Qantas have announced a series of changes that, taken together, make for one of the biggest changes the program has ever seen. While the changes are both good and bad, for many Qantas Frequent Flyers the overall changes seem to be for the better.
In this article, we take a brief look at the changes. Over the next few days, we will look at more detailed analysis of some of the bigger changes.
What’s Good
Let’s kick off with the good news. For the most part, these are around flight redemptions.
- Those that redeem seats in the Economy cabin, will need fewer points to do so. This is across the board, and affects both domestic and international economy Classic Rewards
- Carrier Surcharges (those because we can charges that used to be called a fuel surcharge) are being reduced. This will be across the board, although it will affect some destinations differently to others. These fees will be reduced by up to 50%.
- An extra 1 million reward seats will be made available annually on Qantas as well as new partner airlines. These new partner airlines include Air New Zealand, Bangkok Airways, China Airlines, Air France and KLM. According to Qantas, there will be extra seats made available during peak travel periods.
On other fronts (outside flight redemptions)
- There will be a new Lifetime Platinum status from September 2019. But before you get too excited, this will be hard to achieve. Qantas have set the requirements at 75,000 Status Credits to join that club – so it is likely to be an exclusive club.
- A new tiered Points Club program will be launched. This is designed to better reward members who are frequent buyers rather than frequent flyers. So, if you earn most of your points on the ground, there will be a new Points Club. To join this club, you will need to earn 150,000 Qantas Points, mostly from non flying activities. There will also be a Points Club Plus level, although the requirement has not been disclosed. This will launch later this year.
What’s Not So Good
While the points required for an Economy flight will be going down, for Premium cabins they will be increasing. According to Qantas this will better reflect the true costs of the seats in those cabins.
Thoughts
Awards seat redemptions have long been a pain point with many Frequent Flyers. It is good to see that Qantas will be providing additional seats, even if the Point Costs are going up in premium cabins.
While we will provide more detailed articles on some of the changes over the next few days, Qantas have provided details on the changes here.
