Qantas Frequent Flyer program cuts points needed for hotels and holidays

Qantas Frequent Flyer members will get a hell of a lot more bang for their buck, with the program slashing the amount of points required for hotels and holidays.

Qantas Frequent Flyer members will get more bang for their buck in a new points overhaul.

Members will now need 30 to 45 per cent fewer points for stays at all Qantas Hotels and Qantas Holidays bookings, with the airline saying the change means members get more value for their stay.

The “permanent” shake-up means members will get more mileage per point when they book hotels and holidays through the airline, with 45 per cent fewer points required when combining Qantas or Jetstar flights in one booking across all the airline’s holiday packages.

In addition, 30 per cent fewer points will be required across more than 400,000 hotels.

Qantas will be changing up the FF points value. Picture: NCA NewsWire/Andrew Henshaw

“We’re 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 Loyalty CEO, Olivia Wirth said.

“Members have remained highly engaged despite the low levels of flying over the past two years, shown by the fact they’ve kept earning points on the ground and then redeemed them in record numbers.

“We saw more than seven billion points used to redeem flights in just four weeks following borders reopening and we want to keep that momentum going by making points go further for hotels and holidays, which in turn encourages members to keep earning with our partners and with the airline.

“This latest change will help our growth into the hotel and holiday booking market, especially online, which is expected to rebound in the coming months.”

Qantas Loyalty CEO Olivia Wirth said while spending points on flights will always be the ‘hero’ of the program, hotels came in a close second. Picture: Bianca De Marchi

Some of the revised points means you can now stay at the The Calile Hotel in Brisbane

for one night with just 78,136 Points rather than a previous 111,623 points. A night in Port Douglas’ Sheraton Mirage will now set you back just 48,533 Points rather than 69,178.

Internationally, two adults spending two nights at the Alohilani Resort Waikiki Beach in Hawaii will now be 149,787 points rather than the previous 213,982 points.

Speaking to the Herald Sun, Ms Wirth said that while flights will always be “the hero redemption” in the Frequent Flyer program, hotels and holidays have become a close second.

“The feedback we had from our members was hotels and holidays were a close second,” she said.

“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.”