Frequent Flyer program Qantas has announced changes to it’s loyalty program today. I won’t cover the changes in depth, but here are some key points:
- Qantas will be adding 1,000,000 more award seats annually. This includes new partner airlines:
- Air New Zealand
- Air France/KLM
- Carrier charges will be decreased by up to 50%
- Award prices for economy flights will drop by 10-15%
- Award prices for premium economy/business flights will increase by 10-15%
- Creation of a Points Club program (basically watered down elite status for people who earn points through on ground methods such as credit cards)
- Introduction of lifetime Platinum status
Ausbt has a more in depth break down found here. Qantas was trumpeting this as ‘the biggest overhaul to the airline’s loyalty program in its 32 year history’, not sure what past changes have been like but this feels relatively minor. A lot of people were expecting a dynamic pricing model, but that obviously didn’t happen. I do think the idea of a points club for status is interesting, although most card issuers get around that by award real status for meeting annual spend requirements. Keep in mind currently there are two stackable transfer bonuses:
- [YMMV] American Express Transfer Bonus: 20% Qantas (1:1.2) – Stack With Qantas Offer
- [YMMV] American Express Transfer Bonus: 15-30% Qantas (1:1.15 or 1.3)
Quick update: It’s only specific flights on Air NZ/KLM/AirFrance: Can now book reward flights on Air NZ domestically in NZ, and between Paris and Singapore or Hong Kong on Air France, and Between Amsterdam and Singapore on KLM. Also a bunch of Thailand domestic flights now available on Bangkok Airways
The Points Club program is unsurprising – the criminal sods at the Reserve Bank of Australia have completely murdered earn via card spend in Australia due to their conflict of interest and pathetic ideology.
How so?
The MSF rates in Australia are heavily regulated by the RBA. There has been a constant reduction of these rates, and the 4 major banks in the country partnered with American Express to issue cards that provided a higher earn rate.
The RBA then decided that bank-issued American Express cards would be subject to the same MSF caps, and attempted to ensure that Scheme Card costs were transparent – they failed completely as they demonstrably had no idea as to how acquiring arrangements actually work (a previous employer saw their banking partners move all payment arrangements into an average fee arrangement due to this idiocy).
Further, the RBA have never acted on the massive dishonour fees associated with Direct Debit rejections on both the part of the financial institution and the party attempting to extract payment, not to mention the RBA’s involvement with the New Payment Platform (they’re a sponsor and profit sharing body).
In particular, Glenn Stevens needs to be charged with criminal conduct – at the same time he excused EPAL (EFTPOS Australia Limited) from observation, he facilitated additional controls on Australian banks and their card issuing practices under the guise of helping businesses and consumers.
There has been zero reduction in cost, no additional transparency in payment method cost and American Express have (understandably) reduced the level of earn across the program in Australia due to a lack of competition.
I’m building a website to send demands of compensation to the man for the reduction in earn.