Qantas Frequent Flyer Changes - Online NOW!!

[TheFergus]

I think I was too polite earlier: and should have said I acquire virtually all my points through spending, not through flying - yesterday, MEL-LON was 380k first class return. Today (best sit down) it's ONE POINT SEVEN MILLION points. Hellooooo. Four hundred an forty seven per cent premium? WTF.

To put that in context: I used to obtain a 5% benefit on my spending - now it's a 1% reward so, why bother?

Everyone on this site should be emailing Qantas how ridiculous this proposal is. Has anyone got a senior eddress?

 

[gilby08]

Some suprising cheaper domestic routes avail compared to the 'classic' system.
eg: SYD-AVV Classic would cost 14,000 and JQ anyseat would 12,000

I guess this only good for domestic travel

 

[Harpoon]

I think I was too polite earlier: and should have said I acquire virtually all my points through spending, not through flying - yesterday, MEL-LON was 380k first class return. Today (best sit down) it's ONE POINT SEVEN MILLION points. Hellooooo. Four hundred an forty seven per cent premium? WTF.

To put that in context: I used to obtain a 5% benefit on my spending - now it's a 1% reward so, why bother?

Everyone on this site should be emailing Qantas how ridiculous this proposal is. Has anyone got a senior eddress?

That's anyseat though right - for 1.7m? Because surely the classic award flight in F is still 380k? Or has the classic seat gone up in price too?

Just from reading a few posts, it seems to me that some of the comparisons made in points costs in this thread are comparing apples to oranges, which just doesn't work. You can't simply compare classic redemptions to anyseat redemptions, when the latter is based largely on actual seat availability.

Of course as there's only 14 x F seats on most 744's, the availability is limited from the start, and Qantas has no doubt done their homework on F sales to europe which I assume fill up a fair bit.... F and J seats is where they make a lot of money! So if F anyseat redemptsions are cheap......well you don;t need to be an accountant to understand the impact on Qantas. I don't have access to that sort of analysis obviously but surely that's just common sense (among a few assumptions).

I don"t work for qantas (just making that clear ) and I, like you, want the best deals I can get, but surely you were expecting too much in some of these cases...

 

[TheFergus]

>but surely you were expecting too much in some of these cases...

Fair enough. My expectations was based on the Singapore Airlines program where their anytime flights are at a premium of about 20% I think.

I thought Qantas would come in ~ 20-50% premium but FFS, 450%+ ???

 

[AnonymousCoward]

Fair enough. My expectations was based on the Singapore Airlines program where their anytime flights are at a premium of about 20% I think.

Do you have a link to this Singapore Airlines offering? I can see that they offer two types of awards (saver and unrestricted). Unrestricted is 100% of the saver award. But I don't see any writing that says that Unrestricted awards can be redeemed for any available seat.

 

[Mal]

A 100-200% increase for an anytime award is appropriate. 800% or more?

I think this just shows the arrogance that Qantas has for it's Frequent Flyers, and the number of points floating around the market.

 

[gilby08]

Just want some advice guys:

I'm looking to purchase a MEL-SYD on redemption. the 'any seat' is about 13,300 pts and the 'classic' is 14,000pts..

What would be better in terms of cancellation rates or changes or what would you go for?

 

[SeatBackForward]

Last week I booked the following for 72,000pts
SYD>CHC
ZQN>CHC>AKL
AKL>SYD

Using the "any seat" option, the same flights returned 93,000pts.

 

[Flashback]

Discussion on NEWS.com.au

Reader's Comments: Frequent flyer freedom will come at a cost | News.com.au

Fair to say that the general concensus isn't good for QF (like they really care anyway)

I see that NM has made a comment there

 

[AnonymousCoward]

A 100-200% increase for an anytime award is appropriate.

Why? Then QANTAS would be giving away $15,000 J class SYD/LAX tickets for <400,000 points (which we think are worth maybe $4000)

 

[clifford]

I guess I'll be using my NAB Velocity Amex card a lot more in the future...

 

[clifford]

Do you have a link to this Singapore Airlines offering? I can see that they offer two types of awards (saver and unrestricted). Unrestricted is 100% of the saver award. But I don't see any writing that says that Unrestricted awards can be redeemed for any available seat.

This would appear to be similar to UA's Mileage Plus "Standard Award" which is 2x the number of miles required for a saver award, but does get you any available seat on any UA flight (as far as I am aware).

 

[Mal]

Why? Then QANTAS would be giving away $15,000 J class SYD/LAX tickets for <400,000 points (which we think are worth maybe $4000)

192,000 points on the classic scheme. So a 'value' of $1920.00 according to the 1c/point valuation.

100% extra is 384,000, 200% extra is 576,000 (or $5760). Qantas FF points are actually worth a bit more than 1c if used correctly, and I presume companies pay Qantas more than 1c per point for them originally.

The SYD-LAX fare is overpriced, however based on some anyseat searches, SYD-LAX is around 1.5 million points anytime. So how can $15000 (based on the 1c calc, which I believe is wrong) be fair?

 

[Kendall Roy]

Has anyone taken the time to write to QF via the generic feedback form?

 

[NM]

Just want some advice guys:

I'm looking to purchase a MEL-SYD on redemption. the 'any seat' is about 13,300 pts and the 'classic' is 14,000pts..

What would be better in terms of cancellation rates or changes or what would you go for?

If the Anyseat award is cheaper than Classic, then I would be thinking there are some cheap paid fares on that route and probably saving the points and purchasing the fare.

 

[AnonymousCoward]

192,000 points on the classic scheme. So a 'value' of $1920.00 according to the 1c/point valuation.

No - you are comparing apples with oranges. QANTAS can/did *restrict* the number of J award redemptions under the previous (now Classic) scheme. So they'd make 0-1 such seats available per flight. The rest get sold for $7k-10k each way.

Now, you are suggesting that they offer every single free seat for a 100% premium on points (so 380,000 points). At that price, QANTAS might not *sell* many seats, because they are being redeemed via AnySeat.

The SYD-LAX fare is overpriced, however based on some anyseat searches, SYD-LAX is around 1.5 million points anytime. So how can $15000 (based on the 1c calc, which I believe is wrong) be fair?

huh? Go to QANTAS.com and price a SYD-LAX return flight in J. It's about $15,000. So 1.5m points would be about right...

 

[AnonymousCoward]

This would appear to be similar to UA's Mileage Plus "Standard Award" which is 2x the number of miles required for a saver award, but does get you any available seat on any UA flight (as far as I am aware).

All I can see online from my searching is that the unrestricted awards (which cost 2x) offer a greater selection of seats. I imagine that this just makes additional booking classes available. It doesn't make every seat on the plane available for redemption on points...

 

[Mal]

huh? Go to QANTAS.com and price a SYD-LAX return flight in J. It's about $15,000. So 1.5m points would be about right...

Average corporate price would be between $10K and $12K I believe. Plus you would earn points on that flight if paying cash.

Qantas valuing the points at 1c is underpricing the points. However, I suppose if mugs want to join the "Qantas Frequent Spender" program, far be it for me to worry myself over what value they might get out of their points.

 

[codash1099]

The farce that this is may have some negative spin-off for some of QF's points partners. Why use a credit card that automatically directs points to you FF account if you have the opportunity to use a card which lets you accumulate.

My Qantas Amex card and ANZ Visa card will get very little use from here on in. I'll be strongly favouring my Amex charge card and I'll be looking for alternatives to the others. Still, at my spend level, I don't expect too many people to be leaping out of buildings.

 

[NM]

The farce that this is may have some negative spin-off for some of QF's points partners. Why use a credit card that automatically directs points to you FF account if you have the opportunity to use a card which lets you accumulate.

Indeed I will not be taking on a credit card that does direct sweep into QF FF. My Amex Rewards Maximiser and CBA Gold Visa will continue to be my cards of choice. That way I can put the points where I can best use them.