Qantas Frequent Flyers has announced changes that will see members using significantly less points on Qantas Holidays and Qantas Hotels bookings.
Billed as “an investment aimed at giving members more value”, members of Qantas’ loyalty program will now need 30-to-45% fewer points per transaction.
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Qantas Frequent Flyer says the permanent improvements deliver greater value, per point, for Qantas Frequent Flyers’ 13 million members when they book hotels and holidays, via the airline.
Effective from today, when using Qantas Points frequent flyers will need:
- 45% less points when combining accommodation and Qantas or Jetstar flights in one booking across all Qantas Holidays packages.
- 30% fewer points across more than 440,000 hotels when booking Qantas Hotels*.
Frequent flyers will also need 20% fewer points when using Points Plus Pay on flight bookings made before the end of April 2022, for travel up until April 2023.
Qantas Loyalty CEO, Olivia Wirth, said this was the latest of several major improvements made in recent years to deliver more value, drive member engagement and keep growing Australia’s biggest airline loyalty program.
“We’re increasing the power of a point when booking hotels and holidays because we want to reinvest in a program that has performed extremely well during COVID.”
“Members have remained highly engaged despite the low levels of flying over the past two years, shown by the fact they’ve kept earning points on the ground and then redeemed them in record numbers.
“We saw more than seven billion points used to redeem flights in just four weeks following borders reopening and we want to keep that momentum going by making points go further for hotels and holidays, which in turn encourages members to keep earning with our partners and with the airline,” Wirth said.
She said Qantas Frequent Flyer continues to reinvent the program, having significantly trimmed the fees for international reward flights and delivering more rewards for members who earn most of their points through on-the-ground transactions in 2019, and more recently, raising availability of reward seats across the network by up to 50%.
“This latest change will help our growth into the hotel and holiday booking market, especially online, which is expected to rebound in the coming months,” Wirth added.
For example, the number of Qantas Points required for two adults staying overnight stay at the InterContinental Hayman Island in a Classic Room was 190,871, and is now 133,610; or a two-night stay for 2 adults at L’Ermitage Beverly Hills, Los Angeles in a Classic Suite was 289,686 points, and is now 202,780.
Or a Qantas Holidays 5-night package (airfares and accommodation) for 2 adults, with return Qantas flights from Sydney was 908,512 points, is now 499,512.