Qantas extends current status Until at least March 2021

[oz_mark]

Obviously a bit down the track now, but the A350s were slated to get F. But we'll have to wait and see now.

 

[Flying Fox]

With QFi not flying for quite some time, I think that my status will fall back to LTG.

 

[Pushka]

With QFi not flying for quite some time, I think that my status will fall back to LTG.

In reality, Qantas will lose all status flyers unless they gift another year.

 

[RooFlyer]

In reality, Qantas will lose all status flyers unless they gift another year

I dunno. If domestic opens up OK by, say August, they'll see no reason why you can't get Plat flying economy back and forth to Perth

 

[HappyFlyerFamily]

I dunno. If domestic opens up OK by, say August, they'll see no reason why you can't get Plat flying economy back and forth to Perth

It will give new meaning to status run - 4 returns trips in 3 days lol. Throw in via Adelaide and one via Melbourne/Brisbane just for variety.

 

[Pushka]

I dunno. If domestic opens up OK by, say August, they'll see no reason why you can't get Plat flying economy back and forth to Perth

Oh good Lord no. For us, just Victoria. MrP has advanced bookings now for late September for work in Melbourne. We just need to book him into hotels that aren't virus petri dishes. I think VPS has something planned for Perth. Oh, that's right. We still can't go there.

Our year ends in April. Buckley's.

 

[Matt_01]

I, like others would like QF to dish out another round of extensions, my year end is July and as I had already qualified as a P1 when the extension was announced I received no benefit at all, in addition I have/will not been able to use any of the status benefits for 5 month of my membership year (Mar-Jul). With limited domestic travel opening, no international for the foreseeable future I think that my slide down the QF status totem pole may be on the cards. I just do not understand why QF made it so difficult and just not extend everyone for an additional 12 months based on attained or current status. Sure I will have a soft landing to QF WP and then LTG but at the moment I have little interest in status and what it holds for the future.

The above is also a bit of a rant as at the moment I am genuinely annoyed with QF. They seem to have little regard to status members, in the past I have read on AFF how bad the QFF refund process is and often thought the posts were exaggerated. As a current P1, pre Covid most cancellations were actioned within 24-48 hours with all cash and points returned. These days I may as well be a NB as I am carrying a month-on-month 50K-70K refund from QF while they sort their cough out that could be used to pay other ongoing expenses. Rant over.

 

[Hvr]

In reality, Qantas will lose all status flyers unless they gift another year.

And look at how much money that will save them. My LTG will be very handy and I may even be a top tier flyer for the first few months after the resumption of flights.

Now who would Qantas be competing against? Status free VA pax on Tiger lite style flights? Not going to take too much to attract them. And if it takes awhile for pax to get back to WP well, the J lounges won't need to be opened for awhile longer.

That will give QF time to see if business flyers really will start to commute like they did before. With at least another year of pandemic forced restrictions on potential pax then many frequent flyers will decide they don't want to resume that lifestyle. Even if they have a job. Many companies will reconsider the need to incur the expense of travel.

There will be a need for face to face business but not as much as before.

Many, many companies will not even reopen when the restrictions are lifted. The world has changed in ways we don't yet know about.

For those of us who've done disaster planning and business recovery in our past or present roles, think about the premise. The office was obliterated and we needed to work out how to get work done. Well look at how that's worked out. many office based workplaces now are proving they can survive in remote locations with remote internet access and unlimited phone plans, most of which are provided by the employees!

I mean, most back up servers are off site and in different locations so data back up is generally assured. Access is the issue and it's been proven it can be done.

And most of those of us WFH love it. With a 'stay away from the office direction' now until at least the end of July I'm rapt. For those people who used to fly a lot for work who are now WFH, well do they want to go back to that grind?

Can they afford to?

For those of us who flew primarily for leisure, well at the moment I'm fine, but catastrophe can happen at any time and many people will forgo leisure travel to either recover financially or prepare for the next crisis.

Basically a long way of saying that the new frequent flyer paradigm has yet to be determined. The previous reasons for loyalty may not be applicable, Therefore, it is a good time for the airlines to just take it slowly and do what they have to, to survive.

 

[Port Power]

I, like others would like QF to dish out another round of extensions, my year end is July and as I had already qualified as a P1 when the extension was announced I received no benefit at all, in addition I have/will not been able to use any of the status benefits for 5 month of my membership year (Mar-Jul). With limited domestic travel opening, no international for the foreseeable future I think that my slide down the QF status totem pole may be on the cards. I just do not understand why QF made it so difficult and just not extend everyone for an additional 12 months based on attained or current status. Sure I will have a soft landing to QF WP and then LTG but at the moment I have little interest in status and what it holds for the future.

The above is also a bit of a rant as at the moment I am genuinely annoyed with QF. They seem to have little regard to status members, in the past I have read on AFF how bad the QFF refund process is and often thought the posts were exaggerated. As a current P1, pre Covid most cancellations were actioned within 24-48 hours with all cash and points returned. These days I may as well be a NB as I am carrying a month-on-month 50K-70K refund from QF while they sort their cough out that could be used to pay other ongoing expenses. Rant over.

I think that at the moment there is more on Qantas’s plate than Frequent Flyer woes. Job losses, aircraft mothballed and who knows when international flights will resume. There is little point giving us status extensions until travel actually resumes to any sort of real extent. I feel sure there will be review of status once things settle down and life resumes as we once, not so long ago, knew it.

 

[DC3]

QF could easily humour us by allowing status extensions for another year or two, based on AJs predictions of low travel demand. It would cost QF practically nothing if many lounges were to remain closed, anyway. No real benefit for most of us, but not much to lose for QF.

 

[ChrisMars]

The status extension in March addressed immediate needs of some frequent flyer about to lose their Status.

Now everyone has its status until at least march 2021. So their is no real need for Qantas to address the issue until then, and this gives more flexibility for them to decide what to do about it; even if that means some frustration for ff who wants to try to requalify for their 2021-2022 memberships.

I am sure Qantas will do something for status, in early 2021.

 

[sudoer]

I am sure Qantas will do something for status, in early 2021.

Agree, although I'm expecting it to be a DSC/TSC/reduced retain target rather than another extension. A solution that addresses the issue while also generating revenue.

 

[justinbrett]

The status extension in March addressed immediate needs of some frequent flyer about to lose their Status.

Now everyone has its status until at least march 2021. So their is no real need for Qantas to address the issue until then, and this gives more flexibility for them to decide what to do about it; even if that means some frustration for ff who wants to try to requalify for their 2021-2022 memberships.

I am sure Qantas will do something for status, in early 2021.

That’s not valid. They extended status for those who ended in Feb by 12 months despite not having to worry about renewal until Feb 21. By your logic there was no need to extend their status, Qantas could have waited until 2021 to extend their status.

For people who ended in March, we got 11 months of our year pre-COVID. The vast majority would have already attained, only those who barely make it to the threshold needed the extension.

The problem for the March group is we have started our year on zero. We will be four months in before most of the domestic routes open up. We are now being told international won’t open in this membership year.

As it stands most of us have no nope in requalifying - so have a choice of giving up completely or spending thousands on unnecessary domestic travel (or other schemes like gift cards etc). For those who have held status for 15+ years consecutively it can be a big thing to lose status.

I completely understand that Qantas has bigger problems at the moment but I fully expect them to address this situation in the near future. I don’t expect it will be a straight out extension but it will require a reduction in the threshold. Perhaps our group will get a straight out extension if we attained in our own right last time. Their elites are the ones responsible for the majority of their domestic business so their ability to survive is in our hands.

 

[ChrisMars]

That’s not valid. They extended status for those who ended in Feb by 12 months despite not having to worry about renewal until Feb 21. By your logic there was no need to extend their status, Qantas could have waited until 2021 to extend their status.

For people who ended in March, we got 11 months of our year pre-COVID. The vast majority would have already attained, only those who barely make it to the threshold needed the extension.

The problem for the March group is we have started our year on zero. We will be four months in before most of the domestic routes open up. We are now being told international won’t open in this membership year.

As it stands most of us have no nope in requalifying - so have a choice of giving up completely or spending thousands on unnecessary domestic travel (or other schemes like gift cards etc). For those who have held status for 15+ years consecutively it can be a big thing to lose status.

I completely understand that Qantas has bigger problems at the moment but I fully expect them to address this situation in the near future. I don’t expect it will be a straight out extension but it will require a reduction in the threshold. Perhaps our group will get a straight out extension if we attained in our own right last time. Their elites are the ones responsible for the majority of their domestic business so their ability to survive is in our hands.

I am not sure why Febs members got extended so generously, I didnt mentionn this cohort to keep things simple. Bur what I wrote stands: they addressed immediate needs for those who couldnt requalify due to sudden travel restriction and were about to lose status. For some reasons they went too generous for others, and this creates frustrations. Now, I am part of the March members who requalified months before, I 100% share your frustration. But I don t expect any status related announcement till early 2021, because noone will lose status until then. I hope I am wrong.

 

[ChrisMars]

Agree, although I'm expecting it to be a DSC/TSC/reduced retain target rather than another extension. A solution that addresses the issue while also generating revenue.

I also thinks its a likely scenario, hence I tried and grab the sc on offer on the ground, to be in a good position shall Qantas readjust the required sc to requalify. Now, with the recent announcement of next to no internatiinal travel for another year, limited domestic travel, I also hope for another unconditional extension for March to July members. The wait will be long...

 

[justinbrett]

I am not sure why Febs members got extended so generously, I didnt mentionn this cohort to keep things simple. Bur what I wrote stands: they addressed immediate needs for those who couldnt requalify due to sudden travel restriction and were about to lose status. For some reasons they went too generous for others, and this creates frustrations. Now, I am part of the March members who requalified months before, I 100% share your frustration. But I don t expect any status related announcement till early 2021, because noone will lose status until then. I hope I am wrong.

It's different because the May/June/Jul people were coming towards the end of their year, likely with many SCs already in the bank, with zero chance of being able to fly again to finish it.

The Mar/Apr people are starting at zero so waiting until a few months before isn't going to achieve anything - either leaving people to worry about it until 2021, setting a target for reduced SCs which by then will be too late, or doing nothing at all. Leaving the announcement until 2021 doesn't nothing for Qantas's business nor us - it's in everybody's interest to announce where the goal posts are going to be - otherwise we'll stop playing.

 

[ChrisMars]

Leaving the announcement until 2021 doesn't nothing for Qantas's business nor us - it's in everybody's interest to announce where the goal posts are going to be - otherwise we'll stop playing.

Which flights exactly did you hope to play with

 

[Port Power]

At the time, Qantas wanted to do something for frequent flyers. A date needed to be chosen. That date wouldn't suit all, but they tried. You can’t please all the people all the time.

 

[DC3]

... A date needed to be chosen. That date wouldn't suit all, but they tried. You can’t please all the people all the time.

Well, many would be pleased with a flat 12 month extension for all, I would guess. Who would be disadvantaged by that?

 

[eminere]

At the time, Qantas wanted to do something for frequent flyers. A date needed to be chosen. That date wouldn't suit all, but they tried. You can’t please all the people all the time.

Add 12 months of status following the end of each individual's current membership year. Simples.