Qantas rolls out Classic Plus Flight Rewards

[levelnine]

So I’ve put my ‘money’ where my mouth is and used today’s USA sale to book PER-LAX in J Classic Plus for 456k points + $1312.

This is going to be the strategy going forward for anyone unable to request the release of award seats.

It is a brutal devaluation — approximately double the cost of a classic award seat at current price levels.

It is even more brutal when you consider you're only getting 1.35c/pt in value once you take into account the points you're not acquiring that you would have acquired if you bought the revenue fare as a SG member (ie the value of 456K points + $1312 needs to be compared against the $8152 cash fare + 50K points earn on a PER-SYD-LAX rt in discount J).

 

[Doctore1003]

This is going to be the strategy going forward for anyone unable to request the release of award seats.

It is a brutal devaluation — approximately double the cost of a classic award seat at current price levels.

It is even more brutal when you consider you're only getting 1.35c/pt in value once you take into account the points you're not acquiring that you would have acquired if you bought the revenue fare as a SG member (ie the value of 456K points + $1312 needs to be compared against the $8152 cash fare + 50K points earn on a PER-SYD-LAX rt in discount J).

Yes, good points. I'm happy because I got the dates I wanted, just a few months out from travel, and my family is awash with Qantas Points (over 5 million), so it's less than a 10% hit to the account. Plus I need the SCs.

I recognise this is a special situation. I guess my point is there are certain circumstances where CR+ works.

I could have flown SQ for 288 KrisFlyer miles, but with some tricky layovers, and not my exact dates. Those miles are more valuable to me for flying to Europe, where Qantas CR+ isn't going to be as useful.

 

[Doctore1003]

Very disappointed that Qantas has already devalued Classic Plus, just a year after launch!

For those who aren’t aware, 1 point now = 1.25 cents for redemptions in international premium cabins, down from 1.5 cents previously.

It’s really poor form making this devaluation so quickly. It shakes your confidence in the program and makes you wonder how soon they’ll do another deval.

I was one of the more optimistic people about CR+ in this thread (and in fact am in LA right now on a CR+ booking - as discussed in the previous post), and I was planning to ramp up my Qantas Points earn, but now I’m seriously having second thoughts.

I could probably get the same value using Amex Membership Rewards points to pay for flights in lieu of cash with other (cheaper) oneworld airlines and still earn Qantas SCs.

So annoyed, Qantas!

 

[dairyfloss]

Very disappointed that Qantas has already devalued Classic Plus, just a year after launch!

For those who aren’t aware, 1 point now = 1.25 cents for redemptions in international premium cabins, down from 1.5 cents previously.

It’s really poor form making this devaluation so quickly. It shakes your confidence in the program and makes you wonder how soon they’ll do another deval.

I was one of the more optimistic people about CR+ in this thread (and in fact am in LA right now on a CR+ booking - as discussed in the previous post), and I was planning to ramp up my Qantas Points earn, but now I’m seriously having second thoughts.

I could probably get the same value using Amex Membership Rewards points to pay for flights in lieu of cash with other (cheaper) oneworld airlines and still earn Qantas SCs.

So annoyed, Qantas!

Was this something they had forewarned of, or you've just found out in looking at some options? I don't recall seeing anything about the CR+ rate shifting, but looking at some trans-Tasman J saver fares after reading your post, it does certainly look like it's at 1.25c now

 

[Doctore1003]

Was this something they had forewarned of, or you've just found out in looking at some options? I don't recall seeing anything about the CR+ rate shifting, but looking at some trans-Tasman J saver fares after reading your post, it does certainly look like it's at 1.25c now

They haven’t said anything about it, and they don’t have to since the conversion rate isn’t formal or published anywhere.

The change just feels like a money grab tbh

 

[dairyfloss]

They haven’t said anything about it, and they don’t have to since the conversion rate isn’t formal or published anywhere.

The change just feels like a money grab tbh

Yeah, ok - I thought it was published at the launch, but maybe that was just the bloggers and the press putting that out there

 

[levelnine]

Very disappointed that Qantas has already devalued Classic Plus, just a year after launch!

For those who aren’t aware, 1 point now = 1.25 cents for redemptions in international premium cabins, down from 1.5 cents previously.

It’s really poor form making this devaluation so quickly. It shakes your confidence in the program and makes you wonder how soon they’ll do another deval.

I was one of the more optimistic people about CR+ in this thread (and in fact am in LA right now on a CR+ booking - as discussed in the previous post), and I was planning to ramp up my Qantas Points earn, but now I’m seriously having second thoughts.

I could probably get the same value using Amex Membership Rewards points to pay for flights in lieu of cash with other (cheaper) oneworld airlines and still earn Qantas SCs.

So annoyed, Qantas!

If true, it makes sense. Qantas devalued classic rewards, so it had to devalue classic plus in order to maintain some separation between them. As I've said on many posts (and other valuations agree), Qantas points following the devaluation are only worth about 1.5-2c on international long-haul J flights these days. You can't have classic plus, with their far greater availability, basically fall into the bottom end of that spectrum.