Qantas is sorry (again)

[HSB44]

Hi
I'm Vanessa
Your friendly, innocent, understanding completely blameless new CEO.

I know that you are upset. I know that you have been mistreated.
I know that AJ screwed you over, wasted your time, and left with millions $$.
What you don't know is that I'm one of the #$&@%'s who advised him to do all those things.

So I'm sorry that we got caught.
Im sorry that I have to stand here grovelling like a pleb.
You should be the ones grovelling to me!!
I'm sorry that the useless lobbyists and consultants on our payroll didn't see this coming.

So I can promise you this -
I promise to provide more shiny, ultimately useless peace offerings to distract you from the rogering that you will continue to receive.
I promise to be more subtle about how we screw you over.
I promise to work harder to win back your trust and confidence that Qantas is the #1 organisation for its ability to bribe and blackmail politicians to bend them to its will.
I promise to quote the word 'humble' a hundred times.
I promise to offset all the job losses in Australia by offering 50 cent wage rises in Fiji.
I promise to better train call centre staff on how to make it seem like your call was cut off by an unforeseeable technical glitch rather than just pure incompetence or can't be bothered assisting plebs.

Most of all I promise I've hired better lobbyists, consultants And advertising spivs so we don't get caught out like this again.

And lastly I promise to help sabotage all chance of genuine competition in the industry for as long as I am CEO, or at least until such time as I get offered a cooshy board position at some casino or gambling company.

I still call Straya home

Love
Nessy

 

[DC3]

Hi
I'm Vanessa ……

At last, a fresh change has arrived

 

[levelnine]

Though in April BA said they would have a minimum of 12 award seats on every short haul flight and 14 on every long haul flight. No mention of black out dates.

Name 5 other airlines that do that.

There are over 1,100 commercial airlines. You should have no trouble doing that.

Also, I'd be careful what you wish for. BA award availability is abundant on many routes months and months after the award calendar has opened. Why? Because no one wants to pay their sky high points & fee costs. There's no free lunch in the airline industry.

To take one example, there are still 5+ seats in J on Sunday 17 December on JFK-LHR. One of the busiest airline routes in the world at one of the busiest times in the year. And there's still massive amounts of availability!

What an awesome program.

Oh ....

 

[Lynda2475]

Because no one wants to pay their sky high points & fee costs.

BA fees are cheap compared with Emirates.

With two BA flights in my recent OWA total taxes were $1600, still a bargain vs paying for all those J seats, but ymmv.

 

[levelnine]

BA fees are cheap compared with Emirates.

With two BA flights in my recent OWA total taxes were $1600, still a bargain vs paying for all those J seats, but ymmv.

Yes, they are cheaper than literally the worst airline in the world for award redemption charges.

Is that what you're happy to accept for a guaranteed 2 J seats at calendar open?

 

[drron]

At least BA don’t reduce their points and TPS when you fly a partner airline like a certain Australian airline.

 

[levelnine]

At least BA don’t reduce their points and TPS when you fly a partner airline like a certain Australian airline.

If we're going to talk about points earning, BA is far, far, far, far, far worse than Qantas.

In the UK, the typical sign-up bonus for a credit card is 25,000 Avios or less. It takes Brits years to save up enough Avios for a single long-haul trip. An Australian can do it in a few months with 2-3 cards.

Qantas also has plenty of advantages when it comes to status earning. Yes, lifetime platinum is a joke, but Qantas has regular DSC offers, SC earn from award flights, SC earn from spend on the ground, SC earn from filling out a quiz and buying some stuff on a store, etc etc etc.

The grass is definitely not greener in this case.

 

[anat0l]

If we're going to talk about points earning, BA is far, far, far, far, far worse than Qantas.

In the UK, the typical sign-up bonus for a credit card is 25,000 Avios or less. It takes Brits years to save up enough Avios for a single long-haul trip. An Australian can do it in a few months with 2-3 cards.

Some may not regard lower (or no) signup bonuses as a bad thing.

I guess it means those who really do fly a lot with BA will actually get the rewards they are due. That's beyond the on average lower premium fares on BA plus bonuses that help get past normal inventory controls like 241s and jokers.

That said, BA is in a very different competitive environment compared to QF, but it is somewhat shrinking (not entirely BA's intent) thanks to the likes of QR joining Amex MR sweep and their switching to Avios...

 

[levelnine]

I guess it means those who really do fly a lot with BA will actually get the rewards they are due.

No they don't. It just means Americans swoop in and steal all their awards.

I just transferred my Chase points (where I earned 130,000 points for a single sign-up bonus) to BA with a 30% bonus.

In other words, I earned 170,000 Avios — which would take a Brit several years to accumulate — in 2 months from a single credit card bonus.

 

[downtheback]

I just think they should replace the classic rewards system with a more generous points plus play system, with the points being a fixed ratio for distance still. If the fare bucket is still available for sale then you can still book it with points (and you get the fare conditions of what you book with the points).

ie MEL-LAX is 7,921mi, so the one way points costs would be:

Economy: Sale (5x = 39,605), Saver (6x = 47,526), Flex (8x = 63,368)
Premium: Sale (7x = 55,447), Saver (9x = 71,289), Flex (11x = 87,131)
Business: Sale (10x = 79,210), Saver (12.5x = 99,012), Flex (15x = 118,815)

Taxes can be paid for using points at a rate of 1000 points = $8. Ditch the call centre fees and make the website better too. Points+Pay works with a minimum of 5,000 points (sliding scale between 100% points and 100% cash).

 

[levelnine]

I just think they should replace the classic rewards system with a more generous points plus play system,

My suggestion for Qantas would be to keep the random batch release of seats to fill their planes when empty & expand the elite tier reward request feature.

Gold: Get the ability to request release of seats up to the current Platinum level
Platinum: Get the ability to request release of seats up to the current Platinum One level
Platinum One: Get an additional level of ability to request release of seats

ie MEL-LAX is 7,921mi, so the one way points costs would be:

Economy: Sale (5x = 39,605), Saver (6x = 47,526), Flex (8x = 63,368)
Premium: Sale (7x = 55,447), Saver (9x = 71,289), Flex (11x = 87,131)
Business: Sale (10x = 79,210), Saver (12.5x = 99,012), Flex (15x = 118,815)

My guess is if Qantas did that, prices would be at least triple the ones you suggest.

 

[KSC]

It’s amazing (myself included) the conscious and unconscious bias these loyalty schemes create for airline and/or groups of airlines eg OW.

 

[chrispy3276]

Qantas has this morning announced an additional $80m for improving customer service painpoints, including quality of inflight catering and the number of seats that can be redeemed with points (on top of the $150m already allocated this financial year).

Full ASX announcement: https://cdn-api.markitdigital.com/a...access_token=83ff96335c2d45a094df02a206a39ff4

 

[aikman]

Its hard to know if people are being serious with the suggestions being made in this thread as a lot of them are commercially unrealistic. Qantas after all is still a listed company that needs to make as much profit as it can.

I get that we all want outsized value for our points but we all know that the points industry is slowly but surely moving away from that.

 

[jrfsp]

Qantas has this morning announced an additional $80m for improving customer service painpoints, including quality of inflight catering and the number of seats that can be redeemed with points (on top of the $150m already allocated this financial year).

Full ASX announcement: https://cdn-api.markitdigital.com/a...access_token=83ff96335c2d45a094df02a206a39ff4

The fuel price is a serious issue particularly in light of a weakening aussie dollar with a high proportion of AU Point of Sale - certainly a disadvantage compared to North American airlines

 

[Lynda2475]

Is that what you're happy to accept for a guaranteed 2 J seats at calendar open?

Ive never had to pay $1.5k in taxes/fees for a single J leg as your example above posts.

This year OWA I paid ~$1.6k in fees/taxes and flew around the world in J including 2* QF, 2*BA, 2*AY and 1*AA.

2022 OWA I paid ~$1.3k in fees/taxes and flew around the world in J with 3*QF, 3*BA, and 3*AA.

So I have not found redeeming classic awards with QF which involve BA legs to be cost prohibitive, considering the same itineraries on cash fares were $13k+.

If including BA legs on a QF reward doesnt work or you dont do it, but the availablity is often better than AA trans Atlantic and many of us need to spend time in the UK.

Post automatically merged: Sep 25, 2023

I just think they should replace the classic rewards system with a more generous points plus play system

I would hate to see this happen; points plus pay is poor value. And this would devalue points already earned considerably.

 

[exceladdict]

I just think they should replace the classic rewards system with a more generous points plus play system, with the points being a fixed ratio for distance still.

I think the problem is it would switch to be based on revenue instead of distance, giving points a fixed cost at a much lower rate than the value we currently extract from classic rewards.

 

[PineappleSkip]

I just think they should replace the classic rewards system with a more generous points plus play system

Noooooooooooooooooo!!!!!!

 

[malwcal]

Took me a while to process that VH there and from today onwards I choose to believe that every single Australian registered plane starts with reference to Vanessa Hudson.

e.g. Today I caught "Vanessa Hudson - OQB" out of Singapore on J and tomorrow I am on ReX's "Vanessa Hudson - RYU" to Melbourne...

VH-CEO?

 

[drron]

If we're going to talk about points earning, BA is far, far, far, far, far worse than Qantas.

In the UK, the typical sign-up bonus for a credit card is 25,000 Avios or less. It takes Brits years to save up enough Avios for a single long-haul trip. An Australian can do it in a few months with 2-3 cards.

Qantas also has plenty of advantages when it comes to status earning. Yes, lifetime platinum is a joke, but Qantas has regular DSC offers, SC earn from award flights, SC earn from spend on the ground, SC earn from filling out a quiz and buying some stuff on a store, etc etc etc.

The grass is definitely not greener in this case.

then you really don't know much about BAEC from a practical point of view.
First lifetime gold ( OWE ) is only 35000 TPs and if young would be easily reached.
I can reach BA gold with just over one of the BA old SYD - BKK return fares if I fly F on the SYD - SIN - SYD sectors.
And that deal with F to and from SIN plus 4 JAL sectors costs just $A800 more than QF SYD - SIN - SYD in F.
Plus the JAL sectors are a bit over 20000KM or 12500 miles therefore couldn't be done on a Circle Asia fare with the Australian sectors.
And for me I have never had a sign on bonus.

I calculated that 24 of those Asia fares would earn me LTG on BA. I don't have enough time to do it or enjoy it but for those who are young it would be easily obtainable. And at a cost of a little over $200000 a bargain for life time OWE status.