Qantas unveils the biggest changes to status in program history

[Vic]

Thanks for all the discussion.
It's helped temper my expectations. Currently going to end on either 4680 or 4840 SC this year. End of year is September.
I mis-read the email to say I could roll over from 1 Oct 2026. Thanks to those clarifying roll over is for SC next year.
Hopefully, I can still claim my two hoarded loyalty bonus after 1 October.

 

[RooFlyer]

As @sudoer said - compared to what some other programs have seen, this seems a much friendlier set of changes to navigate over the next 5-10 years.

But we are comparing the previous QFF scheme with the new one, not a general survey. I suggest what Virgin or anyone else has done with their scheme is irrelevant to whether the QFF changes are positive or negative for any one person. For me, its a positive change.

 

[gethsemene]

This may be a stupid question, but they talk a lot about rollover SC, the reality is I have achieved between 1200-1400 credits for the past 6ish years, I may get to 1400, I suspect I won't and I'm a couple of k short of LTG.
So if I fail to retain Platinum because I get to 1300SC I'm assuming I soft land on gold. Do I also roll over the 250sc, as it wasn't achieving gold, it was failing to retain plat? I assume so, but it's not clear.

If so, given all of my points are self funded, most in longhaul J, it may alternate years of acheiving plat, then dropping to Gold by flying with points for a year, then flying revenue at the start of my membership year to regain plat using roll over SC...

 

[mviy]

I assume the rollover SC only applies if you exceed the retain for your current tier. If you fail to retain then a soft landing and that’s it.

 

[TheCollecter]

I assume the rollover SC only applies if you exceed the retain for your current tier. If you fail to retain then a soft landing and that’s it.

Soft-landing, in it's purest form, means if you attain WP and never fly again, you drop to Gold, then to Silver a year later, on so on

On the other hand if you are Gold, and attain only 400 SC, you have achieved Silver rather than soft-landed on Silver... so you should be entitled to roll-over the appropriate % of the remaining SC ??

Edit: Am I confusing myself now? Starting to wonder

 

[mviy]

My understanding is the rollover is meant to be a reward for exceeding the retain threshold for your current tier or attain tier for a higher tier, not to make it easier to immediately level back up if you fail to retain. Would be nice if I am wrong, but I would be surprised.

It is meant to encourage spending more not less

 

[Highway23]

But we are comparing the previous QFF scheme with the new one, not a general survey. I suggest what Virgin or anyone else has done with their scheme is irrelevant to whether the QFF changes are positive or negative for any one person. For me, it’s a positive change.

Then I think we are comparing different things - if you’re comparing the post-Dec 8 QFF scheme to pre-Dec 8, then that’s fine.
But my original comment was in relation to a foaming-mouthed anonymous comment on a blog - which, sure, maybe I shouldn’t have paid attention - suggesting this was the worst atrocity ever perpetrated by an airline on loyal flyers.
If you do a comparison of the changes made to QFF vs the changes to all the other schemes, then it’s a relief those changes haven’t bled into how the QF team thought about this revamp.
For the most part they’ve avoided destroying value or shifting the goalposts in the way those other schemes did, and for that I am thankful.
I think we are in furious agreement…?

 

[gethsemene]

I assume the rollover SC only applies if you exceed the retain for your current tier. If you fail to retain then a soft landing and that’s it.

See I had assumed the opposite, because there is no 'retain' level, you basically start afresh every year, so I attain silver, then gold, then hopefully platinum?

 

[SYD]

See I had assumed the opposite, because there is no 'retain' level, you basically start afresh every year, so I attain silver, then gold, then hopefully platinum?

No, the retain level = attain moving forward.

So I would expect to see something like “You need 1400 SCs to retain WP” at the start of my Aug 2027 new member year.

 

[Nate-Dawg]

With the SC rollover being introduced on 8th December, it seems that there could be a “double rollover” situation for those who are in PC Plus. Someone with a membership year end date of (for example) 31st December 2026 who has already attained PC Plus (or will by 8th December) should have PC Plus benefits until 31st December 2027. So logically, on 1st January 2027, they should get 100SC rollover from PC Plus, as well as any rollover SC corresponding to their status level. We’ll see what happens in practice.

 

[KIZI]

由于SC积分结转机制将于12月8日正式实施，PC Plus会员可能会面临“双重结转”的情况。例如，会员年度截止日期为2026年12月31日（或截至12月8日将达到PC Plus级别）的会员，其PC Plus权益应持续至2027年12月31日。因此，从逻辑上讲，他们应该在2027年1月1日获得PC Plus的100SC积分结转，以及与其会员等级对应的其他结转SC积分。实际情况如何，我们拭目以待。

my email says I will get 350 as I am a gold. but my year finished at 30 Nov.

 

[RooFlyer]

Then I think we are comparing different things

Yes - apologies.

 

[moa999]

Like all things gamification

Yep. Think they had better reactions to the mini-games.

Points club really really only appealed to those playing the CC churn game, or pushing a lot of likely business or manufactured spend through, including use of external providers.

 

[TheCollecter]

Yep. Think they had better reactions to the mini-games.

Points club really really only appealed to those playing the CC churn game, or pushing a lot of likely business or manufactured spend through, including use of external providers.

PC at 150k points was easy to get with ordinary credit card spend if you are a real real consumer like some of us (me)... including of course the 20k allowed from flying, and very generous WW EDR - until recently that is

I agree with you on PC+ at 350k - I cannot see how anyone could get to that... except by doing as you suggested: business expenses and CC churning... both something I don't do

That said, earning 350k points a year would be a nice problem to have to deal with!

 

[Johnxx]

PC at 150k points was easy to get with ordinary credit card spend if you are a real real consumer like some of us (me)... including of course the 20k allowed from flying, and very generous WW EDR - until recently that is

I agree with you on PC+ at 350k - I cannot see how anyone could get to that... except by doing as you suggested: business expenses and CC churning... both something I don't do

That said, earning 350k points a year would be a nice problem to have to deal with!

It was quite easy, you only had to collect 150k WW EDR every 2 years ‘bank for Christmas’, then dump them in on 1st membership month also have a CC bonus (100-120k) timed to go in that month, then with wine, a heap of WW 20X gift cards I’d get to PC+ by month 4 or 5 so another 20 months of QC and the lounge passes attained would tide over for those first few months.

 

[transpactraveller]

It was quite easy, you only had to collect 150k WW EDR every 2 years ‘bank for Christmas’, then dump them in on 1st membership month also have a CC bonus (100-120k) timed to go in that month, then with wine, a heap of WW 20X gift cards I’d get to PC+ by month 4 or 5 so another 20 months of QC and the lounge passes attained would tide over for those first few months.

That's exactly what I've done before and was planning for this year again, but I don't think I'll be able to time the credit card bonus points to land in time. At least the WW EDR transfers are instant.

 

[Nate-Dawg]

PC at 150k points was easy to get with ordinary credit card spend if you are a real real consumer like some of us (me)... including of course the 20k allowed from flying, and very generous WW EDR - until recently that is

I agree with you on PC+ at 350k - I cannot see how anyone could get to that... except by doing as you suggested: business expenses and CC churning... both something I don't do

That said, earning 350k points a year would be a nice problem to have to deal with!

My theory is that while there are a relatively small number of people who were motivated by PC and PC Plus and acquired more points (or changed when they acquired the points) accordingly, that in reality most PC and PC Plus members didn’t actually change their behaviour., they just acquired it through their regular points-earning activities. I’m not sure how many PC and PC Plus members there are, but even if it’s only a few hundred thousand, that’s tens of millions of dollars in QF Wine and QF hotels vouchers given out to people who accumulated points the same way they did before PC existed.

 

[Johnxx]

people who accumulated points the same way they did before PC existed.

yep, my only behavioural change was moving from Coles to Woolies

 

[nancypants]

Meanwhile points club prompted me to get a QFF credit card for the first time ever and also look more seriously at things like Qantas insurances, gift card deals etc. I reckon they did pretty well out of me and since I’m in the NT and WP, no wine vouchers and limited use for lounge guest passes

 

[Nate-Dawg]

Meanwhile points club prompted me to get a QFF credit card for the first time ever and also look more seriously at things like Qantas insurances, gift card deals etc. I reckon they did pretty well out of me and since I’m in the NT and WP, no wine vouchers and limited use for lounge guest passes

Yep, I think this is exactly what Qantas would have wanted when setting up Points Club - for people to earn points through more Qantas partners and (ideally) not use the benefits that cost Qantas money. SC on the ground would seem to be much better at achieving the goals for Qantas than PC does.