Qantas FF announcement 20 June - "biggest overhaul" in program history

[NoName]

Well at least I’m hearing about this now (in 2 days). Have 6 months before I look to book the next substantial points redemption so plenty of chance to alter the points earning plan.

 

[RooFlyer]

You will be...on Thursday, and then there will be the standard three-month lead-in time.

Thursday? Sure, as will be the media.

I find it usually takes 2-3 days for blanket emails to reach me after the first receipt posted on AFF.

But seriously, any good reason why QFF members shouldn't get a heads up like the media?

 

[33kft]

Think, less points for Y and more points for Premium Cabins. More award partners, heavily reduced surcharges. Priority access to premium awards based on the size of your points balance.

So the first 3 help QFF to reduce liability in points holding and open up a larger number of seats, and the 4th encourages points warehousing and increases liability? Does that make sense?

End of the day, if they push up premium seat pricing too much, I'll just buy with P+P during sales. We're already severely restricted by availability, why shell out the financial equivalent of the airfare in points to fly when they say you can?

 

[TheInsider]

Oh I dunno. Because it affects us QFF members?

Maybe we should be informed at the same time as everyone else? Or at least alerted to the fact that changes are to be announced?

Yer thanks for the attitude. Why would Qantas send an email to the general public about an impending media announcement? Surely you already get enough spam from them! Unless you want to attend the media day/press conference?

 

[Hoatzin]

Oh please god no!

Likely revenue based earning. Hopefully current SC balances will be grandfathered into the new scheme. If they are announcing it now it will probably be slated for a 2020 introduction. I am only one year of "standard" travel away from LTS. I hope I can still reach it on that timeframe.

There will no doubt be good earning opportunities to start with as our collective brain identifies opportunities that will be tied up, as it was with the QF/Emirates JV at the beginning.

Dynamic award pricing? We already have a version of that in play, and PWP still costs more than most of the, say, AA dynamic award pricing would on equivalent routes. I doubt this will change.

One question is why Qantas has been offering so much DSC lately? Could they be trying to gather data on how people get the best bang out of their SC buck when presented with a potential bonus in order to inform their changes? Could QF FFP be the opposite of VA FFP in that they are elite light? Could they be trying to entice as many people to enjoy the benefits before they effectively boost prices, the way a new cafe will open with lower prices and better food/service before raising prices and lowering standards when they achieve a good rep?

Time will tell, but history shows us we will likely not be happy with the changes, even when they look reasonable on the outside (thinking Marriott acquisition of SPG here *sigh*).

 

[levelnine]

End of the day, if they push up premium seat pricing too much, I'll just buy with P+P during sales. We're already severely restricted by availability, why shell out the financial equivalent of the airfare in points to fly when they say you can?

Qantas would love you to purchase more tickets with P+P because that is a terrible use of points (for you) and therefore great value for Qantas -- they are getting points off their books for next to nothing.

 

[SeaWolf]

"Now available in the Rewards Store... a fancy mop for just 50,000 points!"

 

[33kft]

Qantas would love you to purchase more tickets with P+P because that is a terrible use of points (for you) and therefore great value for Qantas -- they are getting points off their books for next to nothing.

Not during a sale it isn't. If I can get the same seats for half the price, get $0.006 cpp which is effectively $0.012 during the sale, and get points and SC, what's not to like? I'm acquiring the points at $0.008 at most, much less with CC churning bonus points, I'm still ahead. How much value do you think the increased premium awards are going to get in cpp terms? $0.03 is considered pretty good today, so what will be good in a week? $0.02?

Edit: Not to mention no surcharges on P+P. So if it's $0.03 with surcharges per point, what's it with those priced in? It's not as far a gap as a lot of people claim.

 

[DavidFlynn]

But seriously, any good reason why QFF members shouldn't get a heads up like the media?

Errr, because QFF members aren't media..?

Seriously though, what purpose would this serve and what outcome would it achieve (other than to spark speculation?). Most Qantas Frequent Flyer members won't care much that there's a press conference to announce changes - they'll care about what those changes are and how those changes will impact them.

 

[aikman]

Oneworld awards could be removed

 

[levelnine]

Not during a sale it isn't. If I can get the same seats for half the price, get $0.006 cpp which is effectively $0.012 during the sale, and get points and SC, what's not to like? I'm acquiring the points at $0.008 at most, much less with CC churning bonus points, I'm still ahead. How much value do you think the increased premium awards are going to get in cpp terms? $0.03 is considered pretty good today, so what will be good in a week? $0.02?

If you, a less savvy traveller, are extracting a mere 1ct/pt value from your QFF points, Qantas are going to be licking their lips with joy because a more savvy traveller is extracting 3-4ct/pt value from their QFF points, costing Qantas 3-4 times as much.

At 1ct/pt value, you might as well be buying toasters from the Qantas store.

 

[33kft]

If you, a less savvy traveller, are extracting a mere 1ct/pt value from your QFF points, Qantas are going to be licking their lips with joy because a more savvy traveller is extracting 3-4ct/pt value from their QFF points, costing Qantas 3-4 times as much.

At 1ct/pt value, you might as well be buying toasters from the Qantas store.

You didn't read what I said. Read it again:

If 3 or 4 cpp is the target now, after deval it will be less. That bridges the gap

Secondly, you have surcharges and do not earn points and SC on P+P, that bridges the gap even further

If you are only capable of binary "classic rewards good, P+P bad" then you aren't extracting the greatest rewards from points.

 

[Quickstatus]

Marc-not-with-a-K has designed a range of Toasters?

 

[levelnine]

If 3 or 4 cpp is the target now, after deval it will be less. That bridges the gap

Secondly, you have surcharges and do not earn points and SC on P+P, that bridges the gap even further

If all points become worth 1ct/pt after devaluation, then there is no point in chasing QFF reward points anymore.

You might as well switch all your spend to credit cards with 1% cash back so you are free to spend your cash back on the best fare of the day.

The only point of QFF reward points is that they have 3-4ct/pt value in some circumstances. Without that they are not worth collecting.

 

[kpro]

My guess: switch to a revenue-based model.

Wonder what will happen with existing SC's and double SC offers if this happens. Speculation on top of speculation at this stage though.

 

[33kft]

The only point of QFF reward points is that they have 3-4ct/pt value in some circumstances. Without that they are not worth collecting.

We just went through the winter of devals across the board, from Amex to United and back again. People are still collecting. As long as there are cards offering 100K QFF points for a min spend of $3K and a $100 introductory annual fee people will still be collecting points. You might hang your boots up but someone who hasn't seen better days won't. All I am saying, but you've both blown it out of proportion AND made it a personal attack on my capability to use points to obtain value which I am 100% across as I record these things more meticulously than I should care about, is that there are still opportunities to extract value even if the premium seats (which you will surely agree were the only way people were getting 3c and more rarely rarely 4c of value) are priced out to instead encourage economy redemptions.

Anyway, I'm pretty much done with this back and forth. Bring on Thursday and we'll see what needs to be adjusted and where to make it work.

 

[levelnine]

As long as there are cards offering 100K QFF points for a min spend of $3K and a $100 introductory annual fee people will still be collecting points. You might hang your boots up but someone who hasn't seen better days won't. All I am saying, but you've both blown it out of proportion AND made it a personal attack on my capability to use points to obtain value which I am 100% across as I record these things more meticulously than I should care about, is that there are still opportunities to extract value even if the premium seats (which you will surely agree were the only way people were getting 3c and more rarely rarely 4c of value) are priced out to instead encourage economy redemptions.

Earning 100K for $3K spend is more than 1ct/pt value LOL.

If you choose to redeem your points for poor value options, that's entirely your right. But for those of us who are interested in extracting maximum value from our points, the looming devaluation is terrible news.

 

[Solid]

As someone who will hit LTG in the middle of July Murphy’s law says removal of that program!

 

[Kendall Roy]

Oneworld awards could be removed

Only reason I still credit to QFF!

OW awards have been fairly immune to change over the last few years - let's hope it stays that way!

 

[33kft]

Earning 100K for $3K spend is more than 1ct/pt value LOL.

You aren't paying it in fees, you're spending it with merchants you were going to spend it with anyway. It doesn't cost anything unless you don't spend that much via CC anyway and if so, you shouldn't really be in this game. That pays for a couple of utilities or an insurance policy or something. The points are essentially free other than the annual fee. Do I really need to explain this? It's kind of Credit Card 101.

If you choose to redeem your points for poor value options, that's entirely your right. But for those of us who are interested in extracting maximum value from our points, the looming devaluation is terrible news.

Uhh, yes... that's my point. You won't have those options anymore. So you just gonna leave?