Paddy55
Established Member
- Joined
- Sep 30, 2006
- Posts
- 1,475
(Edited to correct maths errors)
My QFF card says I joined in April 1988... about 25 years ago and after the program began in 1987.
My AAdvantage card says I joined in June 1981... 32 years ago and just one month after it was launched!
These were the very early and formative days on FF programs and were initially just that... programs to build allegiance to an airline in an era of greatly expanding flying for the average person. You only earned points for flying and redeemed those points on upgrades and free flights. I did a lot of flying in the 1980s, based half that time in the USA and boy did FFs 'feel the love' from their airlines. I think QF and AA certainly felt the love from me by continued loyalty.
I doubt any airline looked upon their FF programs as money making ventures as such and suspect various heads of QF might be rolling in their graves at the notion that the FF program was the only reason they didn't make a loss last year!
So, the years have gone by and airlines have found that they can make their FF programs more appealing by:
In the process these programs have evolved, sorry transformed, from devices that reward Airline loyalty to big money making machines for some airlines, and few do it better than QF. QFs program certainly now doesn't have as much to do with rewarding loyalty to flying products these days as it once did.
So, particularly after joining AFF in 2006 I went from being the average dolt who just redeemed points for DJs $100 cards at 16,000 points a throw to one who tried to exploit the full benefit of QF's JASA's, Double SC offers, DONE4s, upgrades to J & F, my Comm Bank Diamond Amex and Woolies MC & EDRC... in other words I've put some thought into maximising the accumulating of points and SCs and made each of those points travel further than I thought possible.
As an aside I'd like to remind QF that no one held a gun to their head to offer their program components... including the good value ASAs, points based on distance, points and SCs for OneWorld travel, etc. Ditto with the bonus points offered by their partners eg Woolies, and I certainly haven't asked QF to email me offers of Double SCs several times over the years - in fact all I have done is utilise generally available offers so don't lecture me about "shortcuts" or imply I'm rorting anything - if you were too stupid to foresee some of the consequences of your rules and offers then hire people who are better at it!
QF is probably feeling schizophrenic about people like me - on the one hand happy that I'm "loyal", ridiculously loyal in some ways, but I've been redeeming those points on the higher value, and for QF, higher cost, premium flight related rewards. I have no doubt some people in in QF HATE me for my earning/burning ways (and by extension my friends on AFF)... sure they're happy for some of us to get an upgrade every now and then on SYD-MEL or an economy award for SYD - LAX (available for return travel in Nov 2014 for 96,000 points + $852 in fuel fines, 190,000 points all in or $1,299 cash fare - why do people still think this is good use of points... clearly QF make a statement to me about my value with an 'offer' like this?).
But the bean counters would not appreciate some of us getting more than what they think is our "fair share".
So, to me, I reject the QF double speak about "Fairer, more simplified program" - to me it is a plain and simple devaluation of 30% or so in value and you are treating like minded FFs as idiots pure and simple by positioning it differently.
I'll take some time to assess continuing with QF or switching completely to AAdvantage... or Virgin - not sure on that, but I'll do what suits me with a clearer (and diminished) understanding of how QF values me.
One final thing, and speaking as a past CEO of a couple of (small) companies, and director of several currently, surely sufficient time has passed for shareholders to realise that the current Board and CEO have only presided over a slashing of shareholder value, a gutting of QFi, and there time should be up! I mean where's the way forward to say, moving the share price from today's $1.085 to even Jan 2010's $3?
My QFF card says I joined in April 1988... about 25 years ago and after the program began in 1987.
My AAdvantage card says I joined in June 1981... 32 years ago and just one month after it was launched!
These were the very early and formative days on FF programs and were initially just that... programs to build allegiance to an airline in an era of greatly expanding flying for the average person. You only earned points for flying and redeemed those points on upgrades and free flights. I did a lot of flying in the 1980s, based half that time in the USA and boy did FFs 'feel the love' from their airlines. I think QF and AA certainly felt the love from me by continued loyalty.
I doubt any airline looked upon their FF programs as money making ventures as such and suspect various heads of QF might be rolling in their graves at the notion that the FF program was the only reason they didn't make a loss last year!
So, the years have gone by and airlines have found that they can make their FF programs more appealing by:
- Creating alliances with Hotel Chains and Rental Cars
- Creating alliances with other Airlines
- Creating alliances with just about any company
In the process these programs have evolved, sorry transformed, from devices that reward Airline loyalty to big money making machines for some airlines, and few do it better than QF. QFs program certainly now doesn't have as much to do with rewarding loyalty to flying products these days as it once did.
So, particularly after joining AFF in 2006 I went from being the average dolt who just redeemed points for DJs $100 cards at 16,000 points a throw to one who tried to exploit the full benefit of QF's JASA's, Double SC offers, DONE4s, upgrades to J & F, my Comm Bank Diamond Amex and Woolies MC & EDRC... in other words I've put some thought into maximising the accumulating of points and SCs and made each of those points travel further than I thought possible.
As an aside I'd like to remind QF that no one held a gun to their head to offer their program components... including the good value ASAs, points based on distance, points and SCs for OneWorld travel, etc. Ditto with the bonus points offered by their partners eg Woolies, and I certainly haven't asked QF to email me offers of Double SCs several times over the years - in fact all I have done is utilise generally available offers so don't lecture me about "shortcuts" or imply I'm rorting anything - if you were too stupid to foresee some of the consequences of your rules and offers then hire people who are better at it!
QF is probably feeling schizophrenic about people like me - on the one hand happy that I'm "loyal", ridiculously loyal in some ways, but I've been redeeming those points on the higher value, and for QF, higher cost, premium flight related rewards. I have no doubt some people in in QF HATE me for my earning/burning ways (and by extension my friends on AFF)... sure they're happy for some of us to get an upgrade every now and then on SYD-MEL or an economy award for SYD - LAX (available for return travel in Nov 2014 for 96,000 points + $852 in fuel fines, 190,000 points all in or $1,299 cash fare - why do people still think this is good use of points... clearly QF make a statement to me about my value with an 'offer' like this?).
But the bean counters would not appreciate some of us getting more than what they think is our "fair share".
So, to me, I reject the QF double speak about "Fairer, more simplified program" - to me it is a plain and simple devaluation of 30% or so in value and you are treating like minded FFs as idiots pure and simple by positioning it differently.
I'll take some time to assess continuing with QF or switching completely to AAdvantage... or Virgin - not sure on that, but I'll do what suits me with a clearer (and diminished) understanding of how QF values me.
One final thing, and speaking as a past CEO of a couple of (small) companies, and director of several currently, surely sufficient time has passed for shareholders to realise that the current Board and CEO have only presided over a slashing of shareholder value, a gutting of QFi, and there time should be up! I mean where's the way forward to say, moving the share price from today's $1.085 to even Jan 2010's $3?
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