Should Qantas Sell Status Credits?

Some Qantas frequent flyers are prepared to go to great lengths – and expense – to ensure they don’t lose their coveted Gold, Platinum or Platinum One status. They value their status perks highly, and are even willing to book a Qantas status run to make up any extra status credits they need to secure them for another year.

Airlines are generally quite happy for frequent flyers to book status runs. They generate revenue for the airline that it wouldn’t have otherwise received. But the person doing the status run could end up wasting hours or even days of their time taking unnecessary flights. There’s also an unfortunate environmental cost to this.

Some people use status runs as an opportunity to visit a new destination, and are happy to take the flights because they enjoy travelling. But there’s another group of people that purely do it for the status credits.

It got me thinking. Would it make sense for Qantas – or other airlines, for that matter – to simply let members buy status credits? That way, the airline still generates incremental revenue, but without the associated cost of flying the passenger. And program members can avoid the time spent and environmental impact of taking unnecessary trips to another city or country.

To be clear, I don’t think Qantas will do this and I’m not suggesting it’s something they’re even considering. It’s a purely hypothetical question. But I think it’s an interesting idea that’s worth discussing.

How could this work?

I don’t think it would make sense for Qantas to allow people to simply “buy” Platinum or Platinum One status without doing any flying. If it became too easy to earn status, this could dilute the benefits for genuine frequent flyers who’ve earned their status the traditional way.

But, as an example, Qantas could provide an option to purchase up to 200 status credits per year at an exorbitant price of around $100 per 5 status credits. Those status credits don’t necessarily have to count towards lifetime status or any Loyalty Bonuses.

There are plenty of cheaper ways to earn status credits by actually flying, so it wouldn’t create a perverse incentive to stop flying with the airline. And by capping the number of status credits a member could purchase each membership year, it ensures that tiered frequent flyers still have to do a fair bit of real flying.

What this would do, though, is provide an alternative to booking an unnecessary trip for frequent flyers who are just a small number of status credits short of upgrading or retaining their current status tier.

For example, if someone was 20 status credits short of retaining Platinum and had no further trips planned in their membership year, they could simply pay $400 instead of spending a day unnecessarily flying from Sydney to Melbourne and back.

In this scenario, Qantas would make $400 of revenue without bearing the cost of actually flying the person from Sydney to Melbourne. The airline could then sell the seats on those flights to another person. And the member could spend the day with their family or productively working, instead of at airports.

Other ways to earn Qantas status credits

There are already a few ways to earn Qantas status credits from means other than flying, although they are few and far between.

For example, you could earn 50 status credits by becoming a Qantas Green Tier member.

You can also:

• Earn 50 status credits each time you earn a Qantas Loyalty Bonus,
• Roll over up to 100 status credits as a Points Club Plus member,
• Earn bonus status credits with a Qantas Premier Titanium credit card, and
• Earn double status credits by booking during special promotions.

But most of these methods only earn you extra status credits in conjunction with flying.

Other airlines already do this

Multiple Oneworld and Star Alliance frequent flyer programs already sell their equivalent of status credits. In each case, there are annual purchase limits. You couldn’t simply buy your way to top-tier status without flying at all.

Here are a few examples of programs currently doing this:

Oneworld’s Royal Air Maroc Safar Flyer also offers a subscription that lets you earn double or triple Status Miles on Royal Air Maroc flights. And Star Alliance’s United MileagePlus offers elite status buy-ups.

Air France & KLM, SkyTeam members, don’t directly sell XP (their equivalent of status credits). But members can earn XP by donating money or miles to sustainable causes.

Why Qantas probably won’t sell status credits

One industry insider opined that Qantas wouldn’t and shouldn’t sell status credits because it would devalue its loyalty program. They also suggested that putting a monetary value on status credits could be a bit of an accounting nightmare.

I’m not necessarily suggesting that Qantas should sell status credits. The point of frequent flyer programs is (or at least, traditionally was) to reward people who fly and encourage members to fly more. There could also be Oneworld restrictions preventing airlines from doing this, although that seems unlikely as Qatar Airways currently sells Qpoints.

But given the potential for mutual benefit to airlines, customers and the environment, I think it’s an interesting hypothetical question to ponder.

Qantas does already offer some Gold and Platinum members the option to redeem Qantas points in exchange for renewing their status for another year. So the concept is not entirely unprecedented.

Do you think Qantas should sell status credits? You can share your views on the Australian Frequent Flyer forum:

Matt Graham

The editor of Australian Frequent Flyer, Matt's passion for travel has taken him to over 80 countries… with the help of frequent flyer points, of course!
Matt's favourite destinations (so far) are Germany, Brazil & Kazakhstan. His interests include economics, aviation & foreign languages, and he has a soft spot for good food and red wine.

You can connect with Matt by posting on the Australian Frequent Flyer community forum and tagging @AFF Editor.