Why Qantas reward seats can be ‘bought’ for less via other airline loyalty schemes

Qantas reward seats are being offered by other airline loyalty programs for fewer points or miles and lower carrier charges. Why?

In a further slap in the face to Qantas frequent flyers, it has been revealed that members of rival loyalty programs are booking the same reward seats for far less.

Thanks to partner airline agreements, some programs such as Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan and Cathay Pacific Asia Miles, are offering seats on Qantas flights at significantly lower points and fees.

For example a member of Alaska Airlines’ scheme, can land a business class seat on a Perth-Paris flight in February for 85,000 miles plus $US76 ($121.70).

Qantas Classic Rewards has the same seat available for 126,500 points plus $451 in carrier fees and taxes.

In the case of Cathay Pacific’s Asia Miles program, a premium economy seat from Sydney to LA flying February 12, can be snapped up for 55,000 miles plus $340 in carrier fees. However Qantas frequent flyers would need 81,300 points and $317 for the same seat.

And members of American Airlines’ AAdvantage plan, can land a business reward seat from Sydney to Jakarta for 40,000 miles plus $US70.70 ($113.20) compared to 57,000 Qantas frequent flyer points plus $217 in charges.

Adele Eliseo of The Champagne Mile said the examples showed there was much value in being part of more than one airline loyalty program, or using credit cards that allowed users to choose where they directed their points.

“The Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan example shows a Qantas J (business class) reward seat redeemable for nearly half the cost of a comparable Qantas Classic Flight Reward, with very low fees levied,” Ms Eliseo said.

“With Qantas’ upcoming reward pricing changes in August, the fee gap is only set to widen.”

She was referring to a number of changes announced by Qantas last month that would see frequent flyers earn more points on flights from July – before having to find more for redemptions from August.

The same “reward” seats on Qantas international flights can be obtained for much less with other loyalty programs, it has been revealed.

Qantas sweetened the announcement with the promise of a million more Classic Reward seats on partner airlines including Hawaiian, Air France, Finnair, KLM and Iberia Air from later in the year.

The pledge failed to impress frequent flyer experts, including Ms Eliseo and Steve Hui of iflyflat.com.au, who pointed out that most of the airlines included did not fly to Australia.

Ms Eliseo also called out Qantas on its boast, that 13,000 Classic Reward seats were being booked by frequent flyers every day, including 1000 in premium cabins.

She said that suggested that of the 5 million Classic Reward seats Qantas released each year, only a small percentage (7.3 per cent) were in first or business class, or premium economy, which would explain the difficulty members had in scoring such a redemption.

Qantas said loyalty programs were all different, and “points and miles were not the same”.

As a result, points and miles had different values when they were redeemed, and were also earned at different rates from program to program.

“There are hundreds of ways Qantas Frequent Flyers can earn and use their points across flights, hotels, holidays, wine, retail, entertainment, cars and partners,” said a statement from Qantas.

“Other airline programs have smaller earn programs, which means it can be harder to earn points outside of credit cards or flying.”

It was also pointed out that carrier fees and charges were set by individual airlines – resulting in significant variations.

Qantas Frequent Flyer Card example. Picture: Qantas.com

Originally published as Why Qantas reward seats can be ‘bought’ for less via other airline loyalty schemes