International Economy Status Credits

[wtolmie]

Newbie here and im sure this may have been posted, Im just wondering why Q only gives Discount Economy Status Credits for all but Y class on international flights, including fully flexible and upgradable E fares, and on domestic flights, it gives full status earn on flexi fares ??

Then when you compare to jetstar, you can get a full status credit earn on Jetflex, cheaper than the cost of a E ticket with Q.. Anyone offer any information ?? made 20 Syd - Melb full E flights this year and 2 x Syd-JHB, 2 x SYD-BOM and 1 x SYD - BKK and barely got past the line for Platinum..

 

[NM]

Newbie here and im sure this may have been posted, Im just wondering why Q only gives Discount Economy Status Credits for all but Y class on international flights, including fully flexible and upgradable E fares, and on domestic flights, it gives full status earn on flexi fares ??

Short answer is "because they can".

Longer answer is to around the relative value of the fares paid and the SC earn rates. For international travel, few people ever pay for full Y fares, unless they have some special corporate deal that offers Y booking class at a significant discount. So its common for the non-Y economy fares to be around 25% of the business class fares, so it seems to make sense to provide about 25% of the SC rate that would be earned for a business class fare.

Then when you compare to jetstar, you can get a full status credit earn on Jetflex, cheaper than the cost of a E ticket with Q.. Anyone offer any information ?? made 20 Syd - Melb full E flights this year and 2 x Syd-JHB, 2 x SYD-BOM and 1 x SYD - BKK and barely got past the line for Platinum..

JQ's StarClass earning J SC's is an anomaly. I would not be surprised to see this changes to Premium Economy earning in the next round of changes since QF is also introducing its own PE product. JQ's JetFlex fares on domestic routes probably have the right level of fat included to fund the SC/FF liability.

 

[serfty]

Hi wtolmie, welcome to AFF.

What NM posted + another word - competition.

5-6 years ago Qantas domestically only gave full WHY SC's for Y (and maybe B) class fares; all else was Disc. WHY.

It was only about 3-4 years ago that Qantas changed to include all 'Flexi' fares domestcially. Red e-deals and saver fares still earn as disc. WHY.

 

[Dave Noble]

Hi wtolmie, welcome to AFF.

What NM posted + another word - competition.

I wouldn't have classed competition as an issue there; when AN was around , they still had Tier Credits/Status credits in a similar manner. for Redemption Award values, competition or lack of, would definitely seem correct

They have decided on a method for deciding on status levels and they came up with what they have

Dave

 

[serfty]

... when AN was around ...

When AN was around there was no real competition at all, more like a symbiosis.

This was the case for many many years, aside from the brief interludes with Compass Mk I and Compass Mk II.

With the advent of DJ and VQ and 911 this all changed; the VQ (impulse) issue was resolved with its absorption by Qantas, but DJ still existed.

DJ is the competion I was referring to - other than that I can think of no reason why Qantas would alter it's definition of Disc. WHY domestically to have more economy fare classes earning as full WHY.

 

[Dave Noble]

DJ is the competion I was referring to - other than that I can think of no reason why Qantas would alter it's definition of Disc. WHY domestically to have more economy fare classes earning as full WHY.

I also don't see that competition in itself would be a reason for them to adjust their earning for status purposes tbh , though might affect redemption values

Dave

 

[Shano]

Again, welcome wtolmie.

Depending on where you are flying to / from you can purchase international "Y" class fares for not much more than B / K fares.

A current Y class fare (YLFFA1) MEL-HKG return is ~$1,900 +++, earning full Y SC (and requiring less points for UG to J) whereas the B class fare (BLFFA1) is ~$1,600 +++ and K class (KLFFA1) is ~$1,400 +++

Compared to the "full" Y fare (YRT) of ~$5,800, this is not too bad for the additional SC's.

All of my flights to China this year have been YLFFA1 fares.

Unfortuantely these types of fares don't seem to exist on AU-US routes (where there is less competition than say AU-ASIA)

 

[QF WP]

Thanks for that comparison of fares, Shano. That makes a lot of sense (plus interesting to see how some are very willing to pay $500 above K and $300 above B to get full SC earning). I certainly would.

Now if only BA flew WT+ to HKG...or QF for that matter.

 

[Dave Noble]

Thanks for that comparison of fares, Shano. That makes a lot of sense (plus interesting to see how some are very willing to pay $500 above K and $300 above B to get full SC earning). I certainly would.

Now if only BA flew WT+ to HKG...or QF for that matter.

BA does fly WT+ to HKG

I could understand paying $300 extra if going to upgrade to get at the lower redemption rate or if wanting the flexibility that Y normally offers, but just to get SCs seems insane to me

Dave

 

[Shano]

My reasoning behind purchasing the Y class fare is a combination of all of those factors:

• plans change at last minute so nice to be almost gauranteed of being able to get on next available flight and not have to worry about additional payments if say a K class fare is not available
• 25,000 versus 48,000 points for J upgrade is pretty appealing
• extra SC to maintain WP therefore having better access to the above UG's
• making the most of our company's Y only policy

Now if only it were possible to get Y to J UG's on transpacs for less than 72,000 points without forking out ~$7,000 for a Y fare .....