Well, it has taken me a while, but here are my thoughts:
-Simpler - no way!
-If you are going to change how points are earned, then surely having a calculator that works would be a good start. I know they don't fly to many places any more, but I am pretty sure one of the few INT legs they have left is MEL-LHR - but not according to the calculator!
-Why penalise your customers for buying a product you cant sell? Sure limit SC's on OW partners if you want, but as many have said before, why change it for places QF don't fly? You are not going to attract any new customers that way, and existing customers will either continue with the status quo (which obviously isn't working for QF at the present) or yoiu risk losing them to the competition entirely!
On a personal level, I have been WP for 5 years (gold for 5 before that), only taken 1 JASA and that year made it to the PG level (except 3 months earlier they enhanced the program from 2,100 to 2,400 (to offer me more choice as I remember?!?!) so I missed out). Have about 700k FFPs which has taken about 2.5 years to accumulate via an even split of flying (which QF get paid cash for) and CC spend (which QF get paid cash for). Spending it on what up until recently were referred to as MASA's I felt was good value and let me fly J which I otherwise rarely do.
As a result of the changes, I will now spend that 700k on either classic or flight upgrades, so no real change in how the points will be spent.
What will change, is I will switch all of my CC spend from my ANZ FF Amex/Visa to my Virgin Platinum Visa which earns at 1.5/$ (an fewer surcharges), and burn my points on VA as I see them as better value. I am about 700 SC's shy of LTG and have already requalled for WP until September next year, so my next lot of flying will mainly be with VA so I can maintain my VA WP (as was the plan), and I will see where I go from there. As the VA offering keeps getting better (which is more that I can say for the competition) then as my flying becomes less in the next few years, I can see myself concentrating on maintaining VA WP and having QF LTG as a fall back if I cant maintain 2x WP.
-Simpler - no way!
-If you are going to change how points are earned, then surely having a calculator that works would be a good start. I know they don't fly to many places any more, but I am pretty sure one of the few INT legs they have left is MEL-LHR - but not according to the calculator!
-Why penalise your customers for buying a product you cant sell? Sure limit SC's on OW partners if you want, but as many have said before, why change it for places QF don't fly? You are not going to attract any new customers that way, and existing customers will either continue with the status quo (which obviously isn't working for QF at the present) or yoiu risk losing them to the competition entirely!
On a personal level, I have been WP for 5 years (gold for 5 before that), only taken 1 JASA and that year made it to the PG level (except 3 months earlier they enhanced the program from 2,100 to 2,400 (to offer me more choice as I remember?!?!) so I missed out). Have about 700k FFPs which has taken about 2.5 years to accumulate via an even split of flying (which QF get paid cash for) and CC spend (which QF get paid cash for). Spending it on what up until recently were referred to as MASA's I felt was good value and let me fly J which I otherwise rarely do.
As a result of the changes, I will now spend that 700k on either classic or flight upgrades, so no real change in how the points will be spent.
What will change, is I will switch all of my CC spend from my ANZ FF Amex/Visa to my Virgin Platinum Visa which earns at 1.5/$ (an fewer surcharges), and burn my points on VA as I see them as better value. I am about 700 SC's shy of LTG and have already requalled for WP until September next year, so my next lot of flying will mainly be with VA so I can maintain my VA WP (as was the plan), and I will see where I go from there. As the VA offering keeps getting better (which is more that I can say for the competition) then as my flying becomes less in the next few years, I can see myself concentrating on maintaining VA WP and having QF LTG as a fall back if I cant maintain 2x WP.
:shock:
