Re: An idea to help QF loyalty:Restrict long-haul QF J/ F award seats to QFF members
It makes sense until you realise that other airlines will reciprocate and it becomes a downward spiral.
I'm not so sure about the downward spiral. As the OP pointed out, it is already happening (or rather, I should say it has already happened), so what is really stopping the spiral if it should happen? Certainly I don't think QF would be the straw that breaks the camel's back on this one, especially if others are quick to point out that Qantas doesn't have the best longhaul products. (For that matter, neither do LH or AF, but they do tend to restrict their own F and some J inventory).
To put another spin on the "already happened", there is the CX "phantom availability" bug which plagues AA, US and JL (and non-
oneworld partner, AS), but interestingly not QF or BA (and perhaps others).
And what happens if QFF members don't take up the seats? Do they remain vacant and Qantas gets nothing rather than something?
Well for one there would be more upgrades granted (even though the predominant upgrade success % is quoted to be better than even money). If they remain vacant then I guess that gives YM a different (and perhaps more attractive) problem than having a bunch of people wailing they can't use their points whilst the points debt gets higher. I know that SQ for a while ran their Suites cabins almost empty when Suites awards were not possible or only possible for about a million KF miles.
Qantas elites have another one up on elites from the other partners: Platinums can call to request YM to try and open a seat for them; P1s - reportedly - can request awards seats out of revenue inventory.
It's funny this is mentioned and LH as well, because one time LH were giving a Q&A they mentioned that they had heard much negative feedback from their member base about their members not being able to easily redeem LH premium seats whilst someone from the USA with their programmes (and all the wild and woolly tricks you use to rack up those miles cheaply - this was pre-US 100% bonus era) could do so. It seems they are mostly fixed up now; in days gone by, LH F seats could be booked like buying penny candy.
All said and done, I don't think this move would stop people from jumping ship (some may argue it gives them additional impetus), but overall I guess it would then be easier (on the whole, not maybe quickly noticeable) to obtain QF awards as a QFF member.