QANTAS: Appoints new Loyalty CEO from within to replace Olivia Wirth

Qantas has appointed Andrew Glance, a company veteran of 22 years, as the new CEO of its Loyalty business unit to replace Olivia Wirth, who was runner-up to replace Alan Joyce as Qantas head.

Qantas Group CEO Vanessa Hudson has chosen to appoint from within. Andrew Glance is currently the Executive Manager of Commercial Partnerships and Qantas Business Rewards. Before that, he worked in a range of senior roles in Qantas Loyalty from 2016. His history with Qantas goes back to 2002, and his positions with the airline have included everything from finance, flight operations and inflight service.

Qantas Loyalty – huge earner

Qantas Loyalty is a huge part of the business. It brought in AU$ 457 million last year and close to one billion in cash flow. According to a story in the AFR, it earns something from ‘a staggering 35 per cent of all credit card transactions in Australia’. And that’s not only retail customers. It has 450,000 business rewards program members. That’s one out of five small and medium-sized businesses in Australia.

However, Qantas Loyalty is also the focus of Frequent Flyer discontent. A senate inquiry documented constant complaints that the airline is restricting the number of premium seats available as ‘classic rewords’ – the cheapest form of points redemption.

CEO Venessa Hudson responds that there are five million reward seats available and that they specifically released some seats for the European summer

‘We’re working on some more improvements that we expect to announce in coming months, which we think will be very well received by our millions of members.’

Qantas CEO Vanessa Hudson

2PAXfly Takeout

I wonder what these improvements will be? The ability to see what award seats are available over a month or more? Transparency on your position in an upgrade list? Fewer points required for classic rewards and upgrades?

Mr Glance says that:

‘Qantas Loyalty is a fantastic business that delivers a lot of value to its members and corporate partners, and I look forward to leading the team to build on that.’

Andrew Glance, new head of Qantas Loyalty

What he doesn’t say is that it is that the scheme is more lucrative for Qantas than it is for Frequent Flyers.

Looks like Mr Glance has his work cut out for him.