Qantas promises 20 million seats as frequent flyer program expands

Qantas is promising members of its frequent flyer program will now have access to 20 million rewards flights per year after the airline announced its new “Classic Plus” program will include domestic flights from December 12.

First announced in April and launched in July, until now the Classic Plus program could only be used for international flights.

Qantas is expanding its Classic Plus program to include domestic flights.

The Classic Plus program was introduced in the wake of passenger complaints that the airline’s regular Classic Reward seats – which required the least number of points to book and represented the best value for money – were selling out as soon as they were made available, making it nigh on impossible for many members to secure bookings.

The new Classic Plus seats represent better value for money than the third way members can book flights, “Points Plus Pay”, which provides only about 0.6 cents per point in value.

However, the number of points needed to book a Classic Plus seat varies depending on the time of year, so flights during peak periods such as school holidays will cost more points.

Nevertheless, the introduction of Classic Plus seats to domestic flights will likely make the program more accessible to most members, as short domestic flights will regularly cost thousands of points, as opposed to the tens of thousands, or even hundreds of thousands, it can cost to secure a long-haul international flight.

The airline said more than 25 billion points have been redeemed on international flights since the scheme launched in July, with Tokyo, Singapore, London, Bali and Queenstown the most popular routes.

Qantas said sale seats available at launch, depending on travel dates, would include 5600 points for Sydney to the Gold Coast, 6700 points for Sydney to Byron Bay, 6900 points for Melbourne to Launceston and 25,900 points for Melbourne to Perth.

In examples provided by the airline, some Classic Plus sale fares required significantly fewer points than a traditional Classic Reward booking, while others cost more. The 5600-point Sydney to Gold Coast fare would cost 8000 points if booked using the fixed-price Classic Rewards program, but an 18,000-point Classic Rewards fare from Melbourne to Perth would cost 25,900 points on Classic Plus, even when on sale.

Unlike Classic Rewards seats, members can’t book Classic Plus flights on Qantas’ budget subsidiary Jetstar (or on international partner airlines). As with Classic Rewards seats, taxes and fees still have to be paid on the bookings.

The announcement comes during a week of bad news for Qantas after the Federal Court ordered the airline pay compensation to illegally sacked baggage handlers, with estimates it could cost the airline more than $100 million. On Thursday Qantas engineers walked off the job in a 24-hour strike over pay negotiations.