The bonus is nice to those under WP, but the Jetstar changes are terrible for me.
With these changes, as seats get purchased on a flight and the tickets become more and more expensive, you still don't get any of the extra perks over the basic starter pack. For example, book 3 weeks out and you get the starter pack for $139 or pay the extra (bumping it up towards $299 or something) to get the full pack (aka: Jetflex). If on the other hand you book 1 week out, the cost may be up to $299 by then, but you get exactly the same starter pack product and still have to pay extra to get any bonus (i.e: status credits, seat selection, etc.).
Currently, at least I get some reward from having to book the higher fare in that the $299 seats left 1 week out from travel are the jetflex seats, which means I automatically get the perks. Now it seems like you get charged the same as a jetflex - that is, the cheaper seat 'bins' are all full so you get bumped up - but without the perks of a jetflex.
This seems like a complete downgrade to me and it hurts me because my work travel is almost exclusively on JQ/DJ thanks to it being between BNE and MKY, where the mines book QF out months in advance leaving $450+ seats each way as the only option compared with $200 seats on the others. I highly doubt work is going to pay $25 extra each way just to let me earn points, given that they already work on a BFOD system.
I see how it'd rock for points-earners if you could pay that extra, cause then the $135 becomes a $160 flight that earns points - well under the jetflex equivalent of old - but for companies working on BFOD systems I don't see them giving a toss about that!
Oh well, I guess I'm no longer earning FF points
I guess one way to possibly get around this is let me, after the travel is booked, buy the add-on package for $25 out of my own pocket if I choose to rather than requiring it at the time of booking. I doubt you'll be able to do that though