Qantas frequent flyers crash website to get $50 gift

A day after Qantas CEO Alan Joyce promised to do better for customers, the airline’s website has suffered a series of outages as frequent flyers rushed to confirm their $50 travel credit.

Qantas has confirmed several outages of its frequent flyer website and app as members rushed to accept $50 credit towards their next flight booking.

The “gift” was announced by CEO Alan Joyce on Sunday as a thank you to frequent flyers for supporting the airline during a challenging period.

In a video message emailed to members, Mr Joyce conceded flight delays and cancellations and mishandled bags were not good enough, and he promised Qantas would do better.

All 14 million Australian and New Zealand members of the Qantas frequent flyer program are eligible for the $50 credit, which must be accepted via the airline’s website or app by September 30.

Once accepted, the credit must be put towards a booking made by November 30 for flights between now and the end of June 2023.

It’s understood huge traffic to the frequent flyer site and app caused several outages on Monday, with users met with the message “we are unable to process this request currently”.

The glitches were expected to be sorted out over coming days, with Qantas recently announcing a $15m “refresh of technology” among a suite of measures to improve performance.

As well as the $50 credit for all frequent flyers, Qantas was showering those members of silver status and above with 12-month status extensions and complimentary lounge passes.

Platinum and Platinum One members could also expect an additional gift of 30,000 frequent flyer points, to inspire their future travel plans or upgrade their next flight.

While the measures appeared to have been seized upon by members, unions were more sceptical, suggesting Qantas was now having to “pay people” to fly with them.

Transport Workers Union national secretary Michael Kaine predicted Australians would “see through this stunt”.

“The thousands of passengers who’ve spent hours in call centre queues following cancelled flights, delays and lost luggage won’t want to waste more of their time attempting to cash in a voucher to buy themselves more of the same chaos,” Mr Kaine said.

“Enough of the gimmicks. If Qantas management or indeed (Mr) Joyce really cared about customers, the right thing to do would be to appoint a new CEO with the business acumen to bring back highly trained, experienced workers and treat them with respect.”

On Thursday, Qantas will deliver its full year results for the 2022 financial year, with a third consecutive loss in excess of $1bn expected.

Despite the financial challenges of the past two years, in June Mr Joyce was optimistic of a return to profit in 2023, on the back of surging demand for air travel.

On Monday Qantas shares were trading down slightly at $4.61, well off the airline’s pre-Covid high of $7.37 a share.

Originally published as Qantas frequent flyers crash website to get $50 gift