Rex launches its own frequent flyer program (in October 2023)

[dylarr]

Joined, just put in a retro claim for flights within the last 6 months... we'll see if they get approved.

 

[henrus]

Quite. But it might help reduce overcrowding in QF and VA lounges…..

Not a chance. Rex lounges aren't something to get excited by.

Lacking proper coffee (half the time it seems their pod machine is out of service), a bar that opens at 3pm only (with one choice of red/white/rose plus 2-3 beers), essentially zero charging at most seats, heck they still advertise the "plasma TV" as a feature of the lounge.

The 2.7 stars the Sydney lounge gets is generous with a much more accurate 2.2 stars in Melbourne. It's been over a year since it was first announced that Rex would take over the old VA overflow space in Brisbane so no clue what's going on there either.

Regardless I'm surprised that Emerald tier doesn't get a couple of free passes per year.

A part of me also wonders if the Sapphire and Emerald tiers have been named as such on purpose to status match from QF so they don't have to match to Diamond.

 

[AustraliaPoochie]

But they are rebuilding new lounges, according to the article, in all of the capitals, except PER.
Also too, with giving them time to look into it, I haven't checked, but if their (REX points) do not expire, unlike the other 2, it might a total plus in REX's favour.
Ah, 36 months, is quite a good long time.
But REX fares in J are already so cheap, $349 for ADL - MEL, granted at the moment, the REX ADL lounge has no loo enclosed.
As of now, if you want to go to the loo, you need to tell the solo girl, so that she knows to let you back in, or you will have to chat to the girls outside to re let you in.
The PIN code reader, I think is only good for those with REX (business) flyer membership who can swipe card and PIN to enter.
A long hard road ahead for JS and his team at REX.
But I do have high hopes, lets see what comes in the next year.
===
Personally, no, I am not joining REX Flyer.
Flown them once a few months back, it was a former VA plane.
Will wait till REX gets more planes, and their frequencies gets better.

 

[dajop]

In the T&C for the 5000 bonus points, it states "This offer is valid when you enrol as a Rex Flyer member for the first time."

Uh oh, to quote an earlier post I made, I hope this doesn't disqualify me

View attachment 228505

 

[jase05]

Well tier benefits don't kick in until February next year so a while away to wait.

Even then, I can't see them matching to diamond tier and dishing out free lounge access given how small those spaces are.

I’ve seen it mentioned that they are will match both QF and VA Golds to to Rex Diamond.

 

[HS-TQE]

Personally, no, I am not joining REX Flyer.
Flown them once a few months back, it was a former VA plane.
Will wait till REX gets more planes, and their frequencies gets better.

Per reports from various Fleet websites/forums, ZL are set for more ex-SQ/MI 737-800s leases from SQ.

Will be interesting to see how that goes for them, and whether SQ will lease out their remaining 800NGs to Rex eventually.

 

[XWu]

Interesting Last Minute Flight Rewards rules for Ultimate seats (lowest points required)

At 48 hours before departure: All unsold Economy seats (except 5) will be available as an Ultimate reward

This meant for anyone to score a single Ultimate reward seat in a regional route (Saab 340 capacity 36) you must have at least 6 unsold seats or 17% unsold seats.
This may only happen on non peak schedule flights, since the usual early morning late evening flights are rarely that empty, unless they are on unpopular mid week routes (and trust me, if they are not turning a dime, they will either cut frequency or the entire schedule of the route)

 

[Saab34]

Will be interesting to see how that goes for them, and whether SQ will lease out their remaining 800NGs to Rex eventually.

The remaining SQ leases come off between Sep 24/Jan 26, probably up the lessor not SQ, you would assume they are happy with Rex having already offloaded some, no reason why they wouldn’t give them the rest. It does appear SQ have done a deal with the leasing company for an early exit, they are only flying the -800s for a couple hours each day at the moment.

I would expect Rex to retire the 3x20 year old 738s. Which would leave 4 for growth if they take the 7 from SQ.

 

[oz_mark]

Interesting Last Minute Flight Rewards rules for Ultimate seats (lowest points required)

At 48 hours before departure: All unsold Economy seats (except 5) will be available as an Ultimate reward

This meant for anyone to score a single Ultimate reward seat in a regional route (Saab 340 capacity 36) you must have at least 6 unsold seats or 17% unsold seats.
This may only happen on non peak schedule flights, since the usual early morning late evening flights are rarely that empty, unless they are on unpopular mid week routes (and trust me, if they are not turning a dime, they will either cut frequency or the entire schedule of the route)

Any unsold seat will be available as Ultimate Rewards on the day or departure. It will be interesting to see how this all pans out.

 

[Saab34]

That is a bizarre commercial decision. Last remaining seats in the last 48hrs can be a significant chunk of revenue if sold at cash price. Why would they throw those seats away for basically nothing?

I mean, during peak peak periods, that will be handy.

 

[Must...Fly!]

That is a bizarre commercial decision. Last remaining seats in the last 48hrs can be a significant chunk of revenue if sold at cash price. Why would they throw those seats away for basically nothing?

I mean, during peak peak periods, that will be handy.

I suspect they've compiled enough data on it. And to be frank if they have no external partners then it's a hollow offer as so few people will have any points to spend anyway

 

[oz_mark]

That is a bizarre commercial decision. Last remaining seats in the last 48hrs can be a significant chunk of revenue if sold at cash price. Why would they throw those seats away for basically nothing?

I mean, during peak peak periods, that will be handy.

Well, they are still accounted for as revenue. And in peak periods, they may be harder to come by.
If they get it wrong, I guess it'll disappear (err, be enhanced) in six months.

 

[XWu]

Well, they are still accounted for as revenue. And in peak periods, they may be harder to come by.
If they get it wrong, I guess it'll disappear (err, be enhanced) in six months.

Any unsold seat will be available as Ultimate Rewards on the day or departure. It will be interesting to see how this all pans out.

Thanks for the response, agree that the day of flight clause pretty much released all seats including the 5 seats previously embargoed at 2 days.

Since my last post I actually looked up the Rex webpage which actually states

• 2 days prior to a scheduled departure, all(except 5) unsold economy class seats will be available at our Economy Ultimate reward amount;
• 1 day prior to a scheduled departure, all(except 2) unsold business class seats will be available at our Ultimate reward amount; and
• From midnight on the day of a scheduled departure, any remaining unsold seats will be made available for redemption at our Ultimate reward amount.

so the wording is 2 days not 48 hours (as reported by several frequent flyers articleS) which may imply their cut off may not be as exact as we both assume by the hours left from the scheduled flight of interest, based on their 2 days, 1 day, 0 day approach.
For example a flight of interest departing at 5pm Wednesday may be able booked for ultimate rewards at 12.01 am Monday (2 day before Wednesday) rather than 5pm Monday (48hrs).

it will be interesting to see which approach they ultimately use (pun intended)

 

[MEL_Traveller]

That is a bizarre commercial decision. Last remaining seats in the last 48hrs can be a significant chunk of revenue if sold at cash price. Why would they throw those seats away for basically nothing?

I mean, during peak peak periods, that will be handy.

Well… remember the meltdown a couple weeks ago at SYD… everything cancelled left tight and centre. My friend was on the 4pm VA, with baby. Flight cancelled and offered 9am the next day.

Walked across to Rex, purchased a seat on the 5pm for $179. So despite a meltdown and cancelled flights, rex still couldn’t get to capacity.

Maybe FFers for other airlines are too stubborn to fly rex? or they just don’t know/didn’t think? But certainly they won’t be giving away seats they think they might be able to sell!

 

[dajop]

Maybe FFers for other airlines are too stubborn to fly rex? or they just don’t know/didn’t think? But certainly they won’t be giving away seats they think they might be able to sell!

Don't know. Don't think. Wedded on to their preferred carrier. Rather a night in SYD on someone else's dime ( ). Or constrained by corporate travel policies and processes that might make last minute re-purchase too much hassle to bother with (easier to suck up the delay).

 

[A321]

Joined, just put in a retro claim for flights within the last 6 months... we'll see if they get approved.

I was thinking this but had to read it a couple of times

If you're missing points for a flight you have already flown, you have up to 6 months after you travel to claim. You can also claim points for flights flown up to 30 days before you joined the program, as long as travel date is from 2 October 2023 onwards.

 

[nathano]

The earlier tip about not starting with number was useful.

they now have this tip if you don't pick a suitable password, the requirements are interesting.. had to shorten up my usual passwords

Use min 6 and max 15 characters with a mix of letters, numbers, symbols $@$ ! % * ? & # uppercase characters. The password cannot start with a number.

 

[33kft]

Use min 6 and max 15 characters with a mix of letters, numbers, symbols $@$ ! % * ? & # uppercase characters. The password cannot start with a number.

Excellent work Rex, so what that tells me is that the search space for passwords is between 6 and 15 characters, with a possible 70 characters for each required to work out the password for any given email address, subtracting guesses where the first character is a number. With that sort of info, anyone with the means could very easily crack a user's password if they know their e-mail address.

The whole point with passwords is to unbound the upper end (as many characters/combinations/length as possible) so the problem becomes effectively unlimited, not to limit it to a scope narrow enough that you could code up the algorithm to crack passwords efficiently by skipping things that are not permitted.

 

[anat0l]

Also just realised the points amounts are all flexible based on cheapest fare in the relevant booking class.

Very misleading given they've published an award table when in reality it's the published fare, discounted by between 35-50% (depending on fare class) and then multiplied by 100.

This is the part that confuses me.

So they're saying that the prices of awards can change depending on the published fare. The T&Cs don't really say when they can change these prices and how it works. It would be funny to see if basically this turns into essentially dynamic pricing, maybe with a floor and/or ceiling on how many points you may be paying.

That might mean the last minute award seats may not be all they are cracked up to be, depending on the price of a ticket at the last minute?

I suppose there must be some flyers already who are heavy ZL flyers (maybe miners, maybe mostly those who live in the regions rather than capital cities) who may benefit from this programme quickly.

As someone said, for now it truly is a frequent flyer program. Dubious on how beneficial it actually is, it's hard to deny that the way they award points and status is so incredibly easy to figure out that anyone in a pub could figure it out. It'll get more interesting overall once they start to bring in partners, both in the air and on the ground.

 

[SYD]

How long before the Status Match promo?

Rex to offer status match against Qantas, Virgin Australia

Here’s how Rex will seek to woo and win the frequent flyers of its rivals.

www.executivetraveller.com