Qantas has extended its status support for top-tier Platinum and Platinum One frequent flyers who have a membership year ending in July, August, or September 2023. These members will be able to retain their status for another year with 20% fewer status credits.

Qantas status support for specific Platinum and Platinum One members

If you’re a Qantas Platinum or Platinum One member and your current status is due to expire within the next three months, here are the new requirements to retain your tier:

Qantas members who are entitled to this status extension and meet the status credits required will have their extensions processed automatically.

Qantas has now offered five status support mechanisms since the COVID-19 pandemic began in 2020. The last status extension was part of an apology from Qantas CEO Alan Joyce in August 2022, and covered members with status due to expire up to June 2023.

Qantas says that its international network, and that of its partners, was still in recovery during the membership year of frequent flyers who will benefit from this offer.

“As the most premium tiers, Platinum and Platinum One members have very high status credit targets to qualify for their benefits, which means they are most impacted by reduced networks within their membership year,” Qantas said.

If you’re eligible for this status support, and you’re thinking about booking some flights to lock in your tier, have a look at Australian Frequent Flyer’s guide to Qantas status runs.

Status support for other Qantas members

The requirements to earn Platinum or Platinum One status, rather than retain it, have not changed. Qantas also states that “the vast majority of frequent flyers have been able to earn the required Status Credits”.

No extra status support has been offered to Silver or Gold frequent flyers, nor to Platinum or Platinum One flyers with membership years ending after September 2023. This is likely due to Qantas reaching its pre-COVID domestic capacity levels, and international capacity also continuing to increase.

For further details, see the Qantas website.

What do AFF members think of this?

The extra status support will be a popular move for those Platinum and Platinum One members who have not been able to retain their coveted status through normal means.

This status extension is targeting members that fly internationally, coinciding with the busy European summer travel period.

However, Qantas elite members on the AFF forum have pointed out that the support is little consolation to those who have already booked status runs to retain their elite tier. Here’s what one Qantas Platinum member had to say:

Annoyed doesn’t begin to cover it. I quite literally did [a status run] last weekend to fly to NZ and back to ensure I would have enough points to retain WP [Qantas Platinum].
– Keasm

Others have pointed out that the status support has been announced quite late. The cohort of Platinum and Platinum One members with status expiring in July only have two weeks left to earn the new status credit thresholds.

This offer suggests Qantas might be concerned about the large number of Platinum and Platinum One flyers that it would have downgraded over the next three months.

Wilson McTaggart

Wilson's love of travel started from a young age, but his love for points developed after figuring out ways to travel on a gap year for less - leading naturally towards Australian Frequent Flyer! Wilson's hobbies include skiing, cricket and planning trips, both with and without points.

Wilson posts on the AFF forum as @WilsonM.