New Benefits and Program Changes Coming to Qantas Frequent Flyer

Just received the following email from Qantas:

New benefits and program changes coming to Qantas Frequent Flyer

Over the next 12 months, we'll be introducing a series of updates and enhancements to the Qantas Frequent Flyer program. These changes will give you access to more premium cabin reward seats on partner airlines, lower reward seat fares on Jetstar and the ability to earn more points when you fly with Qantas.

There will also be some increases to our Classic Flight Reward fares - the first in six years. This change will help ensure we can continue investing in the program and provide ongoing value for our members now and in the future.

More premium reward seats with airline partners

As a result of expanded and new airline partnerships, up to 1 million additional international Classic Flight Rewards will be available for booking. This includes, for the first time, Premium Economy Classic Flight Rewards on Finnair, Air France, KLM and Iberia networks. Members will also be able to access Classic Flight Rewards on the Hawaiian Airlines network, unlocking more seats between Sydney and Honolulu and other popular international destinations. The additional seats will help meet the growing demand for reward seats to Europe, Asia and North America.

Starting from late 2025.

More rewards with Jetstar

For the first time, members will be able to use their Qantas Points to upgrade to Business on Jetstar international flights. This coincides with a major revamp of Jetstar's Boeing 787 Dreamliners that will double the fleet's business cabin capacity.

Starting from next year.

Higher points earn on Qantas flights

Frequent Flyers will earn up to 25 per cent more Qantas Points on their base earn for Qantas domestic flights. For example, a Bronze member flying from Sydney to Perth in Economy will earn 1,815 Qantas Points (up from 1,450 points).

Members who hold Silver status and above will also enjoy an increase in Status Bonus points when booking in premium cabins on all Qantas marketed flights. For example, a Platinum member flying Sydney to Melbourne in Business will earn 3,500 Qantas Points (up from 2,000 points) while a Gold member flying Sydney to Los Angeles in Business will earn 25,594 Qantas Points (up from 21,375 points).

Starting from 22 July 2025.

Changes to points required for Classic Flight Rewards and Classic Upgrade Rewards

We're reducing the amount of points required for Classic Flight Rewards on all Jetstar short haul* domestic flights in Australia and New Zealand by 11 per cent. With fares starting from 5,700 Qantas Points (previously 6,400) on routes like Sydney to the Gold Coast and Melbourne to Adelaide, these Classic Flight Rewards will require less points than the lowest one-way Economy reward seat available in Australia today.

The number of points required to book all other Classic Flight Rewards and Classic Upgrade Rewards will increase by up to 20 per cent. This means the starting Classic Flight Reward fares on Qantas will go from 8,000 to 9,200 Qantas Points. The increases to reward seats will be applied across our domestic, international and partner airline networks with increases to upgrades only applying to the Qantas network.

Carrier charges, part of the cash component of booking a reward seat, will also increase for bookings in Business and First cabins aligning with Classic Plus Flight Rewards.

The updated Classic Flight Reward and Classic Upgrade Reward fare tables will be published on our website approximately 3 months prior to the change.

Starting from 5 August 2025.

Classic Flight Rewards on Emirates

The number of points required to book Classic Flight Rewards on Emirates operated flights will soon be the same as Qantas. This will mean a reduction in the number of points required for Economy Classic Flight Rewards on the majority of Emirates operated flights, but an increase in the points required for Emirates Business and First Classic Flight Rewards.

Starting from 5 August 2025.

What are your thoughts on this?

Poll Options

  • 3
    Changes are Good
  • 331
    Changes are Bad

Related Stores

Qantas
Qantas

Comments

  • +42

    TL;DR

    The number of points required to book Classic Flight Rewards and Classic Upgrade Rewards will increase by up to 20 per cent.

    • +16

      20% is insane!

      Getting bonus points from CC are also getting a lot harder - 18-24 months exclusion period.

    • Horrible increases I agree. But as Point Hacks mentions, the last increase was 6 years ago.

      if we annualise these changes, then reward seats and upgrades are increasing at 0.83 to 3.33% p.a.

      More changes were flagged for later in the year too. So forget ever achieving Silver or Gold status because it will probably be impossible like BA.

      Also, book fast if you're sitting on a pile of points:

      You’ll still have at least six months from the time of writing to lock in your trips at the current rates.

      • +16

        Why should they increase at all? Points don't accrue interest.

        • -3

          So our fiat currencies can be devalued but points that have an approximate fiat value cannot be devalued?

          • +2

            @TheFreaK: your fiat currency when unused sits there earning interest. points unused Qantas is earning the interest.

        • I guess if they are earned per $$ spent, when it costs more $$ for the same product, there are more points in circulation.

  • +1

    K-shaped economic recovery

  • +13

    It's difficult enough to try and book a rewards seat with Qantas points. Now this..

      • +5

        Simp humour

      • +1

        Just Albo? No other politicians (from either side)?

  • +45

    ScoMo really stuffed up giving this mob billions $$$ of our money and not taking equity in return. Absolutely flog the bloke is

      • Thanks Albama

      • +3

        Albo's Airways

        • and his son's….

      • +52

        NZ government took an equity stake in Air NZ in exchange for giving them taxpayers money.

        Governments shouldn’t be allowing businesses to privatise the gains and socialise the losses

          • +34

            @jv: It would have also been in Australia's interests to get a better return from the tax payer handouts to Qantas via an equity stake, as well as not folding. These two things are not mutually exclusive.

              • +7

                @jv:

                you're asking for a bit much

                We're asking you to have a basic level of understanding to participate in this discussion

                So yeah, we are

                • -5

                  @Crow K:

                  So yeah, we are

                  So under your own volition, don't ask…

                  • +3

                    @jv: but however will you hit [NUMBER] posts if you don't weigh in repeatedly on posts you have no idea about??

          • +16

            @jv: ScoMo gave Qantas $2.7 billion of our money. Taking equity would gave guaranteed it didn’t fold. Not sure how you think equity works

              • +23

                @jv: Even for you JV, you’ve wandered into a conversation where you are out of your depth and failing to understand the simple discussion.

                If the airline needs $2.7b or it goes broke, then shareholders will accept $2.7b for half their shares. Better to have half a running airline than all of a collapsed one.

                If you disagree, I will gladly sell you Ansett or Compass shares at their prices a month before insolvency.

                  • +11

                    @jv: Just stick to linking that hilarious albo photo jv, it’s all you’re good for.

      • +12

        You obviously don't realise that Qatar Airways returned many more Australins than Qantas did.

      • +1

        The government has influence over any airline that is willing to give cash to.

        • -5

          Not when they are controlled by foreign governments and they've stopped flying to Australia because of covid.

          • +2

            @jv: Even more reason to not give them cash and keep them afloat - I would back giving air nz 2.7 billion instead to grow

            • -2

              @sakurashu:

              I would back giving air nz 2.7 billion

              They are the ones who bankrupted Ansett where thousands of people lost their jobs and many even lost their super…

    • +20

      I don't know why bail outs aren't given in exchange for equity for the many companies it's been given to.

      • +2

        Because the kick backs the gov employee gets by doing the bailout don't align with that?

        Look at where our MPs go after they leave office.

      • +12

        Government equity in return for bailouts should be a condition of the bailout, and it should be based on the declared capital valuation of the company. Otherwise it is privatisation of the profits, socialisation of the losses.

        • +4

          privatisation of the profits, socialisation of the losses.

          Always has been

          Let's see how Holden manufacturing in Australia is going

    • +16

      Meanwhile the German government took equity in Lufthansa that they sold after the pandemic for a 760m Euro profit!
      Australian politicians are dopes.
      https://www.supplychainbrain.com/articles/35683-germany-sell…

      • +11

        Even the NZ government sold their pandemic stake for a decent profit

        ScoMo was just a dud of a PM

  • +3

    “up to 1 million additional international Classic Flight Rewards will be available for booking”

    Does up to mean they offer 5 more then it’s covered by the “up to”

    Seems like a sale with up to 50% off store wide. Who really knows what is at 50% off.

    So many have jumped into earning QF points and in recent times it’s either been harder to use on flights because there are more points in the pool, one world partners are releasing less to QF or that QF have stopped releasing at 300+ days out for their flights.

    QF points have much less value than they used to have unless you have platinum status and can request flights to be released.

  • +1

    This could perhaps be an answer to Qatar and Virgin. Be way of forcing everyone there instead, that is, because Qantas has made QFF sh*t.

    • Virgin have no pull. Australian lounges are crowded. You can try Qatar, but they are not easy to deal if there’s cancellations. We really don’t have anything good lol. We are screwed. I have been platinum with Qantas for years now, I do like seats being available on request. Plus some sc on classic rewards seats

  • +1

    These point programs are useless for consumers but great cash cows for airlines.

    INVEST in these if you are an owner of airline but keep away if you are a consumer.

    • -1

      I disagree. Previously these have been great for me and my family to get cheap business class flights. That said, the recent devaluations by QFF has made it pretty worthless and Velocity is probably going that way too.

      • +1

        If someone else is paying for Qantas flights thats fine to cash in on points.

        Otherwise I have found that it's cheaper to buy other budget airlines and pocket the cash.

        • +1

          for discounted economy tickets yes, especially if you are comparing budget to full service airlines. but the whole points game is geared towards premium seats, ie. first and business class for which the value is much greater

          • +4

            @May4th: exactly, with international business or first class you can get huge value. My wife and I are going round the world business class next month and cost is about 640,000 Qantas points. that is around $6500 of points plus another $1000 in fees. I could not get 1 leg of the trip for one of us if I paid for the tickets with cash let alone both of us around the world.

            • +1

              @gromit: Oneworld RTW business is one of the best ways to use QFF. have an amazing trip!

              • @May4th: thanks we plan on it. yep it is awesome value which is not well advertised (for obvious reasons) and bloody difficult to book but well worth the effort.

            • @gromit: How on earth did you manage to actually pull of finding the flights and getting seats? Their system is an absolute nightmare finding multi leg tickets.

              • @Smol Cat: you basically need to be very organised and do your research before hand and a little flexible by a day or 2 on your itinerary , booked 11 months in advance. 11 legs, only 1 leg is economy (canberra-melbourne).

  • What did we expect would happen?

    When it's so easy to churn cards and get millions of points, of course eventually it would become saturated and worthless.

  • +13

    LOL it is the same "we're devaluing your points" buried in a whole of suppose to be good news hahahahaha

    • +5

      LOL it is the same "we're devaluing your points"

      Yes, there are two sections in the email:

      1. New Benefits
      2. Program Changes

      They left out the section that says:

      1. How you're being Screwed
  • After Virgin did the same late last year, I do expect this would come next.

  • +4

    Time to built-up my points with Virgin. I found it costs less points to book with Virgin than with Qantas on the similar routes.

    • Just get Asia miles

  • For so many years, I didn't see anything Company truely making deal good for Customer, end up Customer lost more reality, the little word from fine print will tell the evil side.

  • +1

    i caught qantas booking systems fudging the numbers i screen captured it. The system was saying i had not enough points but clearly i did. I raised this with Qantas they said the seat was no longer available. But knew it was not the case showed what their system was doing and said i will go to the media about this and they said we will update our website to stop that happening……Still to this day they doing sly tatitcs. You just have to watch the console of your browser when you browse their site.

  • lol cooked airline..had all these qantas points will try offload them

  • I fly constantly for work, platinum level and 300k points. What should I do here? Burn them all on some wasteful trips or hold and hope for the long term?

    • 300K points? Time for a holiday mate… admittedly it may need to be in 11 months time if you wish to snag a suite/1st class on an international flight.

    • Upgrades is where I find the value usually, either on the cheap seats the company pays for to get in to J or booking and paying for a eco flight a while out and then using points to upgrade seats, being platinum we get a higher chance of those upgrades being accepted, I rarely get turned down for upgrades.

      • Always best to upgrade from Y to J on A330s as its considered a single class upgrade.
        When upgrading from Y to J on 787s and A380s, all Premium Economy passengers regardless of status will be processed first then move to Economy as Y to J upgrades on those aircraft are considered as double class upgrades.

  • Shame.

    Time to see what value we can get out of Velocity!

    • they're equally bad rofl…with ff miles programmes, unless you're doing business trips paid by the company aint worth it. You'd get more value out of the everyday coleworths / cashbacks.

  • +2

    classic plus is a scam, as always a devaluation is dressed up as a win. Qantas has been and is still going down the sinkhole

  • Most modern airlines are frequent flyer points systems with an airline attached to attract customers. Points are a huge profit center, so it's no surprise they'll do everything to devalue the points. A 20% cut is huge however.

    I collect various points but use them to pay for everyday items I normally use anyway. No point in saving points for years to get an airfare and then discover the points can't be used when I want, and they're plummeted in value anyway.

    • well it used to be the case that points spent in the air is much more valuable than points spent on the ground, it looks like they are working hard to abolish that

  • +3

    classic devaluation 'enhancement'.
    It's always amusing how airlines are so allergic to speaking plain english.

    • +5

      It takes a special human to spin bad news and products into something positive.

      It reminds me of an article criticizing Cash Converters for their usurious interest rates. The spokesperson spun it as 'offering financial inclusion' to people who would otherwise be without credit. You don't want to exclude people, do you? Then what CC is doing is perfectly fine!

      • how dare you discriminate, everyone deserves a high interest personal loan they will struggle to repay /s

      • +1

        I think my favourite of all time was ING putting a restriction on bonus interest and claiming "our customers have been asking for more ways to help them save!"

  • +2

    I would (grudgingly) accept the points devaluation if they had reasonable availability.
    Its really hard to get classic domestic awards from Perth whereas Virgin has plenty of availability.
    Similarly it use to be easy to get long haul international classic awards as long as you booked several months in advance - now almost impossible.
    In all these cases there is plenty of availability in Classic Plus (which isn't really an award - just converting your points into cash at a terrible rate to buy a ticket).

    I'm sure the ploy is conning people into thinking Classic Plus is the new norm to consume the vast number of points out there.

    • +4

      it's nauseating that qantas to keep spruiking classic plus as 'more availability of reward seats than ever' they really think we are muppets

    • Availability is also status dependent, so those with a few points from a CC churn or something else with no status will find it hard to use points for flights, upgrades etc etc.
      Perth being a huge FIFO route its little surprise those legs classic rewards flights are hard to get, similar as Sydney to LA or SG/EU flights.
      Those with status have much less hassle using points for classic rewards flights and upgrades etc.

      • The main thing I notice is that is use to be very easy to get Award seats on Perth - SYD/MEL/BNE (partially because they were far from the best use of points) but now they are very hard to find on Qantas, and when you do find them they are often on the red-eye flights.
        Whilst this is probably related to the high prices of these flights nowadays & high occupancy, Virgin still seems to have a lot of availability.

  • +1

    Joyce with Vanesa in bed??

  • +2

    So I guess the enhancement is you can now look forward to your business seat on a Jetstar flight being cancelled rather than your economy seat?

    Are the 3* good votes from Qantas marketing employees?

    * at time of writing

  • +3

    enshitification.
    shareholders demanding more value (naturally as it's how the system works), so here we are.

  • +2

    Qantas is going down the drain. The amount of marketing spin and drivel on this is also disgusting. Do they think we’re absolute morons?

    • The points devaluation happens for all airlines. Virgin did their changes last year. Air NZ last year, pretty much every airline does it, it sucks balls, but it is pretty much standard procedure for all of them.

  • +1

    i mean i guess everything else costs mosre so people are earning more points.. and to be fair. you would be lucky to find a business class return to europe for the old 256k because theres soooo few flights you cant get a direct route any more.. we had to fork out 700k plus for 2 return trips to europe because we had to do extra flights to get there. so maybe….. the point price will end up effectively the same but more direct flights available more like it used to be and less people competing for them? but im not holding my breath on it!

Login or Join to leave a comment