Qantas rolls out Classic Plus Flight Rewards

[CaptJCool]

Qantas frequent flyer changes: how does the revamped system work and who benefits?

The airline is adding more than 20m rewards seats on international and domestic flights

www.theguardian.com

Quotes from Matt

 

[Shanye2233]

All I wanna know is where is the mistakes are so I can have a cheap holiday. GUM anyone ?

 

[Longtoo]

Vanessa Hudson - ever since she came out in a video clip to say sorry, it is more of the same. This Classic Plus is a joke and will not mess up the system. Qantas is selling point for 5.6 c/point plus 35$ service fee.

 

[Spacetravel]

Looks like Qantas is now milking the media attention from this drop. Can see a "surprise 72 hour sale" on domestic fares just opened up. Would have been good if it was international to allow partnering with the CR+ to "show" how it can be "better" than a CR when there is a sale.

 

[levelnine]

I'd argue the opposite. The real point hackers earning millions are churning like mad and doing sign up bonuses everywhere. those should be well below 1c per point cost.

It's all but impossible to earn 1mil points per year per person through churning Australian cards. The figure is probably closer to half that. Think about it. Which 100K ones can be done on a yearly basis? ANZ, Westpac, StGeorge/BOM, Citi. That's 4. You can then do Amex, NAB every second year. Then there's some that are closer to 50K (eg Qantas Premier, Bankwest).

The only ones earning millions (especially plural) of points per year are business spenders or heavy manufactured spenders, both of which generally come with points acquisition costs.

If someone is willing to churn cards non-stop for 2-3 years, they'll be able to get a single return trip to Europe. You have to wonder how many people want to put that amount of effort in for that return.

I agree with you though that there are other lower cost options (eg Asia), but availability on those routes has never been that dire. It's the long haul routes where it is impossible.

In short, this announcement reinforces the attraction of Velocity over Qantas for premium long-haul award travel.

For those that are neutral on the new program, here are the negatives of CR+ from my perspective:
- Less chance of Platinum release of award seats as these come from the same fare classes (eg I for business)
- Normalises even higher charges on reward seats (CR+ have higher fees than classic awards)
- No additional SC earn over classic awards despite paying way more points for the seats
- Removes the pressure on Qantas to release classic award seats on premium long-haul routes (ie now Qantas can simply say there are classic points options to LHR)
- Normalises higher points costs for flights, paving the way for further withdrawal of classic award availability

 

[encryptededdy]

I think it's mental that QF can have a variable value of what a "QFF point" is worth. Imagine if currencies operated like that.

Bad take IMO. If QFF points (or any FF currency for that matter) had a fixed value, then they'd just be like AirNZ Airpoints or Southwest Rapid Rewards - not useful whatsoever for us trying to book flights for good value. Indeed the whole reason we all collect QFF, Avios, Velocity points etc is precisely because there is a way to get outsized value out of each point when booking flights.

None of this would exist or be commercially viable for any airline if anyone could just come in and purchase any flight at essentially a 75% discount just by using points.

 

[VHOEJ]

I agree with some of the other posts - Classic Rewards will eventually be removed and CRP will be the new norm.

Great to the members with lots of points to burn who are not going to get good value from those points now.

Good luck to the punters who never really earn enough points to redeem internationally.

Give the QF marketing spin team credit though for getting all this 'news coverage' over something that isn't actually going to benefit the majority of members.

 

[Etrust]

Agree, the only way you have these amounts of points now are with business throughput.

Have been churning cards up until a couple of years ago when it lost value.


Whilst I manage about 150K QF points a year incidentally, most of my effort now goes to buying sale fares between adjacent ports in EUR/AUS and Asia, and using the QF points to link up where possible. Why would I blow 1.5c redemption value on an overpriced QF business fare to EUR valued at $A 8-10K, when I can buy a return fare for around 1/2 that on a sale fares or with WY/EY or some of the Chinese Carriers? QF obviously care only about their Govt/Business points earners with large balances and fleecing down those balances. For a Point Hacker, everyman, they are not really a viable option anymore, with the exception of domestic classic rewards in Economy.

 

[Catweazle]

Flights don't earn points or SC's despite the higher redemption. Guess it does have 'Classic' in the name.
View attachment 377904

View attachment 377905

So, what's the point in me paying 114k points for what looks like the same SYD-LHR flight and the same perks compared to 55k?

Dare I ask, is this a stepping stone to upgrading the amount of points required for any reward booking?

Edit: I see I'm not the only one in thinking this!

 

[luxury-lizard]

Well some people are excited by this - I just tried to logon to my account to see if some Classic awards had been made available (for a friend travelling in Sept/Oct to Europe) - can't even login - system too busy.

 

[Princess Fiona]

Well some people are excited by this - I just tried to logon to my account to see if some Classic awards had been made available (for a friend travelling in Sept/Oct to Europe) - can't even login - system too busy.

I just logged in now and no issues. I don’t think your difficulties are to do with CR+.

 

[luxury-lizard]

I just logged in now and no issues. I don’t think your difficulties are to do with CR+.

Perhaps - it's working now - but the error message implied the system was "too busy" - doesn't matter could not find much for my friends' dates .... sigh

 

[RooFlyer]

For those that are neutral on the new program, here are the negatives of CR+ from my perspective:
- Less chance of Platinum release of award seats as these come from the same fare classes (eg I for business)

Damn. Hadn't thought of that. That's how I've obtained most of my few QF metal International redemptions over the years.

- Removes the pressure on Qantas to release classic award seats on premium long-haul routes (ie now Qantas can simply say there are classic points options to LHR)

Yep. Who will notice the total removal of CRs on premium routes, given they are hardly ever visible now (except in dumps)?

 

[robtemt]

I can see how some are frustrated, but I logged in as soon as I saw the email about CR+, and found CR (traditional) for 2XJ SYD-LAX (I'm SG) that I'd been looking for daily for a month. After I booked it, the availability changed to CR+.

My take, seems they still publish Classic Rewards, and only CR+ after sold out, and that they published a lot of CR seats at the same time.

I don't mind the enhancement , its a better deal than 1million+ points for J to LAX.

My ONLY gripe, is QF fees. I changed my flight from a QF classic reward on Fiji SYD-LAX, and the taxes and fees were over $300 more on QF metal.

Off topic, all the QF staff at SYD seem to be really happy today, I've never heard so many "good morning"s. I had to call my partner (a FA for QF) and asked if they got a bonus that I didn't see in our account! lol

 

[MEL_Traveller]

I agree with some of the other posts - Classic Rewards will eventually be removed and CRP will be the new norm.

Great to the members with lots of points to burn who are not going to get good value from those points now.

Good luck to the punters who never really earn enough points to redeem internationally.

Give the QF marketing spin team credit though for getting all this 'news coverage' over something that isn't actually going to benefit the majority of members.

All airlines still have classic awards, even those who have gone to dynamic pricing. They also have to be available for partners.

I don’t think this can be the end of classics, unless they also decide to leave the oneworld alliance.

 

[Youfah Mizzum]

I logged in as soon as I saw the email about CR+, and found CR (traditional) for 2XJ SYD-LAX (I'm SG) that I'd been looking for daily for a month. After I booked it, the availability changed to CR+.

My take, seems they still publish Classic Rewards

The point most of us are making is that CR to those popular destinations are rare. In your case, you got lucky! QF dropped a whole heap of CR Sunday night to various destinations (I personally have been looking for SYD - HND return in Feb/Mar next year) and plenty of CR seats became available.

So yeah, they're still published but because they come so randomly they are effectively a shot in the dark if there's CR seats. Especially to places like LHR, JFK. The popular routes.
Now, we can choose to pay through the nose (in points) with CR+. Plenty of those seats available!

 

[TheInsider]

Now, we can choose to pay through the nose (in points) with CR+. Plenty of those seats available!

Or you could've done exactly the same thing with points + pay, just at a higher rate for years and years before CR+.

 

[CaptJCool]

I can see how some are frustrated, but I logged in as soon as I saw the email about CR+, and found CR (traditional) for 2XJ SYD-LAX (I'm SG) that I'd been looking for daily for a month.

Off topic, all the QF staff at SYD seem to be really happy today, I've never heard so many "good morning"s. I had to call my partner (a FA for QF) and asked if they got a bonus that I didn't see in our account! lol

Their travel scheme bonus is pretty amazing
If you can actually get on-board
There’s no guarantee of that of course while CR is a guarantee of a seat when you want to go

None of this would exist or be commercially viable for any airline if anyone could just come in and purchase any flight at essentially a 75% discount just by using points.

Well the industry travel / staff deal are two examples of pretty deep discounts available to those in the know. If you could fly your loved ones at 10% of cost price then everyone else pays “through the nose”

PS EVEN the APS was receiving Upto 50% discounts
And from vague memory Upto 20% off via QBR
THAT said with the 6-8 incremental fare prices and Flex as the RRP the discount can be 75% discount
(73-76% discounts eg Syd - Mel $669 Flex Y $159 Red-E deal = discount $510 / $669 = 76% orf

 

[opusman]

All airlines still have classic awards, even those who have gone to dynamic pricing. They also have to be available for partners.

I don’t think this can be the end of classics, unless they also decide to leave the oneworld alliance.

Although there'd be nothing stopping them making classics available to partners but not their own FFs.

 

[KSC]

I think this below guy with a whale of points will benefit from this announcement, if he decides to fly with the general public. The $170m painting bought on AMEX can buy enough Qantas points for a 1 way ticket Classic Rewards+ to London from Australia (subject to availability).

Billionaire earns first-class travel for life by putting Modigliani nude on Amex

Liu Yiqian and his family can now fly free all over the world after he used his credit card, which earns points, to buy a $170m painting

www.theguardian.com