Qantas ranked 24th in the world for Frequent Flyer Programs

[Gold Member]

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/aviation/the-worlds-best-airline-loyalty-program-revealed-and-where-qantas-frequent-flyer-ranked/news-story/c1949b2dcf453e2e431fda938f014232

A couple of snippets from the article:

“The first independent analysis of more than 60 airline loyalty programs has ranked Qantas Frequent Flyer 24th due to the large number of points needed for redemptions, poor customer service and high change fees.”

“Travel tech company PointMe undertook the analysis over several months, allocating marks to each program across several criteria including the ease of earning miles or points, redemption rates, ease of booking and customer service quality.”

Qantas FF has failed so many of us over a long time and continues to disappoint. 24th is being very generous IMHO.

 

[elanshin]

The World’s Best Airline Rewards Programs | point.me

Looking for the best airline loyalty program? point.me reveals the top-ranked programs with the best rewards and benefits for frequent flyers.

www.point.me

For those that want to see the list and article.

 

[dajop]

It depends on perspective.

If you remember that loyalty programs exist entirely for the benefit of the airline and its shareholders, any benefits for customers are just part of the “product”, I’d say the QFF program is definitely top 10 in terms of its effectiveness for the airline.

 

[RooFlyer]

Virgin Australia Velocity finished 33rd on 26.39 per cent, the same as Air New Zealand’s Airpoints.

Ouch!

 

[SYD]

Ouch!

and Airpoints is pretty bad… At least VA gets QR J rewards - at the expense of QF….

 

[WilsonM]

Ouch!

Was just about to mention this - it makes sense from a US perspective (why would you ever transfer points to Velocity from the US except for domestic awards). If Australians are ranking it, results change. So perspective is key

 

[dajop]

Was just about to mention this - it makes sense from a US perspective (why would you ever transfer points to Velocity from the US except for domestic awards). If Australians are ranking it, results change. So perspective is key

It's basically about US credit cards. The rest is irrelevant, that's what the world's loyalty programs have been reduced to today is getting rewards from churning (and to a lesser extent) spend on US based credit cards. Those programs who don't participate in this churn are not going to be rated highly, and those who don't have access to US credit cards are collateral damage when the programs are swamped with that ready cash. Most of the discussion on the SQ board on Flyertalk is about F redemptions on SQ, presumably from credit card churn, usually first timers.

And it seems to not take account of +++'s either.

I'm not sure I'd rank EK's Skywards any higher than Krisflyer.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Yeah. Some questionable results here… like airline rankings themselves.

Singapore airlines ranks higher than Qantas? How? Hard points expiry, very limited availability.

Lifemiles ranks higher? On which planet? Point to point in select markets, but anything else? Their availability is way below other star partners.

 

[elanshin]

Was just about to mention this - it makes sense from a US perspective (why would you ever transfer points to Velocity from the US except for domestic awards). If Australians are ranking it, results change. So perspective is key

Last I checked US people want VA points for its access to NH awards.

 

[WilsonM]

Last I checked US people want VA points for its access to NH awards.

US can transfer to VS and AC, both have better redemption rates

 

[elanshin]

US can transfer to VS and AC, both have better redemption rates

AC doesn't have NH right now for J (Y only just came back) and VS is hit or miss - need to call and it alsl recently got devalued against NH. VA is the most reliable apparently.

 

[andye]

Yeah. Some questionable results here… like airline rankings themselves.

Singapore airlines ranks higher than Qantas? How? Hard points expiry, very limited availability.

Lifemiles ranks higher? On which planet? Point to point in select markets, but anything else? Their availability is way below other star partners.

My experience of SQ is much much better availability than QF but this may be coloured by not having QF WP or P1

Not to mention a better award chart and lower YQ

The VA ranking is harsh in my experience too. Its much better than EY and EK. For me, EKs ranking is probably the most bizarre

 

[Sprucegoose]

I can't see how these schemes can be objectively ranked without consideration of the ultimate recipient.

 

[Ansett Nostalgic]

My experience of SQ is much much better availability than QF but this may be coloured by not having QF WP or P1

Not to mention a better award chart and lower YQ

The VA ranking is harsh in my experience too. Its much better than EY and EK. For me, EKs ranking is probably the most bizarre

You can also speak to someone at SQ without waiting an eternity on hold.

 

[p--and--t]

You can also speak to someone at SQ without waiting an eternity on hold.

See other threads on SQ call centre staff powerless/useless.

All very well for them to answer quicker but.....

Poor service from Krisflyer customer service

I've been flying with Singapore Airlines for over 30 years. One of the things that always stood out about their operations was the quality of the call centre and their efficiency at handing any issues that arose. I now find myself wanting to make a complaint about their lack of response to an...

www.australianfrequentflyer.com.au

 

[CaptJCool]

I suppose the loyalty program is a good money spinner for the airline
20% margins

After all, when one controls the buy and sell rates for the earn and burn the capitalist urges for “mega-profits” cast a strong headwind.

 

[lovestotravel]

Singapore airlines ranks higher than Qantas? How? Hard points expiry, very limited availability.

Limited availability on SQ - Umm no, probably one of the easiest to get award seats in J

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Limited availability on SQ - Umm no, probably one of the easiest to get award seats in J

Maybe it’s the timeframe I’ve been looking? But there have been months on end when there’s been no saver award availability. I tried to use my 90k orphan miles before expiry without luck

 

[Tiki]

I churn cards in the USA sporadically and I don't agree with Flying Blue as the top. Skyteam has a much more limited list of partners although they are good for US-Europe and some Caribbean Islands. A couple years ago I got BON-AMS-IST for like 35k in Y and it would have been a $1400 ticket at the time. I like the top 3 US programs because there are no change/cancel fees and reasonable availability. I would put VA over QF for availability on long haul and a good set of partners. UA is good if you have their credit card because you get expanded availability. I haven't joined Aeroplan yet but it's next on my list because of their Chase partnership.

 

[CaptJCool]

Getting Qantas awards in intra-Europe at SHORT NOTICE was really quite easy

15,000,000 members all vying for 2 F seats a day to get out of Australia is a “pig in a poke”. It’s lucky dip!

We might call it “killing the golden goose”

But it will continue as RRIA Revenue received in advance shifts the tax obligations into the often long-term future, cuts down enormously on financing costs (free loan anyone?)
AND
points earnt today are worth LESS in the future because of the time cost of money AND the airlines capacity to devalue the points by upping the required points burn AND upping the $ co-payments

They might be badged as “loyalty programs” but really have become “golden handcuffs”