The Power of the AFF Community

A community can be a powerful thing. There’s nothing like the power of an engaged – and at times enraged – community to help each other out. To learn from each other. And to bring about positive change.

I’ve had the privilege of being part of the Australian Frequent Flyer (AFF) community for more than a decade. Within the airline and frequent flyer space in Australia, we have a reputation for being opinionated and extremely passionate. We’re also a very welcoming and generous community. There’s nothing quite like it.

The AFF community is certainly a diverse one. We’re made up of people from all over Australia and around the world, of all ages and backgrounds. Some members of our frequent flyer community post prolifically and attend many of our in-person social events. Many more are “lurkers” who enjoy reading the website, but perhaps feel a bit too intimidated to post regularly on the forum. (I do hope that, after posting for the first time or attending an AFF social event, that feeling dissipates!)

Knowledge is power

The very reason AFF exists is to empower members with the knowledge and the community to travel better.

I’m often amazed by the collective knowledge on AFF. Whether it’s a question about Star Alliance lounge access in Blantyre, how to reach Platinum status in the most cost-effective way, or why there are no longer paper towels in the Qantas Club bathrooms, our members usually know the answer. And they’re happy to share that knowledge to help the rest of the community, giving others the power to make more informed decisions.

AFF also offers lots of resources to help simplify the complex frequent flyer game, from our articles to our webinars and Frequent Flyer Training courses. We also recently held our first in-person Masterclass day, which was a hit and definitely won’t be the last. All of these things are designed to make complex strategies easily digestible, helping Australians to beat the airlines at their own game.

This knowledge has given some members of the community the power to improve their lives in very meaningful ways.

On a personal note, I’ve enjoyed meeting many members of the AFF community of the past years and hearing their stories. Some AFF members are now long-term personal friends.

Decision makers read AFF

Another thing that often amazes me is how many airline and loyalty program managers and executives read AFF regularly.

You may be surprised to know, for example, that the CEO of one of Australia’s largest loyalty programs knows the usernames of numerous AFF members off by heart. And in airline offices around the country, employees are regularly browsing AFF.

The people running airlines and loyalty programs in Australia care what the AFF community thinks. In fact, they find the forum posts on AFF extremely valuable as this feedback is about as honest and real-time as it gets. Whenever a frequent flyer program announces some sort of “enhancement”, you can be sure they are reading the comments on AFF as a litmus test.

One of my media colleagues from another aviation website recently told me that some of the airline PR representatives are a bit scared of what AFF might say. I think we can take that as a compliment. It means they take AFF seriously and care about our opinions.

AFF keeps airlines and loyalty programs honest

During my time as AFF Editor, I’m proud that AFF has been able to advocate strongly and bring about positive changes for the frequent flyer community.

One example of this was in 2018, when AFF publicly called for Qantas to reduce its carrier charges on Classic Reward bookings. At the time, most Qantas Frequent Flyer members weren’t even aware that these were not genuine third-party taxes, nor that they were so high. Qantas reduced its carrier charges the following year.

Those charges have unfortunately crept back up again since then. But the AFF Point Valuations are now in place to keep frequent flyer programs honest over the longer term. If an airline reduces the value of its points going forward, this will now be plainly obvious to see.

In 2022, we worked with Qantas on a solution for the ticketing failures that resulted in thousands of Classic Flight Reward bookings getting randomly cancelled.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, AFF helped a lot of Australians who needed to travel or got stuck overseas. We also helped to keep airlines honest during that tumultuous post-COVID era when the industry simply wasn’t ready for the sudden surge in demand.

AFF has had many small victories, too. For example, we’ve helped many people to get the compensation they’re owed from airlines. More recently, the backlash from the frequent flyer community to Qantas excluding double status credits from counting towards lifetime status was so strong that Qantas reversed course after a day.

There are still many more changes that the frequent flyer community would like to see. One pet peeve among AFF members, for example, is loyalty programs with hard expirations on their points or miles. But it’s easier to make your voice heard when you’re part of a community.

I’ll never forget how proud and simultaneously embarrassed I was when the audience at our recent annual gathering applauded an AFF member’s comment to the Singapore Airlines representative that they’ll never transfer points to KrisFlyer until they change their expiration policy. Luckily, our guest speaker Udhara handled it well – and no doubt left with some valuable member feedback to pass along to his head office.

But I think AFF’s biggest achievement has been empowering everyday Australians to successfully navigate the complex world of frequent flyer programs to their advantage.

One AFF member recently told me that thanks to strategies she learned from AFF, she’s now able to fly herself and her husband in Business Class when they visit family in Italy, despite their limited means. That was heartwarming to hear.

Thank you for being part of the AFF community

AFF is a great community, but a community is only as good as the sum of its parts. Everyone who contributes to AFF, including our moderators and every single one of our members, helps to make it better. So, whether you’re a regular poster or just visit AFF occasionally, we want to say a big THANK YOU for helping to make our wonderful frequent flyer community what it is!

Without people like you, there would be no AFF. Australia’s frequent flyers would be all the worse for that.

What does the AFF community mean to you? Let us know on the forum!