More QF Frequent Flyer changes on the way?

[scibo10]

Who would hazard a guess that Virgin Blue will pick the following day to release their frequent flyer scheme??

25 May 2005!!! :wink:

Daniel

 

[NM]

If Qantas was really worried about people with large points balances, they would not have the current promotion giving away 6 x Lexus as a way to encourage people to transfer CC points into their FF accounts. They are encouraging such transfers (note the dates being April, May and June) as a way of enhancing the balance sheet since the CC companies pay Qantas for each point "purchased" from Qantas.

 

[Zanzara]

Interesting replies to No More Mr Nice Fly article . I agree with many, but I am a bit suprised at couple of the replies though...

OZ Mark: If Qantas are concerned about the number of points they are carrying, there is little evidence that they are trying to manage the problem.

I mean, excuse me for being a bit cynical here... if making it incredibly difficult to get international flights, unless you book nearly a year in advance and increasing the number of QF FF points by 20% or more isn't a sign that QF are trying to manage ever increasing number of members with large points balances then I don't know what is!!! :?

Lucky Dog. Considering Qantas are giving away $100K cars to encourage transfers I can't think Qantas are that worried about the number of points they have on the books.

The promotion for Lexus cars is a good. I guess it will encourage many people hanging on to credit card points to transfer them to QF. Which, as NM mentioned, QF will be paid for the points by the banks & Credit Card issuers before the end of this financial year. Doubt QF paid much, if anything, for the vehicles though. It's all excellent national marketing and media advertising for Lexus - website & press, cars on display at airport check-in and baggage reclaim areas etc., etc. Must be a win/win deal for QF & Lexus. Don't know what the odds are, but I wouldn't mind a new Lexus! Good luck at trying to redeem those points once they're transferred though! :!:

 

[thadocta]

Again, as I mentioned before, it comes down to what you want to do with your points.

Previously, the best value was from (discount) Y to U. Won't be able to confirm this any longer on INT sectors, so that is a downside.

They are obviously trying to steer award traffic onto the sectors they have lots f flights on, namely the "triangle" (SYD-MEL-BNE-SYD). Previously I would have considered tis to be a waste of points (20K for a rturn) but now that they have OW awards, I am not so sure. Am still weighing up the possibilities of using a OW award one-way and a red-edeal the other..

Will get back to you.

Dave

 

[NM]

They are obviously trying to steer award traffic onto the sectors they have lots f flights on, namely the "triangle" (SYD-MEL-BNE-SYD). Previously I would have considered tis to be a waste of points (20K for a rturn) but now that they have OW awards, I am not so sure. Am still weighing up the possibilities of using a OW award one-way and a red-edeal the other..

Additionally, I think QF are really trying to steer members away from redeeming points for premium cabin awards, especially long-haul. They want people to redeem their points for economy seats, charging a huge premium for business class and first class, as well as restricting the number of prmium cabin award seats. The cost of an award is a valid way to influence the way in which people will redeem them.

They have also tried to make it hard for the once-a-year fliers who spend big on credit cards from buying the cheapest discount fare and using their mass of points to upgrade their trans-Pacific holiday flight to Disneyland. By increasing the point, removing the cheap fares from being eligible for upgrade, removing confirmed upgrades, and processing the wiatlist on FF status, its going to be harder for non frequent flyers to get the upgrade seats.

In this sense, the program has been tweaked to benefit the high status FF members, which are those traveling in paid business and first class on long-haul flights. It seems to me that these are the people QF want to reward, rather than those that transfer lots of points from credit cards or those who fly lots of domestic discount economy fares (and drink the QF profit margin in the Qantas Pub before they enter the aircraft).

 

[Zanzara]

NM how clever you are! I think you've hit the nail squarely on the head with your comments!

 

[jonesy]

Assisted Award booking fee - Typical Qantas arrogance.

Qantas is now going to charge 2500 points for the Assisted Award booking - I don't like it but that's the world these days. My real gripe is that I live in China and do most of my award flights from Hong to Sydney and I have to make the booking by phone as they do not offer this facility online from the Hong Kong site.

They are penalising me 2500 points per trip due to their own systems limitation!! :evil:

I emailed them about it & the Customer Service rep assured me that my issue had been brought to management's attention and work is under way to expand this service to many more countries in the near future. I'll believe that when I see it!! It should be quite easy for their booking system to not add the penalty for bookings made in Hong Kong and other countries where online bookings cannot be made.

So now I will be using Cathay for my paid trips as I am sick of adding to the coffers of Qantas and getting treated unfairly.

 

[danielh]

Can't you go to the Qantas AU site instead or does the site auto sense your IP and reroute you to the China site?

Try this URL...

https://www.qantas.com.au/fflyer/dyns/LoginForm

Hopefully if it is an auto routing issue the code that does it will not be on this page.

Regards
Daniel

 

[jonesy]

Unfortunately not - they don't offer Hong Kong as a departure option in the drop down box!!

 

[danielh]

Out of curiousity, what is the registered home country for the Qantas site? Australia or China?

 

[serfty]

Re: Assisted Award booking fee - Typical Qantas arrogance.

... I emailed them about it & the Customer Service rep assured me that my issue had been brought to management's attention and work is under way to expand this service to many more countries in the near future. I'll believe that when I see it!! It should be quite easy for their booking system to not add the penalty for bookings made in Hong Kong and other countries where online bookings cannot be made.

So now I will be using Cathay for my paid trips as I am sick of adding to the coffers of Qantas and getting treated unfairly.

Hi jonesy,

You may be ... believing that when you see it ... as early as next week!!
Did you receive an emailed newsletter from Qantas this week?

If not, here is a link to the Qantas May Newsletter.

In it, Under the latest news heading is the following:

More Award flights online
We're adding to the list of Award flights that you can book online.

From 25 May 2005, you'll be able to use your points to book available Award flights on a wider selection of Qantas Frequent Flyer partner airlines (subject to availability).

Some of these partner airlines include Aer Lingus, Air Pacific, Air Vanuatu, British Airways, Cathay Pacific, Finnair, Iberia, LAN and Polynesian.

Search and book available Award flights at qantas.com

It has been noted that AA are not included in this list.

 

[jonesy]

thanks daniel but it is impossible - I have tried every different way possible to do this in the past - the staff at Qantas in HK office are really great (pity they can't put them on the planes!!) and booking is certainly very easy through them and thats what I will have to do. So after May 25 the HK-SYD will cost 62,500 points instead of 50,000!!

Thats good news serfty - I didnt get that email bulletin - I cant understand why the Cust Serv rep didnt mention it!! I guess its because HK wont be on the list. They announce we can book on partner airlines online and yet I cant book Qantas online. It costs more to book with Cathay (65,000 pts last time I did it - Feb 05) but when I got to the gate they upgraded me to business class! I took a paid flight HK-SNG a month later with CX and they upgraded me on the outward leg! I never get that from Qantas.

At this stage I think I will stick with I'll believe that when I see it!! & hope I am wrong soon.