Article: Should Qantas Have a Minimum Reward Seat Guarantee?

[AFF Editor]

Over recent years, some people have called for Qantas to guarantee a minimum number of Classic Reward seats on every flight. This article looks at the pros and cons of doing so:

Should Qantas Have a Minimum Reward Seat Guarantee?

Airlines including British Airways and Finnair guarantee a minimum number of reward seats on every flight. To help it overcome the perception that there aren't enough reward seats to go around, should Qantas do the same?

www.australianfrequentflyer.com.au

You can leave a comment or discuss this topic below.

 

[kpc]

Yes absolutely!

 

[aikman]

Nah. It only benefits those who can lock in their flights 12 months in advance and disadvantages those who are not able to.

Random releases are best. Fair level playing field for all. Nobody has an advantage. No discrimination.

 

[levelnine]

This is frequent flyer engagement bait

Nothing quite stirs the passions more than a debate between those who can plan 12 months in advance and love minimum seat guarantees and those who cannot plan 12 months in advance and hate them.

 

[NSun]

The benefit from Qantas' end is that no one could then accuse them of not releasing any seats - which many are (assuming Classic + seats don't count).

But while those who plan 12 months in advance may be in a minority, many of those would be those taking a 'trip of a lifetime' and have saved over several years for it and be able to use those points.

 

[bPeteb]

I am a yes. We're planners. Every trip we take is the next trip of a lifetime. Compared to anyone we know we fly a lot, enough to be a sparrow fart from ltg. Compared to many on here we barely fly much at all. I want my status to help us fly on the points we have available. Once we've both stopped working maybe we'll be no, but we'll also be in a different financial position as well, so might stay as yes.

 

[Captain Halliday]

Nah. It only benefits those who can lock in their flights 12 months in advance and disadvantages those who are not able to.

Random releases are best. Fair level playing field for all. Nobody has an advantage. No discrimination.

I disagree that it’s a level playing field and fair for all.

Just as there may be some people who are disadvantaged by having to plan, there are others who can’t just drop everything to book and travel at will.

This includes people needing to have leave approved, or who work in industries with restricted leave, (teachers for example).

Framed as a binary choice, there are winners and losers on both sides.

IMO a minimum seat guarantee, combined with ongoing releases by yield management to suit the non-planners may be as close as you’d get to a “fair level playing field”.

 

[BenP]

a minimum seat guarantee, combined with ongoing releases by yield management to suit the non-planners may be as close as you’d get to a “fair level playing field”.

I think the only thing I would add to this suggestion is the ongoing releases are on a set date at regular intervals. For example every 30 days out from the flight - there isn't a requirement they are released but you know what day/s to look just to avoid the need to check consistently/use one of the search tools

 

[Scash]

"IMO a minimum seat guarantee, combined with ongoing releases by yield management to suit the non-planners may be as close as you’d get to a “fair level playing field”."

I agree. No system will be perfect but this gives a solution to suit most people. We are generally planners (for instance our upcoming trip in May was booked in August last year) however as we're retired we can also take advantage of ongoing releases.

 

[Aeryn]

Random releases are best. Fair level playing field for all.

Not for all just those with the ability to travel at very short notice.

So great if you don't work or are self employed and choose to take on or defer work and just happen to be online when they drop. That is not IME most people.

Nobody has an advantage. No discrimination.

It absolutely disadvantages anyone who for example needs:

• to get employer permission to take leave especially under contracts where the notice period increases based on the length of leave continuous requested.
• to lock in land based bookings such as tours or special events that might sell out whilst waiting for flights to drop, and if no awards appear then have to pay much higher last minute fares
• to have time to hire someone to temporarily cover their work or family carer duties

IMO a minimum seat guarantee, combined with ongoing releases by yield management to suit the non-planners may be as close as you’d get to a “fair level playing field”.

Sounds ideal to me.

 

[serfty]

I was told a tale relating to regular releases and standardised behavior by an airline. The source is quite credible.

An airline would regularly release award seats at a set time in advance (e.g. 330 days).

There is an award booking 'service' that devised Bots that would create bookings consuming this freshly released award inventory on many popular routes. These bookings not ticketed, but 'held'

The hold would expire after a set period of time (days) and the award would generally go back into inventory. The bots would anticipate this and reclaim the inventory to create further held bookings. So on and so on. When the 'service' had a customer, they would access their inventory of held bookings to book on their customer's behalf.

 

[DirectConnect]

I was told a tale relating to regular releases and standardised behavior by an airline. The source is quite credible.

An airline would regularly release award seats at a set time in advance (e.g. 330 days).

There is an award booking 'service' that devised Bots that would create bookings consuming this freshly released award inventory on many popular routes. These bookings not ticketed, but 'held'

The hold would expire after a set period of time (days) and the award would generally go back into inventory. The bots would anticipate this and reclaim the inventory to create further held bookings. So on and so on. When the 'service' had a customer they would access their inventory of held bookings to book on the customers behalf.

I had my nephew offer me a 'bot' that would automatically book reward flights as soon as 'U' inventory came through. Locally hosted on one of my old laptops, it had virtually all of my details including my name, DOB, FF number, FF login info, KTN, etc. and a prepaid debit card for the taxes of the booking.

Under the assumption the QF website wouldn't request for an OTP on the basis that the laptop was on the wifi network which I log in all the time to make bookings etc would trigger it not to send out another OTP request.

It worked, automatically booking segments on MEL-LAX, LAX-MEL and MEL-BNE-NRT and SYD-HNL-MEL right at the peak of school holidays for myself in J.

No longer using it since I can call Hobart and work something out with releasing award seats. But it goes to show, if QF makes a guaranteed release system - its going to be pretty much impossible in the near future to make these bookings going forward.

 

[DJTravels]

If this does happen, I bet they will make it so enhanced, it's basically a nothing burger - i.e. guaranteed Classic Plus reward seats

 

[Clayton]

Because of Qantas' decision to only release award seats at random, I no longer will acquire their points. I have a cache of QF points which I am steadily consuming on predictable opportunities including JL J and F seats, as well as domestic PER flights.

Sayonara QF Ponzi scheme.

 

[swilk]

Absolutely anything would be better than the debacle we face at present, ie zero chance of getting a Classic J seat to Europe/ North America or even west to east coast and the crazy price you pay for classic plus seats. I no longer chase Qantas credit cards points. My circumstances dictate planning well in advance so I’m stuck with classic plus.

 

[Neil64]

How about a daily release of new reward seats for a variety of destinations for travel from next-day to say 300 days. And make them all available to anyone, regardless of status.
And if Qantas really wants to improve belief in the fact that it’s releasing more premium reward seats than ever then it should consider publishing its figures at the end of each year.

Post automatically merged: Thursday at 4:05 PM

Because of Qantas' decision to only release award seats at random, I no longer will acquire their points. I have a cache of QF points which I am steadily consuming on predictable opportunities including JL J and F seats, as well as domestic PER flights.

Sayonara QF Ponzi scheme.

I’m doing exactly the same. There’s a limit to how many trips to Adelaide in economy a person can do in a year

 

[mt4789]

It would be nice that in theory you could use your points on any flight.

At the moment people join the club thinking they can earn points for their Christmas flight to London when it’s simply not possible - and it’s not obvious / transparent.

 

[Russell Lewis]

Should Qantas Have a Minimum Reward Seat Guarantee?

Airlines including British Airways and Finnair guarantee a minimum number of reward seats on every flight. To help it overcome the perception that there aren't enough reward seats to go around, should Qantas do the same?

www.australianfrequentflyer.com.au

You can leave a comment or discuss this topic below.

100%

 

[FlyingKangaroo]

I'm too cynical to assume the airlines will continue to do anything other than whatever serves them as long as customers keep coming back and hoarding points despite whinging about their inability to use them.

I've pretty much come to the assumption that it's simply a situation where there were enough airlines sticking to a more predictable release pattern back in the "good old days" (whether deliberately or lazily without giving it much thought) that it became a more standard practice that held everyone in line. But once the floodgates were opened and more and more carriers realised they could do away with it, well, here we are. Very, very few carriers left following more traditional release patterns.

 

[auspal]

I am rapidly spending all my remaining points on flights that I want, (which is not an easy task) and after that it will be the airline of my choice instead of automatically going to Qantas for my flights. Qantas needs to do something to retain our loyalty, I am very disappointed at the moment to be honest.