Double Status Credits (book by 5/2/18, fly 12/2/18 to 20/1/19)

[JohnK]

We may well be running on fumes now folks. I have a few more GVs to use up, but they might just prove to be worthwhile for the still valuable purpose of saving the cc fees. To be continued, later in 2018...

You've got to just love the inconsistency.

I don't know who deals with emails but that did the trick for me towards the end of last week. First they asked me to call and get it sorted but I asked to try and fix the issue and they manually processed the double SCs for a number of flights thag were missing.

I have quite a few vouchers that have not been used. Will book a few flights in June/July and follow up double SCs. All is not lost if I encounter issues as I'll just use the remaining vouchers to book one-way flights.

 

[Deleted member 29185]

You've got to just love the inconsistency

I tend to believe this will continue. QF do have a lot of issues with their IT systems and I'd wager (if I actually gambled) that will continue into the foreseeable future. Perhaps they have genuinely done some mods that will end up excluding GV's, but I would not be at all surprised to see the very same experiences replicated next time. Some will get them and some will not. What does seem clear though, is that QF do not want GV's being used in this way into the future.

 

[dairyfloss]

Yes - I wouldn't at all be surprised if my remaining vouchers produce the goods, but I'll certainly be altering my flight and fare plans for this status earning year, just in case!

 

[Toad]

I tend to believe this will continue. QF do have a lot of issues with their IT systems and I'd wager (if I actually gambled) that will continue into the foreseeable future. Perhaps they have genuinely done some mods that will end up excluding GV's, but I would not be at all surprised to see the very same experiences replicated next time. Some will get them and some will not. What does seem clear though, is that QF do not want GV's being used in this way into the future.

If the prediction is that some would get them and some would not would that not mean that perhaps QF IT does have issues. Just asking.

 

[Deleted member 29185]

I wouldn't say it's a prediction. More an experience based belief and yes, I do think QF IT have issues. Whether they continue to have issues is anyone's guess but from what I can see, airline offerings and booking management integration must be a difficult task.

 

[JohnK]

What does seem clear though, is that QF do not want GV's being used in this way into the future.

Is it that clear? All we have seen is a new note in the terms and conditions that purchasing gift vouchers does not earn SCs. That is true. You need to purchase flights to earn SCs.

I just think there are a lot of untrained staff working in the call centres.

 

[oz_mark]

Some will get them and some will not. What does seem clear though, is that QF do not want GV's being used in this way into the future.

Well, not the way they have been, they just want you to make a new flight booking in the booking period. From my own experience, it doesn't seem to matter so much when you bought the voucher, it is about when you actually book a flight.

make a new eligible flight booking between 12.01am (AEDT) 1 February 2018 and 11.59pm (AEDT) 5 February 2018 and travel between 12 February 2018 and 20 January 2019

 

[Deleted member 29185]

Well, not the way they have been, they just want you to make a new flight booking in the booking period. From my own experience, it doesn't seem to matter so much when you bought the voucher, it is about when you actually book a flight.

I've never used a GV so I don't know, but doesn't most here suggest a pre-existing GV won't earn the additional SCs even if booked in the booking window and flown within the promotion period?

 

[oz_mark]

I've never used a GV so I don't know, but doesn't most here suggest a pre-existing GV won't earn the additional SCs even if booked in the booking window and flown within the promotion period?

As I mentioned up thread, I used a pre-existing (bought during DSC period) one during a 50% bonus offer. I got the 50%.

It seems to me, they have changed it to make the flight booking date the one that counts, not the GV purchase date.

But that's only my observations based on what has happened to me...YMMV

 

[RichardMEL]

The change in T&C and the comment from the "Loyalty Specialist" that the flight booking date(not the GV creation date) made the booking inelgible definitely point to QFF tightening up on this. It's absolutely zero shock to me (and why I will not follow up on a booking that DSCs have not posted on - I do not need them as it happens).

It's actually good they're not taking away the already credited DSC since they said the whole booking is ineligible, so that is a plus in my view.

And note the "QFF upgrade" tomorrow could mean even more "enhancements" (and bugs, no doubt!)

And yes, consistently inconsistent that one hand acts differently to another.... that part also does not surprise me.

 

[Pushka]

Have not done any 15 Status Credits Flights however on a GV this appeared the other day

 

[cwd]

Have not done any 15 Status Credits Flights however on a GV this appeared the other day
View attachment 124685

I wonder - did this only appear after the system update overnight? I have a bunch of spurious transactions showing in my account, but they haven't affected the total shown. Could this just be related to that?

 

[Pushka]

I wonder - did this only appear after the system update overnight? I have a bunch of spurious transactions showing in my account, but they haven't affected the total shown. Could this just be related to that?

I don’t know as I didn’t check the other night. Compounding that is that our year ended on the 30th April so I can’t see whether it added to the total accrued last year.

 

[Kangol]

As I mentioned up thread, I used a pre-existing (bought during DSC period) one during a 50% bonus offer. I got the 50%.

It seems to me, they have changed it to make the flight booking date the one that counts, not the GV purchase date.

But that's only my observations based on what has happened to me...YMMV

What about flight ticketing date? Not necessarily the same as booking..

 

[bdfly]

Hi all, long time reader and infrequent poster. I'd like to explore a few of the issues here from the lens of a typical business analyst.

If we assume that:

1. The purpose of this promotion is to incentivise early bookings to improve financial (e.g. income) and operational (e.g. flight scheduling) forecasting
2. The marketing team within the Qantas Frequent Flyer Program follows a "test and learn" approach, meaning that it runs concurrent status and points campaigns across its membership base to continuously improve conversion rates / performance
3. Automation is required to fulfil the majority of booking scenarios
4. The automation must consider flights taken within the last 8 weeks
5. Although Qantas may monitor these forums, it will likely not going to significantly change its T&Cs to prevent a small number of workarounds from a small fraction of its membership base.

And the constraints / high level requirements are:

1. The Fair Trading Act (NSW) introduced a mandatory three-year minimum expiry date on gift vouchers (GVs), effective 31 March 2018 (source)
2. To reduce complexity, there should only be one scheduler job that adds the credits to eligible customers' accounts
3. Call centre agents need to be able to easily and consistently determine whether or not a particular booking is eligible for a promotion, and if so, understand the type of promotion that applies.

Based on the observations recorded in this thread, the conclusions one could draw are:

1. All the promotions end within 365 days, so the cycle time of any given promotion is, say, 365 days
2. Therefore, logic behind the job that applies the credits may consider:
   1. The PNR was issued in the last 365 days
   2. The segment has been completed in the last 8 weeks
   3. The customer opted into a promotion and was eligible for that promotion (e.g. QF flight number, etc.)
   4. The customer has not already redeemed a benefit from this (or other) promotions
   5. If so, which promotion the customer opted into and what benefit should be applied (e.g. DSC, 50%, etc.)
3. Considering this logic,
   1. Item (2.1) is now incompatible with the NSW GV requirement, so GVs created more than 365 days ago would not be considered by this job. In my opinion, it would be easier to just exclude GVs in the T&Cs and give the benefit of the credits to anyone who does purchase a GV and travels within a year, rather than to extend the timeframe for the job to check and apply credits, because it would increase the job duration by a factor of 3 for a very small number of bookings (and increase the risk of errors). It also wouldn't be in the spirit of the promotion's purpose (QF is doing this to drive bookings), so why bother investing in IT change?
   2. Item (2.2) prevents the call centre agents from manually applying a credit in case the job applies one automatically in the days/weeks after the call ends
   3. Item (2.3) also needs to be made available for agents to handle queries from customers. This could be done by tagging bookings with a promotion reference at the time the booking is made. For example, as an agent I could look up a booking and see a message Promotion 123 - customer eligible for 2x bonus status credits if travel completed between 1/1/2018 and 1/6/2018
   4. Item (2.4) is reflected in the T&Cs because the first registered promotion is most likely going to be applied first
   5. Item (2.5) is the action that applies a new line item onto your statement and updates your status credit balance.

If these assumptions and conclusions are correct, what does this mean? Here are a few of my comments and questions:

• Qantas hasn't removed GVs from the campaign because it isn't worried about a small proportion of its members gaming the system; it's changed the T&Cs so that it can run the promotion, comply with the regulations, and avoid IT costs
• Will loyalty bonuses be removed once the promotions with T&Cs that didn't consider them have run out?
• If you're told by an agent that a recent flight is eligible for a promotion, you'll just need to wait the 8 weeks and try your luck with the call centre if you're approaching the end of your membership year
• If you're an edge case (you might not know it because there are so many permutations) and you've missed out on your points, a call to QF after 8 weeks should help. It seems random but remember that this is a complicated exercise and it probably isn't feasible to account for every "rabbit hole" - the majority will suffice
• Most importantly (but slightly off topic), how can we work out the criteria for triggering a targeted 50% status bonus offer?

I'd love to be proven right (or wrong) on these. But this might just be another speculative post among 58 other pages of speculations...

 

[nutwood]

I note that Qantas are apparently conducting "scheduled maintenance" so strange things may be occurring, but looking at my account, I notice that all the reference dates have disappeared from my DSC's. Currently, I'm only owed 40 DSC's and I'm carefully tracking to see if they appear, but without reference dates, it becomes very hard to establish one's claim eight weeks after the flight.
With reference to the GV business angle, if people purchase a GV, they are locking themselves into a future Qantas flight. There may be DSC implications but I would have thought that ten purchases of $50 GV's, and consequently ten future flights, is better than one purchase of a $500 flight. Obviously the purchase of ten $500 flights would be ideal but when people have limited funds to splash out, or are uncertain as to their exact travel plans, surely it's desirable to lock them in for the rest of the year?

 

[DC3]

I note that Qantas are apparently conducting "scheduled maintenance" so strange things may be occurring .....

Yes. I saw an advisory on their website that they were to conduct scheduled maintenance from midnight Monday until 6.00am Tuesday, from memory.

However, each time that I have logged-in to my account on Tuesday, Wednesday and today (Thursday), this message still shows:

 

[oz_mark]

1. The Fair Trading Act (NSW) introduced a mandatory three-year minimum expiry date on gift vouchers (GVs), effective 31 March 2018 (source)

I think you are way overthinking the GV changes

 

[nutwood]

Yes. I saw an advisory on their website that they were to conduct scheduled maintenance from midnight Monday until 6.00am Tuesday, from memory.

However, each time that I have logged-in to my account on Tuesday, Wednesday and today (Thursday), this message still shows:

View attachment 124752

For once, they are entirely correct, at least in my case. My missing points for my next bonus have sorted themselves out. My 140 SC's from Jetstar are now receiving their due recognition. The rest of my tally seems totally correct apart from a couple of outgoing legs from before Easter that are missing DSC's. Not eight weeks yet, so hard to say but not looking good, judging from previous posts.

 

[vandy]

This GV thing is turning out to be a bit of a gamble and will probably result in me spending less money with QF.

If I knew I'd get the DSC I'd use my GV to buy the J sale fare to LHR (which would get me over the line to WP this year). But I don't want to take the risk on it not coming through so I'll buy Y as normal and points upgrade, stay SG, but keep $7K in my account.