Qantas to hand points to active flyers

Qantas will hand points to Frequent Flyers for taking a walk as part of its new health insurance program.

Supplied Editorial Middle aged woman exercising - istock

Qantas has kicked off its new health insurance program for its 11 million Frequent Flyer customers that will see the airline hand over points to members for taking a walk, a jog or generally getting off their backsides.

The new program will be available to Qantas Frequent Flyers who take out a Qantas ­Assure health insurance policy and use the Qantas Assure app, which tracks a user’s footsteps on any given day.

Through the program’s reward system, members could earn up to 70,000 Qantas points in the first year — enough to fly from Sydney to London. Qantas Frequent Flyers who purchase a Qantas Assure health insurance policy will also earn one point for every dollar spent on their health insurance premium.

When buying an eligible Qantas Assure health insurance policy, members will be given the choice of either an Apple Watch or up to 50,000 Qantas Points as a one-off joining bonus, depending on their level of cover.

The Aspire app — which will track a user’s activity through wearable technology such as smartphones, fitbits and Apple Watches — will let members choose from a variety of daily or weekly targets depending on their lifestyles, with the number of frequent-flyer points earned increasing with the size of the target.

Any Qantas points earned by members through the Qantas Frequent Flyer program can be redeemed for part or all of their initial Qantas Assure health insurance policy premium.

The program is being run in partnership with and underwritten by private health insurer NIB. Revenue from the program will be jointly shared between Qantas and NIB.

Meanwhile, Qantas yesterday revealed it had boosted cap­acity by 9.5 per cent in February from a year ago after adding services to the US and Asia.

The international business increased capacity by 10.3 per cent thanks to new routes into San Francisco, Tokyo, Hong Kong and Singapore.