Why Does Qantas Frequent Flyer Use Middle Initials?

If you joined the Qantas Frequent Flyer program more than a few years ago, the name on your profile probably includes your middle initial. You may be wondering: Why is this, and does it matter?

Why older QFF accounts include middle initials

Previously, Qantas Frequent Flyer used to ask for members’ first and middle names in separate fields when joining the program. The middle name field was optional.

Several years ago, Qantas Frequent Flyer removed the “middle name” field. When you join the program, Qantas now just asks for your first and last name as shown on your ID:

This matches the format on Australian passports, which just have fields for the surname and first name/s. On your passport, any middle names are simply added after your first name on the same line.

For some reason, when Qantas Frequent Flyer removed the “middle name” field, it also changed the first names on existing accounts to add everyone’s middle initial/s.

Does this matter?

In general, this isn’t a big issue. But it is something to be aware of when booking a flight.

When you book a flight, and you’re logged in, the Qantas website automatically pre-fills your details. If the first name on your profile includes a middle initial/s, it will also pre-fill this.

We’re aware of at least one AFF member who didn’t notice this before manually adding their middle name to a Classic Reward booking involving a partner airline. The name on the booking was then incorrectly shown in the format of “JOHN R RICHARD WAYNE”. (This is not the person’s actual name.)

It’s not clear whether this would have caused any issues when checking in for the flight. But just in case, they tried calling Qantas to remove the erroneous middle initial.

Qantas told us that it waives any name change fees if required simply due to a pre-population issue such as this one. But after many frustrating hours of trying to call Qantas, this AFF member was unable to correct the name on the booking.

In general, if you travel on a booking that includes your middle initial rather than the full middle name, it’s unlikely to be a problem. There may be rare cases where an airline or immigration authority insists that the name on a booking exactly matches the name on your passport. But in 99% of cases, it’s a non-issue.

Possible issues with points crediting

There could occasionally be issues with frequent flyer points not automatically crediting to your account if the name on your ticket doesn’t match the name on your frequent flyer account. This isn’t a problem when crediting Qantas flights to Qantas Frequent Flyer. But it could cause complications from time to time with crediting flights on partner airlines.

This isn’t generally an issue when your frequent flyer account just includes your first and last name, while your ticket also includes a middle name/s. But there can very occasionally be glitches when it’s the other way around.

For this reason, it may be a good idea when joining a frequent flyer program as a new member to just include your first and last name. That said, some airlines (like Singapore Airlines) insist the name on any award tickets you book for yourself must match the name on both your loyalty account and passport. So, entering your name as it appears on your passport is generally best practice.

You can provide Qantas with your preferred name

If the middle initial on your profile is bugging you, you can contact the Qantas Frequent Flyer Service centre to change the name on your account. Qantas may ask for a copy of your ID.

You can also add a “preferred name” to your Qantas Frequent Flyer profile. That way, you can be called “Sam” rather than “Samantha P” in communications from Qantas.

Qantas told us that it hasn’t received any complaints about middle initials on frequent flyer member profiles. We’d agree that – in general – it really isn’t a big deal. It’s just an interesting quirk of the program!

And if you don’t have a middle name, you’ll never have to worry about any of this. 🙂

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.