Qantas unveils the biggest changes to status in program history

[elanshin]

The other problem with points club was that it was kind of confusing for people that aren't in it. You have this points tracker that resets to 0 tied to your actual QFF balance so some people get scared by that. Bunch of other questions about what counts and what doesn't.

Overall i think QF is trying to keep these progress bar things to a minimum now.

 

[jamesatfish]

I assume the rollover SC only applies if you exceed the retain for your current tier. If you fail to retain then a soft landing and that’s it.

The rollover is a change from rewarding absolute loyalty to rewarding relative loyalty.

Today, I get a loyalty bonus for every 500SCs I earn. Every dollar of my spend with Qantas sees me be rewarded for my loyalty. If I’m a little less loyal this year I just get a little less bonus, but I still get something.

The new policy requires me to be more loyal than last year to be rewarded. A SC earn of 3599 for a WP will score them a 500SC pat on the back for being more loyal than their last membership year. For a P1 it scores them zero for being less loyal than before.

 

[sudoer]

For a P1 it scores them zero for being less loyal than before.

I understand what you're saying, but for a P1, having the rollover also incentivises crediting further trips (past 3600 SC) during the same membership year to QFF instead of shifting spend to other airlines/alliances.

Until now, P1s have had little reason to continue crediting to QFF past 3600 SC, unless LTP was viable.

 

[Lukedb1985]

I’m having a hard time finding the benefit in these changes.


Qantas has put cream on cough and called it cake—and done a very good job of convincing people it’s a win.


Let’s break it down.


Points earners lose Points Club and Points Club Plus. In return, they can earn up to 140 Status Credits through spending, but if they rarely fly, 140 Status Credits doesn’t even get them Silver status. Many also lose benefits such as Qantas Club membership, Status Credits on Classic Reward flights and the Points Club Plus rollover.


Silver, Gold and Platinum members are also worse off. The annual retention requirements are increasing by 50 Status Credits for Silver, 100 for Gold and 200 for Platinum. Green Tier—and its choice of 50 Status Credits—is disappearing, while the Loyalty Bonus of 50 Status Credits or 8,000 points for every 500 eligible flight Status Credits is also being retired.


Take a Gold member earning 1,000 eligible flight Status Credits each year: they can currently receive 100 Status Credits through two Loyalty Bonuses and another 50 through Green Tier. Under the new system, those 150 credits disappear, Gold retention increases from 600 to 700, and the replacement is a maximum of 140 Status Credits that requires spending across multiple Qantas partner categories.


That member is up to 250 Status Credits worse off before earning any of the new ground credits—and still effectively 110 Status Credits worse off even if they manage to earn the full 140.


For higher-tier members, the story is similar. The only clear improvement is the rollover, but even that is being oversold. Gold, Platinum and Platinum One members only roll over 50% of Status Credits earned above the higher attainment threshold, it is capped, and rolled credits don’t count toward Lifetime Status.


The previous system was already balanced: Frequent Flyer status rewarded people who flew, while Points Club rewarded people who earned points through shopping and credit cards. This isn’t rebalancing—it looks like cost-cutting and increased partner spending dressed up as an enhancement.

 

[equus]

The new policy requires me to be more loyal than last year to be rewarded. A SC earn of 3599 for a WP will score them a 500SC pat on the back for being more loyal than their last membership year. For a P1 it scores them zero for being less loyal than before.

I am not sure we have seen enough detail on the scenario where you fail to retain status to be sure how rollover will work. With the alignment of attain / retain the whole concept of retain is really redundant - you effectively attain status again fresh each year with the same target regardless of what status you had before. If rollower is treated on that basis, it should make little difference what status you had before - WP or P1. It may be that you end up just assessed as achieved WP, and then rollover the 500SC allowed from the excess of making it - and the fact that you were P1 before is not relevant. It really depends on whether the assessment is done on new or old status.

What could be really interesting is what the system does on late creditting after the end of the year, and when rollover occurs. Imagine a WP sitting on 3590 at the end of the status year. renews WP having failed to make P1, rolls over 500SC then a week later a flight from the previous status year posts for 20SC. Do you get P1 (on past history, yes you do) - do the 500SC rolled over get clawed back?

 

[Basalt]

snip <
Qantas has put cream on cough and called it cake—and done a very good job of convincing people it’s a win.
>

1000% agree! For most people, it will absolutely be negative all around. The maths just doesn't add up to be a plus on average. Only those who regularly go over the attain threshold will 'benefit' except they won't because they've gone over. Only if you have lumpy earns year to year, where you earn heaps, then not enough, then heaps, then not enough, will it be a plus. That's a subset of a subset of flyers.

t's a zero-sum game, period.

In our case, we both earn 400K plus points a year each (highly profitable to QF), maintain level 3 business rewards. Points + club helped us maintain WP. The new regime, yeh nah. We're going to get bugger all benefit from it. LTG is imminent, then it's BFOD all the way for us.

 

[bPeteb]

All I'm going to say is I'm very happy to get to LTG in October and then I just don't care about QFF.

PC was just something that happened and I got wine and hotel vouchers. $100. Big whoop. We haven't ever played the cc churn game. Sure, our loss, but whatever.

Green tier helped me in my quest for WP the last few years. I won't ever be aiming for WP again. I doubt we'd even bother aiming for 700 for SG if I didn't have it for life.

This Christmas we're flying SQ for the first time ever and we'll see what we think. I've already booked points y/y+ flights to Europe next year that will introduce us to AY. BFOTD with anyone OW will be our go to.

I think Qantas and QFF lost its way the moment the program became Qantas frequent spender. Free lounge passes with credit cards filled the lounges to over flowing. The biggest whiners about not being able to get into lounges or find redemptions were usually less than frequent flyers with huge points balances.

Maybe this is the reset the program needed (an unpopular opinion I'm sure).

 

[elanshin]

This Christmas we're flying SQ for the first time ever and we'll see what we think. I've already booked points y/y+ flights to Europe next year that will introduce us to AY. BFOTD with anyone OW will be our go to.

Just to temper your expectations here AY economy is sliding down to LCC status very quickly. Their Business class is up there but their economy is pretty dire. Bring food onboard.

 

[sudoer]

Just to temper your expectations here AY economy is sliding down to LCC status very quickly. Their Business class is up there but their economy is pretty dire. Bring food onboard.

Don't forget the one complimentary glass of a mild alcoholic beverage (excluding sparkling wine) on long haul flights! Any additional alcohol is chargeable.

 

[VPS]

All I'm going to say is I'm very happy to get to LTG in October and then I just don't care about QFF.

PC was just something that happened and I got wine and hotel vouchers. $100. Big whoop. We haven't ever played the cc churn game. Sure, our loss, but whatever.

Green tier helped me in my quest for WP the last few years. I won't ever be aiming for WP again. I doubt we'd even bother aiming for 700 for SG if I didn't have it for life.

This Christmas we're flying SQ for the first time ever and we'll see what we think. I've already booked points y/y+ flights to Europe next year that will introduce us to AY. BFOTD with anyone OW will be our go to.

I think Qantas and QFF lost its way the moment the program became Qantas frequent spender. Free lounge passes with credit cards filled the lounges to over flowing. The biggest whiners about not being able to get into lounges or find redemptions were usually less than frequent flyers with huge points balances.

Maybe this is the reset the program needed (an unpopular opinion I'm sure).

I've earned hardly any SC with Qantas since LTG about 5 years ago and still have a few points to churn but will get through them.

 

[bPeteb]

Just to temper your expectations here AY economy is sliding down to LCC status very quickly. Their Business class is up there but their economy is pretty dire. Bring food onboard.

We have no expectations. We're not pointy end flyers so to be honest that just doesn't bother us. All we want is a seat, a meal and a drink. We're well past the need to be downing drinks for the entirety of a flight. We can pay for an entire holiday with what J flights cost, but each to their own. However much I enjoy flying, a flight is just a means to a destination.

 

[XavierP]

Just to temper your expectations here AY economy is sliding down to LCC status very quickly. Their Business class is up there but their economy is pretty dire. Bring food onboard.

Thank you for this! I am learning a great deal about airlines these days it seems, some through hard lessons!

 

[RooFlyer]

1000% agree! For most people, it will absolutely be negative all around. The maths just doesn't add up to be a plus on average. Only those who regularly go over the attain threshold will 'benefit' except they won't because they've gone over. Only if you have lumpy earns year to year, where you earn heaps, then not enough, then heaps, then not enough, will it be a plus. That's a subset of a subset of flyers.

Can't agree with that; certainly not a negative all round. If you go over the attain threshold, then 50% of your excess gets rolled over. Then, you can plan how you credit the next year's flying; aim to have an excess again, or plan to credit so much to QFF and the excess to another scheme.

Sure, not for everyone, but no part of a FF scheme is.

I'll have a rollover of about 400SCs in February next year; I'll be crediting my international flights to QR to maintain Gold there (and maybe get to Plat - see how it goes) and the rollover will allow me to retain Plat on QF as well.

 

[Kangol]

Good thing they are keeping the loyalty bonus until 2027.
That plus the PCP announcement.
Without both, I would be just short of requalifying P1.
Nothing worse than missing out by a small margin

 

[nancypants]

Good thing they are keeping the loyalty bonus until 2027.
That plus the PCP announcement.
Without both, I would be just short of requalifying P1.
Nothing worse than missing out by a small margin

I thought the loyalty bonus was gone on 8th December 2026?

 

[Kangol]

I thought the loyalty bonus was gone on 8th December 2026?

See here:

F

Post in thread 'Qantas unveils the biggest changes to status in program history'

Thursday at 10:30 AM

From QF website, my reading is launching On the Ground SC starts December 8th and changes to attain/retain tier will be later 2027 @RooFlyer @ish

• Flyfrequently

 

[Big John]

The other problem with points club was that it was kind of confusing for people that aren't in it.

+ 1. I had an even harder time trying to explain the changes to my wife!

 

[nancypants]

See here:

F

Post in thread 'Qantas unveils the biggest changes to status in program history'

Thursday at 10:30 AM

From QF website, my reading is launching On the Ground SC starts December 8th and changes to attain/retain tier will be later 2027 @RooFlyer @ish

• Flyfrequently

FML the comms are so ridiculously confusing at this point

 

[LionKing]

Can I ask if status rollover can only be used once?
In this case:
in 2027 - Earn 2400 SC Retain QF PT with 500 SC Rollover
In 2028 - Start with 500 SC, then earn 900 SC to get 1400 SC for QF PT
How many SCs do you need to get 500 SC Rollover in 2029?
On top of the 1400 SC, is it 1000 or 1500 SC?
Furthermore, can I use the SC Rolled over to quality for P1?

 

[RooFlyer]

Can I ask if status rollover can only be used once?

Your answers are here. If it doesn't say you can't (WRT your queries), assume you can.

https://www.qantas.com/en-au/frequent-flyer/program-changes#status-credit-rollover