The world’s best airline loyalty program revealed and where Qantas Frequent Flyer ranked

Travel tech company PointMe has conducted the first independent analysis of more than 60 airline loyalty programs ... and the news isn’t great for loyal Qantas customers.

The loyalty program of KLM and Air France was found to be the best in the world by detailed new analysis. Picture: Remko De Waal

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The first independent analysis of more than 60 airline loyalty programs has ranked Qantas Frequent Flyer 24th due to the large number of points needed for redemptions, poor customer service and high change fees.

Travel tech company PointMe undertook the analysis over several months, allocating marks to each program across several criteria including the ease of earning miles or points, redemption rates, ease of booking and customer service quality.

The reward program of Air France and KLM, known as Flying Blue, was rated the best scheme with an overall mark of 93.06 per cent, followed by Air Canada Aeroplan, United Mileage Plus, British Airways Executive Club and Virgin Atlantic Flying Club.

Emirates Skywards came in 11th with a mark of 58.68 per cent, Singapore Airline’s KrisFlyer was 17th on 51.39 per cent and Qantas was 24th on 38.89 per cent.

Virgin Australia Velocity finished 33rd on 26.39 per cent, the same as Air New Zealand’s Airpoints.

PointMe co-founder Tiffany Funk said the analysis aimed to “strip out some of the emotion people often have around loyalty programs”.

“We looked at a range of factors, with 25 per cent of the marks going to the ease of earning points or miles,” said Ms Funk.

“We also looked at redemption rates which is how many points it takes to get on a flight, and that’s one of the thing that’s a challenge for the Australian programs.”

The number of points needed for Qantas frequent flyer redemption was one of the program’s weaknesses, a new study said.

She said the number of points needed for a flight on Qantas or Virgin Australia was a “constant complaint” from PointMe customers in Australia, with their analysis showing they were generally higher than other airlines.

Areas where Qantas Frequent Flyer did do well included the ease of earning points, and availability on partner airlines.

Virgin Australia Velocity fared better than Qantas in the area of customer service quality and change fees, with the frequent flyer program receiving no marks in those categories.

“I don’t want to say anyone is bad but if I were advising Qantas as to how they could improve the perception of customer experience with their loyalty program, investing in their customer service quality and flexibility would be a high thing,” said Ms Funk.

Change fees were another area where Qantas Frequent Flyer needed work, according to the analysis. “If you’re a family of four and something comes up and you have to cancel the flights you’ve booked with points, the family will usually pay about $150 to $250 to completely cancel their booking and get their points back,” Ms Funk said.

“That’s not the case with Qantas, they have got really high penalties in comparison to the rest of the field.”

The key learning from the study was “not all airline loyalty programs were equal” and it paid to avoid putting all your points into one basket.

Ms Funk said in Australia, travellers only had so many options for domestic flights, but it was worth evaluating other airlines’ loyalty programs.

“Even if you are flying Virgin Australia all the time, you might be better off crediting those flights to United Mileage Plus, the number three program on our list because that might open up more options for you depending on your travel goals,” said Ms Funk.

A Qantas spokesman said Classic Plus rewards was launched in response to customer feedback in July, to give frequent flyer members more options to fly where and when they wanted, using points.

“In the last year, record numbers of Qantas Points were earned and redeemed and a record number of reward seats booked, showing the value members are getting out of the program,” he said.