"... we'll shortly announce a major investment to improve our Frequent Flyer program"

[SeaWolf]

And this

• Better recovery – we've increased what we provide when there are significant delays. This includes giving our people better tools to fix problems on the spot to support the amazing job they do every day.

Tempered by this though:

• Qantas and Jetstar customers will see a major revamp across digital channels with an ongoing rollout of improvements designed to make it easier for customers to manage their travel on the ground, including during disruptions.

These days at Qantas it's all about self help.

 

[bullerdude]

I’d be surprised if the changes weren’t somewhat positive given Qantas have openly reported on multiple occasions they are well aware of the negative customer sentiment given performance and service quality.

Revenue based points earning could be a possibility given how other programs have changed in recent years.

Classic awards will stay and my hope would be to see two levels of classic award like Singapore so there are more opportunities, albeit at a higher cost.

 

[levelnine]

My bet is on tiered award pricing.

Classic awards remain, but become in practice non-existent unless you're flying from Melbourne to Sydney at 10pm on Christmas Day.

Then a couple of intermediately priced tiers between classic awards and points plus pay, with more availability as you go up in price.

Allows Qantas to claim they're giving out millions more seats to frequent flyers at lower prices than before (when compared to points plus pay).

 

[SeaWolf]

I’d be surprised if the changes weren’t somewhat positive given Qantas have openly reported on multiple occasions they are well aware of the negative customer sentiment given performance and service quality.

I think they're aware of it, but I don't think they really care as much as they're making out in public. I think the key lesson the business took from the Joyce era was that it didn't really matter how poorly Qantas treated the customers, they'd still keep coming back for more.

 

[exceladdict]

The big question for me is, should it impact whether or not to cash in a tonne of points for flights now, especially due to the DSC promotion. Gut feel says yes.

 

[RSD]

Please let it be upgrading the multi-city portal, improvements to the usability of the award calendar, and making it easier to search married segments…

(It won’t be)

Hell YES to both upgrading the multi-city portal and the search for married segments! (after my experience yesterday!)

 

[SeatBackForward]

That’s what I told them in the survey I did

Do the flying part better

Qantas, when describing their airline side of the business:

Finest in the district sir!

 

[RichardMEL]

Tempered by this though:

• Qantas and Jetstar customers will see a major revamp across digital channels with an ongoing rollout of improvements designed to make it easier for customers to manage their travel on the ground, including during disruptions.

These days at Qantas it's all about self help.

Problem is QF keep promising this with only minimal improvements via app etc.

The real issue imo is the backend on top of Amadeus that is not a simple or cheap fix. So kuch legacy needs a total redo.

Can hope because if done right it would help with all the partner reward issues, ticketing, changes (online?!) and so on. You know, like many airlines have done for years.

So anyway they can promise all they like but have so far way overpromised for years and underdelivered.

Not really related to FF changes per se though, but implementing these - well may force some much needed change with the IT.

 

[Berlin]

I'm calling it now- it will be sh%4 for customers but good for Qantas' shareholders.

 

[jase05]

How many times can QF con people?
There’s a sucker born every minute

 

[sap1l]

IMO any improvement to self-help would be a benefit overall, even if the call centres remain rubbish. The less things I have to call for, the better.

The real issue imo is the backend on top of Amadeus that is not a simple or cheap fix. So kuch legacy needs a total redo.

Yeah, it's insane that their custom engine is worse than stock Amadeus - RJ.com should not be delivering a better experience than Qantas' own custom engine.

Can hope because if done right it would help with all the partner reward issues, ticketing, changes (online?!) and so on. You know, like many airlines have done for years.

The time/sanity spent dealing with these issues is such a pain. Unfortunately with no real competition for international flights ex-AU I think a full backend rebuild will be on our wishlists for the next 10 years...

 

[RooFlyer]

I may be way too cynical but when Qantas make statements about improvements I always expect them to be detrimental changes that we are told we asked for.

Fire some reason, as a QantaS cynic, I'm feeling rather positive about all this. I'm counting on the new CEO wanting to surprise on the upside - the profit is going to be cut anyway, so there's a bit of room for letting their hair down.

 

[RSD]

Hell YES to both upgrading the multi-city portal and the search for married segments! (after my experience yesterday!)

Also damn useful would be a cheat sheet that lists all the error codes and what each one means so as we then have some hope of figuring out what is causing the hissy fit and can make the appropriate change so that the booking can then be made.

Post automatically merged: Feb 22, 2024

Something I would like to see Qantas do is determine how much it would cost to move their call centres back on shore like Telstra did - if they understood the massive improvements that could make then they may decide that it is worth it!

 

[oz_mark]

Some of the commentary on the buyback touched on the financial impact of the changes.

Qantas will commence this buy-back once it finalises the details and financial impact of planned improvements to its Frequent Flyer program and discloses these to the market.

 

[Mr H]

Please let it be upgrading the multi-city portal, improvements to the usability of the award calendar, and making it easier to search married segments…

(It won’t be)

Be careful what you wish for. The easier it gets, the more competition you'll get for the seats that are actually available.

 

[thrillho]

Be careful what you wish for. The easier it gets, the more competition you'll get for the seats that are actually available.

You make a very good point, however having read some of the questions and discourse in FB groups about award seat hunting, I’m not terribly worried!

 

[BAM1748]

Investment - I think this could be an investment by someone else, Amex for example, in return for access to the Qantas Clubs for cardmembers. Amex already has a similar deal with Delta Skyclubs which are - in the words of Yogi Berra - so overcrowded that noone goes there anymore...

... edit: there was an announcement already about but it doesn't mention the upcoming QFF enhancements

Correct, it may not be monetary investment.

 

[Dr Ralph]

I'm hoping that this is a joke thread.

 

[CaptJCool]

From the half yearly results







So one might think 6,000 extra euro summer seats might be big
Until you realise there’s been 24,000,000 passengers

And the big spenders

 

[bullerdude]

From the Australian, Qantas has revealed there is a new option to spend points is coming that will be seperate to the current Classic Rewards.

Qantas has revealed it is preparing to release a new “flight reward product” to overcome the problem of frequent flyers being unable to redeem their points on the seats and flights they most want.
In an investor briefing following the release of half year results, Qantas Loyalty chief executive Olivia Wirth said two million classic reward seats had been redeemed in the six months to December 2023, in an illustration of the significant demand from frequent flyers.

But she acknowledged the biggest bug bear for the scheme’s 15 million members, was the difficulty in getting premium cabin seats on premium routes internationally with their points.

“That’s a problem we’ve really been looking at over the past 12 months of how do we solve this, how do we ensure we keep our member engagement high?” Ms Wirth said.

“This is what we’ve been trying to solve, and today we can indicate there will be an announcement a few weeks down the track which will help solve this pain point and introduce a new flight rewards product.”

She provided few other details, except for the fact the new product would be in addition to the classic rewards program.