Qantas promises new flight rewards product for frequent flyers unable to find seats

The airline’s frequent flyers have been promised a ‘new rewards product’ in coming weeks to address a common gripe, as it splashes out on customer initiatives.

Qantas has revealed it is preparing to release a new “flight reward product” to overcome the problem of frequent flyers being unable to redeem their points on the seats and flights they most want.

In an investor briefing following the release of half year results, Qantas Loyalty chief executive Olivia Wirth said two million classic reward seats had been redeemed in the six months to December 2023, in an illustration of the significant demand from frequent flyers.

But she acknowledged the biggest bug bear for the scheme’s 15 million members, was the difficulty in getting premium cabin seats on premium routes internationally with their points.

“That’s a problem we’ve really been looking at over the past 12 months of how do we solve this, how do we ensure we keep our member engagement high?” Ms Wirth said.

“This is what we’ve been trying to solve, and today we can indicate there will be an announcement a few weeks down the track which will help solve this pain point and introduce a new flight rewards product.”

She provided few other details, except for the fact the new product would be in addition to the classic rewards program.

“We do expect this will be well met by our members, this is very much linked to the business strategy because we know the most engaged members are the ones that redeem and this drives the ecosystem and the flywheel,” said Ms Wirth, who is due to leave Qantas by the end of the month.

She said the new product would help Qantas Loyalty achieve its target of $800m to $1bn in profit by the 2030 financial year, having just racked up a $270m profit for the half year.

“That is why we’re going to make this investment because it will underpin the growth in this business; it will ensure we can continue to attract more members, and importantly it will ensure those members continue to be engaged, so we think it’s a win-win-win.”

It was expected the new product would be part of a $230m investment in customer initiatives, of which $90m had been spent in the six months to December 31.

Qantas has provided the first look at the interior of its new A220s, which will start commercial flights between Melbourne-Canberra and Melbourne-Brisbne from March 1. Picture: Supplied

Improvements to lounges, new in-flight menus, more call centre staff and a digital upgrade accounted for much of the spend, and CEO Vanessa Hudson said there was more to come.

From the end of the 2024 calendar year, Qantas international flights would start to offer “free and fast” Wi-Fi as ageing widebody aircraft were fitted with the necessary hardware.

Ms Hudson also announced a trial of “proactive refunds” for customers still holding Covid credits for flights that were cancelled during the pandemic.

A total of $468m paid by customers for those flights continued to be held by Qantas, which last year scrapped the expiry date after significant public outrage and heat from the consumer watchdog.

In a further gesture of goodwill, Qantas said it had been working with banking partners to trial a proactive refund, if the original payment method was no longer valid.

“In practical terms, customers will receive an email from Qantas if the value of their Covid credit has been successfully refunded through this trial,” said a statement.

“Qantas will never ask customers to email details of their bank account, credit card, PIN or passwords, and reminds them to be conscious of attempted scams.”

The interior of the new A220 aircraft was also unveiled by Qantas ahead of the aircraft’s first commercial flights from March 1.

Featuring a ten-seat business class cabin, and 127 seats in economy in a 2-3 configuration, the narrow body aircraft will initially be used on Melbourne-Canberra and Brisbane-Canberra services.

The 10-seat business class cabin on Qantas’ new A220s. Picture: Supplied

Ms Hudson said the next generation planes were up to 50 per cent quieter and generated 20 per cent less carbon emissions than the Boeing 717s they were replacing.

“We’re investing heavily in new aircraft that are a step-change from the technology they replace,” she said.

“They have more comfortable cabins and can fly further, opening up a lot of new routes domestically and overseas.”