Qantas shovelling out points - sustainable?

[Quickstatus]

It seems like Qantas is really ramping up their marketing and shovelling out points galore. With flights, cobranded credit cards, qantas cash, vouchers, online mall etc etc

More new FF members
More higher tier status members via status run
More points
However the number of flights are not substantially increasing(Other than rejigging their flight schedule to allow for a bit more air time than ground time) especially with the suspension of capex on new aircraft and retirement of some 747

I suppose Qantas is hoping that points will be lost due to inactivity, purchasing toasters rather than premium flight redemptions.

 

[TheRealTMA]

Very limited J PSeats to US, ininitely small no of F seats to anywhere.

But lots of toasters available!

 

[opusman]

As long as they have the toasters to sustain it, why not. It's the only part of their business that's really profitable.

(Remember when they used to be an airline?)

 

[TheRealTMA]

How about redeem points for 123 toasters delivered and earn a free J to USA.

 

[scheps]

I thought Qantas was a point collection scheme and there was the option of flying if ever needed.

 

[JohnK]

Sad state of affairs indeed....

 

[TomVexille]

Yup. Definitely the shining star in the QF group at the moment.

 

[sydstar]

It seems like Qantas is really ramping up their marketing and shovelling out points galore. With flights, cobranded credit cards, qantas cash, vouchers, online mall etc etc

More new FF members
More higher tier status members via status run
More points
However the number of flights are not substantially increasing(Other than rejigging their flight schedule to allow for a bit more air time than ground time) especially with the suspension of capex on new aircraft and retirement of some 747

I suppose Qantas is hoping that points will be lost due to inactivity, purchasing toasters rather than premium flight redemptions.

I'd rather QF stop spamming me with golf club membership, wine purchases, Qantas Cash etc, and focus on actually running an airline.

QF have to be careful, otherwise QFF will become nothing more than a glorified Fly Buys

Don't know if I'd fully agree about the 'more higher tier status runners' part though. With the recent enhancements to partner SC earn and MASA's it will be harder to status run. Not impossible, but certainly not as easy as it used to be

 

[clazman]

Curious to know

What percentage of points they collect back due to inactivity?

Reward flights % to members, have they increased reward flights as memberships grow?

 

[woodborer]

Some conuterpoints. Remember all the coughing and moaning and crying and nervous breakdowns that occurred when MASAs were removed? The reason for that was that status runs were now going to cost lumps of cold hard cash - so consider that in the scheme of things. Credit cards, Qantas Mall etc all those points are paid for by the partners (,ight be special deals), so that brings money into Qantas.

 

[TheRealTMA]

Some conuterpoints. Remember all the coughing and moaning and crying and nervous breakdowns that occurred when MASAs were removed? The reason for that was that status runs were now going to cost lumps of cold hard cash - so consider that in the scheme of things. Credit cards, Qantas Mall etc all those points are paid for by the partners (,ight be special deals), so that brings money into Qantas.

Frankly I never was concerned with dumping MASAs. It seemed like a lurk. The lack of availability and redemption for J and F for international travel however is very annoying for long term QFF members. What's the point of having a million FF points when they are only useful for toasters...

Why not bring in a proper any seat with points (plus rip off money making surcharges) scheme where the redemption rates were reasonable with more seats available. Or why not have a scheme like other airlines where upgrades for international flights can be confirmed at time of booking?

This is would renew our loyalty to Qantas and maybe bring us back from Emirates.

 

[RooFlyer]

One word. AEROPLAN. Air Canada's spun-out FF scheme that's now just a points scheme where flying is a small part. And the punters loath Aeroplan, and the airline because of a
What a cough scheme it is.

But can't fault Qantas for chasing $. They 'print' points, sell them to merchants, who give them away to punters to get them to buy stuff, and the punters battle to get a flight redemption.

Pass the profit parcel. Win/ win/ lose. Oops, too bad.

 

[JohnK]

Curious to know

What percentage of points they collect back due to inactivity?

A few big losses have been reported on AFF and other social media. There must be lots of smaller balances where people have forgotten about their points or people who didn't have enough points for something worthwhile so they have let points lapse.

Would it be 20%? To be a fly on the wall.

 

[smit0847]

More QF members earning more points while the number of reward seats either stays the same or decreases is just going to mean seats are harder and harder to get. One of the reasons I think VA points are more valuable than QF points are because QF points are so hard to use.

 

[boomy]

Curious to know

What percentage of points they collect back due to inactivity?

I read somewhere that in the US it's ~30%.

 

[boomy]

Can use QFF points to book OW partners.
Compared to other programmes it's not the best value (especially after adding the taxes) but at least it's relatively easy to accumulate the points.

 

[CaptJCool]

Does it mean QF are now a financial technology company who happen to run an airline?

Even Qantas Cash is a financial supply, for the points received for each dollar spend, bear in mind the merchant fees they get from your expenditure, and the foregone bank interest on your money held in this 'account'.... that would be a pretty nice money spinner for them too. one must think of points as being cash replacement, so either there's an empty seat, or you recoup something for it - you can firesale it, or get a full price for it - either way, the yield managers appear to be pretty savvy.

as for the MASAs, i look at them as good advertising - imagine how many of us told our friends about the great deal going - but as one works out, loyalty is a two way street - burn your paying customers and they will become unhappy - QF relies heavily on businesses paying fares not individuals and businesses always start with a 30% advantage because all fares are tax deductible, let alone the domestic fares 10% GST credits - (so an $899 business class ticket really costs $539) but that ultimately doesn't sustain your airline as its bums on seats price-pointed think of it like coffee, same cost but different prices depending on combination of bean and milk) that make the profit.

As MASAs were paid for by individuals, I really question the wisdom of removing them - if the price was too low, then raise it, or place a MASA admin fee on them. By abolishing them, you are willing to give up a portion of your market to someone else, which on two counts makes no sense because either it was a very small market so what was the point of upsetting a core group of passionate customers, or it was far bigger than we all thought, in which case someone failed to bother to look at the 'customer yield' over the course of the customer lifetime.

To me it was short-term operational decision that failed to consider the long-term strategic effect. At least these customers were paying something, unlike "Oprah, Ellen or Modern Family"... And I agree, i think we would all be surprised at how many points expire - bit like gift cards that dont ever get used - and there's lots of them!

 

[opusman]

Does it mean QF are now a financial technology company who happen to run an airline?

Don't give them too much credit, they're not so hot on the technology front

 

[RooFlyer]

A simpler way of looking at is that points and 'free' seats on airplanes is no longer the product of QFF.

YOU, me and the 10 mill or do other members are now the product. QFF rents out its membership list to merchants willing to pay to access it.

Whether there's an award flight at the end of that shopping experience is entirely another ( and increasingly rare) matter.

 

[medhead]

Don't forget they've cut back the points earn for actual flying. Perhaps that's to allow them to hand out points in other ways.