Further to Trippin's comments....
The other thing to bear in mind is that there are essentially two competing business goals at work:
1- QANTAS (the airline)
2- QFF (the Frequent Flyer Program)
There's a reason that QFF is a separate reporting entity - and not just so that it can easily be spun-off.
Trippin gave a good explanation of the revenue/margin levers for QFF.
The other aspect is the traditional "loyalty" aspect - which is essentially the elite status program (as opposed to points or "frequent shopper program").
Think of it like this....
1- AIRLINE - wants you to fly them. Offers incentives in the form of status benefits to fly them. They also offer FF points, although these are less significant than in the past due to devaluations, as well as the ability to earn points on the ground. Points are even LESS IMPORTANT to higher-status pax for various reasons not the least of which is that they already earn a decent haul of points. More importantly - status benefits are more important than points.
But benefits and points are two levers which the airline can manipulate to act as incentives to apply the golden handcuffs and to incentivise incremental spend.
2- QFF - Wants to simply make a profit.
They profit via: - margin on points;
- positive working capital;
- breakage
These are the simple economics of the frequent flyer program. Ideally - the program wants to sell as many points as possible to partners (banks, hotels, Woolies etc), and they want to minimise the number of points issued for flying.
On the flipside - they want to minimise their "cost-per-point" on the redemption-side of the equation. So they make it difficult to use points for great value flight redemptions, and super easy to use points on horrible value toasters.
The problems come in when they cut/enhance/devalue so much that the "Qantas Points Currency" itself becomes worthless in the minds of consumers.
This risk is most pronounced at the mid-tiers. Think Silvers and Golds and QP members. These are the pax who are susceptible to being golden-handcuffed. If they are - then they will obtain co-brand credit cards, go out of their way to earn the currency, and display incredibly loyal behaviour and characteristics. These pax are also very easily convertible to higher-status pax if their personal circumstances suddenly allow it.
SO.....
What this means is that too many "enhancements" on either the Airline or the QFF programs - can in fact have detrimental effects on the business goals of the other.
Over-enhancing status benefits can actually have the effect of reducing QFF profitability.
Over-enhancing QFF can actually have the effect of reducing airline profitability.
It's a VERY fine line, and getting it wrong literally costs millions.
But ultimately - they are laser-focussed (to a fault) on reducing costs including provision of benefits and "cost-per-point".
That focus is generally bad-business. The only reason the enhancements we see aren't "worse" is that there are a small handful of people in QF who "get it" and exert strong pushback.
