Qantas slashes points required for international flights

Thirteen million Qantas Frequent Flyer members now need fewer points to claim an economy class seat on an international flight and will pay less in add-on fees.

Qantas is also increasing the number of seats available for frequent flyers by more than 1 million to over 5 million seats annually, and will cut the costs of redeeming seats using frequent flyer points by about $200 per seat.

QFF members who earn most of their points through shopping and spending ‘on-the-ground’ rather than by purchasing flights frequently, will get a better deal with a new QFF Points Club to be created for them.

“We know the majority of our members want to use their points to take a dream trip overseas,” said Qantas chief Alan Joyce today.

“So we are adding more Reward seats including First, Business, and Premium Economy to places like London, LA, Tokyo and Singapore.”

However, members who want to redeem their points for an upgrade or to buy a premium economy, business class or first-class seat will require a greater number of QFF points.

An economy seat from Melbourne to Los Angeles currently requires 90,000 QFF points and costs $513 in associated fees. Those costs will come down to 83,800 points plus $393 in fees.

“Australians love earning Qantas Points and that momentum has seen us expand our number of retail partners and extend into new areas like financial services and insurance,” said Mr Joyce.

“The result is people have lots of opportunities to earn points, so this overhaul is about making sure they have more opportunities to use them.”

What is QFF Points Club?

Qantas has announced a new ‘QFF Points Club’ for members who earn most of their QFF points through non-flying related transactions, like shopping and paying bills using a linked credit card.

Points Club will launch in late 2019 and have two tiers based on the number of points a member earns in one year. Points Club members can get flight and travel benefits including lounge access, bonus status credits as well as member-exclusive offers and discounts. Members can get access to Points Club by earning 150,000 points ‘on the ground.’ Points Club Plus is the premium tier and offers more member benefits for a higher annual threshold of points.

The changes to the number of QFF points required to claim seats comes into effect today, 20 June 2019.

There are more than 50 credit cards now on offer in the Australian market offering a link to frequent flyer programs such as QFF, Virgin Velocity and Jetstar rewards.

For example, the ANZ Frequent Flyer Visa credit card is currently offering 25,000 bonus Qantas points when you spend $1,000 on eligible purchases within the first three months.

The Qantas American Express Ultimate card is offering 55,000 bonus Qantas Points when you apply online, are approved and spend $3,000 on your new Card within the first 3 months.

The Macquarie Bank Black Visa credit card with Qantas points is offering up to 1 Qantas Point per $1 spent on eligible purchases, for up to $4,000 spent per statement period.

You can compare rates, fees and features of cash back and rewards credit cards from Australia’s major banks, credit unions and other credit card issuers here.