Is Qantas diluting the benefits of status?

[drron]

Most people are all talk and bluster. When it comes to putting there money where there mouth is, there is much evidence to suggest they will stick with Qantas anyway.

However for those of us who stump up for J class fares will think twice about it if we continually find that we are outnumbered by those op upped on discount Y fares.

 

[oz_mark]

However for those of us who stump up for J class fares will think twice about it if we continually find that we are outnumbered by those op upped on discount Y fares.

Indeed a factor that needs to be considered.

 

[anat0l]

I agree that an airline is in the business of trying to make money but Qantas, and most mainstream airlines, also try to entice business and profit by promoting a frequent flyer program and partnerships to earn FF points that can be used for awards flights and upgrades. When you then try to protect your premium cabins by not releasing enough award seats or upgrade seats in premium cabins then you start to disillusion and alienate customers.

The problem is, what is "enough"?

"Enough" seems to be defined as being to the point that the media will be unable to print some "exemplary" story about not being able to use points. Rather poor frame of reference. Not everyone can get award seats; even if you have points, you need to be savvy. And it is only fair that people with higher status have a higher chance to get award seats.

If you really want to pinpoint one big reason why award seats are hard to come by, I suggest you go find and shoot the person who thought that allowing credit card spend to be redeemable for frequent flyer points was a good idea.

We have had many reports on AFF over the years of people trying to use hard earned points for upgrades and simply not able to get a seat when premium cabins have been empty. Is this right? Some people would say "Yes" as Qantas is making a profit but I say "No" as the airline, in this case Qantas, is being deceptive in trying to entice people to earn FF points but then dictating how they want people to spend those FF points.

What is the demographic and why weren't they able to get them?

Upgrades declined despite empty premium cabin? That's been sort of common, and I can't explain that one (in terms of loadings, yield, etc.), but it does happen and that is rather annoying.

No award seats available despite empty premium cabin? Even more rare (haven't heard about this); probably only because the majority of the cabin went no-show, or the entire premium cabin was bought out, but that is really, really rare.

The whole gist of FFPs is that you have the opportunity to earn and redeem points. Qantas says that you can do this and that, not that they say that you are guaranteed to do them. It's true that everyone has a chance to do what they want with points, that's not deceptive. Also, you make it seem as if Qantas deliberately withholds seats from particular people, when in reality it's just that not everyone can get awards or upgrades.

Let's put another perspective on this. Say there is only one F seat left for a particular flight on a certain day. One FFer logs on and gets that last seat. Another FFer logs on afterwards and finds there are no award seats in F left. As it happens, the first pax is overjoyed they were able to get a seat. The latter pax, however, kicks and screams because they have never been able to redeem their points. Not that they cannot redeem for any awards, just that they could not get that particular award. So the first pax thinks everything is OK whereas the latter one thinks the company is deceiving them. Clearly illogical.

We can adapt the previous example for the case of upgrade requests.

In my opinion Qantas, and most mainstream airlines, can't have everything it's own way. There will come a time when people will be totally fed up and then the airlines will need to face the consequences....

So let's have some scenarios. Firstly, there's the status quo, in which everyone realises that airlines are a bunch of mugs, but they still fly them anyway, and in most cases they still fly the airlines that they believe are mugs (i.e. they don't change).

Secondly, there's the case where people will go to other airlines from the one they do not like. We're not really seeing this happen, otherwise QF is getting an easy ride on this one, even in these times of economic turbulence. When this scenario actually becomes plausible, you will really see QF brought to its knees, possibly being completely hammered by DJ and threats of government bail out (of which every non-QF carrier in the country will be actively discouraging).

Thirdly, there's the case where people will put together class action law suits accusing airline FFPs (let alone the airlines themselves) of being deceptive, as you put it - keep in mind that operating a business deceptively is illegal. If this was even barely plausible, I think in our overly-litigious, overly-customer-is-King/Queen society now, this would have already happened, even though we have a weak excuse called ACCC yet we have insanely over-zealous consumer groups who hold quite a bit of sway (especially with frequent misuse and misquoting of the Trade Practices Act (or other relevant legislation)). There's been enough evidence here of people on AFF who have seen their benefits and service levels "eroded" away for anywhere between 2 - 20 years now. I think there must be non-AFFers out there with similar feelings, so what have they done?

 

[russ]

Fourthly, there's the case where people write fifteen page threads on bulletin boards about it!

I think I know which is most likely!

 

[JohnK]

Most people are all talk and bluster. When it comes to putting there money where there mouth is, there is much evidence to suggest they will stick with Qantas anyway.

Not necessarily. I will not be flying Qantas on international flights unless they are the cheapest or I need the FF points badly. For Amex Membership Rewards and Singapore Airlines will get my business. I am quite happy to maintain Platinum status anyway possible without flying Qantas.

However for those of us who stump up for J class fares will think twice about it if we continually find that we are outnumbered by those op upped on discount Y fares.

Sorry I think there is a difference between op-ups and using hard earned FF points to upgrade airfares that are upgradeable. Even a donkey eventually wakes up to the fact that it simply will hardly ever reach the carrot dangled in front of it.

If you really want to pinpoint one big reason why award seats are hard to come by, I suggest you go find and shoot the person who thought that allowing credit card spend to be redeemable for frequent flyer points was a good idea.

Totally agree with you. A combined frequent flyer program and a frequent spender program are not a good recipe.

What is the demographic and why weren't they able to get them?

Without going on and on about it I think Platy is a classic example of someone who has the points to burn and could not get to use them for domestic ODU's.

Upgrades declined despite empty premium cabin? That's been sort of common, and I can't explain that one (in terms of loadings, yield, etc.), but it does happen and that is rather annoying.

I agree and it should not happen. If Qantas wants to protect it's premium cabins then set the bar higher on FF points required for upgrades.

There's been enough evidence here of people on AFF who have seen their benefits and service levels "eroded" away for anywhere between 2 - 20 years now. I think there must be non-AFFers out there with similar feelings, so what have they done?

Most people do not even bother to provide feedback on Qantas eroding the benefits of status. Why? Are they content? I don't know.

Fourthly, there's the case where people write fifteen page threads on bulletin boards about it!

Much better than discussing politics or the state of the global economy and our superannuation.

 

[Commuter]

However for those of us who stump up for J class fares will think twice about it if we continually find that we are outnumbered by those op upped on discount Y fares.

I agree. Also, if I find that I keep getting op-upped (i.e. 75% probability or better), I wouldn't bother buying a J ticket.