Qantas Offers Status Renewals In Exchange for Points

Qantas is offering selected Gold and Platinum frequent flyers the option to pay for 12-month status extensions using frequent flyer points.

After several years of COVID-related status extensions, Qantas resumed downgrading frequent flyers who didn’t meet the usual qualification requirements in July 2023. But Qantas is now offering a final lifeline to selected frequent flyers who haven’t earned enough status credits for renewal.

This exclusive offer isn’t available to everyone. Qantas is only inviting selected frequent flyers to renew their status with points. And there’s no guarantee you’ll get an offer.

But there is a chance. And if you’re quite a bit short of the status credits needed to retain your status tier, it could be a very good deal.

Separately, Qantas has also reduced the status renewal thresholds for Platinum and Platinum One members with membership years ending between July and September 2023 by 20%.

How many Qantas points would you need to spend to renew status?

Selected Qantas Frequent Flyer Gold members have been offered 12-month status extensions for a cost of 80,000 Qantas points. Gold frequent flyers normally need to earn at least 600 status credits during their membership year to renew their status.

A similar deal is available to some lucky Qantas Platinum members. Instead of earning the usual 1,200 status credits to re-qualify for Platinum membership, Qantas is offering renewals for 120,000 points.

If your Qantas Gold or Platinum membership is due to expire in the coming weeks, you may receive an email from Qantas Frequent Flyer. The email invites eligible members to call the Frequent Flyer Service Centre to learn more about the exclusive offer.

Not everyone will receive this offer

Even if you don’t receive an invitation, you may still be able to take up this offer by calling the Qantas Frequent Flyer Service Centre yourself. But, while it can’t hurt to ask, Qantas is under no obligation to sell you a status extension for points.

We don’t know what criteria Qantas uses when deciding which Gold and Platinum members to contact. It’s possible that you would need to have already earned a certain amount of status credits during the year to qualify for this offer. It’s also possible that Qantas will only make this offer if you’ve already held your status continuously for several years.

You probably won’t receive this offer if you:

• Earned zero status credits during your current membership year,
• Have only held your status for 1-2 years so far, or
• Already used Qantas points to renew your status in a previous year.

Some examples of offers received by AFF members

A few AFF members have received Qantas status renewal offers over the past couple of months. Here’s what some of them wrote on our forum:

Didn’t make it to retain Gold this year ,but I have been given a chance to keep it for 80,000 points thoughts on this offer !

I know of someone who renewed their Platinum with points in recent weeks. They were a couple of hundred SC’s short and couldn’t get a SC run in.

Is it worth spending Qantas points to retain status?

Spending points to retain your Qantas status could be worthwhile if you’re well short of the status credits required. It’s also worth considering if you have more Qantas points than you can use, or can easily earn the points back using a credit card sign-up bonus.

As well as lounge access, Qantas status gets you lots of useful benefits when flying with Qantas and other Oneworld Alliance airlines.

On the other hand, 80,000 or 120,000 Qantas points can get you a lot of award flights or upgrades! To put it into perspective, 132,400 Qantas points (plus taxes & carrier charges) is enough to book a round-the-world trip on Oneworld airlines in Economy.

If you don’t plan to travel in the next year, this offer would also have limited value.

If you’re only a little short of the status credits you need to renew in your own right, you might find it better value to book a Qantas status run instead.

Don’t expect a complimentary Qantas status renewal

Until around 2018, Qantas used to sometimes offer complimentary status renewals to loyal frequent flyers on a case-by-case basis. The airline would reportedly consider the average number of status credits you’d earned over the past three years in deciding whether to “comp” your status for another year.

These complimentary status extensions ended around 2018 when Qantas first began selling status extensions for frequent flyer points. The cost in 2018 was the same as today – 80,000 Qantas points for a Gold status renewal or 120,000 points for Platinum.

These offers were paused from early 2020 until June 2023. During that time, most frequent flyers were being given complimentary status extensions anyway.

If you don’t earn enough status credits to renew your Qantas status, and don’t take advantage of a renewal offer, you can expect to be downgraded by one status tier. For example, if you currently have Gold status and don’t renew it, Qantas would downgrade you to Silver at the end of your membership year.

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.