Major 2025 Qantas Frequent Flyer program changes

[33kft]

Sycophantic Qantas apologists and old AFF Qantas flag waivers apart many of us are rightly disappointed but not naive or compliant enough to call it either exciting or an enhancement..

First of all, if you are simply disappointed in the outcome then you are not the doomer that was referenced. I'm surprised you somehow connected my post about the excitement of doomers who are continually posting about the the QFF program going revenue based for status and abolishing CR seats seeing a QFF email about changes which turned out to be a straight up devaluation to your disappointment.

If you carry on 3-4 concurrent threads of speculative doom posting about the QFF program, then yes this was directed at you.

 

[WilsonM]

Wondering if the timeline for this “enhancement” will result in a good cash injection for Qantas as we FF’ers rush to grab the available rewards seats….

Like VA, there's a decent chance we'll see a big seat drop when the new pricing kicks in

 

[justinbrett]

speculative doom

I think that’s a great idea for a new subforum! It would be very popular.

 

[kcwalker]

I’m not trying to hoard them, I just never found availability and on the rare occasions I found something it didn’t seem good value with all the carrier charges on top. Will be even less value now though!

I know how excited the AFF doom squad got when they saw that subject line

The world hasn't ended, yet....

First of all, if you are simply disappointed in the outcome then you are not the doomer that was referenced. Your comprehension skills are pretty ordinary if you somehow connected my post about the excitement of doomers who are continually posting about the the QFF program going revenue based for status and abolishing CR seats seeing a QFF email about changes which turned out to be a straight up devaluation change to your disappointment.

If you carry on 3-4 concurrent threads of speculative doom posting about the QFF program, then yes this was directed at you.

I’d love to carry like some old bu

First of all, if you are simply disappointed in the outcome then you are not the doomer that was referenced. Your comprehension skills are pretty ordinary if you somehow connected my post about the excitement of doomers who are continually posting about the the QFF program going revenue based for status and abolishing CR seats seeing a QFF email about changes which turned out to be a straight up devaluation to your disappointment.

If you carry on 3-4 concurrent threads of speculative doom posting about the QFF program, then yes this was directed at you.

 

[levelnine]

I think that’s a great idea for a new subforum! It would be very popular.

I agree. Put it right next to the Sycophants' Symposium .

 

[ANstar]

I think it would be an understatement to say there is 100x more award availability in business and first on Singapore than Qantas on the Australia-Europe route.

Absolutely... as a data point who has been able to get a premium (and I mean Business or First, not PE as QF like to cal PE a premium product) seat on a Qf service to Europe in the last 12 months?

 

[elanshin]

Absolutely... as a data point who has been able to get a premium (and I mean Business or First, not PE as QF like to cal PE a premium product) seat on a Qf service to Europe in the last 12 months?

My counter question is - do you want to on QF over CX/JL/EK/CI?

 

[33kft]

I agree. Put it right next to the Sycophants' Symposium .

Ahh yes those horrible people who want to discuss an airline's program as it stands today instead of engaging in constant speculation.

It's almost like this is a forum for those people... sycophants, as you call them.

Seems odd that all the other FF programs forum sections appear to be able to do that without... What? 5 threads full of it now.

The fact is we don't need a doomers forum section, it exists right now and anyone who wants to you know, just discuss the program as it exists and how to optimise it just have to put up with being peppered by endless rants about how people used to fly QF and won't anymore and it's a mugs game and how it's all going down the drain

It's like listening to old folks whining about the youth of today. Get off my lawn

 

[kcwalker]

Ahh yes those horrible people who want to discuss an airline's program as it stands today instead of engaging in constant speculation.

It's almost like this is a forum for those people... sycophants, as you call them.

Seems odd that all the other FF programs forum sections appear to be able to do that without... What? 5 threads full of it now.

The fact is we don't need a doomers forum section, it exists right now and anyone who wants to you know, just discuss the program as it exists and how to optimise it just have to put up with being peppered by endless rants about how people used to fly QF and won't anymore and it's a mugs game and how it's all going down the drain

It's like listening to old folks whining about the youth of today. Get off my lawn

Crikey.. we can agree about the old folks whining about the young folks but not your torturous defensiveness and insecurities about anyone who should dare find the QFF programme to be an increasingly disappointing offer. The corporate spin is excruciating, the points are devalued and the $ components are hiked to the heavens. This might be almost acceptable if all these hikes and all this devaluing of pre-earned points led to a seat up front with your partner… but it hasn’t and it won’t. It’s designed to tease and not to please. The programme 10 years ago was something to sing about but unless you are a paid Qantas hack, stooge or lackey or suffer from flying kangaroo idolisation…it’s mildly crazy to be singing it’s praises right now…but please carry on trying.

 

[QPProletarian]

Why does this site seemingly try and encourage qantas to go down a rev based product in every article?
For shock and clicks?

All I can say is, at least the AA scheme has earning via partners/CCs included compared to the disaster of the BA program. None of them really promote loyalty in the regards that the current status or mileage based programs did. These current programs get customers to isolate cost from the equation and focus on what they are earning. I need X segments/miles.

 

[levelnine]

Ahh yes those horrible people who want to discuss an airline's program as it stands today instead of engaging in constant speculation.

It is entirely appropriate for a frequent flyer forum to discuss the trajectory of a frequent flyer program. Indeed, it is laughable to suggest otherwise. Have you ever visited a politics forum that doesn't discuss the future of politics? Or a television forum that doesn't discuss what might happen next season? Or a sports forum that doesn't discuss an upcoming match?

More importantly, everyone here is discussing the program as it stands today. A few familiar faces have said 'no big deal nothing to see here — just in line with inflation'. Almost everyone else has called it for what it is: a significant increase in taxes and fees, a considerable narrowing of the gap between the points value of classic and classic plus awards in most circumstances, etc etc.

 

[Rembrandt]

Hmm great, I wonder if there will be a surge in people making flight bookings before these changes come into effect. I need to wait a couple of months for some bonus points to come through from Qantas Insurance before I make my next booking...

I find there are too many ways to collect Qantas points. It's great that there are options but the knock on effect is it devalues Qantas points. Furthermore, there are far more people collecting points these days than a decade ago....

I think Velocity has the right balance and they're becoming my preference now..

 

[MelbFlyer]

I find there are too many ways to collect Qantas points. It's great that there are options but the knock on effect is it devalues Qantas points. Furthermore, there are far more people collecting points these days than a decade ago....

Yes, plus the myriads of TV advertising and websites like Point Hacks don't help the cause either.

It's way too widespread and too easy to earn points now.

Couple that with extremely limited premium reward seat availability = A poor program.

I think Velocity has the right balance and they're becoming my preference now..

Me too - I've now got 2 rewards cards which transfer to VFF points.

Granted, their reward seat search function is well behind Qantas' (ie. no option to specifically filter business reward seats on a easy to see calendar view but instead having to go into flights day-by-day and one-by-one), but if their availability of business reward seats is better and won't go up in cost as much as Qantas, I'll take that.

 

[craven morehead]

Following

 

[ozflier]

Yes, plus the myriads of TV advertising and websites like Point Hacks don't help the cause either.

It's way too widespread and too easy to earn points now.

Couple that with extremely limited premium reward seat availability = A poor program.



Me too - I've now got 2 rewards cards which transfer to VFF points.

Granted, their reward seat search function is well behind Qantas' (ie. no option to specifically filter business reward seats on a easy to see calendar view but instead having to go into flights day-by-day and one-by-one), but if their availability of business reward seats is better and won't go up in cost as much as Qantas, I'll take that.

From my experience award availability with VFF is much greater than on QFF!

 

[mviy]

One of my main reasons to stick with QF is the Lifetime status. Now that Virgin has lifetime status I might reassess if/when I get LTG on QF if the bar to get LTP remains impossibly high.

 

[Youfah Mizzum]

Its a pity we can't use points for lounge access.

Assuming buying lounge access is $50 (I have no idea how much it actually is) and a point = 2c, then 2500 points could get into the lounge.
Even at 1 point = 1c, thats 5000 points. Almost tempting!

So buy a revenue fare, even in whY, but use points to get into the lounge. I'd do that!

 

[RB001]

Its a pity we can't use points for lounge access.

Assuming buying lounge access is $50 (I have no idea how much it actually is) and a point = 2c, then 2500 points could get into the lounge.
Even at 1 point = 1c, thats 5000 points. Almost tempting!

So buy a revenue fare, even in whY, but use points to get into the lounge. I'd do that!

There's a thread for that!
Of course: "Qantas Lounge Passes are available at Qantas' absolute and sole discretion and are subject to availability."

 

[AFF Editor]

Why does this site seemingly try and encourage qantas to go down a rev based product in every article?
For shock and clicks?

To be honest, I'm not really sure what you're referring to here.

We published one article last week which was an opinion piece about why Qantas should not go revenue based, and the article about this week's changes mention that more changes are likely later in the year because we have learned that this is indeed likely to happen. I would say that's newsworthy.

I can't think of many/any other recent articles on AFF that even mention this.

 

[AFF Editor]

Its a pity we can't use points for lounge access.

Assuming buying lounge access is $50 (I have no idea how much it actually is) and a point = 2c, then 2500 points could get into the lounge.
Even at 1 point = 1c, thats 5000 points. Almost tempting!

So buy a revenue fare, even in whY, but use points to get into the lounge. I'd do that!

I could see this being in Qantas' interest. Suspect the cost would be closer to 5,000 points per visit, but it could still be an attractive redemption for some people. It may simply be that nobody at Qantas HQ has thought of this yet?