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

[levelnine]

So they are giving away another free status extension. My status run to NZ will now be for nothing. At least I only purchased one trip. I hope those who purchased multiple trips are feeling ok.

I feel very sorry for these people. At least you might get some SC rollover, but these people have definitely been treated the worst by this announcement.

 

[sudoer]

I wonder if the WP/WP1 bonus points will credit towards PC attainment…

Almost certainly yes. Compensation points from Customer Care count.

 

[Mr H]

I feel very sorry for these people. At least you might get some SC rollover, but these people have definitely been treated the worst by this announcement.

Why? They are no worse off than they were yesterday.

 

[ChrisMars]

I am glad the rollover is part of the announcements.
Those who didnt fly much will be happy with the extension, but obviously won t roll over much. Those who flew enough to requal will already have max out the amount of sc to rollover next year, giving them a good headstart. Overall most frequent flyer should get something out of this, with a few exceptions depending on the circumstances.

 

[levelnine]

Why? They are no worse off than they were yesterday.

Yes they are.

They have spent all this money unnecessarily.

And they now have the privilege of competing with a larger pool of people for all the status benefits they've spent their hard earnt money on — upgrades, reward seats, a seat in the lounge, priority seating on board, etc.

 

[newbuyer1976]

I've seen data from airlines that have 95% of elites not being able to retain status on merit. While I doubt QF is that high, it gives you an idea of the challenges airlines globally are facing.

How other airlines have addressed this problem is by running a status match. Replace the 'elites of 2019' with 'elites of 2022 - who are active and flying with competing airlines'.



If you were in charge of VA you'd probably be doing whatever your sugar daddy shareholders tell you.... sadly

That is one thing I miss about the VA of 2010++ era.... they were at least willing to be bold, try new things and do whatever they could NOT to be another Qantas.

Do a quick LinkedIn search for all the folks in decent roles at VA. All ex-QF.

Wow 95%! Meantime my economy only work travel itinerary has doubled since covid. Happy to get WP in 6 months of travel, not so happy the last 12 flights were ALL delayed, some cancelled and some missing catering.

 

[Mr H]

Yes they are.

They have spent all this money unnecessarily.

And they now have the privilege of competing with a larger pool of people for all the status benefits they've spent their hard earnt money on — upgrades, reward seats, a seat in the lounge, priority seating on board, etc.

Nonsense. They were happy with the bargain at the time of their transaction and that has not changed. What happens later is irrelevant. It’s like if you bought tins of soup for $3 a tin and next week you see them on discount to $2.

As for having more people to compete with, there was never any undertaking that membership of a tier would be held at a particular maximum. You were always at the mercy of other people’s actions.

 

[ferntree]

Really.

Spirit Airlines

Spirit Airlines is the leading Ultra Low Cost Carrier in the United States, the Caribbean and Latin America. Spirit Airlines fly to 60+ destinations with 500+ daily flights with Ultra Low Fare.

www.spirit.com

https://www.united.com/ual/en/us/fly/travel/inflight/basic-economy.html

Then I stand corrected. Or rather sit here corrected.

Still no need for Qantas to join the race to the boittom though. Especially given the issues with checked baggage I can think of no better way of driving away your customers.

 

[aus_flyer]

I am glad the rollover is part of the announcements.

They've updated some of the text but not all

Post automatically merged: Aug 22, 2022

Nonsense. They were happy with the bargain at the time of their transaction and that has not changed. What happens later is irrelevant. It’s like if you bought tins of soup for $3 a ton and next week you see them on discount to $2.

As for having more people to compete with, there was never any undertaking that membership of a tower would be held at a particular maximum. You were always at the mercy of other people’s actions.

Well, I for one am annoyed I've bust a gut to keep P1 - status runs, etc - which now wasn't necessary. I agree 100% with levelnine.

 

[levelnine]

Nonsense. They were happy with the bargain at the time of their transaction and that has not changed. What happens later is irrelevant. It’s like if you bought tins of soup for $3 a ton and next week you see them on discount to $2.

The fallacies begin.

If you pay $2K+ for entry into a club and the next month management decides to open up entry into the club for free, you are worse off if management don't offer a refund of your entry fee (which QF aren't).

The reason your analogy fails is that, with the cans of soup, you get the benefit of the soup now — there's no point waiting for next week's sale if you need to eat dinner tonight.

That doesn't apply with status extensions because the applicable status year hasn't commenced. Basically, the people that bought fares for status runs have been treated by QF as suckers for having done forward planning.

As for having more people to compete with, there was never any undertaking that membership of a tower would be held at a particular maximum. You were always at the mercy of other people’s actions.

If everyone has status, no one has status. It is the fundamental rule of elite membership tiers.

 

[ferntree]

It looks to me like this rag-bag bundle of "goodies" was cobbled together in a state somewhere between hurry and panic.

I'm wondering if I'll be able to use my $50 voucher to offset the charge for taxes when I cash in my remaining points for a domestic award flight before saying bye-bye to Qantas for ever.

On edit: just checked the small print t&c ... not eligible towards taxes. Bugger!

 

[FlyingKangaroo]

Nonsense. They were happy with the bargain at the time of their transaction and that has not changed. What happens later is irrelevant. It’s like if you bought tins of soup for $3 a ton and next week you see them on discount to $2.

As for having more people to compete with, there was never any undertaking that membership of a tower would be held at a particular maximum. You were always at the mercy of other people’s actions.

Agree. It also seems some people have been prepared to continue to chase status voluntarily despite the failures over the last few years. Whatever their reasons (route network, OW benefits, personal desire), will a meaningful number of them finally turn away now because they feel this extension has (rightfully or wrongfully) negatively affected them by watering down the programme or minimising their efforts? I have no idea, but I'd doubt it.

For others (like myself), having my status extended is "nice" enough, but this announcement and that gesture don't fix the problems that caused me to question my loyalty and start booking away from QF. Nor will it alone bring me back.

A loyal WP who continues to chase status and engage in pure status runs is certainly of more value to QF's coffers. At the same time, they're ironically not the people QF is losing and needing to bring back.

At the end of the day, these gestures may do little to address QF's problem (imho, because QF haven't addressed the problems) while also annoying those whose loyalty, for whatever reasons, is rusted on.

 

[Batterytraveller]

I’ll pay the $50 back if they can find someone to move the jet bridge next to the plane in Sydney right now. We’ve been here more than 10 minutes waiting for someone to waggle the lever.

 

[SydneySwan]

I'm wondering if I'll be able to use my $50 voucher to offset the charge for taxes when I cash in my remaining points for a domestic award flight before saying bye-bye to Qantas for ever.

I would pretty much guarantee that Q won't permit this.

 

[mviy]

Those looking for say the F Lounge menu to return closer to what it was pre-COVID may have longer to wait if it happens. If the lounges are busier then QF will have an incentive to do food they can do cheaply at a high volume.

I did do a status run, but I levelled back up to WP.

QF then announces a 12 month extension and then today makes it clear oh, nothing new for those with July-Dec expiries unless you didn't take the qualifying flight to retain status.

I will need to consider whether to book a status run to help retain WP or hope QF announces a further status extension in 2023 to keep those who have chosen not to fly at their status level despite the borders being open again for plenty of time to do the flying to retain status the hard way.

 

[ferntree]

I’ll pay the $50 back if they can find someone to move the jet bridge next to the plane in Sydney right now. We’ve been here more than 10 minutes waiting for someone to waggle the lever.

@sydney swan: Sad, but true: I've just checked the small print t & c's.

 

[willclan]

Forget the blatant bribes, I just want a website that works, an App that works, a call centre that answers the phone, staff that know how to fix a problem, my luggage to arrive, good service on the aircraft, and above all a reliable service and respect from an airline that has lost its way, nothing more.

 

[FlyingKangaroo]

I will need to consider whether to book a status run to help retain WP or hope QF announces a further status extension in 2023 to keep those who have chosen not to fly at their status level despite the borders being open again for plenty of time to do the flying to retain status the hard way.

Of course, those who haven't been flying QF also haven't been utilising their benefits. If people hadn't bothered to start planning travel this year to retain status before this announcement, they were already unlikely to retain it, which logically means they weren't taking up space in the lounge or crowding the priority boarding queues.

Will this extension really change those habits for people who'd decided to give up on QF? I am one anecdote, but my answer is no, which means you won't have to worry about me in front of you in the lounge coffee queue.

If the extension woos enough people who hadn't bothered this year not because of dissatisfaction but because their travel patterns hadn't made it realistically feasible, then it's probably a sensible commercial decision to extend.

Whether either theory has any validity and justifies future extensions is of course just a gamble.

 

[ozflier]

As part of this, I see that Qantas is offering an "extension of previously announced commitment of up to 50 per cent more reward seat availability on Qantas International, trans-Tasman and popular domestic routes until 30 June 2023 being released progressively from 12 noon Monday."

That could be good news.

Love to see some evidence of this !

 

[straitman]

When I reached QF LT Gold I thought it meant my lifetime. Seems I was wrong and it could actually mean QF’s lifetime.
This low achieving stunt will put the cynics further offside and achieve very little to actually fix any issues.
We have flown 4 sectors in the last couple of weeks and have 22 booked going forward and none with QF. I/we am not avoiding QF but selecting flights that go where we want, when we want and at a cost effective rate. Using that logic meant that QF didn’t get a look in.