Qantas has today announced a major overhaul of its Frequent Flyer program, including new ways for members to use points to book flights.
The airline says the new scheme includes:
• Access to more than 20 million more reward seats with the launch of Classic Plus Flight Rewards.
• Easier paths to use points to travel to places like London, Tokyo, New York and Singapore, even during peak times.
“While usually requiring more points than the existing Classic reward seats, Classic Plus will represent some of the best value across the frequent flyer program with much wider availability,” Qantas said in a statement.
“Classic Plus reward seats are also eligible for upgrades. The points required to book Classic Plus reward seats will vary like normal airfares, which means they’ll be lower during off-peak periods or when booking early, and higher during peak periods.”
The new Classic Plus reward seats can be booked on qantas.com from today on international flights that depart from Australia from July 1, 2024.
“By the end of calendar year 2024, when Classic Plus has fully launched across the international and domestic network, members will have had access to 20 million new reward seats for travel across the rolling 12-month booking window,” the statement said.
“There will be a similar level of availability on an ongoing basis.”
Qantas Group CEO Vanessa Hudson said the changes were based on extensive customer feedback.
“It’s one of the biggest expansions we’ve made to the Frequent Flyer program in its 35-year history,” she said.
“The growth and success of Qantas Loyalty is driven by engaged members who earn and redeem points across the frequent flyer program, including with our partners, and that’s why we’re investing in making more seats available to book with points.”
Qantas Loyalty CEO Andrew Glance said the new type of reward seat would usually require more points than the existing Classic seats and would be available to all destinations on the Qantas international and domestic network, across first, business, premium economy and economy cabins.
Qantas would continue to offer more than five million existing Classic rewards seats across Qantas, Jetstar and 45 partner airlines, with no change to the points required to book these seats since 2019.
More details are available on the Qantas fact sheet.
