Getting gold

[Alanslegal]

I guess I fall into the other category of WP - relatively infrequent travel (perhaps once every 6-8 weeks) but 2-3 international trips each year, mostly in paid premium classes and all self-funded (own business).

Whilst that hypothetical frequent flyer's 120x Red eDeals would cost them around $9,000 and earn enough SCs to requalify WP, my CBR-SYD-LAX return trip in J costs me $8,500 but I only earn 440 SCs out of the trip. I have absolutely no understanding of how the airline industry works, but I'll place a highly uneducated wager that my single trip in J earns more profit for Qantas than the 120x Red eDeals do.

This debate pops up from time to time, and I can see both sides of the arguments, however to me, I would find those who fly 120x on cheap red eDeals would be more loyal as they keep coming back and back and back.

You are loyal to QF on the one hand, but I would guess QF thinks you could potentially fly on another competitor (maybe if the price was right?). Let's hypothetically say DJ/VA was offering CBR-SYD-LAX return for $6K, you might jump at that and QF loses out of $8.5K in revenue.