Why does Qantas use status credits and not miles?

[Joe_Bloggs]

Anyone know why QF uses status credits and not miles for status recognition? Achieving status on QF seems to take more flights than other Oneworld airlines due to this. I have done 3 return Perth-Toronto flights this year in Y and am Silver QF (Ruby) whereas with AA it would be Platinum (Saphire).

 

[simongr]

The reverse is true in premium cabins - I probably will have twice the SCs required for Qantas platinum and would barely qualify for Exec Plat on AA...

 

[Joe_Bloggs]

Interesting to hear about the premium cabins, wish I had that issue! It seems flying long haul Y with Qantas is the hardest way to acheive status. For PER-MEL in 3hrs I get 40SC and for MEL-LAX in 14hrs I get 45SC.

 

[DeKa]

This is why we all love JASAs!

 

[vitagen]

Per-Mel is 20sc for discount economy and 40 for flexi and above. Marco Polo is probably the hardest in terms of BIS miles to achieve OWE as everytime you hit the next tier your miles reset to 0.

 

[serfty]

The reverse is true in premium cabins - I probably will have twice the SCs required for Qantas platinum and would barely qualify for Exec Plat on AA...

Interesting to hear about the premium cabins, wish I had that issue! It seems flying long haul Y with Qantas is the hardest way to acheive status. For PER-MEL in 3hrs I get 40SC and for MEL-LAX in 14hrs I get 45SC.

Using this reverse for premium philosophy, it's quite simple to earn 500+ SC's with multi segment "instant upgrade" fares on AA for around $1000.

Since you go to North America a bit, why not take a week and visit the Caribbean. Fly First/Business on AA to get there.

http://www.australianfrequentflyer....gram/best-status-run-options-quick-35258.html

 

[Joe_Bloggs]

Thanks for the suggestion, I'll take a look at the AA options.

 

[pshepvic]

Using this reverse for premium philosophy, it's quite simple to earn 500+ SC's with multi segment "instant upgrade" fares on AA for around $1000.

Since you go to North America a bit, why not take a week and visit the Caribbean. Fly First/Business on AA to get there.

http://www.australianfrequentflyer....gram/best-status-run-options-quick-35258.html

That's how I've retained WP for the last two years - through trips to the Caribbean. Mind you I was going anyway, but it made sense to do it in F on YUPP fares.

This year I'll actually hit about 2100 SCs, due to an extra trip in the middle of the year to normal, but there's no way I'd come close to the 100k miles required for EXP on AA.

 

[Joe_Bloggs]

I'll probably do 6 trips to the US this year in Y for about 140k miles but get only ~1100 SC. Might have to do a quick trip to the Caribbean to try and get WP.

 

[el_rooto]

SC's are a better proxy for revenue than miles... (Barring some loopholes.)

 

[kirk7]

Miles isnt good for QF....for example if you are a big spender on your credit card, you can easily generate a lot of points but you might not fly at all....so your not really a "loyal customer"

Look at AA, they used to use accumulative miles for status, but of course wasnt good for business so its been changed now.

 

[Joe_Bloggs]

Yes agreed, the SC method does link flying to revenue more directly than simply miles. Guess I just answered my original question!

 

[Hvr]

SC's are a better proxy for revenue than miles... (Barring some loopholes.)

As noted you actually have to have BIS miles to earn SCs regardless of how they are paid for. Whereas with miles many of us use our credit cards to generate points.

Since BIS is a better measure of a frequent flyer then SCs are better for QF.

 

[pshepvic]

Virgin used to used miles to measure status reasonably well (not that long ago in fact) - but they only counted BIS flying miles and so it virtually worked the same way as Status Credits. Obviously they've changed it to be more similar to QF as part of their rebranding.

In some situations the miles may have been better (for example, if you fly regularly to a destination that is just under the miles required for the next SC tier) but all in all the new program is slightly easier to attain/maintain status.


Sent from my iPhone using AustFreqFly app

 

[oz_mark]

Anyone know why QF uses status credits and not miles for status recognition? Achieving status on QF seems to take more flights than other Oneworld airlines due to this. I have done 3 return Perth-Toronto flights this year in Y and am Silver QF (Ruby) whereas with AA it would be Platinum (Saphire).

In some respects, the Qantas program is a little assymetric. In earnings, it favours the short haul flights, but when it comes to burning, long haul is the best value.

Virgin used to used miles to measure status reasonably well (not that long ago in fact) - but they only counted BIS flying miles and so it virtually worked the same way as Status Credits. Obviously they've changed it to be more similar to QF as part of their rebranding.

I thought they used dollars as their primary measure?

 

[serfty]

Virgin used to used miles to measure status reasonably well (not that long ago in fact) ...

Wasn't it directly related to the price of the ticket, not "miles" ; and still is domestically?

 

[pshepvic]

Wasn't it directly related to the price of the ticket, not "miles" ; and still is domestically?

Yep, sorry but was a measure of points rather than SC zones. So 50,000 points would get Gold rather than 500 SCs. Those points still had to be earned by flying. And international on VA, VX, VS, MH etc was still miles based even for the SCs.


Sent from my iPad using Aust Freq Fly app

 

[simongr]

I think the AA model also reflects the fewer numbers of paid premium cabin travelers compared to QF.

If I had known two years ago the amount of flying I was going to do then I might have switched back to AA...

 

[drewbles]

You don't mention your routing so i'll assume it's QF/AA and would be PER-SYD-LAX-ORD-YYZ (with LAX-ORD-YYZ being on AA). That should net you around 570SC's for 3 round trips, providing your AA flights are booking into an eligible QF earning fare class. That's not hugely short of Gold (130). If you're not booking into an eligible AA fare class, then you're cutting that right back to 390SC's (20+45 for each PER-SYD-LAX and vv).

Perhaps you need to look at the class of your fares as well. As others have mentioned, why not spend a nice break in the Caribbean