Flaw in Qantas Points Club Calculations

[AstroBBoy]

I keep all my qantas point transactions in a spreadsheet (I'm a nerd). And in doing so, I noticed there is a major flaw in the way that Qantas Club points are calculated.

When purchasing an item through the qantas mall, the Frequent Flyer points are sometimes not allocated for a few months after purchase. When this happens, if the original purchase date was prior to your anniversary date you do not get the Qantas Club Points. This is obviously unfair.

eg.

April: I purchase at item and by doing so I will earn 300 points
May: My anniversary date, so all my points towards Qantas Pointy Club are reset to zero
July: I finally get the points for the purchase in April. BUT these do not count for the current years PointsClub tally as the transaction occurred "last year".

I have confirmed this happened to me with at least 4x purchases.

Upon checking my wife's account its even worse - she is out by over 20,500 points in her PointsClub total because she had a big 20k points bonus for joining Australian Super but the transaction is dated September, her anniversary in October and points arrived in December.
(And yes, the 20k points are eligible for points club - in my case they went towards my total as they didn't straddle the anniversary date).

I have reached out to Qantas but I am expecting a generic email response.

Frustrating

You guys might want to check your own accounts.

 

[woodborer]

It's not a flaw, it's how it is set up. Points are counted from their accrual date:

22.3 Subject to clause 22.4, a Member will need to:

(a) earn 150,000 Qantas Points during their Membership Year to qualify for Points Club; and
(b) earn 350,000 Qantas Points during their Membership Year to qualify for Points Club Plus.

In calculating whether a Member has qualified for the Points Club Program in a Membership Year, Qantas will count Qantas Points from the applicable Accrual Date. Some Qantas Points can take up to 90 days to appear on your Qantas Frequent Flyer Activity Statement.

which means

'Accrual Date' means in relation to Qantas Points earned for a product or service provided by:

(a) Qantas airline, the date that Qantas provided those products and services to the Member;
(b) the Rewards Store or Qantas Wine, the date that payment for the product or service is made to Qantas;
(c) a Qantas Shopping Retail Partner, the date that the goods or services were purchased from that partner;
(d) an Airline Partner, the date that the relevant Airline Partner advises Qantas of the Member's Qantas Points accrual; and
(e) a Non-airline Partner (including products or services provided to Members under the Qantas brand, other than Qantas Shopping Retail Partners) the date that the relevant partner advises Qantas of your Qantas Points accrual;

 

[Dr Ralph]

I agree with @woodborer, it's not a flaw. It is, however, something that you need to be aware of.

You should not expect that points are awarded immediately. This is no different to the way points are awarded for other transactions. Take for example credit card purchases. No one expects the points to be in your Qantas account immediately. It may be many weeks before this occurs.

 

[AstroBBoy]

Hmm, I still think there is a flaw.

For argument's sake, let's say I was 500 points shy of reaching a PointClub level.

April: I make a purchase worth 500 points. Therefore April is my "accrual" date.
May: My anniversary month, therefore my PointClub points are reset to zero. I have not reached a new PointClub level as I am still 500 points shy.
July: I receive the Qantas FF points BUT NOT the PointsClub points

Are you saying they will automatically retro-actively give me the 500 pointsclub points and therefore give me the new PointsClub level in July?
This is nice if true, but I'm a bit dubious.

If not, these 500 points are effectively dropped on the ground and not counted for either the past year nor the current year.

 

[samh004]

Are you saying they will automatically retro-actively give me the 500 pointsclub points and therefore give me the new PointsClub level in July?
This is nice if true, but I'm a bit dubious.

Yes, though you may need to prompt them if it doesn't happen automatically. This is how it works with status too.

 

[AstroBBoy]

@samh004 thank you for clarifying