Qantas shakes up frequent flyer program after flood of complaints

On the back of many complaints, the embattled airline has overhauled its loyalty program, including more seats to major destinations.

Qantas is making changes to its frequent flyer program as the airline strives to repair its reputation under new CEO Vanessa Hudson.

In the first instance, Qantas is adding 6000 reward seats for the European summer peak, with new business and economy rewards seats available on every Qantas flight to London and Rome from June to August 2024.

The seats are in addition to 5 million reward seats currently available across Qantas, Jetstar and other partner airlines including Emirates, American, Cathay Pacific, British Airways, LATAM and Japan Airlines.

For frequent flyers wanting to travel in premium cabins to international destinations, a five-day “points plus pay” sale has also been launched.

The five-day sale will halve the number of points required for any first, business or premium economy seat, on any international Qantas-marketed flight booked through qantas.com.

The offers follow a flood of complaints to a Senate Committee, some of which described the frequent flyer scheme as a “con job” with points worth as little as a sixth of a cent.

Ms Hudson said they had listened to feedback from members about frequent flyer seats, and were investing to create more at times they most wanted to travel.

“There’s a lot of work happening across Qantas on improvements like this that we look forward to delivering for customers,” Ms Hudson said.

Frequent flyer expert Adele Eliseo of the Champagne Mile, said it was positive to see Qantas commit to the release of premium reward space on high-demand international routes for peak periods of travel.

“That said, 6000 seats will only go so far to appease the almost 15 million members of Qantas’ frequent flyer program,” said Ms Eliseo.

“Demand for these seats is likely to be very high, so travellers will need to move quickly to secure a redemption.”

On the points plus pay sale, Ms Eliseo said the promotion “temporarily elevated” the value of points used in this way from half a cent, to 1c.

In contrast, international classic reward seats could unlock up to 5c or more for each point, she said.

“Going forward as there are only so many classic flight reward seats that can go around, I’d expect that Qantas will need to continue to invest in improving points plus pay value for frequent flyer members,” Ms Eliseo said.

The changes were the first part of a $80m injection into customer experience, on top of the $150m previously set aside to improve service delivery.

More detail on how the funds were being applied was expected to be revealed in coming weeks and months.

Outgoing Qantas Loyalty CEO Olivia Wirth has promised more benefits for frequent flyers before she departs in February. Picture: Adam Yip

As previously announced, Qantas and Jetstar’s international capacity would jump by 12 per cent from Sunday onwards – an increase of almost 50 additional flights per week.

These included the resumption of Sydney-Shanghai flights, and two new routes from Brisbane to Wellington and Brisbane-Honiara.

Qantas was also trying to end confusion about the different ways members could use their points to book seats.

The airline wanted to clarify that points plus pay could be used to book any seat on a Qantas or Jetstar flight, but classic reward seats had limited availability and the points required were much fewer.

A statement from Qantas said the points needed for classic reward seats had remained unchanged since 2019.

Points plus pay sales were offered from time to time, with the most recent in June resulting in 175,000 seats booked.

It was hoped Monday’s offers and announcement would help appease some of the frequent flyer members who lashed out at the scheme in submissions to a Senate Committee.

Among the issues raised were the perceived devaluation of points, the difficulty booking classic reward seats on particular flights, and the amount of points needed for “points plus pay”.

Qantas is hoping to end confusion about frequent flyer points with its guide to booking classic reward seats as opposed to points plus pay. Picture: Supplied

Members also criticised the policy of wiping points after 18-months of inactivity on individual frequent flyer accounts.

Qantas is currently on the search for a new head of its loyalty business unit, after CEO Olivia Wirth resigned last week to “pursue other opportunities”.

Ms Wirth will remain with the airline until February.

Originally published as Qantas shakes up frequent flyer program after flood of complaints