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

[2infinity]

Well, its seems all good news for those that fly economy.

But for those in the pointy end, which is everyone on this forum, it appears it's a mixed bag. More points required, but slightly less cash, but apparently more seats. More seats and less cash are good, more points not so good. I like how Qantas justifies the premium cabin increase, saying the quality in premium cabins has increased. Is that to say the quality in economy has decreased to justify the reduced points cost?

Seems there will be more seats available to more destinations like London, Los Angles, Tokyo, Singapore. I wonder if any other places other than these 4. As we all know premium award seats were extremely rare to places like London and Los Angeles. So instead of 1 seat available per year, maybe now 2?

I'm nowhere near getting LTS, never-lone LTG, I'll never even contemplate LTP

Points Club should be easy with CC churns. I hope Bonus Point sign ups aren't excluded!!!!!

 

[FrankP]

From SMH article a few moments ago ...

Qantas unveils Frequent Flyer program changes

A million extra seats and a slashing of carrier charges are the centrepiece changes in the overhaul of Qantas' Frequent Flyer program.

www.smh.com.au

Some of the changes coming to the Qantas Frequent Flyer program

• One million additional reward seats added to Qantas and its airline partners
• Carrier charges on some international bookings to be slashed by up to 50 per cent
• Up to 15 per cent increase on points for premium cabins on domestic and international classic flight reward seats
• A new two-tiered points club
• New airline partners include the likes of Air New Zealand, China Airlines and Air France
• A new lifetime membership will be available to flyers who earn 75,000 status credits

 

[ozstamps]

MOST surprised they did not change to revenue based Elite like the US plans all are now.

And who really BELIEVES any number they spout re extra seats released globally as a trade off. As if they need to PROVE it anywhere!

 

[Berlin]

I don't have the time right now to properly get my head around all the changes but from what I can see- if you're someone who pretty much only uses his points on upgrades and J/F reward seats (like many of us will be), then the changes are pretty much exclusively sh#te, am I correct there?

 

[Vic]

Here is one for you playing along at home .....

Looks like you can now use your QF points for Domestic Air NZ flights

Serious question as I've never looked at New Zealand redemptions before: this is new?

related to the codeshare agreement that started last year?

 

[p--and--t]

Seems there's at least one AFFer who's LTP already.

Highest Lifetime Status Credits?

I tried finding suitable threads but none seemed to exist. Can anyone top 70,000 lifetime SC's?

www.australianfrequentflyer.com.au

No idea whether it's true or not, but a respondent to ausbt claimed people who currently qualify for LTP are "in the hundreds".

 

[cqtiger]

So instead of 1 seat available per year, maybe now 2?

That's 100% increase

 

[RooFlyer]

I've just tried to purchase a ticket, all the way to putting passenger details in, and its missing there also (just says poitns & status credits, then blank)

Must be the system getting overhauled (or so I hope!)

The calculator is also not available. Is there more to come?

Standard Qantas IT situation.

 

[Jamie Keane]

Lifetime platinum - 75000 status credit. Jeez

 

[Danger]

There's a new hidden feature in the changes that no one has mentioned yet. Not all premium cabin redemptions are going up...

From 18/09, due to the alignment of the partner award table and oneworld award table, partner awards now essentially work a bit like SQ redemptions where you get up to 5 free stopovers if you book a return award.

Example:

Say you are doing a SYD CX HKG CX TPE and TPE JL NRT JL SYD award. Currently that would cost you 78k + 92k points if you don't stop enroute for a total of 170k points.

Say you add a stopover at NRT enroute back to SYD, this would mean your cost would be 78k + 38k + 78k for a total of 194k.

However from 18/09, doing the above routing SYD CX HKG CX TPE stop TPE JL NRT stop NRT JL SYD will only cost you 180k. You could even stopover at HKG as well and it would still only be 180k.

Wait. You're saying QF awards, even on partners, now allow free stopovers, similar to Alaska Mileage Plus?

 

[2infinity]

That's 100% increase

haha. you're right. totally implausible. maybe an extra seat added every other 10 years. hmmmmm........Still 10% increase. I don't know. Sounds way too high still.

 

[sudoer]

if you're someone who pretty much only uses his points on upgrades and J/F reward seats (like many of us will be), then the changes are pretty much exclusively sh#te, am I correct there?

Depends how you look at it. You will pay 10-15% more in points for premium awards, but have access to more availability and pay marginally cheaper carrier surcharges.

If you are WP/P1 then the changes are overall slightly negative as availability was less of a problem.
If you are SG or below then I'd say the changes are overall positive, because you'll have more choice on how to use your points.

It's certainly not the end of the world though. The devaluation is minor and easily negated with an extra CC sign-up each year. At least we still have static charts where we can hunt out the best value.

 

[QF WP]

No idea whether it's true or not, but a respondent to ausbt claimed people who currently qualify for LTP are "in the hundreds".

I'd think that would be pretty accurate. People in high-executive level jobs (Board level or CEO's, COO's or similar) in national and international corporations will be flying regular J & F (at wholesale rates, not the general retail rates). They've been doing that since SC's counted toward Lifetime status (help me @serfty, 1993?).

 

[andyyangjian]

75K for LTP is absolutely ridiculous, 7K for LTS 14K for LTG then LTP should be 28K

 

[serfty]

They've been doing that since SC's counted toward Lifetime status (help me @serfty, 1993?).

Tier Credits were introduced in September 1998.

Life time status some time between 2000 and 2005 - that's a blurry era for me ...

 

[knightfall88]

Depends how you look at it. You will pay 10-15% more in points for premium awards, but have access to more availability and pay marginally cheaper carrier surcharges.

If you are WP/P1 then the changes are overall slightly negative as availability was less of a problem.
If you are SG or below then I'd say the changes are overall positive, because you'll have more choice on how to use your points.

It's certainly not the end of the world though. The devaluation is minor and easily negated with an extra CC sign-up each year. At least we still have static charts where we can hunt out the best value.

My issue is that I haven't heard any hard numbers around more availability. Which routes and by how many seats? If not revealed then I can only assume its an insignificant increase.

 

[madrooster]

Wait. You're saying QF awards, even on partners, now allow free stopovers, similar to Alaska Mileage Plus?

Not QF-only awards. Return/circle/triangle oneworld partner awards specifically. It's made possible by the partner award and oneworld award charts being fully aligned from 18/09 onwards.

 

[Rosege]

out of interest I just had a look at economy to LHR and its still not worth using points for

 

[RichardMEL]

Clearly LTP is a response to the clamouring for it from the folks like us.. so they've delivered... but made it nigh on impossible for most punters.

It's a bit like dreaming about getting a date with the hottest girl at school, and you're the school nerd (OK I was ).. she's there.. you can see her... you might even have the courage to ask her out.. but be certain.. you're not having a milkshake with her at the diner anytime soon (or maybe when you're both 98!)

 

[DC3]

My issue is that I haven't heard any hard numbers around more availability. Which routes and by how many seats? If not revealed then I can only assume its an insignificant increase.

.. and we will never know how many award seats are actually redeemed ….