Qantas Frequent Flyer program cuts points needed for hotels and holidays

Qantas has drastically slashed the number of Frequent Flyer points needed for some of its key rewards. Find out what’s on offer.

Exclusive: Qantas is dramatically slashing the number of frequent flyer points needed to book hotels and holidays, in a move the airline says will provide more value for customers and grow membership.

From Friday, the flying kangaroo’s 13 million Frequent Flyer members will need 30 per cent fewer points when booking 440,000 partner hotels, both domestic and international, and 45 per cent fewer points when booking Qantas Holidays packages.

Qantas Loyalty CEO Olivia Wirth said the company was “increasing the power of a point when booking hotels and holidays because we want to reinvest in a program that has performed extremely well during Covid”.

Qantas is providing incentives for its Frequent Flyers to use points in more ways. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Andrew Henshaw

The changes will not affect the value of points redeemed for rewards flights, she said.

While the points discounts for hotels and holiday packages are permanent, the airline has also announced a temporary discount on balances needed for Points Plus Pay bookings.

Until the end of April, frequent flyer members will need 20 per cent fewer points when using them to part-pay for a seat.

“We know flights will always be the hero redemption in our program and we don’t expect that to change,” Ms Wirth said.

“However the feedback we had from our members was hotels and holidays were a close second. It was something that really interested them … so we ran a few trials, to see if we improved the value around hotels and holidays, would this encourage more people to use their points in this way, and it was overwhelmingly successful.”

Qantas Loyalty CEO Olivia Wirth. Picture: AAP

‘Points Whisperer’ Steve Hui from iFLYflat.com.au. Picture: Supplied

She said there was a significant number of Frequent Flyer members who had only ever used their points to redeem flights, but the new discounts would prompt them to consider using their balances in new ways.

“We believe this will shift the dial and we’ll be just as well known for redemptions of hotels and holidays,” she said.

“We know from our trials that these sorts of discounted permanent changes will genuinely improve the perception around value. We’re always looking for ways for members to redeem their points and we think this will be hugely popular.”

Steve Hui, the frequent flyer program expert known as the “Points Whisperer,” said “previously, you would never use your Qantas frequent flyer points for hotels,” but they would now represent better value when used that way.

“Using Qantas points for Classic Rewards business class is still the best value, but these new changes for using Qantas points for hotels and packages means you can use points for your whole trip and still get good value,” Mr Hui said.

Ms Wirth said two thirds of all Qantas Frequent Flyer points were actually earnt on the ground.

A record seven billion points were used to redeem flights in just four weeks in December, she said, and points flights bookings for April were also extremely strong.

Points values are based on a check-in date of 14 September, 2022 and are correct as at 14 January, 2022.

Originally published as Qantas Frequent Flyer program cuts points needed for hotels and holidays