Qantas apologises to frequent flyers with status extensions, lounge passes, points & more reward seats

[encryptededdy]

Status Support | Qantas Frequent Flyer

Qantas is offering eligible Frequent Flyer members additional support including a 12-month status extension and the ability to rollover Status Credits to help with maintaining their tier. Details here.

www.qantas.com

Yeah, I do not believe that has been updated yet.

I earned QF status for the first time this year, so I have not been eligible for any of the extensions thusfar. I suppose I would be pleased if I do end up with a 1 year extension (although if everyone already extended also qualify for an extension then I suspect there'll be a massive number of QF elites for the next few years)

 

[Mattg]

I'm puzzled. There are three sections about status extensions labelled just "NEW". This flag is useless unless accompanied by a date. Obviously it was new when it was added, but when was that?

On edit: thanks dairyfloss for answering my question before I even finished typing it!

Yeah, the "NEW" sections are new as of February 2022. That page has not been updated since then.

 

[RooFlyer]

I'm not seeing any update to that page?

Why the Dickens would anyone in Qantas think it necessary to have the IT in synch with what the CEO announces? That would imply there was some planning and coordination within the airline

 

[Mox_Fulder]

I am still optimistically pessimistic about finding reward seats to Singapore and Vancouver for May/June 2023 when these 'additional' rewards seats being released. We shall see.

 

[ketsuzei]

• All Silver and above members get a status extension

If they manage to extend my Lifetime I *will* be impressed.

 

[Cossie]

Shows that AJ is starting to feel the heat. Take the pressure off by handing out gifts that, in reality, are unlikely to cost QF much at all. What's another pair of hands at the feeding trough that is the lounge or a few thousand points that can only be redeemed for toasters? $50 off flights won't even come close to offsetting the recent price rises in flights. Very shrewd PR move.

It's also a little bit offensive to those frequent flyers who will retain status through spending their hard earned money. They now have to compete with a larger pool of elites for upgrades, redemptions and a seat at the lounge. You'd hope they are thinking about another year of status credit rollovers to recognise those who earned/retained status the hard way.

This weeks trip to NZ was to ensure WP, as the end date is 31st Aug, should make it by 5 SCs! Maybe some SCs to start off next yesr would be good.

 

[Daver6]

The biggest advantage of the changes that will help people like me (status year ends between July and Dec 2022) is the rollover of SC to the new year. My year ends in Nov. I've already locked in WP for 2023 by taking one flight (I'll actually be close and possibly meet the 1200 SC anyway) but I will rollover 500 SC for 2024 and hopefully another 100 from PC+ meaning maintaining WP in 2024 should be easy enough.

 

[ferntree]

I am still optimistically pessimistic .....

LOL!

 

[encryptededdy]

I am still optimistically pessimistic about finding reward seats to Singapore and Vancouver for May/June 2023 when these 'additional' rewards seats being released. We shall see.

I wonder if calling up as a Platinum to request Award Seats released before these additional seats are released will be more likely to be successful for you?

 

[dylarr]

The biggest advantage of the changes that will help people like me (status year ends between July and Dec 2022) is the rollover of SC to the new year. My year ends in Nov. I've already locked in WP for 2023 by taking one flight (I'll actually be close and possibly meet the 1200 SC anyway) but I will rollover 500 SC for 2024 and hopefully another 100 from PC+ meaning maintaining WP in 2024 should be easy enough.

View attachment 289138

This is old information and has been on that page for a while now (despite the 'NEW' tag). They're yet to update the page to reflect the announcements from today, and there hasn't been any signal yet as to whether any status credit rollovers are a part of it.

 

[Port Power]

The status support page has been updated. As I read it, the extension isn't a double-up: if you've already requalified under an existing extension, you don't get a further extension.

Status Support | Qantas Frequent Flyer

Qantas is offering eligible Frequent Flyer members additional support including a 12-month status extension and the ability to rollover Status Credits to help with maintaining their tier. Details here.

www.qantas.com

No change that I can see. FF still need to book/fly one leg to retain status. I doubt there will be further extensions once people have requalified to 2023. So I will be keeping that roundabout PER-AKL-PER DSC flight and will probably go back to QF for flights to Japan. As J has become just too expensive, perhaps I should let WP go and joint the QP? But that would mean waiting on hold for hours and not routing to Hobart! Nevertheless, I definitely am going to do the Virgin gold upgrade and fly a leg to retain for 12 months.

 

[Quickstatus]

Ah yes - just throw some point and a few $.

But What I want to know is what is QF doing with the customer service situation and the poor delay and cancellations performance.
$ or points are of no use to me if I don't have confidence in the operation.

 

[sxc]

Anyone think that QF has analysed how many people will fall off status due to reduced work travel (amongst other reasons), and therefore dressing up status extensions as an apology?

 

[eastwest101]

Why the Dickens would anyone in Qantas think it necessary to have the IT in synch with what the CEO announces? That would imply there was some planning and coordination within the airline

Emergency PR "fire fighting" - despite flying through the entire pandemic - I have stopped flying Qantas since late of 2021once VA started to get their cr*p together, nothing I have seen so far this year tells me that they deserve my business, let alone any loyalty.

Rubbish unreliable uncompetitive overpriced service, incompetent deluded management, have lost all focus on the basics of running an airline and core competencies, I'll look at them again seriously once management learns some new tricks that aren't cost cutting/nickel & diming, industrial skullduggery and superficial PR spin.

 

[ChrisMars]

Anyone think that QF has analysed how many people will fall off status due to reduced work travel (amongst other reasons), and therefore dressing up status extensions as an apology?

That's how I feel. I hope they will throw in some rollover too, it will make sense to motivate those extended to keep flying and prep for the following year. Plus It will help me feeling better, as I just requaled till march 2024, and won t benefit of the extension, again, 3 years in a row!

 

[Pushka]

The status support page has been updated. As I read it, the extension isn't a double-up: if you've already requalified under an existing extension, you don't get a further extension.

Status Support | Qantas Frequent Flyer

Qantas is offering eligible Frequent Flyer members additional support including a 12-month status extension and the ability to rollover Status Credits to help with maintaining their tier. Details here.

www.qantas.com

But pretty much everyone received the status extension this year. That's an old link and hasn't been updated I think.

 

[Tannin]

Kudos for admitting mistakes, but it's another PR failure:

• Still using the "national carrier" BS (it's a private company on the ASX, nothing more)
• Expect a $50 carrot to be enough to bring people back to Qantas, when many have already jumped to other carriers after being treated like chumps for years now

 

[Peasant]

Anyone think that QF has analysed how many people will fall off status due to reduced work travel (amongst other reasons), and therefore dressing up status extensions as an apology?

I suspect so. Flights are very full and yields are very strong, but airfares are expensive. I am aware of two major investment banks that had already exhausted their annual travel budgets by July and will be trying to curtail further travel for the year.

If we extrapolate this, I think we can expect that although people are travelling, and paying good money to do so, the frequency is probably not what it was in 2019. For airlines that have traditional qualification criteria, that will make re-qualification for elite status levels more difficult. Qantas being a prime example.

This is the environment that favours revenue-based qualification criteria. For airlines like SQ, I suspect they have the opposite problem: extremely strong yields are swelling the PPS Club membership ranks.

 

[clifford]

Until Qantas fixes its call centres (ie employs competent staff), I will have no confidence in the airline.

For example, I'm also a lifetime Platinum member of UA Mileage Plus, and a couple of months ago I tried to make an award booking online for a partner airline. The website allowed me to select the flights and went all the way to the payment page where it bombed out.

So, I called the UA Australian number and immediately got through to a very helpful agent (female) in Palm Beach, FLA, who quickly, efficiently and in a very friendly manner made the booking and had it ticketed on the spot.

I couldn't imagine anything like that happening if I had to call Qantas in similar circumstances (I'm QF Gold), and I would probably just cut my losses and book something else somewhere else...

 

[kpc]

[*]Still using the "national carrier" BS (it's a private company on the ASX, nothing more)

Agree 100%! When it suits Qf, it is the national carrier....if I were in charge of Va, I would be calling Qf out on this point!