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My wager would be that, in sum, the batch releases amount to far fewer seats than the old 12 month release system. It should be remembered that not all batch releases include all routes. While there might be 1-3 per year, only 1 might include the most in-demand locations.
To continue to torture this metaphor, the real question is whether consumers are going to continue buying gift cards in the program after experiencing that bad taste.
I think people would still complain even if they released this information
To be honest, I suspect it's more than likely the amount of long-haul business seats being released hasn't decreased. It's the growth in QFF members, and probably just as importantly, more and more people being into "point hacking" and actually spending their points on high-value redemptions, such as business seats.
It's hard to have any hard numbers for the latter point, but anecdotally from my friends and colleagues it looks like a lot more people are churning credit cards etc. to get that elusive business class redemption now vs. pre-covid or even before that. Previously people would be members of QFF, but would likely just redeem a few economy flights and/or toasters. And no, it's not me introducing them to this world (I don't talk about it that much), it's them coming across it on social media (e.g. TikTok influencers peddling credit cards) and then coming to me for advice since they know I fly a lot and know the FF programs well.
Of course, the end outcome is the same for us regardless, but it certainly matters for Qantas Loyalty's bottom line. If you're getting a lot more points being purchased by banks for credit cards etc. but aren't increasing availability of your most expensive* redemption (Classic Rewards), then that's an easy path to Loyalty's current growth... well, until people catch on that the availability doesn't match their expectations.
*expensive as in the cost to Qantas Loyalty
As for the original article, I think it would be good to have a section on the general feelings of AFF members towards CR
I agree with most of what you’ve said but beg to differ with the premise that the rise in QFF membership and greater awareness of the benefits could be the reason why premium long haul CR seats are more difficult, if not impossible, to come by. Assuming most people posting comments here are experienced frequent flyers, one would think that we would be far more skilled at snagging those holy grail seats than newcomers. And yet, despite using all the tricks in the book, it’s virtually impossible to find long haul premium CR seats unless you’ve woken up this morning thinking you fancy flying to Europe next week.I think people would still complain even if they released this information
To be honest, I suspect it's more than likely the amount of long-haul business seats being released hasn't decreased. It's the growth in QFF members, and probably just as importantly, more and more people being into "point hacking" and actually spending their points on high-value redemptions, such as business seats.
It's hard to have any hard numbers for the latter point, but anecdotally from my friends and colleagues it looks like a lot more people are churning credit cards etc. to get that elusive business class redemption now vs. pre-covid or even before that. Previously people would be members of QFF, but would likely just redeem a few economy flights and/or toasters. And no, it's not me introducing them to this world (I don't talk about it that much), it's them coming across it on social media (e.g. TikTok influencers peddling credit cards) and then coming to me for advice since they know I fly a lot and know the FF programs well.
Of course, the end outcome is the same for us regardless, but it certainly matters for Qantas Loyalty's bottom line. If you're getting a lot more points being purchased by banks for credit cards etc. but aren't increasing availability of your most expensive* redemption (Classic Rewards), then that's an easy path to Loyalty's current growth... well, until people catch on that the availability doesn't match their expectations.
*expensive as in the cost to Qantas Loyalty
As for the original article, I think it would be good to have a section on the general feelings of AFF members towards CR+
If you are Chairman’s Lounge (don’t get me started on the merits of that
I think the move to random releases vs. fixed 3xx days out does actually make it easier for newcomers and worse for those more experienced as it's now an even playing ground - you can't plan for the release, and also the benefit for Gold and Silver members having early access is eroded. The only thing you need to "know" is remain subscribed to the emails of point hacks / ET etc. or be a member of one of the many QFF facebook groups, and you'll be notified as soon as a new batch of CRs drop. Also the availability/ease of use of award search alerting tools have become a lot more widespread compared to years ago.
But award seats are seats the airline was never going to sell. These days, those are rare.
Perhaps Qantas should have just said they are revamping 'Points plus Pay' providing better value than the previous iteration. That would have been a marketing winner and we wouldn't be debating the devaluation of CR into CR+.
I guess the complexity is that CR+ is only supported on certain fare classes and has a cash payment component, which would complicate Points plus Pay.
I would love transparency from Qantas, but alas that would, no doubt, be an own goal. I would also love transparency from other large corporations turning hundreds of millions to billions in profit each year. Highly unlikely we will ever be privy to that information. What we need is a Qantas whistleblower. Assange is back in country, they can hand the info over to him to publish
Other airlines guarantee reward seats on their flights, why can't Qantas? BA award seat guarantee. Qantas is so damned stingy. Why is it you have more likelihood of using QFF points for a reward seat on a partner airline internationally than using them with the airline you earn them with. There is a really big problem there and I'm surprised Qantas can't see the issue themselves. It must be cheaper for Qantas to buy you a seat on another carrier and give it away to you via points than it is losing the revenue they would get selling a cash seat on their own flight. Make money lose goodwill, but who needs goodwill when you made $2.5B profit right!
I won't go into detail on a public forum but I don’t believe QF when they say they are releasing more award seats than ever before. Especially not in business class on long haul flights, which was the main point of one of the comments that triggered this thread. But in the end it doesn’t really matter what anyone says. If QFF members are finding it increasingly hard to find premium long-haul seats, for whatever reason, then there’s very little that can be done about it other than preference a different FF program, which is what I’ve chosen to do.
