Qantas Frequent Flyer changes coming in early 2024

[RichardMEL]

I’d like to see improvements come through status.

In what way? higher status does provide for improved access to reward seats and other things (eg: J and F lounge access for Platinums, increased bag allowances, priority check in and boarding etc...)

To shut down the chatter, which they must be across, they need to clear the backlog of customers looking for business and first reward seats. There are heaps and heaps of economy out there to everywhere but if you are a high tier flyer you have points to spend on better and they must want our brand loyalty - surely?

"clear the backlog"? that would probably be several years of A380 "points planes" daily to LHR, SIN and LAX - let alone all the other places so many people want premium cabin reward seats too - eg: Tokyo, Honolulu, etc etc etc. Or more likely, like 5xA380's of premium capacity during school holidays.... ;D

be realistic here. Just not EVER going to be a thing. Just not remotely possible. Nice idea though. Points (QFF) for creativity though !

 

[eminere]

Another possibility: points no longer expire

Points do not expire provided there is earn or burn activity at least once every 18 months.

 

[RichardMEL]

On the topic of predictable release of awards seats 3xx days in advance. Great for some, but for me personally a reason not to engage with program if I know if nearly all of the award seats are taken by churners and retirees a year and advance.

A hybrid to satisfy both? Release Tue, Wed, Thu seats a year or so in advance and randomly introduce seats on the other 4 weekdays throughout the year. Or do even days of the week in advance and odd days randomly interspersed...

You hit on a point that I'd wanted to address also.

When release is predictable as it was, the gamers would sit on it waiting to pounce. That's great - it rewards the planners(I mean those that can and do plan a year+ out. I have a friend who pretty much only does this to travel the world) and it rewards those with status since they get first dibs of the release. It then leaves little for those who have lower or no status and/or can't or don't plan or aren't that engaged to sit on the release time of 0000 GMT.

So what's the happy medium? I don't have an exact answer (if I did perhaps I could also create peace in the middle east!).. a drip feed appeals in that one doesn't know what or when and it can come and go in a dynamic nature so it really is a matter of if you look you get. The counter to that, of course, is well what about the status folks? what's the point there? have a separate pool of availability? That gets messy and complicated.

One of those situations where you can never possibly be able to please everyone all the time I guess

 

[Gremlin]

I've always maintained that airlines should offer Dom Perignon on domestic BusinessFirst services. They could even market it, "Dom on Dom"

I'm going to suggest they don't. I'm also going to suggest not googling that...

 

[encryptededdy]

Probably most of the important ones have been covered but I'll put my 2 cents in and agree that all members reasonably expect to have access to book ANY unsold seats on ALL flights, especially for the OW Classic 'RTW' Reward. No limitations on the 'release' of 'extra' seats. And this is a very affordable, immediate improvement that can be done today.

I don't think this is reasonable nor affordable. No major airline I know of does this in the modern era, at least not for Classic Rewards-type pricing (wasn't a policy similar to this as part of WorldPass partly responsible for the downfall of Pan Am?). The only programs that allow you to book any seats are programs with extensive dynamic pricing and/or directly convert points value to cash (e.g. NZ Airpoints).

I suppose if users want to just get some savings on their next flight booking, then a system like NZ Airpoints is good for that (and won't result in people complaining about seat availability). However if we want opportunities for outsized value whilst flying premium cabin classes, then limited award seat availability is a necessary evil to make the program financially viable.

Personally, I'd much rather the latter, and just pay cash for other flights where I'm unable to find award availability. That is not to say the QFF program shouldn't get improvement, but making every seat available as a reward is not it.

 

[kathy_7050]

Qantas CEO Vanessa Hudson flagged "permanent improvements" to the Qantas Frequent Flyer program, to be announced early next year, at today's AGM.

Details here:

https://www.australianfrequentflyer.com.au/qantas-changes-coming-early-2024/

What Frequent Flyer changes would you like Qantas to announce in early 2024?

I think they need to reduce the current carrying liability of the ff program as well as improve their customer approval ratings. They could do both by providing more reward seats as flight capacity increases on new / expanded routes next year.
I’d like the cost of international reward seats in points to be significantly reduced.

 

[levelnine]

I don't think this is reasonable nor affordable. No major airline I know of does this in the modern era, at least not for Classic Rewards-type pricing

This thread is actually making me somewhat sympathetic towards Qantas.

It is teeming with completely unrealistic if not outright absurd requests. If this is what somewhat knowledgeable people expect of Qantas, heaven knows what they must hear from the public writ large.

 

[encryptededdy]

One improvement with likely minimal financial cost to Qantas that I'd like to see is to allow SG/WP members to nominate a few non-family members to redeem flights for and perhaps also transfer points to/from.

Personally I have no family members living in Australia, so I would love to see this feature so I can help redeem for or upgrade friends. Many airlines have this feature (e.g. AirNZ Airpoints has their Gifting register, which allows you to nominate a limited number of non-household members to redeem/upgrade for if you're Gold/Elite)

 

[encryptededdy]

This thread is actually making me somewhat sympathetic towards Qantas.

It is teeming with completely unrealistic if not outright absurd requests. If this is what somewhat knowledgeable people expect of Qantas, heaven knows what they must hear from the public writ large.

Yeah, I love to complain with my Kiwi friends about the poor value of the Airpoints program, but reading this thread makes me understand why AirNZ designed their system that way - they wouldn't get any complaints about availability or devaluations. Unfortunately such a system comes to the detriment of people like myself and others here.

 

[mt4789]

Guaranteed reward seats on every plane would be a good defensive move against regulators who are really sinking their teeth into all aspects of the business at the moment, would also be great for members.

 

[MaudedAnvers]

Qantas CEO Vanessa Hudson flagged "permanent improvements" to the Qantas Frequent Flyer program, to be announced early next year, at today's AGM.

Details here:

https://www.australianfrequentflyer.com.au/qantas-changes-coming-early-2024/

What Frequent Flyer changes would you like Qantas to announce in early 2024?

One urgent change required to improve customer experience is a change of their call centres in the Philippines and Kenya, although seemingly proficient in English the Filipino call centre staff are I'll equipped and not properly trained to deal with Australian customers, they act like robots, a conversation with them leads to no resolution and are often rude and when one asks for the call to be escalated to a senior team leader or supervisor they simply refuse (something not allowed) and as for the Kenyan staff they say they call from Quntas not Qantas and when you can't even pronounce the name of the company you are working for correctly that already says a lot, I was called back 6 times by the most unintelligible Kenyan staff including a so called supervisor and again only to lead to more frustration. As a platinum frequent flyer downgraded post Covid to lifetime gold I really have no interest in supporting an airline with no customer service.

 

[aussieboozer]

It then leaves little for those who have lower or no status and/or can't or don't plan or aren't that engaged to sit on the release time of 0000 GMT.

Agreed. I’ve never had status but have often had over a million points and am definitely a planner. Never been able to get a long haul J seat on Qantas metal but have on partners like Emirates & Cathay in the past. Now concentrating on burning my points on domestic J redemptions where booking 353 days out is straight forward regardless of status. Off to the UK next month for 6 weeks in J on SQ for a comparable cash fare to QF as I’m told their J product is better. If I can’t redeem my points on QF internationally I see no reason to give them my cash.

 

[Gremlin]

Guaranteed reward seats on every plane would be a good defensive move against regulators who are really sinking their teeth into all aspects of the business at the moment, would also be great for members.

Yup. What better way to stick it regulators prosecuting you for misleading and deceptive conduct than guaranteed reward seats on every plane? And the best part? Them pesky regulators won't even see it comin'...

Better still, it'll also put them 1700 illegally sacked workers in their place too!

/sarcasm

 

[PineappleSkip]

Dear Vanessa, I would like the Moon.

Several months later, after interminable hold times and several calls to CPT asking where’s my moon, in which I need to explain each time what the moon is, I eventually get emailed a fine brochure with a glossy photo of the moon, with a covering note headed…

QANTAS NOW GIVES YOU THE MOON​

Call me a cynic, but I’m over the idea that good things will happen out of all this. QF have so much form.

Cheers skip

 

[A220HubAndSpoke]

More last minute reward seats and (similar to Etihad, I think) aggressively pursue customers to use points for upgrades.

To quote @atomik, an an unsold seat is an available reward seat.

 

[jase05]

Won’t sit well with some but it’s a frequent flyer program not a frequent card churner program.
The people who actually fly with QF should absolutely get first dibs on award seats so I’d be happy to see QF tiers get earlier/better access to availability on a sliding scale and I’m saying that as someone who will drop to Silver in the New Year.

 

[mt4789]

Yup. What better way to stick it regulators prosecuting you for misleading and deceptive conduct than guaranteed reward seats on every plane? And the best part? Them pesky regulators won't even see it comin'...

Better still, it'll also put them 1700 illegally sacked workers in their place too!

/sarcasm

Hahaha, well they’re all about token gestures.

 

[Seat0B]

Only if you find out about the bulk release of seats in time. It was completely unexpected, and covered a period which would suit me to visit the UK, but by the time I became aware of the release the availability had already dried up even though I am a WP and only looking for one return J/F.

or if the bulk release comes at a time that does not suit your travel plans

or if you have to get leave approved before you can book, by which time the seats are gone....


Really, they need a hybrid model with some on a predictable (and preferably long) schedule for those who can book that way, and some of the surprise bulk deals or close to departure for those who can make spur of the moment decisions.

 

[Seat0B]

Thinking more about the forecast growth in flight redemptions vs "Holiday", it seems like Qantas are going for the 'whole of travel wallet' share. I wonder if that means that there might be bundled rewards of flight and hotel and ancillaries and whether that would cannibalise existing flight rewards? Ie, would they potentially reduce the number of Classic Reward Flights to HNL, but increase the number of Classic Reward Holidays Packages to HNL by the same amount? Pure speculation on my part, but I can see that that would have appeal to those high value defectors.

I am so not interested in this. The value proposition on Qantas Hotels is often poor, the Qantas Holidays (aka tripADeal) also has many problems for a client like me. if they did this, it would actually hasten my move to another airline/alliance, which I am already busy researching at the moment as I am so so very cheesed off with Qantas. Speaking as a person who made LTG 11 years ago, has been a WP for I forget how many years, but likely about 12-15 and a P1 for 3 years, has 33,000 lifetime SC (so obscenely loyal to QF) and does quite a lot of paid J flying.

 

[Seat0B]

This is available regularly on the app when there is space.

When I was NB a few years ago I could regularly see a few options on the triangle routes (SYD MEL BNE). Now I sometimes see every flight for the day available to me on the app. Ive even almost accidentally moves too far forward and understimated Sydney traffic once.

It's to the point that i often book the 22:00 SYD > MEL for cheaper (or points) relatively late then end up flying 19:00 or 20:00

Oooh @elanshin - using your bundle of rights to your benefit! Well done.