In an email sent to members, Qantas has advised that it will be removing the current Qantas Frequent Flyer toolbar functionality. The toolbar was an add on to your browser (such as Internet Explorer or Mozilla Firefox) that allowed you to earn Qantas Points when performing searches.
The dates for the removal of support are:
- 29 July 2016: New Users will no longer be able to download an install the toolbar
- 31 August 2016: Existing functionality (such as earning points) will no longer operate.
Users of the toolbar were able to earn 1 point for each valid search conducted using the toolbar. There was a maximum of 150 points in a calendar month. While originally based on Yahoo Search, it moved to using Bing as the search provider a few years ago.
While it was never a big points earner, it did provide a simple way of keeping an account alive. Qantas accounts with no activity for 18 months can find that their points expire, so a few points here and there with the toolbar could keep the points “alive”.
Removal
As the toolbar will no longer function after 31 August, users should look to removing the toolbar from their computers. Qantas have given instructions on removing the toolbar. This does vary depending on the browser you are using.
For reference the removal instructions are reproduced below:
To uninstall your Toolbar in Chrome:
- Click the menu icon in Chrome (the three horizontal bars at the top right of the browser window)
- Click “More tools”
- Click “Extensions”
- Find the Qantas Frequent Flyer Toolbar extension in the list and click the Trash can icon to the right
- Click “Remove” to remove the extension.
* Note: If you installed your Qantas Toolbar prior to May 2014, complete the above steps, then you also need to do the following:
- From the Windows Start menu, access “Add/Remove Programs” or “Programs and Features”, depending on which version of Windows you are running
- Select Qantas Frequent Flyer Toolbar from the program list
- Click the “Uninstall/Change” link at the top of the column
- Click “Yes” to remove the Qantas Frequent Flyer Toolbar and all of its components.
To uninstall your Toolbar in Internet Explorer:
- From the Windows Start menu, access “Add/Remove Programs” or “Programs and Features”, depending on which version of Windows you are running
- Select Qantas Frequent Flyer Toolbar from the programs list
- Click the “Uninstall/Change” link at the top of the column
- Click “Yes” to remove the Qantas Frequent Flyer Toolbar and all of its components.
To uninstall your Toolbar in Firefox:
- Click the menu icon in Firefox (the three horizontal bars at the top right of the browser window)
- Click “Add-ons”
- Select “Extensions” from the list on the left side panel
- Select the Qantas Frequent Flyer Toolbar and click “Remove”
- Restart your browser to complete uninstallation.