Qantas latest madness for Frequent flyers

Having received the latest email from Qantas today, in regard to Qantas status retention, yet again us Qantas folks overseas are left high and dry. We have very little ability to secure a retention of our status, as we can't fly any international QF flights, and to book and actually undertake a flight in Australia means I have to spend 14 days in a hotel on arrival, then do my flight!

So I would spend half of my holiday entitlement from my work, sitting in a Hotel, just to get in one flight, to retain my Platinum status. Love to hear from other overseas FF's as to their thoughts.

As an aside, lucky I have still been flying BA to Frankfurt each week, so will hit my 1200 retention, so wonder if they will wave the 4 flights for me instead, or do I need to come to Oz for my 14 day stay and one flight

Funnily enough, it looks like they’ve thought of that. I recommend checking out this great website called Executive Traveller which often contains this sort of information https://www.executivetraveller.com/news/qantas-frequent-flyer-overseas-status-extension

@NSCUK- it has been a frustrating year but I guess it really comes down to how much you value the P status and if its worth the effort you set out and how likely you are to see the benefits of status given the very low likelihood of significant international travel in the coming year?

Hopefully you qualify for the automatic extension announced by QF but if not guess you need to ponder the question above :)

Thanks for the comments. thus far. As I live in the UK, that is not the case for the retention. see below;

The airline this week announced that its Qantas Frequent Flyer members based in Australia and New Zealand would be eligible to retain their current Silver, Gold, Platinum or Platinum One status throughout 2021 – and in some cases to the end of 2022

I agree, the likelihood of international travel is limited, and as a QF gold lifetime member, probably gets me the same benefits. I have been using Lufthansa a lot, so may as well hook into Star Alliance (SA), use Singapore airlines for my LHR-SIA, until QF engage again with LHR-SIA

Shame, but gives me the opportunity to work up my SA FF status, and Singapore air business is a lovely experience

Thanks all for the discussion. I have been a QF member since 1992, actually was Ansett before then, in 1987.

Hi NSCUK, you may want to take a second look at the article shared by TheTraveller above as that mentions status extension arrangements for folks residing outside of Australia/NZ. In particular the paragraph: "With that global disconnect in mind, Qantas will follow the simplest possible option of giving those overseas members an automatic 12-month status extension if their 2021 status reset date is between 31 March 2021 and 31 December 2021." More details in the article....

I find the QANTAS offer unintelligible . I had already booked 2 flights for May next year and now it appears that this will not count . It seems to be highly discriminatory to those who already had booked

I b ooked flights for October 2020 in Melbourne. All events cancelled or held over until 2021. I did not apply for a refund as I was informed it would take approx. 12-14 weeks. Out of the blue I was informed that my flight would not be flying on the date in October so the money was put into a Qantas account. A few weeks ago I booked a ticket to Hobartkin March 2020 and at the very end when payment is happening I expected to see something about the refund being able to be used. Wrong ! I had to pay this fare and only with a Qantas Mastercard or credit card. I could not use my debit card. My return flight on Jetstar was twice the price of my Qantas flight going to Hobart as no Qantas flights on that date. Is this playing customers as gullible people who are forced to pay double or change their holiday dates to find a Qantas flight. I spent 5 hours waiting or talking on the phone to Q 3 weeks ago and they organised my refund to be send back to my bank through BPay and stated it could be up to 2 weeks before I would see it in my account. Well today is 3 weeks and still no money returned. Please do something about this Qantas as clients are not robots and we do have mind and can book with other airlines when International returns. Thanks

Instead of whinging NSCUK, why don't you take the time to read what is says about members who aren't in Australia or New Zealand? You don't even have to fly to retain status and yet you still complain.

@vhojm you took the words right out of my mouth... spot on mate

Discriminatory? No, not at all. You sound like an American trying to throw around 'free speech' and 'Amendment rights' without actually knowing what they mean. They've decided on a program, promotion or whatever you want to call it, and set out some criteria to achieve it, which they are well entitled to do.

Simple solution - cancel the bookings you made (no cancellation penalties at this time) and then rebook so you are eligible for the extension. Or just book one more flight somewhere within the time period.

So let me get this right. Qantas have $14K of our money for two tickets to the US that were meant to be in July this year

and now they are saying my wife and I have to buy more tickets to maintain our platinum status. With rubbish like this

all Qantas are doing is pushing us towards other airlines down the track.

It is obvious Qantas does not monitor this website and comments . Not surprising as the Chairman of the Board ignores all correspondence addressed to him

First world problems LOL!!! 2020 is a year to reflect and be grateful!