Qantas Considers Points Subscriptions

Qantas’s loyalty business is now much more than just the Qantas Frequent Flyer program. There’s also Qantas Business Rewards, Qantas Club, Qantas Points Club, the Green Tier program, and alongside this, Qantas now sells everything from wine to insurance. There’s not much more that can be added, but that hasn’t stopped Qantas researching the possibility of adding a new points subscription service!

It seems there’s a subscription for everything these days – just ask Woolworths – and Qantas Frequent Flyer could soon get in on the action with a subscription model that allows members to boost their points for a fee.

In a survey sent to members last week, Qantas Frequent Flyer proposed a range of models for the subscription service that would allow members to opt-in to earning more points. Of the different models suggested, there are two basic ideas being floated.

One proposal would see members able to pay a monthly fee to earn 50% more Qantas points, up to an annual limit, either on flights or on all points earned through the Qantas Frequent Flyer program. There could also be additional benefits for subscribers.

The other proposal is that members would be able to boost the points they’ve earned during the past 12 months, either from flights or across other areas of the Qantas Frequent Flyer program, for a special price. Members would be able to earn up to three times the number of points they already earned on chosen transaction types, up to 150,000 Qantas points per year.

The cost of earning these additional points could be around $20 per 1,000 points, which works out to be a cost of 2 cents per Qantas point. That’s not amazing value, but is cheaper than buying top-up points from Qantas.

Members would also be able to earn points for their credit card spend when paying for a subscription or boosting their points.

It’s not clear whether the additional points earned through such a subscription would also count towards Points Club membership, but we’d expect they would.

Other airlines with subscription models

Qantas already offers Qantas Club membership. This comes with lounge access and various other benefits like an increased checked baggage allowance, priority check-in on international flights and, at least in theory, priority call centre service.

But the new service being proposed by Qantas has more of a focus on earning points. It’s somewhat similar to TAP Air Portugal’s “Club TAP Miles&Go” subscriptions. These come with benefits including monthly bonus miles, monthly status miles (equivalent to status credits), priority boarding and extra miles on TAP flights.

Avianca’s LifeMiles program also offers its own Club LifeMiles monthly subscription plans that let you buy miles at a reduced rate, in monthly instalments. As it happens, these aren’t exceptional value because you can often buy miles more cheaply during one of the regular “bonus miles” promotions.

Meanwhile, United MileagePlus offers Award Accelerator which lets members earn bonus miles on United flights for an additional fee.

At this stage, the Qantas proposal is just that. It’ll be interesting to see if this idea take off, and if so, what the terms are.

Join the discussion on the Australian Frequent Flyer forum: QF Top Up Points / Points Subscription survey (New)

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.