Yes, well, it’s come around to another post about Australia’s flag carrier, Qantas. Today I want to focus a little on their Frequent Flyer Program, which once was a really solid program. But in the recent years since Covid has not quite been what it once was. Although I haven’t booked a flight recently I am always dreaming of possible future journeys and seeing what routes are possible through both Qantas and Velocity Frequent Flyer Programs.

In April of this year Qantas announced an overhaul of its Frequent Program promising 20 million new seats on both domestic and international flights, and introducing the Classic Plus Flight Rewards system, which is really an expansion of a previous system where you can use your points to purchase a non-rewards seat. For example, a rewards seat might be 41,000 points, however you can purchase a non-rewards seat for 250,000 points (economy). Now of course, that makes little sense on a flight where rewards seats are available, however you will find them on many flights – loads of flights – that you cannot find rewards seats on. However, at that rate you could have SIX rewards seats for the price of one ‘Classic Plus Flight Rewards’ seat. When you consider how much you spend etc to get that many points, you are going to better off paying money for it.

So let’s see how it all stacks up. Above I have done a search for a flight next year in April. 41,900 points on the direct Qantas flight – Qantas code shares with American Airlines but there are no direct flights or Pacific Ocean crossing flights on offer through American Airlines. So straight up one change is that it’s very hard to find flights exiting Australia on an airline other than Qantas. Case in point – I also looked for flights to Santiago in Chile, and the only options I can find were with Qantas. In 2016 I flew with points on Latam, who also code share with Qantas. There simply are no options when researching today with Latam until you arrive in South America.

Back to the flight to LAX – 41,900 pts on the direct service as the only option on this day (and it also checks out for other days) as a rewards seat. So then we move on to ‘Classic Plus’ as they are calling it. 211,500 point is a massive jump. According to an article in The Guardian, Classic Plus Rewards are based on the cash price for the flight at one cent per point. Which means the economy seat should cost $2,115AUD. That’s one way to LAX from Sydney. I’m showing you Sydney to LAX because there are no reward options that are vaguely sensible from Melbourne where I’m based.

On this basis a Classic Business Reward Seat at 468,900 points would be $4,689AUD. Which is not a bad price actually for a Business Class seat for a 14 hour flight. Interestingly you can save on your points taking a slower route at 141,900 points if you route through Brisbane. HOWEVER – try to book the flight direct from Brisbane, it goes up to 161,500 points and there are no straight reward seats on offer. They also offer a routing back via Sydney which when you think about it is quite amusing!

I checked out what they offer via cash and indeed the rate is 1 cent per point. For example the third option here offers a Classic Plus Economy Reward at 141,900 points plus $274 in tax. The Sale fare is $1679. $1419 plus $274 is $1693, so in fact it was just under 1 cent per point. For reference, Business Class seats are reputed to go for 1.5 cents per point, making them slightly better value.

So what sort of value does this represent? Generally on a visa card you might find a card that gives you one point per dollar spent. American Express are usually more generous some offering 1.5 points per dollar spent. It doesn’t mean that every point represents a dollar spent though, there are other ways to earn points faster – shopping through the Qantas Website at certain retailers for example, or when you first get a rewards credit card they often shower you will points up to 120,000 on the right card. But would I use such a big swag of points for flight? No, I don’t think so. I tend to play around with routes and itineraries until I can find something that feels more in my favour, and this Classic Plus Rewards system is a bit of a scam to be fair.

Qantas have more flights that are hidden remember. You need to call to find them. I booked a flight in 2023 from Cairo to Doha on Qatar Airways with Qantas points, a flight that did not appear as an option when searching online. However, calling Qantas Frequent Flyer I gave my dates and lo and behold, a flight appeared! And using the call centre they charged me an extra 7500 points (I think). By using the multi-city facility you can also reveal flights from destinations that don’t appear on your standard search – on the second line onwards, you need to already have a flight filing the first line.

Every couple of years it seems Qantas announce a raft of changes to the Frequent Flyer Program. Let’s be clear – it’s the most profitable part of the airline, and in general Frequent Flyer Programs are these days for a lot of airlines because basically those points you earn on your card, or shopping or at a hotel, Qantas SOLD those points to company that gave them to you.

20 million extra rewards seats? Well, now they have ‘Classic Plus Rewards’ that really costs them very little. And the scales tip a little bit more to advantaging the company rather than the consumer. It’s really disappointing. But you still can make your points work for you, so don’t despair. I should say that Velocity are not as generous as they were even 18 months ago now. Remember last year Qantas made a record profit.

Read the Guardian Article if you wish HERE.

I think that’s enough for this post. I’ve now convinced myself that Qantas thinks its customers are suckers, so it’s time to end this one. Take care wherever you are in the world, please do comment especially if you have thoughts about Qantas. May the Journey Never End!