Optus & Qantas End Points Partnership

Matt Graham
Optus has introduced three new phone plans that earn Qantas points
Qantas and Optus launched a partnership for the second time in 2021. Photo: Qantas.

Optus and Qantas Frequent Flyer have quietly ended their points-earning partnership.

Since last Friday, 12 April 2024, the telco no longer offers new plans with Qantas points. Existing Optus customers on a Qantas SIM Only Plan can continue to earn points until 11 April 2025.

Qantas appears to have given notice of the change on its website around the end of March. As of now, the Optus partnership page on the Qantas website states:

From 12 April 2024 Qantas Frequent Flyer members can no longer sign up to a Qantas SIM Only Plan by Optus.
Existing Qantas SIM Only Plan customers will continue to earn Qantas Points for a period of 12 months after 11 April 2024.

Australian Frequent Flyer understands that Qantas Frequent Flyer and Optus mutually agreed to end their partnership as they look towards enhancing their loyalty offerings in other ways.

Optus continues to partner with Flybuys to offer bonus Flybuys points on selected products. Flybuys points can be converted into Virgin Australia Velocity points.

Qantas’ former partnership with Optus

Optus had been offering Qantas SIM Only Plans including Qantas Frequent Flyer points since November 2021. Although Optus didn’t offer Qantas points on its other services, customers could earn Qantas points for every dollar spent on specific Qantas SIM Only Plans purchased through Qantas, as well as a one-off sign-up points bonus.

Many AFF members may also remember the two promotions in 2022 when Optus offered up to 60,000 bonus Qantas points when signing up to a “Qantas $99 Promo Plan”. To get the 60,000 bonus points, you just had to keep your plan active for at least three months.

Before this, Qantas Frequent Flyer had also partnered with Optus between 2011 and 2015.

Qantas 737 in Optus livery
Qantas decorated one of its planes in a special Optus livery in 2011. Photo: Robert Frola via Wikimedia Commons.

Between the two periods when it partnered with Optus, Qantas had also teamed up with Vodafone.

Join the discussion on the Australian Frequent Flyer forum
Matt Graham
The editor of Australian Frequent Flyer, Matt's passion for travel has taken him to over 70 countries… with the help of frequent flyer points, of course!
Matt's favourite destinations (so far) are Germany, Brazil & Kazakhstan. His interests include economics, aviation & foreign languages, and he has a soft spot for good food and red wine.

You can connect with Matt by posting on the Australian Frequent Flyer community forum and tagging @AFF Editor.
Matt Graham
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SYD Apr 16, 2024 #2

I’ll be ditching Optus soon, after they canned the $50 plan that included roaming. I negotiated a replacement plan with $20 pm discount (pay $29) but the $5 roaming is too unreliable (fine if you use it everyday, but trying to use ‘as required’ can cause false activations).

Reply 1 Like

justinbrett Apr 17, 2024 #3

Hopefully QF will strike a deal with Telstra. Seems a good fit since they already have their own reward currency.

Reply 5 Likes

SYD Apr 17, 2024 #4

Hopefully QF will strike a deal with Telstra. Seems a good fit since they already have their own reward currency.

Vodafone might be more practical for FFs because their $5 daily roaming is more reliable than Optus and a heluva lot cheaper than Telstra (both plans and roaming).

Reply 3 Likes

T TheDefenestrator Apr 17, 2024 #5

Vodafone might be more practical for FFs because their $5 daily roaming is more reliable than Optus and a heluva lot cheaper than Telstra (both plans and roaming).

Vodafone would be interesting seeing as QF had a partnership with them back in 2016. Does anyone remember when that ended?

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justinbrett Apr 17, 2024 #6

Vodafone might be more practical for FFs because their $5 daily roaming is more reliable than Optus and a heluva lot cheaper than Telstra (both plans and roaming).

QF isn’t really the airline for the price sensitive.

Reply 8 Likes

Peso Apr 17, 2024 #7

I've considered porting to Optus to take up this plan, but I make a lot of intl calls, and the non-inclusion of them (despite having included roaming) is very odd and a non-starter for me.

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bussyboy Apr 17, 2024 #8

Sounds like an opportunity for a new partnership and sign up bonus offer!!

Reply 5 Likes

QPProletarian Apr 18, 2024 #9

I've considered porting to Optus to take up this plan, but I make a lot of intl calls, and the non-inclusion of them (despite having included roaming) is very odd and a non-starter for me.

There was a $10 month add on for this, but they could’ve marketed it better

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dylarr Apr 18, 2024 #10

There was a $10 month add on for this, but they could’ve marketed it better

I believe the current on-market Optus plans include this by default which was one of the only difference between those and the Qantas SIM only plans. It would have been nice if they had of included it to bring the plans into parity, but it's a moot point now.

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