Less than Half of Qantas Points Are Earned from Flying

Qantas Frequent Flyer may have started out as a loyalty program primarily aimed at business travellers. But of the 175 billion Qantas points earned by Qantas Frequent Flyer members in the last financial year, more than half were from non-flying activities.

“In FY23, more Qantas Points were earned on the ground than through flying,” the airline said in a recent press release about the launch of its loyalty program’s new partnership with Accent Group.

With so many ways to earn lots of Qantas points on the ground in 2023, this isn’t all that surprising. For example, you can earn lots of points through Qantas credit card offers, Qantas Wine deals, shopping at Woolworths or shopping online via the Qantas Shopping Online Mall – to name just a few options.

Qantas and its partner airlines operate many thousands of flights every day. Frequent flyers are on many of these flights, earning lots of points in the process. But the points earned from flying are just no match for the points people are earning for other activities!

In fact, around 35% of credit card transactions in Australia are made on cards that earn Qantas points. That’s huge. It’s a testament to the success, wide reach, wide appeal – and also the dominance – of the Qantas Frequent Flyer program.

Most Qantas points earned for flying are from Qantas & Jetstar flights

In a February 2022 investor presentation, Qantas stated that around 40% of the points it issues to members are from flights operated by Qantas Group airlines. These include Qantas, QantasLink and Jetstar.

In general, Qantas issues the other 60% of points on behalf of third parties, which pay Qantas for the points. This includes points earned by Qantas Frequent Flyer members flying with partner airlines like Emirates or other Oneworld carriers, as well as points earned on the ground.

Those figures are based on pre-COVID data and could have changed a bit in the past few years. But if we assume that the figures are still roughly accurate, it would mean less than 20% of the points issued for flying activities are from partner airline flights.

It makes sense that the majority of Qantas Frequent Flyer members would be flying with Qantas or Jetstar most of the time. After all, most would live in Australia. Qantas Frequent Flyer also generally awards fewer points for flights taken on partner airlines, which could have an impact.

Qantas Frequent Flyers redeem most of their points in the air

Although less than half of Qantas points are earned from flying, the vast majority are redeemed in the air.

According to Qantas’ pre-COVID figures, around 70% of redemptions are on Qantas Group flights. That would include things such as:

• Classic Flight Reward bookings on Qantas, QantasLink or Jetstar
• Classic Upgrade Rewards on Qantas flights
• Points Plus Pay flight bookings

Qantas frequent flyers can use their points in many ways other than just booking or upgrading Qantas flights. They can redeem points on partner airlines, and there’s an ever-growing array of ways to use points on the ground.

In recent years, Qantas has been encouraging members to use more of their points for things like retail purchases and hotel bookings. It has had some success. The loyalty program reported that the number of Qantas Hotels bookings made using Qantas points tripled after it improved the redemption value by 30%.

With Qantas Frequent Flyer members earning 20 billion more points than they redeemed last year, the airline will need to continue looking for more ways to encourage more people to use their points. Unused points are a (growing) liability on the airline’s balance sheet.

But redeeming for Qantas flights or upgrades is still by far the most popular use of points. It’s also where you’ll typically get the best value. So it’s no surprise that that’s exactly how most people prefer to redeem them.

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.