Qantas extending Gold, Platinum frequent flyer memberships
By David Flynn, December 15 2011
Qantas is giving many top-tier frequent flyers an early Christmas present this year and extending their Gold or Platinum status, even though they fell well short of the required amount of flying.
The Red Roo generally allows a degree of grace when there’s a small gap between the number of status credits earned through their membership year and the amount needed to retain Gold (600 status credits) or Platinum (1,200 status credits).
However, many Australian Business Traveller readers who are soon to hit the renewal date for their Qantas Frequent Flyer membership are reporting an unexpected extension of their current Gold and Platinum status – despite being hundreds of status credits short of the mark.
One reader, James K, tells us that after three years of Platinum, this year he had barely 700 status credits to his name – almost half the number needed to hang onto his status.
This week James received a letter from Qantas saying it has extended his Platinum membership “to recognise all the flying you have done with Qantas, Jetstar and oneworld alliance airlines since joining the program.”
"I was resigned to dropping back to Gold, which is a bit of a #firstworldproblem really!" James told AusBT. "I honestly don't think that would have changed my intentions to fly with Qantas in 2012, but being given 'complementary' Platinum for another year is certainly a very welcome surprise."
Qantas is no doubt mindful of the recent strikes and shutdown woes which may have kept frequent flyers away or made them think twice about of rebooking with the airline in future.
So if you didn’t get enough flights to keep for Qantas Frequent Flyer Gold or Platinum status for the coming year, keep your fingers crossed – you could find a shiny new card under the Christmas tree!
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.
20 Apr 2011
Total posts 19
I can confirm this is being offered to Silvers as well.
16 Oct 2011
Total posts 3
I think the reason behind it is more to do with Virgin's status match. There will be a lot of people who got the status match and still have another 9 months of higher status with Virgin. So if someone has dropped to gold with Qantas, but still platinum with Virgin they might be inclined to switch to Virgin. So Qantas extend the platinums and golds who would otherwise drop so as to retain their custom.
04 Nov 2010
Total posts 670
Scibo is right, I stopped flying Qantas around halfway through this year because I switched to Virgin, thought I would lose my Silver status but Qantas extended it to next year. And I reckon Richie9x is on the money when he says that Qantas are worried about former QF frequent flyers shifting to Virgin because they now have status on Velocity. Wow, another smart move by John Borghetti, I reckon he knew that QF would want to extend membership and this would 'cost' them!
Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer
13 Sep 2011
Total posts 181
Qantas are rapidly loosing my loyalty with this kind of thing. I am a Platinum member of the f/f program with around 65% of my flights on QF, the rest on CX or JQ, I was 25 status credits short of my loyalty bonus and the b@st@rd5 wouldn't grant me the 5000 air miles, despite been on a Dragonair marketed flight. And now I find that despite me earning over 1700 status credits well before my aniversary, they are dishing out elite membership when people aren't even coming close. I mean, good luck to you guys for getting the gift but what rewards have Qantas given those who make the tiers???? Sweet Fanny Adams.
25 Aug 2011
Total posts 4
I'm with you on this one. This weeks crappy mailout was another example. Cheap bulk mail piece sent to all FFs with a modicum of personalisation. My good lady (Gold) got a nice free pass to the First lounge which she was pleased about. Platinums got nothing. I'm in between double Plat and Platinum One and have received zero love since qualifying..
We spend the cash, we earn the points, we spend the hours inside their metal but it seems as though QF still believe our loyalty wont change. I think they're in for a surprise next year. Personally I'll be putting a lot more business in the direction of Virgin and Singapore/Star.
07 Apr 2011
Total posts 4
Qantas do this for everyone, you get one 'free pass' where you're kept on the same level for the year (even if you flew a single flight) in your frequent flyer membership before falling down a tier.
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