Upcoming Qantas Frequent Flyer Changes

[TonyHancock]

STOP PRESS



Good news, I was provided with incorrect information.

Qantas and Jetstar flights flown from 17 May 2011 will attract the new bonuses. Booking date does not apply here.

Apologies for any inconvenience and confusion caused.

I'm not sure you were provided the wrong information. The airline earnings table is (probably was by the time most read this) very specific "Cabin Class Bonus -bookings made prior to 17 May 2011" and "Cabin Class Bonus - bookings made on and from 17 May 2011"

If this has now been changed to ensure the new earning rate applies to flights booked prior to the 17th May that is at least the right thing to do.

 

[simongr]

I asked that in post #17 - have not seen a reply as yet.

... the "within a membership year" is ominous however.:-|

very ominous

At 1 December 2011, Status credit balances relating to the calculation of the Loyalty bonus will be adjusted to recognise only those earned within the member's current membership year. Status credits earned in previous membership years will not be recognised in the calculation of Loyalty bonus after 1 December 2011.

At the end of your membership year, Status credit balances relating to the calculation of the new Loyalty Bonus will be reset to zero.

Sorry QF but this isnt helping either...

 

[Voyages]

BA has a similar tier called Gold Guest List and it's also an Emerald tier along with 'regular' Gold.

& CX with their Diamond and Diamond Plus, both of which are recognised as oneWorld Emeralds.

 

[itsglenng]

So now you have to pay for a bundle to earn points and SCs on Jetstar Business, Domestic & International.

Does this mean I have to pay for a bundle for the Star Class MEL-BKK flight I'm taking on June 2 2011? It was booked & ticketed back in January.

 

[OverrideServlet]

TonyHancock - When will they start looking after WP's? The answer is right there, earn to be a WP1 or become a CL.

What?

That's like telling Silver members their membership has been enhanced to provide them with the ability to achieve Gold? This is not at all useful to Silver members who don't fly enough to reach Gold.

How is this a benefit? It's more like a feature. It's just a higher level to achieve.

 

[DeKa]

So now you have to pay for a bundle to earn points and SCs on Jetstar Business, Domestic & International.

Does this mean I have to pay for a bundle for the Star Class MEL-BKK flight I'm taking on June 2 2011? It was booked & ticketed back in January.

No: Booking changes | Jetstar (scroll to bottom).

 

[MiLK_MaN]

I believe there are various organisations actively bidding for this!

There was a RFP (Request for Proposal) that was sent out about this. Let's hope they work on the security aspect of the lounge wireless, I can show you in a matter of minutes how simple it is to hijack someone's Facebook account on an open wireless system.

 

[tuapekastar]

Well, it seems far and away the best round of 'enhancements' in memory, even if perhaps the gap between SG and WP has narrowed, so that's likely a good thing. As long as WP is not actually devalued within itself in any more than the most trivial way then it's a probably a good round of enhancements (I normally shudder when I type that word) - for a change.

I've certainly not had enough time to work out exactly how these changes impact me, so at a personal level, judgment reserved.

But overall I'm with Leumas, in that I would like to see all the detail before making a final judgment.

 

[Simsy85]

Except for my usual flying they have devalued the benefits. Platinum used to mean an extra 362 points on my regular route, it is now 181. The benefit to me of being platinum is reduced - devalued.

I'm not sure why your points would be halved? I'm assuming that your a WP - you still earn at 100% more rate... so why has your point earn been halved?

Did I miss something?

 

[OverrideServlet]

There was a RFP (Request for Proposal) that was sent out about this. Let's hope they work on the security aspect of the lounge wireless, I can show you in a matter of minutes how simple it is to hijack someone's Facebook account on an open wireless system.

You realise this is a problem that THEY can't solve, right?

Short of lounge customers all connecting to a VPN service it would be up to facebook to enforce SSL.

 

[kpc]

The changes appear designed to drive more people to aim for Silver and Gold levels. The One Platinum level is to keep Plats flying with QF.

Before we can decide whether it is worthwhile to aim for 3600 SCs to achieve 1P, we need to know what the carrot is; as a mininum, I would say Anytime Access including to F lounges, 2 or 3 guests for international lounges, guaranteed upgrades (?how many per year) etc.

Personally, I would not be aiming for 1P, and as the Gold benefits are not too dissimialr to Plat (exception of F lounge and domestic business lounge access), it wouldn't be a huge drop to go from Plat to Gold.

My initial reaction...

 

[medhead]

I'm not sure why your points would be halved? I'm assuming that your a WP - you still earn at 100% more rate... so why has your point earn been halved?

Did I miss something?

The value of being platinum over being gold has been halved in that instance. Minor issue sure, but the fact remains that benefit of platinum has been devalued compared to gold

 

[Simsy85]

The value of being platinum over being gold has been halved in that instance. Minor issue sure, but the fact remains that benefit of platinum has been devalued compared to gold

But you won't actuall earn less points. Gold will earn half as much more - just means the increase in earn for SG to WP will be 25% - in your original post, you said you would earn 181 less points?

 

[ozmille]

CORRECTION

Bookings made pre and post today's announcement will attract the new earn rates for flights taken from 17 May 2011.

Thanks for the clarification Red Roo, very happy with this !

 

[Danger]

Before we can decide whether it is worthwhile to aim for 3600 SCs to achieve 1P, we need to know what the carrot is; as a mininum, I would say Anytime Access including to F lounges, 2 or 3 guests for international lounges, guaranteed upgrades (?how many per year) etc.

Given the benefits of P1 have not yet been announced, perhaps we can have a thread where we delicately suggest to Red Roo and QF what would actually entice people to go beyond WP and, indeed, even SG. kpc has provided some good opening suggestions, I think.

 

[Leumas]

What?

That's like telling Silver members their membership has been enhanced to provide them with the ability to achieve Gold? This is not at all useful to Silver members who don't fly enough to reach Gold.

How is this a benefit? It's more like a feature. It's just a higher level to achieve.

Exactly, hold on tight or the spin will get ya!

 

[docjames]

Thanks RedRoo for the information and congratulations which overall looks fairly positive.

Could I clarify a couple of things?

1. Is this (increased status bonus etc) on new bookings only, or for any travel after May 17?
2. Have QFF classic awards changed in cost (other than fuel fine related costings as you'd already posted)?
3. What is the earn on QF codeshare flights on say BA/FJ etc (when travelling on the QF flight number)?

 

[ksthommo]

Will Qantas change the qualifying/retain rates for silver/gold now the bonus
points have increased? Hope not.

 

[drewbles]

As a WP that earns around 1800 SC's a year, these changes do very little to excite me.

There is no real benefit in me keeping my WP now that SG has 75% bonus points, as most my travel is done in discount-Y Domestic.

The only real benefit prior to today was the extra points and the J lounge, along with a few international trips here and there for the F Lounge.

Now, it's 25% more points.

I'm really hoping that Virgin Australia's FF revamp is stunning. I am trying my hardest to get excited about them providing some real competition in the market and actually rewarding frequent flyers as opposed to occasional ones (PS) and frequent spenders. Not long to wait for the revamp at least (by end of June wasn't it?). I have my DJ status match, but just haven't been flying as much since I got it to take advantage of it. From my experience though, I'm treated far better on DJ as a gold than I have ever been on QF as a WP.

Call me a whinger if you will, but once upon a time, QF valued WP's. WP 1 may be good, but it also may not be. Not worth getting excited until it is announced. WP seems to be a lost sheep in the overall status land of QF. Surely there's going to be many more WP's than WP1's, and those somewhere in between could easily be lured to greener pastures (imagine if DJ joined ScaryTeam or Star?).

 

[TonyHancock]

Thanks for the clarification Red Roo, very happy with this !

The terms and conditions are very specific:

"9.5.2 For flights prior to 17 May, 2011 a Status Bonus will be applied for Eligible Flights with a Qantas (QF), Jetstar (JQ,3K and VF), American Airlines® (AA) or British Airways (BA) flight number. The Status bonus for Silver Members will be 25% of the Base Rate, 50% for Gold Members and 100% for Platinum Members. For bookings made on and from 17 May 2011, the Status bonus for Silver Members will be 50% of the Base Rate, 75% for Gold members and 100% for Platinum Members. Status Bonuses do not apply to Qantas & Partner Classic Awards."

I'll feel a little more comfortable when I see these amended to reflect Red Roo's post.