Australia’s oldest airline has announced the biggest changes to its Frequent Flyers points program in more than 30 years, including over 1 million extra available seats on popular routes and lower carrier fees.
Qantas said the changes represent an investment of $25 million.
The additional seats will be concentrated on satisfying demand in peak periods like Easter, Christmas and school holidays.
Fewer points will be required to claim international economy flights but class upgrades will now require more points.
One example reported by the Australian shows a flight from Melbourne to Los Angeles which previously required 90,000 points and cost $513 in fees would come down by 7,200 points and $120.
A premium economy seat would now require 162,600 points rather than 144,000, but carrier fees would be $190 cheaper than the current $793.
Business Class would also require significantly more points, but receive a carrier discount.
Frequent Flyers can also earn and use their points on new airline partners including Air New Zealand, China Airlines, Bangkok Airways, Air France and KLM Royal Dutch Airlines.
The Frequent Flyer program has almost 13 million members, but “intense competition” has cut Qantas’ share of corporate customers by 20 per cent according to Qantas CEO Alan Joyce.
Qantas will also establish a new two-tiered points club for members who earn most of their points through on the ground transactions.
Membership will require a minimum accrual of 150,000 points earned through means other than flights.
The airline will also introduce a Lifetime Platinum status in September for members who accrue 75,000 “status credits”, adding to the existing Lifetime Gold and Lifetime Silver tiers.
Qantas Frequent Flyers earn points through a wide variety of ways ranging from booking flights to logging their sleep in the Qantas Wellbeing app (provided they have an accompanying Qantas Health Insurance plan, for which they can also earn points).
