Double status credits promotions have been a regular staple of the Qantas Frequent Flyer program over recent years. Last year, for example, Qantas ran no fewer than three public double status credit offers! These promos have been extremely popular with frequent flyers as they make it easier to earn or retain Qantas Frequent Flyer status.
But if you’re hanging out for another double Qantas status credits offer, you may be in for some bad news. It seems Qantas Frequent Flyer is no longer running these promotions – at least, not in the same way as before.
Here is a list of the most recent public double status credit offers from Qantas:
- February 2019
- October 2018
- August 2018
- June 2018 (50% bonus for Qantas Business Rewards members)
- February 2018
In the short term, these kinds of promotions are great for both frequent flyers and for Qantas’ bottom line. But, as Australian Frequent Flyer wrote about back in February, these offers had become far too frequent. They were so frequent and expected, in fact, that Qantas had effectively trained its customers not to book any Qantas flights until they received an offer.
And in the long term, these offers have increased the number of Qantas Frequent Flyer members with status levels artificially higher than they should be, resulting in lounge overcrowding and other problems. If there are too many members with status, this not only costs Qantas money but also dilutes the benefits for everyone else.
It seems that Qantas Frequent Flyer has now realised this, and has had a change of heart. Despite plenty of discussion on AFF about when the next promo might be, there have been no new public double status credit deals since February. However, there have been many targeted bonus status credit offers.
Qantas has moved to targeted bonus status credit offers
Bonus Qantas status credit offers still exist, but Qantas has become smarter about targeting these. Typically, the airline will now send limited-time offers of 25% or 50% bonus status credits via email to specific Qantas Frequent Flyer members. This way, the offers are not being sent to frequent flyers that already fly enough to earn Platinum One status anyway. Instead, they can be sent to customers that the airline thinks might actually need an incentive to book their next flight with Qantas.
There have been countless stories on AFF of people receiving a bonus status credits offer from Qantas a day after searching for flights to a specific destination while logged in on the Qantas website. The subject of the email typically includes the name of the city that the person was searching for flights to. So, this is unlikely to be a coincidence.
What about Virgin Australia?
Virgin Australia’s most recent public double Velocity status credits offer was in May 2019. This was only three months after the previous promotion from Velocity Frequent Flyer in February 2019. Since then, there haven’t been any more double status credit offers from Virgin Australia. We have no idea whether they’ll be back – but if Qantas stops running double status credit promotions, Virgin may follow.
Virgin Australia has already started sending targeted double Velocity status credit offers to specific members recently, so it seems Virgin may too be shifting its strategy. Watch this space…
Is this the death of double status credits? Join the discussion on the Australian Frequent Flyer forum: QF Double Status Credit Promos – I am not 100% sure I follow the logic anymore…
