Points of view beg to differ

An article by Clive Dorman in The Sydney Morning Herald says that Qantas’s new frequent-flyer program has polarised travellers.

It’s laughable, if you listen to some of the feedback on independent consumer websites.  It’s exactly what consumers want, according to the company.

Such are the extremes of reaction to Qantas’s new frequent-flyer program launched last week.

Qantas frequent flyers can now book any seat for sale on any flight without the extensive blackout periods of the old program, something customers have complained about long and hard.

The trade-off is that to get that seat exactly when you want to fly, it may cost you up to five times the frequent-flyer points of the old scheme.

This isn’t much use for infrequent flyers who may pick up enough points for a short interstate trip after a long-haul flight to America or Europe, for example.

But it is good news for frequent business flyers, some of whom have amassed millions of points but had trouble using them when they wanted to fly under the old scheme.

The so-called “classic” program, with its fixed points-redemption levels (plus taxes and charges) has been retained alongside the new “Any Seat” program, whose points values include all taxes and charges.

Any Seat also offers the option of topping up your points balance with an extra payment if you’re short of the points needed to buy a flight reward. The only restriction is that Any Seat is available only on flights that have a Qantas or Jetstar flight number, not on all flights with Qantas code-share partners.

“It’s great that Qantas has introduced Any Seat awards,” one blogger writes on the independent website, frequentflyer.com.au. “But the points required are just laughable.”

Another rejoices that he can get to Mexico City via LA on Christmas Eve, returning the first week in January – the busiest two weeks of the year – for “only” 1.8 million points in business class or 2.2 million in first. “Amazing value,” he writes. “Surely we will all be able to burn points quickly.”

However, some bloggers report that seats in first class can be cheaper than business-class seats on some flights. One says a reward seat between Canberra and Perth in business class was cheaper via Sydney than non-stop.

This is because of two new factors: Qantas Frequent Flyer is now a separate business within Qantas that buys seats from the airline; and Any Seat displays seat “prices” in points values in the same way that anyone booking online chooses from different seats in dollar values.

While some may be unhappy with the new sliding points system, Qantas insists it has done its research.

“Our members told us what changes they wanted,” Qantas Frequent Flyer chief executive Simon Hickey says, “and we’ve responded.”

Qantas chief executive Geoff Dixon, who will take a case to the Qantas board next month to sell off a stake of about 40 per cent in the frequent-flyer program, is more blunt. “If we’re going to try to sell this to the public, as we probably are, as a company to invest in, it’s going to have to have some very attractive fundamentals,” he says.

A Report by The Mole form The Sydney Morning Herald