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Qantas Business Direct, a loyalty program for businesses and corporate travellers, is closing down from 14 February 2018. Replacing it will be the existing Qantas Business Rewards program.
Qantas Business Direct has been around for many years. The program made it easier for businesses to book corporate travel, offering flight discounts and sending out monthly travel reports. Then, a few years ago, Qantas introduced the Aquire loyalty program for businesses. This program allowed businesses to earn points on company travel bookings that could be later converted to Qantas Frequent Flyer points.
In February 2017, Aquire become the new Qantas Business Rewards program. This program was very similar to Aquire, but some improvements were made. The new Business Rewards program also absorbed some of the functionality of Qantas Business Direct, including access to flight discounts. This made the Business Direct program somewhat redundant.
QBD existed long before Aquire and is the one that is still sending me travel reports outlining my business spend month to month. Aquire’s big disadvantage was that you couldn’t book the discounted fares that QBD offered. Aquire then rebranded itself to QBR and absorbed some of the functionality of QBD and now it’s finally time to say goodbye. Long drawn out process!
Qantas is now consolidating all remaining functionality from Qantas Business Direct into its Qantas Business Rewards program. This will undoubtedly make things less confusing for customers.
I couldnt tell the difference other than QBR to gain points but then QBD to book travel. But you had to join QBD to join QBR (or Aquire as it was back then)
Some brand new features have also been added to Qantas Business Rewards, such as membership levels and access to Qantas Club discounts. According to one AFF member, businesses may also soon be able to book award flights using Business Rewards points.
I recently had a 20min ‘online research session’ with the developers of the Business Rewards website. At the end, they asked if I had any overall recommendations for Business Rewards. I asked why Business Direct is still a separate entity and they advised it will be making a departure shortly. I also learnt that in the near(ish) future we will be able to make Classic Reward bookings through Qantas Business Rewards spending the points that the business has accrued through employee travel – meaning there will be no need to transfer points before they are of any use.
The usual $89.50 joining fee is currently being waived for new Qantas Business Rewards members, so sign up now if you haven’t already.
Join the discussion on the Australian Frequent Flyer forum: Qantas announces closure of Business Direct program
