Qantas mulls more sales of single-entry Qantas Club passes
Following a successful trial of selling single-entry passes to Qantas Club airport lounges the airline is considering repeating the promotion throughout 2013.
The deal, which ran throughout December and offered four single-use passes for $179, was the first time that Qantas has sold per-visit Qantas Club passes, was "a great success" according to Nicholas Bull, Qantas' Head of Domestic Lounges.
While Qantas currently has 270,000 paid Qantas Club members – a figure which doesn’t include Qantas Frequent Flyers who enjoy access through their Gold or Platinum status – the airline says the promotion was designed to let infrequent travellers sample the lounge facilities along with other Qantas Club benefits such as priority checkin.
"There are a lot of people who don’t have Qantas Club membership but they'd like to trial it, so that was really the rationale behind it" says Julianne Rogers, Commercial Manager for Qantas Club and Valet.
Rogers admits the airline was "a little nervous about it, and I think some Qantas Club members were a little nervous about it too", she told Australian Business Traveller, but "I don't see this (promotion) happening on a regular basis. I think that undermines the value of the Qantas Club proposition."
"However we've rolled this out at Christmas, so you can buy a pass as a Christmas gift, so maybe it will come out again for special occasions like Mother's Day or Father's Day, we’ll see how it goes."
Rogers also firmly rules out the possibility of Qantas Club access ever being offered on a walk-up, pay-at-the-door basis.
"I think our customers have comer to expect something they regard as being of value to them and I think you seriously undermine that (with walk-up access). We want people to want to belong to the Qantas Club, that it's everything they want it to be."
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17 May 2012
Total posts 80
Qantas are continually playing catch up.....and even then they are not sure about it.
15 Apr 2011
Total posts 580
Why are we complaining about this? The lounges are busy enough without letting in any random person willing to pay $50.
I think we should be thanking Qantas for reisisting the urge to make easy profit by selling single entry passes and crowding the space up even more.
09 Jan 2013
Total posts 1
Catch up to whom?
If you're referring to within the Australian domestic market, Virgin have long ceased their single entry passes. If anything, Virgin will be playing catch up to re-introduce them.
04 Nov 2010
Total posts 670
I was just about to ask the same question as Jay! Why is this a 'catch up' measure from QF? Virgin Australia doesn't even sell one-off lounge passes any more. This is a smart move by QF and yes, maybe we will soon see VA copying QF this time around!
Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer
11 Jan 2013
Total posts 3
Why would you "waste" $179 for 4 entries when Velocity membership is only $420 for an annual membership = unlimited access?? And only $300 per annum if you have Silver Status?? Seems like another way to make a quick buck by Mr Jones and the "crippled wallaby". Perhaps concentrate on consistency of service across all areas of your product offering first??
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