Australian 'frequent traveller' passports axed from December 1
By David Flynn, November 16 2017
The government will phase out the 66-page Frequent Traveller passport from next month, despite its popularity with country-hopping business travellers.
The Frequent Traveller passport version has 66 usable pages for immigration stamps and visas, compared to 34 such pages on a Standard passport, and also costs $382 compared to $254 for its smaller sibling.
But as of December 1 2017, you'll have to settle for the skinnier version.
A spokesperson for the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade confirmed to Australian Business Traveller that "the Australian Passport Office will be phasing out the Frequent Traveller Passport."
DFAT has previously said that frequent flyers would to be able to purchase a new replacement passport – with the same number and expiry date as their original one – if those 34 pages pages fill up while the passport is still valid.
"This option will be accessed through a streamlined online application and will be cheaper than a new passport," the spokesman said.
"The cost per visa page for an ordinary passport plus a replacement passport will be comparable to that of a frequent traveller passport. The replacement passport option will be made available before Frequent Traveller passports are phased out."
However, if your original passport includes travel visas for selected countries you'll also need to pack that passport for each trip.
It's understood that demand for frequent traveller passports has been decreasing as many countries move away from physical visa labels and stamps, with the supersized passports said to represent less than 1 per cent of passports issued in recent years.
Also read: Tired of waiting for visa approvals? Here's how to get a second passport!
Follow Australian Business Traveller on Twitter: we're @AusBT
David Flynn is the Editor-in-Chief of Executive Traveller and a bit of a travel tragic with a weakness for good coffee, shopping and lychee martinis.
Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer
18 May 2011
Total posts 231
I actually think that could be OK.
I purchased a frequent traveller passport the last time I renewed because my previous one came 2 pages away from being full when it finally expired.
However, since I've had my new one I've realised I've been getting fewer stamps than than I did before. I suppose that shows how things have changed over the past 12 years.
At my current 'stamp & visa rate' I'll probably struggle to fill half of my new passport.
That said, I know there are still plenty of folks who have to travel to places such as China a Vietnam and need a visa every time and they'll most likely still want to the frequent traveller passport.
23 Feb 2016
Total posts 34
I never fill my frequent traveller passport completely but I think that's the point. If I were using a regular passport, I would easily be onto my second by now. Getting a new passport every time it's full is not only costly but inconvient especially those who frequent Asia.
Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer - Chairmans Lounge
01 Sep 2011
Total posts 413
If fortunate enough to have an APEC card you avoid many visa stickers from countries like China but I don't understand why China doesn't provide 10 year visas for Australians like they do for the Americans considering we are supposed to be such an important trading partner.
24 Apr 2012
Total posts 2514
Anyone nearby in the office would have just heard a loud "nooooooooo"... currently have a standard passport which is almost full many years before it's due to expire, so will be sure to renew as a frequent traveller passport before the option is removed.
24 Oct 2010
Total posts 2556
I thought that was your cry of anguish from the other side of AusBT HQ, but figured we'd just run out of coffee!
Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer
18 May 2011
Total posts 231
AusBT HQ - Is that the business lounge at SYD T3? ;)
They would never run out of coffee - if they did the whole lounge would shreak with fright!
Emirates Airlines - Skywards
30 Nov 2015
Total posts 738
Why don't you just lose it or arrange for it to be stolen and benefit from the removal of replacement fees...
21 Apr 2012
Total posts 3021
Replacement of a stolen passport requires a police report. I believe lodging a false police report is an offence under the Summary Offences Act 1966 - Section 53, which may include a custodial sentence, if found guilty.
Emirates Airlines - Skywards
30 Nov 2015
Total posts 738
Simple, just lose it.
24 Apr 2012
Total posts 2514
Legalities aside, I have some hard-to-obtain five-year multi-entry visas in the current passport which would also be valid when travelling with a new passport (and presenting the old passport alongside it), so marking that passport as lost/stolen in the system would invalidate those visas and trigger alarm bells when entering those countries, so it's not an option to even consider. :)
Singapore Airlines - KrisFlyer
13 May 2011
Total posts 27
The added problem is the running out of pages before the expiry of international busienss visas.
23 Sep 2013
Total posts 4
Well as someone who has managed to fill frequent traveller passports in under 4 years in the past, this will hit home. I may not travel quite as much as I did in the past, but I would still run through a standard passport in only 5-6 years. Disappointing, and I really don't see what their justification is for it. I mean, does eliminating the frequent traveller option actually produce any efficiencies on their end? Or is it just a simple money grab by forcing people to replace filled passports more often?
21 Jul 2011
Total posts 95
I had just one page left when my last ff passport was replaced a month ago. However I think 70% of that was stamped 5+yrs ago and yet I've travelled considerably more in recent years. There are just fewer stamps.
im going to be contentious here and say I don't think fees should be removed for lost or stolen passports (hoping I don't jinx myself as I sit here in SIN as part of a 3'week trip).
Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer - Chairmans Lounge
01 Sep 2011
Total posts 413
Try travelling for 2 months at a time :) Its often at teh back of my mind.
15 Jul 2016
Total posts 6
I go through a 64 page passport every 2 years. Why would the government phase these out. Most countries allow a frequent travelling citizen two passports (Aus only if you travel middle east and Israel often). I would prefer that lost and stolen retain the fee but "full" passports get renewed for free.
Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer
10 Feb 2015
Total posts 10
Hi Jwak, You mentioned "full" passports get renewed for free. I couldn't find anything official online about that. Ant more information you can share?
Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer - Chairmans Lounge
01 Sep 2011
Total posts 413
I'll rue the day the business passports are done away with. I'm on my third one, mine fill before expiry. My current one is 3 years old and another 7 years to expire and I have maybe 25 pages left. Why don't people just leave things as they are, why is there always fiddling? Those who have them are paying more anyway. And if they only produce the flimsy regular one with 10 year expiry, will they add pages like some countries do eg: USA? Also some countries won't issue a visa without two free facing pages eg Russia.
15 Jul 2016
Total posts 1
Agree crosscourt, add a couple of trips to PNG and their full page stick-in Visas a couple of stamps on arrival/departure and you're quickly burning through 66 pages.
Was there an underlying reason for the change, ie a fall of in issuance? Would be interesting to know what the volume of Business Traveller PPs issued were? Other than an "overhaul".
Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer - Chairmans Lounge
01 Sep 2011
Total posts 413
no idea. maybe the guys at AusBT have a better idea. It's probably some bureaucrat in Canberra who had little to do one day came up with this idea.
Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer - Chairmans Lounge
01 Sep 2011
Total posts 413
Instead of getting rid of something that so many business travellers would prefer they should be looking at allowing a person to keep the same passport number for life instead of changing the number everytime you get a new passport. I would think that would be a security improvement.
Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer
10 Feb 2015
Total posts 10
Hard to understand why they would stop issuing them. Need to get my application in soon then as mine is almost full with expiry in 2019.
Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer
23 Nov 2010
Total posts 20
This is one of those things one has to ask "Why?" Is this classic government bureaucrats trying to solve a problem that doesn't exist? Instead of wasting your taxpayer funded time on this, look at roads, health, education, the debt. Christ!
Can you imagine..... It's nothing more than a money grabbing exercise. If people want a 64pp Passport, give it to them. What's the friggin' problem? Imagine the taxpayer funded bureaucrats sitting around deciding this at no doubt a plethora of taxpayer funded meetings:
"Hey, I know, let's piss people off and make it so the great-unwashed can only get a small passport".
"Wow Mal, great idea".
"Let's go to lunch in the Com Car and talk about it". Australian Government is out of control.
I recently had my passport stolen in Madrid. I had to pay $AUD 180 to get a temporary emergency passport and then another $280 for a 32 pp replacement in Sydney. They would not issue me a 64pp passport for a stolen passport replacement. So they have already decided this anyway, bludgers.
21 Apr 2012
Total posts 3021
Apparently, I've been advised by the passport office that the frequent traveller passport is generated from a different office. Perhaps it's a cost cutting exercise to get rid of staff in that office? Presumably the unions would go nuts if those jobs were culled and the work was done by another team? So under cover of process rationalisation exercise, the department streamlines their processes, rationalise product portfolio and realise some "efficiency dividends"?
Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer
10 Feb 2015
Total posts 10
Thanks The Real Babu. Even though that sounds so Canberra and bureaucratic, at least there appears some rationale for the decision however flawed. I will be back in Australia in September so I hope it's not too late to apply then. If anyone is aware of a firm date when the frequent traveler passport will be officially discountinued appreciate if you could post it.
Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer
06 Jul 2016
Total posts 3
I filled my FF PP in 5 years and recently replaced it. Try traveling to the Middle East ad getting Saudi Visas and alike. Now apart to having the most expensive passports on the planet we need to replace them more often. I wonder how many users were surveyed on this before the decision was made? I'd guess zero.
Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer
15 Sep 2013
Total posts 14
Inbound to Sydney a week ago, immigration officer said that the larger size was incompatible with the scanners on the self-serve machines (not sure if they meant optical or RF). Funnily enough, my passport didn't scan successfully and needed referral to another more sensitive machine.
Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer
04 Feb 2013
Total posts 45
Well, just got off the phone from the Australian passport office (April 2017). They state the current 66-page Frequent Traveller passport is still available, and there are no plans to remove it in the future.
26 Jul 2015
Total posts 72
Another Money grab!
07 Nov 2017
Total posts 29
[Deleted by admin, as per comment policy.]
Thai Airways International - Royal Orchid Plus
13 Jan 2017
Total posts 33
Gutted by this decision to be honest.
I live in Myanmar and Thailand, and travel frequently around SE Asia for work.
Cambodia - full page visa on entry as another example
I am less than 3 years into my current 66 page passport, and I am nearly 2/3 full
17 Nov 2017
Total posts 2
Utterly infuriating. I go through a frequent traveller passport every two years and so do many expats in Thailand. Every country surrounding Thailand requires a full page visa. Business visas are also issued by Indonesia as a must for business travel (you get questioned at the border if you try a tourist visa entry). Two stamps each time I’m in and out of Bangkok plus the 2 pages per year for my work permit and 32 pages disappear every year. What planet are DFAT on? It’s bad enough replacing my passport every two years but now annually? Even being able to use the same number in an additional document means carrying an ever increasing number of old passports to fiddle around with at immigration and the need to explain to the immigration officer why stamps aren’t in my current passport. Fan freaking tastic DFAT!
Cathay Pacific - The Marco Polo Club
07 Jul 2017
Total posts 2
Even with an APEC card I can still manage to fill the 66 pager in around 5 years.
Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer
01 Mar 2013
Total posts 174
...losing the 66 pager? I'll deal with it. Visa's, as noted by Chris & David, are portable. There's no issue.
The issue for me is those of you who believe that dishonest practice is excusable. It's not. It is a privilege being an Australian citizen. I for one have been grateful for DFAT when needed over a 20year career travelling more than I wish to.
Thai Airways International - Royal Orchid Plus
13 Jan 2017
Total posts 33
Not sure what you are referring to with your comment about "dishonest practise"??
But lets address your other comment, that visas are portable. Very few are portable, most are not, and its anyway irrelevant.
As I pointed out earlier, and other posters have confirmed - a single entry visa into many SE Asian countries is a full page. A full page of the passport, every entry. Therefore not transferable - you cannot enter without a new visa, which must go into a current passport, and its using a full page each time.
The loss of the 66 page passport will affect many of us genuine frequent travellers.
Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer
01 Mar 2013
Total posts 174
Thai Airways International - Royal Orchid Plus
13 Jan 2017
Total posts 33
You're really not understanding the issue about our situation Bevan.
Please read carefully: Many of the countries I travel to issue a Visa on Arrival, good for one single entry in to the country, and usable one time only - on the date that its issued. These are NOT portable. They can only go in to a current passport. And they fill it up fast.
17 Nov 2017
Total posts 1
Completely premature.
Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer
17 Jul 2015
Total posts 10
I'm one year into my FTPP and just hit 50%. I don't live in Australia so logistically it becomes more challenging - work permits, visas and the nearest Australian consular is 5 hours away! With a standard passport this process will be yearly exercise for me now.
12 Dec 2012
Total posts 1024
I entered Hong Kong on Wednesday for a day trip to find that they no longer stamped passports and instead printed a small card to be retained with the passport until departure (although they didn't remove it with the departure card).
When did they start doing that?
My last passport was 75% full at 9 years.
My current passport (issued in 2014) has stamps on 16 pages. (some are full, others have space for 1 or 2 more stamps), but the current passport also has 2 less usable pages then the old one due to the "do not stamp" center chip page.
Emirates Airlines - Skywards
22 Apr 2017
Total posts 5
I find this really irritating. I travel to Uganda, Ethiopia and Nigeria regularly and each visit requires a whole page for the new visa sticker. The smaller passport will be full after 3 years! I will probably need 2 replacements. But as usual, being in a minority means I'm a casualty of cost cutting and nobody cares. First world problem!
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