Australian airline Qantas is set to overhaul its popular loyalty program for frequent flyers as the airline looks to revamp its image following a series of controversies.
Under new CEO Vanessa Hudson, who took over late last year, the airline has developed a plan to upgrade the program used by 15 million Australians with a rollout date of July 1.
Draft documents regarding the proposal reveal that it will include an entirely new tier called Classic Plus, which will sit between the Classic Rewards and Points Plus Pay tiers.
The documents, seen by the Australian Financial Review, suggest the Classic Plus program will convert one point to 1c for economy flights and 1.5c for business flights.
From July 1, Qantas Frequent Flyer members will have access to a different points program
The documents also reveal that Classic Plus appears to only be available on Qantas flights and not on Jetstar or partner airlines such as Emirates.
If seats are on sale, the reduced rates apply even if you purchase a ticket with points.
Passengers can get flight refunds for a fee of 6,000 points.
Under the current system, the number of points required for Classic Rewards, where tickets can be purchased entirely with points, is lower than for Points Plus Pay, where points are used to reduce ticket prices.
The catch, however, is that Classic Rewards seats are in short supply and can be difficult to find.
An internal note from the documents suggests that the new level will offer more seats available to book with the program.
“The widespread availability of Classic Plus reward seats means more opportunities for frequent flyers to use their Qantas Points to book seats in premium cabins when frequent flyers want to travel,” the internal note reads.
The changes to the program mean there should be more seats available on flights to book with points, but you will still have to use a few points to do this
Under the proposed changes, a $12,000 round-trip ticket to London flying on a Qantas aircraft would cost 289,200 points, if available as a Classic Rewards seat.
The same flight would cost 800,000 points with Classic Plus – almost three times as many points – but less than half of the 1.7 million points required for Points Plus Pay.
A Qantas spokesperson said: ‘We are finalizing improvements to our frequent flyers program, which respond to what members tell us about the importance of redeeming points for flights at the times they most want to fly.’