Qantas rolls out Classic Plus Flight Rewards

[TheRealTMA]

With a title of QANTAS LOYALTY CHIEF EXECUTIVE I tend to agree.

The Curious Mail rewrite copy of the puff press release has the byline of Tansy Harcourt.

​

 

[flyguy77]

this article just smacks of insincerity and does nothing more than make us question their integrity.

Pointhacks has been horrible for years now and getting worse.

It's nothing more than an affiliate marketing site masquerading as advice and recently it's been more & more paid advertisements & 'reviews'.

It doesn't surprise me one bit to see them as a Qantas PR mouthpiece also.
It's a shame AFF couldn't remain independent.

 

[WilsonM]

Thank you for these excerpts.

This is amazing because it now allows us to interrogate what 'this journalist' thinks is 'decently priced'.

The cash fare was $13,809. The taxes and fees on a Classic Plus SYD-LHR business class return flight are $652 + $1,127.

At 1.5c/pt, that means this 'decently priced' fare was 802,000 points lol.

Also, you have to absolutely love the passage at the end: Classic Plus bookings are up three-fold ... on expectations lmao.

Describing this as anything other than a press release for Qantas would be an embarrassment.

This is being generous as well - there's every chance it was on the CDG/FCO flights with much lower taxes lol.

For a very not-scientific breakdown, I sure am glad that the equivalent of ~9 premium CC signups (plus the spend you need), with a ~400 fee each time, is worth that J flight. To break down the maths further, you're spending ~3.6k on annual fees to get to 800k points (assuming you're churning), and then spending almost $2k on top in taxes. Or you could literally save yourself the hassle and buy a decently priced J fare not on Qantas for ~$7k.

I liked the bit of "a quarter of members hadn't redeemed a flight for 5 years before spending on C+" - yeah, it could fit their narrative of people are excited about C+. Or more likely, they just got so fed up with the complete lack of ability to find flights as CRs that they finally reached the point of no return.

Such a BS claim of 4x more availability though - I don't really know how you can claim it's a case of availability when all it takes is D/I Class availability in J. I assume that's going off the 20 mil C+ vs 5 mil CR, but we already know that this is completely different as CR takes into account partner availability.

But the sentiment of this really worries me - This seems like a glowing endorsement of C+ from an accounting point of view, so QF will want it out more and more - including on partner airlines. How long until JQ is introduced, then partners like AA, EK...

And as a general note, I'd like to think that the content produced on AFF is different from PH. Maybe I'm wrong. But AFF and Point Hacks have no coordination on editorial policy or content - they're run separately in that regard.

 

[Doctore1003]

More bizarreness in The Australian, this time from their regular aviation reporter:
“Global public opinion and data company YouGov revealed this week that Qantas had topped the “biggest brand movers list” with gains in six metrics including general impression, corporate reputation, customer satisfaction, recommendation, quality and consideration.

The company attributed Qantas’ rise up the ranks to its recent frequent flyer program overhaul, with the changes due to kick in mid-year.”

Um what?

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/aviation/virgin-scores-wins-over-qantas-for-reliability-and-biggest-domestic-market-share/news-story/2bd821db8b780291743a5dba8272f765

 

[levelnine]

More bizarreness in The Australian, this time from their regular aviation reporter:

PR offensive ahead of the half yearly reports this week.

Also, I wouldn't be surprised if there's a backstory here. The AFR and OZ are the last two national papers left standing and compete fiercely. The AFR has been chief critic of Qantas the last couple of years. I wouldn't be surprised if The OZ has made the editorial decision to give Qantas a lot of free PR simply to adopt the opposition stance to the AFR.

 

[Brissy1]

The Curious Mail rewrite copy of the puff press release has the byline of Tansy Harcourt.

​

Did Tansy rewrite the original "This journalist was pleasantly surprised to find..." ?

Edit: I've just got round to reading the Weekend Australian where Tansy is the supposed writer. The Australian website bio of her states that she " has previously...worked in strategy at Qantas."

 

[I love to travel]

Did Tansy rewrite the original "This journalist was pleasantly surprised to find..." ?

Edit: I've just got round to reading the Weekend Australian where Tansy is the supposed writer. The Australian website bio of her states that she " has previously...worked in strategy at Qantas."

That is such a conflict of interest if she didn't declare it in the article

 

[kookaburra75]

I read the puff piece in The Weekend Australian, and my first thought was that any article which says how great it is for Qantas must mean it's bad for customers. After announcing spending $80 million to introduce customer improvements, and then the fanfare around the launch of Classic Rewards Plus, at the core of their statement was:
"The program changes are expected to deliver a substantial improvement in member engagement and will help drive the long-term growth of Qantas Loyalty as it continues to target $800 million – $1 billion Underlying EBIT by FY30,” said Qantas in a statement."
So, it was never really about the customer, it was always about the money for Qantas. And the puff pieces appearing just before the financial reporting period... "...nothing to see here... move along"
But at least Qantas gets to join a few other international airlines for the notoriety of the changes to their frequent flyer programs and how they treat their loyal travellers
Frequent flyers have spent years staying loyal to airlines. Now airlines are giving them ‘the middle finger'

https://edition.cnn.com/travel/airline-loyalty-programs-points-2025-changes/index.html

 

[Flyerwin]

Frequent flyers have spent years staying loyal to airlines. Now airlines are giving them ‘the middle finger'
https://edition.cnn.com/travel/airline-loyalty-programs-points-2025-changes/index.html

At least the airlines are giving frequent flyers something back. Even if it's just one finger.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Pointhacks has been horrible for years now and getting worse.

It's nothing more than an affiliate marketing site masquerading as advice and recently it's been more & more paid advertisements & 'reviews'.

It doesn't surprise me one bit to see them as a Qantas PR mouthpiece also.
It's a shame AFF couldn't remain independent.

And another one in the stable claims in one article that ‘flat beds aren’t necessary for a day flight’, but miraculously when talking about SQ’s full flats on all aircraft praises their presence so you can have a ‘restorative power nap’ (during the day).

Which is it?

 

[Gold Member]

We seem to be veering from the purpose of this thread - the Classic Plus award scam.

We need to start a separate Master thread which discusses the Qantas PR/Marketing BS and the paid advertorial mouthpieces masquerading as Independent Reviews.

Who’s up for it?

 

[drron]

Well QF are going hard themselves in promoting CR+. The email announcing their million seat sale also says that they are having a CR+ sale. Well no it is exactly the same number of cents per point you are paying.

 

[Brissy1]

Well QF are going hard themselves in promoting CR+. The email announcing their million seat sale also says that they are having a CR+ sale. Well no it is exactly the same number of cents per point you are paying.

From the ACCC site ..

Ways that a displayed price can be misleading​

• 
  
• 
  
• 
  
• Promoting a price as being a sale or special price, when it is actually the normal price.

 

[Rich]

From the ACCC site ..

Ways that a displayed price can be misleading​

• 
  
• 
  
• 
  
• Promoting a price as being a sale or special price, when it is actually the normal price.

But it is not really. The points price is dynamic, like the $ price. Therefore, it is fair to say both are on sale.

 

[Brissy1]

But it is not really. The points price is dynamic, like the $ price. Therefore, it is fair to say both are on sale.

I disagree, if goods/services are on sale but the points/method of purchasing those is not, then it is deceptive to claim that the points/method of purchasing is on sale.

Adding... but I wouldn't go to court about it, I'm just the man on the Bondi tram ordinary person

 

[Supersonic Swinger]

If I retain Platinum for the next half century I may reach LTP. But even as a Platinum, trying to find regular Classic Rewards for something as simple as SYD-BNE in J for 18,000 QFF points as opposed to 2-4x that amount for CR+ is nigh on impossible.

Given I have locked in LTG, CR+ has finally moved me to BFOD especially for long-haul international, moving my QFF engagement to what QF Loyalty are driving it towards, a frequent shopper program for activity I can't credit elsewhere.

Pointhacks has been horrible for years now and getting worse.

It's nothing more than an affiliate marketing site masquerading as advice and recently it's been more & more paid advertisements & 'reviews'.

It doesn't surprise me one bit to see them as a Qantas PR mouthpiece also.
It's a shame AFF couldn't remain independent.

Pointshacks is the best (worst?) example of what seems to affect most travel blogs these days. When every other article is vacuously headed "The Ultimate Guide To..." or "How To Earn...", you know they are just recycling PR or trying to earn credit card referral fees. At least BoardingArea gives you the ability to scan articles across multiple blogs to find ones with actual insights amongst the dross.

 

[sudoer]

But even as a Platinum, trying to find regular Classic Rewards for something as simple as SYD-BNE in J for 18,000 QFF points

Call and request seats. Very rarely get knocked back on golden triangle routes.