Qantas: the loyalty dilemma

Maybe this is more about me. I am currently a Qantas Platinum frequent flyer, having accumulated an excess of status credits (but nowhere near enough to hit the next level of Platinum One), that just fell into the great excess status credits bucket in the sky on my June anniversary date.

Wish I could roll-over

If I had been able to roll-over those points – into the next status credits year, then I would be gold by now, and halfway to Platinum again. That’s because I overshot the Platinum qualification by about 525 status credits.

Unfortunately, the option of rolling over points – as touted in some research amongst select Qantas frequent flyer members was not available last July.

The Dilemma

As a Platinum status, Qantas frequent flyer due to a lot of travel and double status credits offers last year, I am faced with barely qualifying for Gold this year. What do I do? Keep travelling with Qantas, although Virgin offers marginally cheaper fares, or become brand agnostic and just take the cheapest fare on the day?

Oh, sorry, were you waiting for an answer? Don’t have one. You see I love all the perks that Qantas Platinum give me. However, my wallet does not. See, there’s the dilemma.

Have you been surveyed recently?

Australian Business Flyer and ET are both reporting forum dwellers having been surveyed by Qantas about a range of potential changes to the Frequent Flyer universe that would refine benefits for loyal members that fall between the cracks of loyalty levels.

Options being canvassed include:

• Banked Years – for those who usually qualify for Platinum, but fail in a year. This would be the one for me!
• New lifetime Benefits – that sit within gaps between lifetime Gold and Platinum – say 100% bonus points or upgrade offers, cutting in at certain lifetime earn points, say 30,000 and every 10,000 increment after that
• Superannuation for status credits – a percentage of credits go into a box for when you ‘retire’ – you get to call on them once you finish once you retire from a steady stream of status credit earning

2PAXfly Takeout

New benefits to a loyalty scheme are always welcome, instead of the usual degradation. These ideas sound good, I just wish the roll-over or ‘banked’ idea was available at the end of July 2019!

I wish I could be a fly on the wall of the meeting that discussed the need for these incentive points. Is Qantas losing long term loyal baby boomers? Is that even a thing?