Will Qantas have a March 2023 double status credit promotion?

[Tropic]

Back to topic please

...well at least for the next 4 days until the topic of the thread becomes redundant.

 

[kangarooflyer88]

Back to topic please

My prediction is no double status credit promotion this month but perhaps one in late March/early April which historically has been when these promotions have come out in recent years. QF has made a lot of buzz this month and I doubt they need to add to it any further. At the same time late March tends to be a good time to run the promo since we're at the end of a quarter and entering Fall when historically travel tends to dip

-RooFlyer88

 

[mviy]

...well at least for the next 4 days until the topic of the thread becomes redundant.

Well in the likely event there’s not a DSC in February this thread can be renamed by a moderator for March 2023

 

[kangarooflyer88]

...well at least for the next 4 days until the topic of the thread becomes redundant.

Double Status Credits by its very nature is redundant!

 

[exceladdict]

Well in the likely event there’s not a DSC in February this thread can be renamed by a moderator for March 2023

Just extend it out and call it "will QF have a 2023 DSC promotion"

I, for one, will keep checking every day I can!

 

[kangarooflyer88]

Just extend it out and call it "will QF have a 2023 DSC promotion"

I, for one, will keep checking every day I can!

The real question is what will come first: you discovering the DSC promotion on the QF website or you receiving an email from QF notifying you of the promotion?

 

[justinbrett]

The real question is what will come first: you discovering the DSC promotion on the QF website or you receiving an email from QF notifying you of the promotion?

Waking up realising it was just a dream and there isn't a DSC promotion

At the same time late March tends to be a good time to run the promo since we're at the end of a quarter and entering Fall when historically travel tends to dip

-RooFlyer88

That may be the case in North America, "Fall", or Autumn as most of us call it, starts with Easter which is one of the busiest times of the year, and after that we're smack into the core of the year so business travel is back to normal capacity and winter getaways (and Europe/North America summer vacations) are on.

The quiet period is between Australia Day and early March.

 

[Lynda2475]

and entering Fall Autum

Fixed that for you, we don't have Fall in Australia.

 

[kangarooflyer88]

That may be the case in North America, "Fall", or Autumn as most of us call it, starts with Easter which is one of the busiest times of the year, and after that we're smack into the core of the year so business travel is back to normal capacity and winter getaways (and Europe/North America summer vacations) are on.

I'm not gonna fall for that trick of calling Fall, autumn!

The quiet period is between Australia Day and early March.

Has that historically been the case or is this a trend that we're also seeing in this new travel period which seems to buck historical expectations when it comes to demand?

 

[Flyfrequently]

This comment from Qantas Loyalty head Olivia Wirth definitely makes it sound like it's on the agenda: “The number of points required to book reward seats hasn’t increased in years, and we’ve been consistently growing the ways that our members can boost their points balance, so these seats represent great value.”

The last QFF "enhancement " was September 2019, six months before Covid.
Yes, lots of encouragement to earn points and apart from Qantas Shop, unable to use them.
I feel it would be a bit unfair to now increase points required for flight redemptions - not that Mr Joyce et al with consider my opinion!
Who is up for guessing how long?
I will start with September 2023, hopefully I am very wrong!

 

[levelnine]

The last QFF "enhancement " was September 2019, six months before Covid.
Yes, lots of encouragement to earn points and apart from Qantas Shop, unable to use them.
I feel it would be a bit unfair to now increase points required for flight redemptions - not that Mr Joyce et al with consider my opinion!
Who is up for guessing how long?
I will start with September 2023, hopefully I am very wrong!

I think the question of 'when is the next QFF devaluation?' is such a fascinating one.

Arguments in favour of a devaluation happening in the near future (next 6-12 months):
- Qantas has flooded the market with points over the COVID-19 period, so can be justified in that way.
- Easy way for Qantas to address the lack of supply of reward seats — by killing demand!
- Plenty of American competitors have devalued their points for use on long-haul international premium cabins to the point that they're essentially worthless (eg Delta, United, American).

Arguments against a devaluation happening in the near future (next 6-12 months):
- Qantas is on the nose at the moment, so would further harm the brand.
- Qantas is already an expensive redemption option compared to its European competitors (VA/SQ/BA/CX) and would therefore incentivise people to switch to VA/SQ/etc.
- The flood of points has slowed down (eg banks reducing sign-up offers & requiring bigger waiting periods between them), which may start to redress the demand/supply imbalance without devaluation.

 

[mrsterryn]

The longer the wait for a DSC the more likely I am to book a trip for 2024 sometime . I will need some SCa to get back platinum (going to lose it Nov 1)

 

[mviy]

The longer the wait for a DSC the more likely I am to book a trip for 2024 sometime . I will need some SCa to get back platinum (going to lose it Nov 1)

The longer they wait the more likely I am going to let my Platinum go and then seek to level back up as well.

 

[kangarooflyer88]

I think the question of 'when is the next QFF devaluation?' is such a fascinating one.

Arguments in favour of a devaluation happening in the near future (next 6-12 months):
- Qantas has flooded the market with points over the COVID-19 period, so can be justified in that way.
- Easy way for Qantas to address the lack of supply of reward seats — by killing demand!
- Plenty of American competitors have devalued their points for use on long-haul international premium cabins to the point that they're essentially worthless (eg Delta, United, American).

Arguments against a devaluation happening in the near future (next 6-12 months):
- Qantas is on the nose at the moment, so would further harm the brand.
- Qantas is already an expensive redemption option compared to its European competitors (VA/SQ/BA/CX) and would therefore incentivise people to switch to VA/SQ/etc.
- The flood of points has slowed down (eg banks reducing sign-up offers & requiring bigger waiting periods between them), which may start to redress the demand/supply imbalance without devaluation.

Although OT (mods, maybe move this discussion to a separate thread?) I thought I'd answer this:
What do you mean by QFF devaluation? Do you rejiggering the award chart to cost more points to make a redemption or heaven forbid change to dynamic award pricing like Delta? Or do you mean devaluation of the QFF Elite program either by requiring more status credits to attain status or reducing the few remaining perks of loyalty (i.e. restricting First class lounge access to Platinum Ones)? For the former, I think you hit the nail on the head when it comes to the pros/cons of making such adjustments and it certainly is a possibility since I believe Uncle Alan made a comment recently in one of his interviews boasting that QF hasn't changed award pricing in a long time. Now he can come out and say given our commitment to increasing the availability of awards and the fact we haven't touched pricing in a long time, now is a good time to re-evaluate the award chart situation. In terms of the latter, my intuition is we may see an increase in the number of status credits required to attain/retain status, particularly at the Gold and World Platinum levels. In particular, I call your attention to a recent AFF article on whether priority matters for QFF anymore. Then again, maybe Uncle Alan and crew want to see how many folks retain status after the generous status extension before making changes, particularly if the economy is heading towards a recession. The last thing you want to do is to remove the incentive to fly when the travel market goes from boiling over to ice cold.

-RooFlyer88

 

[justinbrett]

Has that historically been the case or is this a trend that we're also seeing in this new travel period which seems to buck historical expectations when it comes to demand?

Yes, as long as I've been an adult.

I guess your "historical expectations" derive from North America. We do things differently here.

Everybody knows January in Australia is dead - because that's when most people take leave (starting right before Christmas). School goes back around Australia day, so by then, most adults are back at work.

Most people aren't taking leave in February/March as they've just taken leave, the next major period is Easter which is late March or early April - and Easter is the beginning of the long weekend season. So it's really that period in between that's quiet for travel. It's the same for business travel, work travel takes a couple of months to ramp back up.


Don't take my word for it - you can see the official stats (I took pre-covid to ensure it's accurate) - you can clearly see the dips starting each Jan.



(source: https://www.bitre.gov.au/sites/default/files/Domestic_aviation_January_2019a.pdf)

 

[drewsky]

Ok. Noob question.
I’m platinum and like many have the Aug cutoff so it is what it is and I will not get back unless we see a DSC. So if I drop to gold - do I need the 600 maintain or 700? I can make the logjcal assumption, but these days that doesn’t seem very logical thx

 

[exLXCXFF]

Ok. Noob question.
I’m platinum and like many have the Aug cutoff so it is what it is and I will not get back unless we see a DSC. So if I drop to gold - do I need the 600 maintain or 700? I can make the logjcal assumption, but these days that doesn’t seem very logical thx

600

 

[justinbrett]

Ok. Noob question.
I’m platinum and like many have the Aug cutoff so it is what it is and I will not get back unless we see a DSC. So if I drop to gold - do I need the 600 maintain or 700? I can make the logjcal assumption, but these days that doesn’t seem very logical thx

No you don't need anything the first time you drop, it's a soft landing. You could have 0 SCs and you'll still get gold.

Once you are gold, then it's 600 for the following year.

 

[dairyfloss]

Well, all of the other sales are over. We've had International, Australia, and the defining moment for QF's revenue management in 2023 - the Regional SA sale. There is no promotions of any kind being touted right now on qantas.com. The time is right, Olivia, make it rain.

 

[Lynda2475]

But ideally they would drop some sales with the DSC