Qantas raises the stakes for vaccination

Qantas has upped its offer of incentives to entice Australians to get the Covid vaccination in the hope of having borders reopened by December.

Qantas CEO Alan Joyce has upped the stakes in the airline’s “incentives for vaccination” offer, promising 10 families of four free flights for a year. Picture: NCA NewsWire/Jeremy Piper

Qantas has upped the stakes in its campaign to accelerate Australia’s Covid vaccination rollout, promising “free flights for a year” for 10 families of four who get the jab.

Days after announcing the airline was looking at incentives for vaccination such as frequent flyer points and flight vouchers, CEO Alan Joyce provided more details of the plan.

Speaking on Seven’s Sunrise program, Mr Joyce agreed the airline had a vested interest in the vaccination rollout, because the sooner Australians became vaccinated against Covid-19, the sooner borders were likely to reopen.

“We want to do everything that we can to ensure the borders domestically open and stay open and that we get international up and running,” Mr Joyce said.

“We have 6000 of our people stood down that are working on international flights, and they will be stood down until we have the international borders reopened.”

He said Qantas’s incentives for vaccination would be rolled out from July once the technology was ready, with participants required to upload the airline’s app to take part.

"We're very keen to do our bit to help with the rollout of the COVID-19 vaccine"@Qantas CEO Alan Joyce has unveiled an unlimited travel 'mega-prize' to encourage Australians to get the jab. pic.twitter.com/82x2lAnw0r

— Sunrise (@sunriseon7) May 30, 2021

Among the carrots on offer for vaccinated passengers would be 1000 frequent flyer points, a travel credit or status credits.

Mr Joyce also promised 10 “megaprizes” in the form of free flights for a year for a family of four, plus one million points for hotel accommodation donated by Qantas’s partner Accor.

It was yet to be decided what sort of “proof” Qantas would seek from participants in return for the incentives.

However the offer would be retrospective, so anyone who was vaccinated would be eligible, along with those lining up for the jab before the end of the year.

In the US, United Airlines asked people to upload their vaccination card to go into a draw for free flights for a year. The response was overwhelming, with 100,000 cards uploaded in the first 12-minutes, or four cards a second.

Qantas remains hopeful of restarting a significant level of international flights in mid-December after pushing the date back from July.

That followed concerns about the risk of blood clots in under-50s from the AstraZeneca vaccine, which is now restricted to the over-50 age group.