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On June 19th, 2019, Qantas announced a multitude of changes to its frequent flyer program. We are accustomed to seeing purely negative changes from airlines (i.e. extra fees, higher award prices). However, in this case, the changes announced from Qantas are a mix of positive and negative. The award-chart updates took effect on September 18, 2019, so we are now working with the new rules and prices described in this post.
Page Contents
Qantas Frequent Flyer Program Overview
Qantas is the official airline of Australia and is part of the Oneworld Alliance. As far as reward tickets go, Qantas is known for having high carrier-imposed surcharges, steep award redemption rates, and limited award seats available in premium cabins. Overall, these characteristics don't bode well for reward flights. However, given that Qantas is the primary carrier servicing Australia, those living in or flying to Australia often have no choice but to travel with Qantas. Coupled with the relatively long distance that needs to be flown to reach Australia, award costs with Qantas can add up rather quickly.
In addition to earning Qantas points by flying, Qantas is a transfer partner of Citi ThankYou®, American Express Membership Rewards, Capital One, and Marriott Bonvoy. Depending on your travel plans, there are still situations where Qantas can be a solid option for award bookings. These transfer partners make it easy to top up your account to the exact number of points needed for an award. In some cases, transferring to Qantas can be a good value—especially when a transfer bonus sweetens the deal.
- Earn 75,000 Miles once you spend $4,000 on purchases within the first 3 months of account opening
- 5X miles on hotels, vacation rentals and rental cars booked through Capital One Travel
- 2X miles on all other purchase
- Fee credit for Global Entry or TSA Pre✔® (up to $120)
- No foreign transaction fees
- $95 annual fee
- 5X miles per dollar on purchases through Capital One Entertainment (through 12/31/2025)
- 5X miles per dollar on hotels, vacation rentals and rental cars booked through Capital One Travel
- 2X miles per dollar on all other purchases
Qantas Changes Overview
Positive Changes
- Reduced carrier surcharges by up to 50% on international bookings, resulting in potential savings of $200 per return trip.
- More than one million additional award seats on Qantas and partner airlines.
- Four additional airline partners: Air New Zealand, China Airlines, Bangkok Airways, and Air France/KLM.
- Up to a 10% reduction in the miles needed for redeeming International Economy Classic Rewards.
- Establishment of a new “Points Club” program to reward members who earn a significant amount of points through on-the-ground transactions.
- Introduction of a Lifetime Platinum status to reward Qantas' most loyal flyers.
An interesting new development is the creation of a “Points Club” meant for members who earn a lot of points through non-flying-related transactions. The club will include two tiers with entry gained based on a member passing an annual points-earned criteria and will be launched in late 2019. Members will be able to earn flight and travel benefits such as lounge access, bonus status credits, and member-exclusive discounts on Qantas and partner airlines. Access to the initial tier is reached by earning 150,000 points. The more exclusive “Points Club Plus” tier will include more lucrative member benefits. The threshold to reach the higher tier has not yet been announced.
If you love Qantas and rack up a lot of points (and boy do we mean a lot), you can now look forward to achieving Lifetime Platinum status. This status level launches in September 2019 and can be reached by earning 75,000 status credits. For reference, you need 1,400 credits to earn Platinum status, and 1,200 credits to maintain it. That means you'd need 63 years of hitting the minimum number of credits to qualify for Platinum status before you'd be off the hook for life! With such a huge requirement, the lifetime status is an undertaking only for perennial status overachievers.
Negative Changes
- Up to a 15% increase in the number of miles required for domestic and international premium awards.
- Up to a 9% increase in the number of miles needed for upgrade awards.
Qantas claims that the increase in miles required is justified given that it is the first increase in 15 years, and the new price better reflects the upgraded experience. Although price increases are unfortunate, Qantas did announce these changes three months in advance, allowing flyers to lock in award tickets at lower-priced tiers.
Before and After Price Comparison
The good news is that the reduced taxes and fees took immediate effect, while the increases in points required were delayed until September 18th. For business and first-class flights booked after September 18th, the higher number of points required will generally cancel out (or in some cases far outweigh) any gains from reduced out-of-pocket costs. For the three months after the announcement, frequent flyers got the best of both worlds—paying the old award prices and benefiting from the reduced fees.
- You may be eligible for as high as 175,000 Membership Rewards® points after you spend $8,000 in eligible purchases on your new Card in your first 6 months of Card Membership. Welcome offers vary and you may not be eligible for an offer. Apply to know if you're approved and find out your exact welcome offer amount - all with no credit score impact. If you're approved and choose to accept the Card, your score may be impacted.
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- $200 Airline Fee Credit: Select one qualifying airline and then receive up to $200 in statement credits per calendar year when incidental fees, such as checked bags and in-flight refreshments, are charged by the airline to the Platinum Card® Account*. American Express relies on airlines to submit the correct information on airline transactions to identify incidental fee purchases. If you do not see a credit for a qualifying incidental purchase on your eligible Card after 8 weeks, simply call the number on the back of your Card. Qualifying airlines are subject to change. See terms & conditions for more details.
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- Rates & Fees
- Earn 5X points for flights booked directly with airlines or with American Express Travel® (up to $500,000 in purchases per calendar year).
- Earn 5X points on prepaid hotels booked with American Express Travel®.
- Earn 5X points on Fine Hotels + Resorts® and The Hotel Collection bookings.
Redeeming Qantas Points
Similar to other foreign carriers, Qantas has a distance-based award chart. Until September 17th, 2019, redemptions on Qantas were governed by the award chart below.
Old Qantas Award Chart (through September 17, 2019)
Current Qantas Award Chart (after September 18, 2019)
Qantas is now using the following award chart:
Increases/Decreases in Awards:
Based on a comparison of the two award charts, we've assembled a quick-reference guide to increases and (decreases) in award costs. For the economy awards, Qantas has not published the updated award levels, so we've taken them at their word on a 10% reduction for international economy prices. Domestic-award prices may not end up getting a discount, so the values may be slightly different—particularly in zones 1-4.
- Earn 60,000 bonus ThankYou® Points after spending $4,000 in the first 3 months of account opening, redeemable for $600 in gift cards or travel rewards at thankyou.com.
- Earn 10 Points per $1 spent on Hotels, Car Rentals, and Attractions booked on CitiTravel.com.
- Earn 3 Points per $1 on Air Travel and Other Hotel Purchases, at Restaurants, Supermarkets, Gas and EV Charging Stations.
- Earn 1 Point per $1 spent on all other purchases.
- $100 Annual Hotel Benefit: Once per calendar year, enjoy $100 off a single hotel stay of $500 or more (excluding taxes and fees) when booked through CitiTravel.com. Benefit applied instantly at time of booking.
- No expiration and no limit to the amount of points you can earn with this card.
- No Foreign Transaction Fees on purchases.
- 10X on Hotels, Car Rentals, and Attractions booked through CitiTravel.com
- 3X – Earn 3 Points per $1 spent on Air Travel and Other Hotel Purchases
- 3X – Earn 3 Points per $1 spent on Restaurants
- 3X – Earn 3 Points per $1 spent on Supermarkets
- 3X – Earn 3 Points per $1 spent on Gas and EV Charging Stations
- 1X – Earn 1 Point per $1 spent on All Other Purchases
Best Awards
Short-haul flights on American Airlines within the Continental U.S.
Distance-based award charts tend to be most advantageous on short-haul flights. When the competition uses a zone-based chart, they're forced to settle on a single price for travel within an entire region. Since they don't want to make a transcontinental flight too cheap, prices for short flights are inflated. For example, an economy award flight from New York to Charlotte (529 miles), costs only 8,000 Qantas points. In comparison, the same flight costs 10,000-12,500 miles with American or United.
Zone Arbitrage on International Flights
A similar zone-vs-distance arbitrage is possible when two cities in different regions are relatively close. For example, a flight from Boston to Amsterdam (3,457 miles) costs only 25,200 (~23,000 after the change) Qantas points. With United and American Airlines, an award flight is 30,000 miles from anywhere in the continental U.S. to anywhere in Europe. On the other side of the equation, a flight from Los Angeles to Moscow still costs 30,000 miles with American while Qantas would charge 37,600–41,900 depending on where you make your connection.
If you want to fly a route like Boston to Amsterdam in business class, the new price is 57,000 Qantas points (previously 50,000). This puts the route on par with booking business class on American Airlines (57,500) and slightly cheaper than the 60,000–70,000 points charged by United. Since distance traveled is the key factor, booking a direct routing is critical. If you connect in Philadelphia instead of London, you'll end up in a higher zone. Great Circle Mapper is an ideal tool to find out how many miles you'll fly on a given route.
An economy flight from Miami to Tel Aviv (6,603 miles) costs only 37,600 Qantas points with the new chart vs. 40,000 with American Airlines and 42,500 with United. An economy flight from New York to Tel Aviv (5,692 miles) is an even cheaper 31,500 (~28,500 after the change) Qantas points. In business class, Qantas is back on par with the competition with the ticket costing 82,000 points vs. 85,000 points with United.
Qantas flights within Australia
Given that Qantas is the domestic carrier, it dominates flights in Australia. Again, distance-based awards can work to your advantage here. Remember, Qantas uses the total miles traveled for the entire itinerary. This is significantly different from fellow Oneworld member British Airways, whose distance-based chart makes a separate calculation for each flight on the itinerary. With Qantas, a connection doesn't necessarily cost you more miles, as long as the total mileage doesn't fall into a higher pricing zone.
Our Take
One thing to be thankful for is that these changes aren't overwhelmingly negative. The reduction in carrier surcharges is a positive development. When coupled with using Qantas points on zone-based award sweet spots, a good redemption is possible. The Points Club provides an innovative way to pick up some extra flying perks with Qantas and I'm interested to see how it will develop. The addition of partner airlines is a good move and it will be interesting to see how many award seats are actually available for booking. Qantas' promise of adding an additional one million award seats includes these partners, so hopefully, redemption opportunities will improve. I am cautiously optimistic that these claims behind these changes actually result in some positive benefits to fliers.
- Earn 6X Bonvoy points per $1 spent participating Marriott Bonvoy hotels, 3X points per $1 on the first $6,000 spent in combined purchases each year on grocery stores, gas stations, and dining, and 2X points per $1 on all other purchases
- Earn 3 Marriott Bonvoy® points for every $1 on the first $6,000 spent in combined purchases each year on gas stations, grocery stores, and dining
- Earn 2X Bonvoy points for every $1 spent on all other purchases
For rates and fees of the cards mentioned in this post, please visit the following links: The Platinum Card® from American Express (Rates & Fees), and Citi Strata Premier® Card (Rates & Fees)
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