Huge bids as Qantas ‘points auction’ begins

Qantas is well on its way to relieving frequent flyers of millions of points with its innovative ‘points auction’.

A Queenstown holiday for four will go under the hammer in Qantas’s “points auction” on Tuesday.

Qantas appears on track to relieve some of its frequent flyers of millions of points with a week-long “points auction” off to a flying start.

The first item on the blocks, a Boeing 787 simulator experience with a Qantas captain, has already attracted more than 50 bids, with the “price” soaring from 50,000 to 1,200,001 million points within the first few hours.

With each frequent flyer point estimated by Point Hacks website to be worth around 1.9 cents, the equivalent dollar value of the top bid so far would be about $22,800.

According to the bidding page, the recommended retail price of a 787 simulator session is $3000.

Bidding for each item will remain open until 9pm AEST, with a new item going under the hammer each day.

On Tuesday, a Queenstown premium holiday for four people will go up for auction with a starting price of 300,000 points.

A soccer coaching session with Graham Arnold will follow on Wednesday, then two preloved A380 Skybeds on Thursday and a private charter flight for 30 people to either Byron Bay, Hamilton Island or Devonport on Friday.

The charter flight, on a QantasLink Dash 8 carries the highest starting bid of 1.2 million points.

Qantas launched the initiative late last week, as a way to keep frequent flyer members engaged and provide new options for using points in the absence of international flying.

The success of the points auction could see similar events held in coming months.

At the same time Virgin Australia was trying to stimulate bookings with the offer of double status credits for its Velocity frequent flyer members.

Status credits help members attain additional privileges, such as lounge access and priority boarding.

A Virgin spokesman said the offer was available on eligible flight bookings until midnight on Tuesday.

“We’ve demonstrated our commitment to members many times throughout the pandemic and double status credits is another example that loyalty goes both ways,” he said.

“By giving our members twice as many status credits on their next booking, they’ll have even more chances to retain and even increase their membership tier, knowing there’s more travel opportunities on the horizon.”

Figures released by the Department of Infrastructure, Transport and Regional Economics last month showed flight cancellations reached their highest level on record in June, with more than 9,000 services axed due to lockdowns and border closures.

An even larger number could be recorded in July, with greater Sydney locked down throughout the month along with Melbourne, Adelaide and Brisbane for shorter periods.

Qantas chief executive Alan Joyce has warned if the low level of flying continued, the airline would be forced to again stand down workers on no pay.

Virgin indicated they were managing the reduced flying schedules by encouraging workers to take paid and unpaid leave but said it was “an evolving situation”.

Originally published as Huge bids as Qantas ‘points auction’ begins