Missing Qantas Points & Status Credits for E190 Flights

Last week, Qantas launched Embraer E190 flights for the first time. Operated by Alliance Airlines on behalf of QantasLink, the E190s will be initially used on the Adelaide-Alice Springs, Alice Springs-Darwin and Darwin-Adelaide routes. Over the coming months, Alliance-operated E190s will also be used on many new Qantas routes including Adelaide-Gold Coast, Darwin-Canberra and Sydney-Townsville.

But there have been some teething issues for frequent flyers, with passengers receiving no Qantas points or status credits on the Alliance-operated E190 flights during the first several days of services.

Numerous AFF members complained that their Qantas E190 flights had incorrectly posted to their Qantas Frequent Flyer accounts as an “ineligible flight”, earning zero Qantas points and no status credits.

For example, flydoc posted on the forum:

Interesting. Flew QF1956 yesterday, the first ADL-ASP E190 flight operated by QQ on behalf of QF. Your post prompted me to check my QFF account activity and lo and behold : zero earn. Hmmm.
– flydoc, 26 May 2021

Another AFF member wrote:

I traveled from DRW-ASP today on a E190 flight, which is QF1958. This flight is operated by Qantaslink and Alliance. I booked this trip on Qantas website, and there are points and SCs for this flight showed on the booking site. But I didn’t earn any points for todays flight.
– travelerrrrrr, 26 May 2021

Qantas has confirmed that the E190 flights operated by Alliance Airlines are eligible to earn points and status credits, the same as any other Qantas-marketed flight.

So, it would seem like a simple enough error to fix… but no so. Several AFF members contacted Qantas to try to get the correct points and status credits reinstated, only for staff to tell them they were unable to do it. Here’s what the two aforementioned AFF members said:

Spoke to Ann from the QFF team earlier today about this. She agreed without hesitation to do a manual credit of points and SC but proved unable to do so at the time. She promised to call me back later and did so an hour later. When she did , she said the system still wasn’t letting it happen and she would escalate it internally and to expect another call back next week.
– flydoc, 27 May 2021

Update: I received an email from qantas. It says Name or Flight number does not match. Maybe this flight is still not in the system. I booked the business fare, there are nearly 3000pts and 60SCs for this flight :(. I will try again on Monday.
– travelerrrrrr, 26 May 2021

Fortunately, there is now some good news for Qantas customers missing points and status credits for flights taken over the past week. Qantas told Australian Frequent Flyer that the issue preventing points & status credits from being awarded for E190 flights should now be fixed. The Qantas Frequent Flyer team is also now manually and retroactively processing flights that were taken last week so that the correct points & status credits are awarded.

New routes often missing from Qantas Points Calculator

This isn’t the only teething issue that has impacted some new Qantas routes.

After Qantas announces a new flight route, there is often a delay before it gets added to the Qantas Points Calculator. This can cause some confusion because routes that are not listed on the Qantas Points Calculators also display on the flight search pages of the Qantas website as earning no points or status credits.

At the time of writing, Qantas routes missing from the points calculator included Perth-Hobart, Adelaide-Townsville, Canberra-Darwin and Perth-Gold Coast. Jetstar’s Newcastle-Cairns route was also missing.

Approached by Australian Frequent Flyer, Qantas confirmed that all of these Qantas routes are eligible to earn points & status credits as per the Qantas & Jetstar earning tables. We understand that this issue with the Qantas website will be fixed soon.

Join the discussion on the Australian Frequent Flyer forum: Qantaslink/Alliance ADL-ASP – flight “ineligible”

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.