John Youngman
Newbie
- Joined
- Mar 1, 2008
- Posts
- 1
Who Really Owns Frequent Flyer Points ?
The answer clearly is " we the frequent flyers". The cost to the airline is calculated in the price we pay for our air tickets, or in the cost to us of the goods we buy using the Amex or other cards. More often than not we pay a surcharge to the merchant for the privelege of using the card to earn points, and the card issuer pays the airline.
Yet Qantas acts as though it owns the points and clearly finds it in it's interests to make their redemption near to impossible. Little wonder they value the FF business at some hundred million dollars. It's all income and no cost. A classic racket !
The most cynical example I have seen was in a letter to SMH this Saturday by a lady who booked a trip to France with her husband on points. Sadly her husband died before the trip and she called QF to inform them of his death and ask that her husband's points credit be passed to her son so that he could make the trip in his place. The response was "thanks for letting us know. Points are not transferrable; we will therefore delete his account"
Frequent flyers should join to lobby the government to regulate the frequent flyer industry and recognize FF property rights. FF points should be freely transferrable -- as they are in the US and UK -- and airlines should be required to provide a minimum number of FF seats on each flight.
John Youngman
The answer clearly is " we the frequent flyers". The cost to the airline is calculated in the price we pay for our air tickets, or in the cost to us of the goods we buy using the Amex or other cards. More often than not we pay a surcharge to the merchant for the privelege of using the card to earn points, and the card issuer pays the airline.
Yet Qantas acts as though it owns the points and clearly finds it in it's interests to make their redemption near to impossible. Little wonder they value the FF business at some hundred million dollars. It's all income and no cost. A classic racket !
The most cynical example I have seen was in a letter to SMH this Saturday by a lady who booked a trip to France with her husband on points. Sadly her husband died before the trip and she called QF to inform them of his death and ask that her husband's points credit be passed to her son so that he could make the trip in his place. The response was "thanks for letting us know. Points are not transferrable; we will therefore delete his account"
Frequent flyers should join to lobby the government to regulate the frequent flyer industry and recognize FF property rights. FF points should be freely transferrable -- as they are in the US and UK -- and airlines should be required to provide a minimum number of FF seats on each flight.
John Youngman