Qantas has updated the Business Rewards program, sweetening the offers, and making it easier to move to higher tiers within the program.
First up, every time a member flies for work with a Qantas Reward Program partner, they will receive an additional 250 Qantas Points for each flight.
For the business, the discounts available on flights have had a slight boost. The discounts vary per level. On level 1, you will receive a 6% discount on flight bookings on selected fares. (Excludes discounted fares such as Red-e-deal).
Level 2 members receive 8% off selected fares, and 3% off red-e-deals. Finally, Level 3 members receive 10% off selected fares and 5% off red-e-deal fares.
The number of points needed to move through the levels has been decreased. You can now get from level 1 to level 2 on just 15,000 points. The threshold for Level 3 has been reduced to 80,000 points.
What is Qantas Business Rewards?
Qantas Business Rewards is a loyalty program aimed at the Small and Medium Business sector. Under the program, your business can earn Qantas Points from a range of business activities.
Unlike a Qantas Frequent Flyer account, a Qantas Business Rewards account belongs to the business. Any points earned by the business are collected in the business account.
Any points earned by the business can later be transferred to a personal Qantas Frequent Flyer account. This could be your own account or it could be an employee’s account. You are free to distribute the Qantas Points as you see fit.
It’s not all about earning points. Qantas offers members discounts on airfares across the Qantas network. These range from 2% – 8% and vary depending on your ‘level’ within the program.
Who can join Qantas Business Rewards
Qantas Business Rewards is open to any business entity with an ABN that is registered for GST. This includes sole traders through to those with multiple employees
Normally, there is a fee of $89.50 fee to join the program, although there are often promotional offers to join for free.
Earning Points
Qantas Business Rewards allows your business to earn Qantas Points on every eligible flight once you join the program. These points are in addition to anything you, or your employees, earn as a Qantas Frequent Flyer.
In addition, your business can also earn Qantas Points with more than 50 partners. These partners cover a range of business expenses including credit cards, fuel, office products, and so on.
Earning Points from Flying
You are able to earn Qantas Points on all eligible Qantas flights. Basically, your business can earn points based on all Qantas Flights, except those taken as Classic Award Flights.
On joining the program, you are enrolled in Level 1 of the program. In Level 1, your business earns 20% of the amount of Qantas Points earned by Qantas Frequent Flyers.
For example, a Qantas Frequent Flyer earns 2,200 Qantas Points on a Flexible Economy ticket between Melbourne and Perth. In addition to this, your business could earn an additional 440 Qantas Points.
If you earn enough from flying, you can move to a Higher Level in the program. At Level 2, you earn 30% of the points a Frequent Flyer would earn. Make it to Level 3, and you will be getting 40% of the points of a frequent flyer.
What are these membership levels?
The program brings the concept of membership levels. In a way, these are similar to status with a frequent flyer program – but without the fancy names. They are just Level 1, Level 2, and Level 3. Which level your business is at is determined by the number of points you earn from flying.
The membership levels determine two main things in the program. Firstly, the number of points you earn from flying is related to your level – the higher the level, the greater the number of points you earn. Secondly, the discounted airfares available through the program is related to your level. Again, the higher the level, the greater the discounts on offer.
Level 1 is the base tier in the program, and where you will be when you first join.
At this level, you earn 20% of the base points from any flights booked with your ABN, and have access to a 6% discount on flight bookings (other than Discount Economy and Discount Business) booked with at least 7 days’ notice.
Level 2 is available once you have earned 15,000 points from flying in your membership year.
At this level, your earn gets a boost to 30% of the base points of an eligible flight. On top of that, the discounts on flights get bumped up to 8%. In addition, a 3% discount on Discount Economy is now available.
Level 3, the top-level, is available to businesses that earn 80,000 points or more from flying during their membership year.
This level sees your business earning 40% of the base points of an eligible flight. The standard flight discount goes up to 10%, and Qantas loosens some of the restrictions on flight discounts. The advance purchase requirements are removed, and discount economy tickets get a 3% discount.
Earning Points from other Business Expenses
In addition to earning points from flying, your business can also earn points when using the services of over 50 partners. There is quite a range of these partners in the program, and they include rental cars, office products, and a range of other business-related products and services. You can view the range of partners on a dedicated partner page,
Some of these partners also allow you to earn directly in the Qantas Frequent Flyer program. In some cases (for example, Avis), you can earn in both programs. However, in other cases, you can earn in one program or the other, but not both,
Qantas Hotels
Qantas Hotels is a partner in Qantas Business Rewards, and allows you to earn points in both Qantas Frequent Flyer and Qantas Business Rewards. You can earn the regular 3 Qantas Points per $ spent when booking one of the over 200,000 partner hotels available through Qantas Hotels. On top of that, Qantas Business Rewards customers can also earn an additional 1 Qantas Point per dollar in their Qantas Business Rewards account.
Redeeming Points
So you’ve collected all these points in Qantas Business Rewards – now what?
Once you have collected 3,000 points, you can transfer them to any personal Qantas Frequent Flyer account of your choosing. To do so, you need to be the Account Manager or Administrator of the account to do this.
Once you have done this, the points will be deposited into the Qantas Frequent Flyer account, and the holder of that account is then free to redeem the points as they would normally.
Summing Up
If you have a business registered for GST then Qantas Business Rewards program can be a great way to increase your haul of Qantas points.
It is a low-cost, hassle-free system that can offer cost savings while providing you the ability to provide your staff with Qantas Points as incentives.