Article: Should Qantas Sell Status Credits?

[p--and--t]

I carbon offset my status runs……. to get green status and more status credits …… so that is what correctly priced status credits look like.

Still a waste of the earths resources carting people back and forth same day for no other purpose than just to get status points.

 

[VPS]

Interesting thread, and timely for me, I'm going to end up literally 1 point shy of maintaining Platinum unless I do a status run next week.
The idea of $100 for 5 points as per the article is cheaper then a 'status run' and better for the environment (as I don't have any 'nice to see' destinations in mind).
I don't think purchasing a small amount of points would offend the 'must fly to earn' school of thought.

Good luck and welcome to AFF

 

[bPeteb]

No, unless it is under specific conditions such as requal (as others have said).

What I do wish QF would introduce is family pooling. bAlt and I always travel together and it would be nice to pool the scs we earn flying together.

 

[Laptop Jockey]

They already do in effect sell Gold status with Qantas Club.
It wouldn't be a massive stretch to create "Qantas Club Premium" that offers many of the benefits of Platinum (Business lounge instead of Qantas club for e.g)

 

[Mqrko]

I wouldn't mind trading my points for SC. I have an insanely amount of points and have been unable to use them since Covid. I had to buy my tickets full price instead

 

[RichardMEL]

They already do in effect sell Gold status with Qantas Club.
It wouldn't be a massive stretch to create "Qantas Club Premium" that offers many of the benefits of Platinum (Business lounge instead of Qantas club for e.g)

Gold is much more than just QC - specially in relation to OWS benefits.

I get your point re paid club membership, but they are most definitely not the same thing imo. QC is more or less a subset of QFF Gold in terms of benefits.

 

[p--and--t]

They already do in effect sell Gold status with Qantas Club.
It wouldn't be a massive stretch to create "Qantas Club Premium" that offers many of the benefits of Platinum (Business lounge instead of Qantas club for e.g)

Unfortunately QC is not an equivalent to a higher status level than Bronze without actually doing a lot of paid flying.

No OW status, priority or access to most other airline lounges when travelling overseas on partner airlines, no priority for award seat release etc.

(edited for spelling and typos)

 

[SeatBackForward]

People redeeming for classic rewards are truly flying…. different mode of payment, but they flying.

Yes some consideration after my posting did make me realise this.

 

[JestersDance]

I carbon offset my status runs……. to get green status and more status credits …… so that is what correctly priced status credits look like.

Not to derail the thread, but your honesty around the motivation of using the carbon offset option is refreshing. Considering the offsets used are mostly CDM junk credits (and cost QF less to purchase than they charge you) the only legitimate reason to click the offset button is for Green Tier!

 

[Princess Fiona]

What I do wish QF would introduce is family pooling. bAlt and I always travel together and it would be nice to pool the scs we earn flying together.

I would absolutely hate QF to do this.
I think they should leave that to VA.

If people are flying with their family then the family already get the benefit of that members status via seating and lounge access.

 

[Will I Fly]

Should Qantas Sell Status Credits? is an article written by the AFF editorial team:

https://www.australianfrequentflyer.com.au/should-qantas-sell-status-credits/

You can leave a comment or discuss this topic below.

Absolutely look at options to sell SC's Its simply a bottom line equation. Youve made revenue from the sale of SC's, youve freed a seat(s) to now double your revenue, youve reduced carbon emissions etc etc. Its a shareholders dream! If anyone wants to pay the equivalent of 000's of dollars for the current offering at Qantas Lounges, be my guest (its average at best). People switch credit cards every day to then earn free points to then fly to earn SC's. I think people are too precious about "well I did it the hard way". It was also ancillary to the point you needed to get somewhere. Qantas Money, Qantas Credit Cards were all lauded as non core business. Move forward.

 

[sudoer]

They sort of already do this with the 80k/120k Gold/Platinum retain offers...

 

[TheRealTMA]

I would absolutely hate QF to do this.
I think they should leave that to VA.

If people are flying with their family then the family already get the benefit of that members status via seating and lounge access.

Family pooling for points, fine. SCs, no.

 

[Princess Fiona]

Family pooling for points, fine. SCs, no.

Agreed.
Can effectively already do that as they removed the annual limits.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

So… the question is, why make someone do a status run, when it’s environmentally unfriendly, and potentially loses the airline money with seats they could double sell?

If you are flying enough anyway, you’re not going to need to buy them… except…

… the only negative I can see to selling status would be someone upgrading at the start of their membership, so enjoying a higher lounge, or higher status before they’ve spent the $$ flying. So first class lounge for all of 2024, instead of just the end (or whenever status is earned).

So… maybe QF could sell status in the last month of your membership year? This way they get all the revenue a passenger would normally have spent. They get all the additional revenue from selling seat the status runner didn’t use. And none of the actually costs of flying the passenger.

For the year after, you only get the benefits if you actually fly. So another win for the airline.

 

[RichardMEL]

Nobody is being "made" to do status runs though. These are choices those of us that do them make.

Yes, I get it, if you could just hand over bucks instrad of flying for status, but there needs to be a limit if this is to be a thing imo.

RE emissions etc. The way I see it, those aircraft are flying anyway. Yes, if I am doing a status run vs a (possibly) emoty seat, then the extra fuel burn to carry my butt has an effect.. sure. However, not like the runners are causing extra flights to be put on (I doubt runners have any meaningful effect on demand models to sffect future capacity plans).

Possibly contraversial opinion: I doubt those chasing status and then using doing more trips are worrying that much about environmental impact of that travel. I don't mean they don't care, but probably priorities are elsewhere

PS I recycle where I can

 

[Canuk]

Why not allow a passenger to collect points for a flight not taken but not refunded for cash or credit? I do not think sc are awarded for a non refundable “no show”

 

[RichardMEL]

Why not allow a passenger to collect points for a flight not taken but not refunded for cash or credit? I do not think sc are awarded for a non refundable “no show”

Terrible idea imo.

Not only does it take the whole idea of flying away, but this ties up inventory. That means other pax can miss out on a seat that goes empty.

Yes, sure, the airline keeps the revenue so if one chooses to nit actually sit there then why not?

However what if this became widespread? The riunners buy cheaper seats that go unused both driving up prices for legit pax and having flights go with unused seats.

What about standby pax? Those hoping maybe to upgrade? Or those looking to change to an earlier flight but maybe no inventory because a pax is holding it til they noshow but want the points anyway?

I could perhaps accept it for a fully refundable fare, but certainly not on cheaper fares. And the pointvof refundable us to get the bucks back to not fly.

This would be a nightmare for airlines imo.

 

[Catweazle]

Oh dear.

 

[RooFlyer]

Welcome to AFF @daninsydney