Qantas: Is after all of your Business Flyers, Virgin Australia

Yesterday, I listed the Qantas grab for Virgin Australia’s premium passengers via a Fast track Status Match as part of an omnibus article on Qantas. It was sparked by a feature in the Australian Financial Review by Lucas Baird.

It now looks like he might have known something the rest of us didn’t. That Qantas had bought a wraparound cover for the Weekend Edition of the Australian Financial Review,

The final paragraph says it all:

‘Move your frequent flyer status to Qantas so we can bring you closer t your dream trip’

The offer as I have detailed elsewhere invites a status match to Qantas Gold status for flyers that have a similar status or higher on a range of airlines, including Virgin Australia. Given that there is virtually no international flying going on at the moment, this tactic is clearly targeted at Virgin Australia frequent flyers to swap to Qantas. All they need to do is accumulate 100 status credits in a 90 day period.

2PAXfly Takeout

This is another timely reminder to wear your seatbelt when seated. Holding you close to your seat will protect you from the sort of injuries sustained on this flight, when unsecured passengers flew to the ceiling of the aircraft, and then came crashing down once the ‘drop’ ceased.

The hope will be that this is an anomaly – a ‘freak accident’ in casual parlance. If it is a systemic error either mechanical or electronic, then this is a larger concern for the airlines that fly Boeing Dreamliner 787 aircraft. Let’s hope it isn’t. If it is, it will pile on the woes to Boeing’s existing stack.

Always the smart marketer, Qantas is making a direct assault on Virgin Australia’s (VA) premium frequent flyers who occupy Gold and above status by directly offering them a status match challenge in a wraparound cover to Australia’s premier business magazine on its day of largest circulation.

Audacious – certainly. Successful – in the bag.

Jayne over at VA must be fuming.

Triple points don’t kind of cut it with your business flyers.