting to get in before they were all gobbled up and lock it in.
Agreed, but maybe change usual to previous. Those CR releases still happen (maybe) but who knows when? And if? Now it's pot luck unless you sign up to an alerting mechanism who does the release monitoring for you.
Only on some routes and in some cabins where yield management dictates. Seems like a perfectly rational business decision to me.
Kind of. I think there will continue to be plentiful CR availability where yield management dictates. I think the days of severely underpriced (read Classic Rewards), premium cabin, premium destination redemption seats are over. And, as I posited earlier, this will disproportionately impact disloyal customers more than loyal ones.
Bronze don't get to see premium classes at 353 for QF only Y. Only Gold+ can even see them.
I want to point out that even if qantas hasn't done things you really do need an alert monitor on in today's environment. Theres private and public groups everywhere posting releases with bots scouring everything.
That would explain why I could book Y.
Discarding the points chasers also means discarding a significant amount of revenue because they earn so many points. Take your semi-dedicated points chaser who churns 2-3 cards per year, shops at WW & through Qantas Wine, signs up for a white label insurance policy & directs their flight spend to Qantas. They earn ~500K points per year. A mere 25,000 members in this cohort (0.15% of the membership base) account for half of all YOY points growth in FY24.
This is a strawman. The correct comparison is not between your theoretical points chaser and the business owner whacking spend on their card. My expectation is that QFF don't actually care just how many CR+ redemptions they make. It's between the profit QFF makes selling that seat as a revenue seat versus the accumulated profit of the points chaser who is only seeking outsized rewards (bearing in mind that not all points chasers seek outsized rewards - some are highly, highly valuable to a rewards program).
I don't think this is incompatible with a rational strategy at all. QFFs home market bias should mean there's a higher loyalty threshold in Australia than other markets. It's perfectly normal for your 'best' customers to pay a much higher loyalty tax. There's nothing irrational about moving the bar higher for your existing customers, whilst lowering the bar for new customers in unsaturated markets. The idea that everyone is treated the same, or even the idea that you'll be treated better, rather than worse, once you reach a higher threshold (tier, Customer Lifetime Value, whatever...) isn't borne out by the reality of loyalty programs.
Qantas Loyalty absolutely care about how many points they sell (ie their revenue). That's what I said. I made no claim about the number of CR+ redemptions. Talk about a strawman.
Who are you arguing with? It's hard to tell. Who said it was irrational? Who said it wasn't exploitative? etc etc
