Along with Air France, QF has just about the worst program in the world. Everything needs fixing - the redemption rates are double those of eg AA; the hatful-of-points-for-upgrade-but-only-standby is worlds worst practice; where are the SWU's; the award-booking engine has an arbitrary list of airports, when it would be easy to enable freeform input; thin benefits for status members or lifetime-members .. bah

This isn't actually true, the plans are so different that comparison is complicated, but in general QFF is cheap for economy awards and expensive for premium awards. AAdvantage has a tiny premium for F awards over Y (as little as 20% and often under 50%), while on QFF F is 300% of the Y award cost (while J is 200%). Many Y awards are actually cheaper on QFF than Aadvantage (and this has been true for 10 years). Some J awards on AA are cheaper as QFF awards, even today, than as Aadvantage awards! I agree with the rule of thumb in valuing miles that Aadvantage miles are worth double QFF points, however that is based on the "better" award redemptions and not the "average" one. Finally, Aadvantage award availaility is dramatically worse in the past year than it has been historically; many of those "cheap" awards simply cannot be redeemed, at any price, these days. Overall I rate QFF as a better than average FF plan. The biggest flaw is being overly complex, having sometimes byzantine rules and often inconsistent or unexpected rules between awards. My pet peeve is that the Oneworld awards have different rules than Oneworld on other arilines -- I suppose Oneworld is like that! The alliance that isn't.

A few of my suggestions:
- lifetime Platinum
- limo pickup and dropoff for WP longhaul pax (or even all J longhaul pax) - when I travel Etihad I just love the limo, compared to the ubiquitous MaxiTaxi that comes when I travel QF
- overhaul the PG benefit; whenever MrsHW travels it's usually with me anyway; and there's nothing like the sour look on her face when she gets the PG letter that says "because Mr HW flies so much..." - as if she needs reminding Maybe options to convert the benefit to gift vouchers etc would provide flexibility.
- I much preferred upgrade credits that could be used for ODUs (didn't cost Qantas anything since they were flying with an empty seat anyway, made my flight a little happier = goodwill)

True, the earn/burn ratio when flying is bad, especially in premium cabins. I pay 2 times the price for my J ticket, but only get an extra 25%. But I need 200% of Y points for a J redemption.
However, QFF is not really famous for making points through flying. You make your points through credit and rewards cards.

On AA you typically get 1 mile per US$ credit card spent. For QFF, you can get 1.5 points per AU$ spent so effectively 2 points per US$. Then you throw in your Everyday Rewards card and I get 3 points per USD on a lot of my CC spent, but at least 2.
So when earning in the air, I usually use *A (225% in C at M&M), when earning on the ground, I use QFF.

Of course, all of us would like to see the earn/burn ratio to be improved but I don't think this will ever happen. No incentive for QF to do so unless they assume that giving more miles for premium travel would increase demand.

SCs are a proxy for miles flown. The more miles you fly, the more SCs you earn. How is that different to actual flying?

Yes - I've used this a number of times. If you have to fly a lot a short notice, this can be very useful.

Interesting that this thread starts the same time as I have just received an email from QF asking for opinions of the FF program:

"...We're always working to improve the Qantas Frequent Flyer
program and an important part of this is understanding what
our members think.

To help us with this, we'd appreciate a moment of your time
to rate the program and provide some feedback...."

More space in the Lounges, even J lounge overflows often and because of this I prefer to be at the gate rather than in a crowded lounge.

Second problem then arrises, needing to get onto the plane early (single body aircraft only) to secure overhead space. This means lining up early with often 50+ people. What a drag.

I'd like to see priority boarding for elites domestically - to be in line with every other oneworld carrier in every other country.

Aah, you can do this already with a K class or higher fare ... Got to remember that whatever benefits are offered they need to first and foremost enhance the profitability of the airline. To introduce a policy like this would remove incentives for the airlines most profitable group of customers for buying higher fares.

Big call, and IMHO simply not true. I could fill a page with reasons why not but some of the immediate things that come to mind are:
- status and points earning on every available commercial fare. One could fly a return between Asia and Australia every fortnight on SQ's (inflated, ie more expensive than QF) "sale" fares in Y and get no points and no recognition. On QF one would get to platinum and have enough points for a round the world fare in business class. And you say QF has the worst program in the world!
- 1000 pts minimum earn on domestic flights. Sure the burn rates are high, but for travellers plying the skies between MEL&SYD, they get double points compared to many carriers (ie 1000 pts vs minimum of 500 on many carriers), although admittedly WP's would get 880 anyway.
- Anytime lounge access for platinums (not too many other airlines do this)

Not the best program, but far from being the worst.

+1. It's quite difficult to find room in the bins on the 737s when the flight is full. Not helped by some people taking on a lot more than their allowance, and it being ignored. Priority boarding (which is not hard, it's one of the things AA does very well) would help a lot with this.

I'd also like to see confirmed international upgrades for WP/SG.
Fastrack xray lines at peak hours domestically for J/WP and maybe SG.

Keep the upgrade program as it is but remove the inability to request upgrades only 3 months out, and allow the requests to be made anytime after booking. Then implement a similar program to NZ:

WP can get upgrades confirmed up to 365 days before flight
SG can get upgrades confirmed up to 72 hours before flight
PS can get upgrades confirmed up to 48 hours before flight
NB can get upgrades confirmed up to 24 hours before flight

This allows WP's to get upgrades confirmed immediately if the right inventory is available and SG and PS members can get the upgrades confirmed up to a few days out if load is relatively low or at check-in/the gate if load is very high.

- Comp upgrade credits would be good
- Lifetime WP
- Another status above WP which is much harder to get such as HON Circle

Recent experiences in PER, SYD & ADL have all been very hit and miss to be honest. i did enjoy the lady in SYD a week or so back who asked if I was travelling today, despite showing her a boarding pass and dragging lugguage and a laptop bag. What was the alternative?

-
An easy example is the sought after CX intra asia J trips.
Even MELSYD in J class / JQ*Class or AA "K-Up fares".
A small number of these can accrue WP (Emerald) status with QF whereas in CX / FinnAir / Other Programs, your actual mileage flown and the fare class booked might see you lucky to earn Ruby (or worst case nothing at all)

Also;
- Recongition of other airlines OW status pax eg - baggage policy (recently raised)? throughout the alliance although this is more a OW than QF thing.

A side to this would be a scale of status credits more in line with distance travelled and fare cost than the current basic multiples. For example PER to ADL, SYD, MEL, BNE and return all attract 20 credits at discount Y despite journey times of between 3 and 5 hours. If PER-ADL for example is 20 credits, and ADL-BNE 15, then PER-BNE should be 30 or 35 in discount Y

I would prefer to earn 20 credits flying MEL-SYD-MEL and BNE-PER in Y that is for certain.

Hmm ... before the May 2005 changes, MEL/BNE only earned 10 SC's in discount WHY!This already exists.

Are you ever at the gate lounges when boarding commences? Generally elites are invited to board at this time. Even if not and in the front row of WHY, I will board.

You obviously don't ever fly BA then who hardly ever actually offer or provide this 'feature'.