Qantas Frequent Flyer revamp announced

Qantas Airways boss Vanessa Hudson has unveiled a long-awaited revamp of its frequent flyer program in an attempt to improve the ways customers can redeem points.

Hudson said on Monday that the new Classic+ reward program will be able to used on international flights from July and will vary like normal airfares, meaning they will require more points during peak travelling periods such as school holidays and less during non-peak times. The scheme will be rolled out on domestic flights from the end of 2024. The program will add 20,000 reward seats to the frequent flyer program.

“We have been spending a lot of time listening, but we’ve also heard where we need to improve and are taking action,” Hudson said on Monday.

“It will add four times the amount of access to seats than Classic Rewards with more choice and more destination,” Hudson said.

The new scheme will be called Classic Plus and allow customers to convert one frequent flyer point to 1¢ for economy flights and one point to 1.5¢ for business class flights. The Australian Financial Review reported some of the looming changes last week.

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More than half of the country are members of Qantas’ frequent flyer program, with 15.2 million members. Until now, travellers have been able to secure Classic Rewards seats in exchange for a set number of points or use some points and pay the remainder of a fare. There are fewer points required to obtain a Classic Rewards seat than Points Plus Play seats, but they are often difficult to find.

Classic+ seems to be an attempt by the airline to address some of the complaints some frequent flyers have made regarding the scarcity of Classic Rewards seats. It will not be available for bookings on Jetstar or partner airlines.

Classic+ seats will be released 353 days ahead of a travel date to all frequent flyers at the same time while premium tiered members will continue to get earlier access to the classic reward seats.