I can't believe people still think that loyalty programmes are their for the members to benefit, they are not they are only there to benefit the company running the programme.
QF are simply looking at the bottom dollar and how they can make more and if this upsets some of their loyal customers they don't care.
Agree on both counts. "Loyalty" programs have never been about rewarding us as members - but levereging us to extract the most they can from us by means of "loyalty" - and as technology and CRM type systems get smarter, data mining/big data and so on get smarter in tern "we"(customers) are sold to other companies/partners to market to and extract more $$$ from. Absolutely.
And sure they don't care it's about money.
My responses in this thread have been focused on the original question "Should QF open up more reward seats to PC members" - with the sub tangent of that would such reward seats be in addition to, or have priority over rewards requests for FLYING status members.
This is a different argument to how QF sees us cash cows and how much they make from us and our different forms of spending. Obviously the two are connected and interrelated in numbers of ways.
As we know QFF have spent the past number of years pushing ways to spend the points we have accrued - toasters, iphones, use on paying for hotels, luxury escapes etc - all of these they make a profit on too as the value/point is far less than whatever the internal value is and there's the yield. They'd love nothing more, I am sure, if we all bought Dsons and booked rooms at Hiltons with our points.
Though now this thread, which until more info is actually provided about the PC is mostly hypothetical, the iissues return to those buying(more or less) points through spend. Not terribly different in many respects to programs like AS selling miles directly to punters.
The difference is that QF is, by means of this PC, looking to tie that in and - as you say - lock in the PC punters with "rewards" - the nature f which have only been hinted at from what I can tell.
Points Club members should get an extra benefit for those earning a lot of points as QF is still making money out of them. What exactly the benefit should be I not sure.
As someone who hasn't paid for a flight for a very long time due my ability to earn a lot of points, why shouldn't I have some extra benefits over someone who saves up for a flight for 5 or so years ? I would like to see the programme offer increased award availability for those who earn a large number of points each year through CC and other spend.
ah so one should be given more due to their relative wealth?
(that's not having a go but that's kind of what that boils down to).
Seriously though there are now two separate arguments here as I see them:
1. Relative benefits of more points earn - so should a more frequent "shopper"(for want of a term)
2. Benefits of more points earn in the PC vs. benefits of those earning BIS flying status
Two quite different things I think.
I agree with you that it' a bit nebulous what "benefits" one should receive for more frequent "shopp[er" status.
As I've commented multiple times already I do still feel actual BIS status should still trump frequent shopper earn.
Maybe:
Bronze 0 - 200,000 points per year
Silver 200,001 - 750,000 points per year
Gold 750,001 - 1,500,000 points per year
Platinum 1,500,001 and above points per year
Award availability to be the same as BIS flyer's.
So are you equating these levels to be basically QFF status levels awarded for the spend?
AA used to award lower levels of status IIRC based on CC spend. I think that may have stopped.
I know the uber-elite levels of Concierge Key and UA Global Services were revenue based (eg: spend $30k USD a year or something) but again that is on flights not other services, so that's a separate conncept - but definitely rewarding the heaviest spenders with their own status level actually higher than those reachable by the usual means.
I could see the merits to a certain extent of say offering up to Gold level for xyz sped - I mean one can get status thrown in with some loyalty (airline, hotel etc) programs with associated CC membership/spend.
I would not like to see higher levels of status awarded to frequent spenders - that would benefit the business spender (though I suppose to be realistic anyone spending a lot of $$$ tied in with QBR and the rest would likely fly and have status anyway).
I do appreciate there are those like you that use the points earned from normal transactions - possibly business related - to then pay for reward flights. As I noted earlier I know several people who live this life, or at least the life of a miles buyer then redeeming them for the flights they want.
I guess I am grappling with the idea that someone who can earn a lot of points without flying could potentially get access to reward seats that long term BIS flyers earn. I also recognise that wasn't the original question
Again QF don't care it's all $$$ to them.
As a counter, what if PC "elite" levels generated a discount on points paid rewards (what MASA's have become) ? if someone's points rich perhaps say OK pay for this revenue seat with your points, but we'll give you a 25%/50% discount based on your PC status?
This is all fun conjecture and talk of course - I think the one thing we can ALL agree on is that whatever they do with the PC it is likely to be underwhealming for ALL of the consumers and probably provide "benefits" t that many at the higher spend levels probably wouldn't have a lot of use for. It will be interesting to see, but I doubt we'll se a lot of radical things. I await to be surprised though
) and keep SOME meaning to the alleged benefit of attaining status? There's way more demand for reward seats on popular routes then supply so people with actual flying related status should have first dibs.
