Avoid Paying to Join Qantas Frequent Flyer

Avoid Paying to Join Qantas Frequent Flyer
Don’t pay $99.50 to join Qantas Frequent Flyer! Photo: Qantas.

For some reason, Qantas Frequent Flyer still charges a token $99.50 joining fee to Australian residents and a NZD60 joining fee for New Zealand residents.

Joining fees were common in the 1990s when frequent flyer programs were still in their infancy and aimed only at business travellers. But it’s extraordinary that any frequent flyer program would still charge any joining fee at all in 2024. If anything, given the amount of money Qantas makes from its loyalty program, and the valuable data the airline collects from its members, Qantas should be paying its members to sign up!

The good news is that you don’t actually need to pay to sign up. Luckily, there are plenty of easy ways to avoid paying the Qantas Frequent Flyer joining fee…

Join Qantas Frequent Flyer free as an Australian resident

If you live in Australia, the easiest way to avoid paying the $99.50 Qantas Frequent Flyer joining fee is to sign up using a “free join” link. There are plenty of these available, and you could easily find many of them with a quick Google search.

Here are a few:

Join Qantas Frequent Flyer for free using a "free join" link
Join Qantas Frequent Flyer for free using a “free join” link.

Join Qantas Frequent Flyer free as an New Zealand resident

The above codes should work if you’re a resident of either Australia or New Zealand. However, if you live in New Zealand and the above codes don’t work, this one is specific to Kiwis:

Many other Qantas Frequent Flyer program partners and banks also offer free ways for their customers to join.

Join Qantas Frequent Flyer free as an overseas resident

If you live outside of Australia or New Zealand, Qantas will not charge you a joining fee. Simply sign up as normal on the Qantas website and enter your country of residence as somewhere outside of Australia or New Zealand.

Join Qantas Business Rewards free

If you want to sign your business up for Qantas Business Rewards, Qantas also normally charges an $89.50 joining fee for this. But, just like with its main loyalty program, there are a range of promotional links that offer free membership.

Read more: How to Join Qantas Business Rewards for Free

The editor of Australian Frequent Flyer, Matt's passion for travel has taken him to over 70 countries… with the help of frequent flyer points, of course!
Matt's favourite destinations (so far) are Germany, Brazil & Kazakhstan. His interests include economics, aviation & foreign languages, and he has a soft spot for good food and red wine.

You can connect with Matt by posting on the Australian Frequent Flyer community forum and tagging @AFF Editor.
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Confessional time... has anyone paid for a QFF membership and willing to speak out?

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I think my parents did in the 90s.

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Guilty! I was a first year uni student then and didn't know anything...

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I have always assumed the only remaining purpose of the membership fee is to allow partners to waive it as a joining incentive.

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Confessional time... has anyone paid for a QFF membership and willing to speak out?

I did. :oops:

This was when I was about 14 years old and didn't know about AFF yet.

I still regret spending that $82.50 to this day, although I've at least recovered the cost back (and then some)!

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Confessional time... has anyone paid for a QFF membership and willing to speak out?

I paid for Big John Jr.

He was only 3 years old and no longer qualified to be carried in my lap.

I figured if I had to pay for his seat, he may as well earn some points as well.

I also reasoned that the cost of joining could be amortised over the rest of his life !

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I signed up the family using a UK address when there was no joining fee for overseas members.

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I signed up the family using a UK address when there was no joining fee for overseas members.

FWIW, there still is no joining fee for overseas members (i.e. other than Australia/New Zealand).

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I have vague memories of doing this around Jan '96....was aroind $60 IIRC (minuscule compared with what I have spent with them since)

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