Child-friendly changes to Qantas frequent flyer program to avoid points expiry

Eligible family members can apply for their loved ones’ points to be transferred after death and Qantas has updated rules for family sharing of kids’ points.

Qantas is making changes to its frequent flyer program so young members don’t miss out. Picture: AP

Qantas is making changes to its frequent flyer program to make it more child friendly, after being called out for the difficulties facing members who are aged under 18.

Loyalty program expert Adele Eliseo of The Champagne Mile said she had seen her own children’s points balances expire several times because of the limitations of the Qantas frequent flyer program.

Ms Eliseo said about 90 per cent of the ways in which members could earn points were off limits to children, resulting in their accounts being wiped after 18 months of inactivity.

“They can’t take out a financial services product if they’re under 18, they can’t get a credit card, insurance, electricity or gas utilities,” Ms Eliseo said.

“Qantas has a tie-up with Binge but they can’t take up a Binge or Kayo account because they’re aged under 18, and they can’t book a room in a Qantas hotel.”

Making matters worse was the fact Qantas did not allow points transfers of under 5000 points between family members.

“If you look at other programs in Australia, Velocity for example have a family pooling feature, which allows family members or parents to nominate one person as the recipient of points and status credits for Virgin Australia flights,” Ms Eliseo said.

“What that means is other family members aren’t earning those points and status credits but rather they’re pooled into the account of the primary family member and that’s a more practical way for a family to grow a points and status credits balance, and that’s something Qantas doesn’t offer.”

Adele Eliseo of The Champagne Mile has successfully lobbied Qantas for changes to its treatment of child frequent flyers.

Changes were afoot, however, as part of the airline’s review of customer “pain points” under new chief executive Vanessa Hudson.

These included reducing the minimum amount of points required for a family transfer from 5000 to 1500 from mid December.

Qantas also plans to remove the maximum transfer limit of 600,000 points.

The minimum amount of points was in place to avoid fraudulent transactions with points, Qantas noted.

Children’s accounts of under 1500 points could be transferred to their parents via the frequent flyer contact centre to ensure the transaction was legitimate.

There have been other recent policy alterations, including axing the fee for a customer to change their name on a plane ticket if they made a mistake.

Qantas also scrapped its policy of wiping out frequent flyer points balances upon a member’s death.

Now eligible family members can apply for their loved ones’ points to be transferred to their account, after death.

Ms Eliseo welcomed the proposed changes ahead of the busy summer holiday season, when a lot of families would be travelling together.

“I think it’s great to see Qantas taking steps to make it easier for families to benefit from the frequent flyer program,” she said.

“If they were looking to take it a step further I would encourage them to look at family pooling but this is a welcome amendment, and one that a lot of parents will welcome.”

With 15 million members, Qantas frequent flyers is the biggest loyalty program in Australia, and made $451m in earnings before interest and tax in the year to June 30.

Originally published as Child-friendly changes to Qantas frequent flyer program to avoid points expiry