Using points to retain Platinum ...

[trippin_the_rift]

I think there's room for both.

Thought I might provide some insight from a loyalty program perspective; because, under the hood are many stakeholders, guidelines, and schemes which govern the program product.

QF could "reward" long term loyalty with extension of status either comp, or even by offering a challenge (eg: 200 SC in 90 days or something) or via points purchase.

So these are two different points. A comp status extension (when the user has done nothing to earn it) is NOT in Qantas' interests. There are Oneworld rules which govern how Qantas can dish out free status and levels which need to be adhered to.

Challenges make sense and these skirt around the Oneworld restrictions. There is, however, risk associated with this and therefore it's not standard practice across the major alliances (ie there are restrictions on a number of challenges, when, who can take them etc).

QF's objective is to maintain the revenue flow, so offering status extension via spending of points makes sense, or by offering a challenge (hotels do this) also means revenue coming in. A comp, from their point of view, does not ensure future income (but having said that if status is not used by virtue of spend by either points or tickets) then the cost to QF is minimal.

Qantas wants you to fly and not be part of ANY frequent flyer program.
Qantas Frequent Flyer wants you to take out new credit cards and generates <15% of their revenue from you flying. Quite frankly they don't care if you fly or not.
However, both need each other to coexist so the whole system remains profitable. It's like 1+1=5

Near the end of last year my status with a hotel chain was not even half that required to retain I though oh well I'll drop to what I earned... but they offered a challenge.. stay 3 more nights (rather than 20 or whatever I should have) and they'd extend. I grabbed that and stayed the nights. revenue for them and I kept the status. That's smart work by them IMHO and keeps me happy.

If QF had something like that (as this points thing seems to point to) then I think it makes business sense. With my extended hotel status I am more likely to book again with that chain this year to use that benefit... which I may not have done so much if I fell back in status.

For fun, let's pretend this was Hilton - who DON'T own 90% of their properties. Hilton Honors (the loyalty program) offers you a challenge which you accept and complete. For them, it means the hotels (which they might don't own), have to buy points from Hilton Honors, and since you've displayed behavior consistent with someone who frequently stays in premium brand hotels - Hilton Honors see this as an opportunity to fundamentally pimp you out to hotels in exchange for revenue (as points in your HH account). Remember the Hilton 'stop clicking around' campaign last year? (book direct and get a %discount) - basically Hilton Honors was forcing Hotels (again, which they don't own) to take a hit on the price, *AND*, pay for points on each guest back to Hilton Honors. A perfectly disguised scam to **** hotels under the guise of saving on OTA commissions. It's beautiful from a commercial perspective for Hilton Honors!

Many large hotel chains, like Qantas - have customer propensity scoring, which essentially is the % chance you're likely to continue transacting with their brand. Airline loyalty programs are reasonably sophisticated in this area (especially Qantas), and they have decades of data to learn from to find patterns and similar behavior among members. It's reasonably simple to them predict if you're likely to whip out the credit card and keep spending.

Really this kind of stuff shows an evolution (not the other "E" word) in QF's CRM systems and extra ways to a) produce revenue, b) keep loyalty and c) reduce some FF liability all in one.

One might argue it's the tens of millions invested into data science

In a perfect world - your points will either expire (while you remain active and earning more... not sure how that would work - but it's their ideal scenario), or, that you redeem points for something which cost the loyalty program nothing, like...maybe... status.

 

[cmon0005]

Based on this image have i been retained? Or is this the couple of weeks hang around?

 

[RichardMEL]

OK how does this relate to the thread?

 

[cmon0005]

OK how does this relate to the thread?

Hmm, good morning to you too.. earlier in this thread i was called with a points to retain call from qf which i denied, wanting to see whether i was retained or not. Still relevant to this thread.

 

[RichardMEL]

Hmm, good morning to you too.. earlier in this thread i was called with a points to retain call from qf which i denied, wanting to see whether i was retained or not. Still relevant to this thread.

OK I see.

my initial thought was that the graphic was just about needing the 1200 to retain WP which didn't seem to relate to the thread about points offers to retain plat. I apologise.

don't forget though that QF status resets can take a few days to kick in...

If you're still showing as WP on say the 5th that would be a good indication it's worked as expected.

(though the 2018 date is very encouraging )

 

[cmon0005]

OK I see.

my initial thought was that the graphic was just about needing the 1200 to retain WP which didn't seem to relate to the thread about points offers to retain plat. I apologise.

don't forget though that QF status resets can take a few days to kick in...

If you're still showing as WP on say the 5th that would be a good indication it's worked as expected.

(though the 2018 date is very encouraging )

No issues, yes I'm hoping it's a comp too, and if so saved 120k points..

 

[straitman]

OK I see.

my initial thought was that the graphic was just about needing the 1200 to retain WP which didn't seem to relate to the thread about points offers to retain plat. I apologise.

don't forget though that QF status resets can take a few days to kick in...

If you're still showing as WP on say the 5th that would be a good indication it's worked as expected.

(though the 2018 date is very encouraging )

No issues, yes I'm hoping it's a comp too, and if so saved 120k points..

Even up to a week. I help my Plat for 6+ days before dropping to my LTG status this year. Got my false hopes up.

 

[JohnK]

Based on this image have i been retained? Or is this the couple of weeks hang around?

You'll need to wait 4-5 days to be certain.

 

[froggerADL]

Hmm, good morning to you too.. earlier in this thread i was called with a points to retain call from qf which i denied, wanting to see whether i was retained or not. Still relevant to this thread.

Please let us know the result is in about a week. I'm very interested to find out what happens. I have my fingers crossed for you ☺

 

[cmon0005]

Please let us know the result is in about a week. I'm very interested to find out what happens. I have my fingers crossed for you ☺

That awful colour 'gold' appeared this afternoon.. appears comping using the 3 year avg rule is dead

 

[RichardMEL]

Well that's a bummer, though some feel Gold is the sweet spot in QFF.

I think it may not be that the comp is dead, but that an offer was made suggests that a comp was NEVER going to be on the cards tbh. After all you then declined it (totally up to you) but they had zero reason to give one at that point.

Does it mean the comp is gone for other members? That could be the million (or 100k) point question.

Without any idea (and I should have asked the QF Loyalty Manager about this last week had I thought!) I suspect that what we may see is a system where comps may still exist, but for those where "computer says no"(or would do so) an offer is made.

If comps are gone, but a system of offers becomes the new norm, I have no specific problem with this tbh. It's the way other loyalty programs are going (eg hotels) and makes sense... I mean if you really want it, pay up.. reduce their liability and ensure you are interested to continue flying QF (or at least OW) to use your paid for benefit. If you do no travel, they've got the value of the points as revenue, and if you fly they have the additional revenue.

And, I dare say, it may take the guesswork out of it - will I or won't I get a comp may well go away in pace of "how much will they offer me to retain PS/SG/WP?"

Time will tell.

 

[Franky]

That awful colour 'gold' appeared this afternoon.. appears comping using the 3 year avg rule is dead

Commiserations, I have emphathy for you. My wife has just recently suffered the same fate being just 80 points short of renewal. Some things gone which have been taken for granted suddenly seem very important.

 

[froggerADL]

That awful colour 'gold' appeared this afternoon.. appears comping using the 3 year avg rule is dead

I'm really sorry to hear that cmon0005 .

 

[11sjw]

That awful colour 'gold' appeared this afternoon.. appears comping using the 3 year avg rule is dead

Worth ringing them to say you've reconsidered on the 100k points for WP deal?

 

[nutwood]

It's interesting to see how this question has evolved. I initially viewed as an attempt to sell SC's but it seems to be more about Qantas trying to charge clients points to maintain status that, morally at least, they were already entitled to.
In my own case, I've a balance of 960 SC's but I've five months to run. By the end of May, I'll be well past 1200 and will be pushing 2000 by renewal time, as per usual. Consider though, if business becomes frenetic and I end up at 3000. Exhausted, I take a break and suddenly find that at renewal time for the following year I'm only up to 1000. Three year average, 6000 SC's; immediate year, 1000?
In many cases, the annual SC count is a matter of timing. "Comping" just seems to be recognition of a valued customer. Charging points as an alternative would seem to be very bad business.

 

[cmon0005]

I have been redeemed! I was offered months ago to retain WP if I hit a certain amount of SC's by the QFF service centre, and luckily it was noted down on my account, they are now manually moving me back to WP, to honour their offer (which was avg 3 year rule) computer said no, but person said yes based on my previous conversation months ago.

 

[Steady]

I have been redeemed! I was offered months ago to retain WP if I hit a certain amount of SC's by the QFF service centre, and luckily it was noted down on my account, they are now manually moving me back to WP, to honour their offer (which was avg 3 year rule) computer said no, but person said yes based on my previous conversation months ago.

Always nice to hear some good news

 

[nutwood]

Slightly off topic but I had a muse as to how complicated it starts getting when they mess about with the SC system.
I'm currently at 960 SC's but 50 of those are "ghost" SC's from my last loyalty bonus so there's only 910 "real" SC's there. I'm about to take a four hop domestic trip. That'll bring me up to 1040 SC's but only 990 "real" SC's, not quite enough for my next loyalty bonus. However, I booked the trip under a 50% SC bonus promotion so when those SC's come through, I'll be up to 1080/1030. This will earn the next loyalty bonus so I'll jump to 1130/1030. Also my trip was paid for with my new Amex card which brings with it 75 SC's as soon as I use it for a Qantas flight, so that'll bring me up to a grand total of 1205 SC's; just enough to retain status!
Does anyone else find this slightly crazy? It seemed much simpler when SC's were simply a reflection of how much money you spent on flying.

 

[Hvr]

We've all done different things and had different offers to obtain/retain status. As long as it has been offered by Qantas then I don't see any issue.

I've done DSC JASAs and US MRs and didn't have any qualms about doing so.

They set the rules and we play the game. We exploit the rules to their fullest and they change the rules.

It's a game and can be fun.

 

[Pablo]

I have been redeemed! I was offered months ago to retain WP if I hit a certain amount of SC's by the QFF service centre, and luckily it was noted down on my account, they are now manually moving me back to WP, to honour their offer (which was avg 3 year rule) computer said no, but person said yes based on my previous conversation months ago.

Well done, cmon005. Can you clarify, were you given 2 offers. One months ago (if so, what were the conditions of that) and one being the 100,000 points to buy status?

keen to know as I'll probably be in a similar situation in 11 months.