mad_atta

That's true, but my comment was comparing NZ's programme to AC / UA / the other *A alternatives, rather than to QF.

OMG, the excitement is palpable!

Craigo

Not quite Dave, the Federal Police investigation came from the ALP complaining after reading a throwaway line by Windsor in the Tamworth newspaper four months after the alleged incident occurred. He would not name names in September when challenged to do so, waiting until Parliament resumed to do it under Parliamentary Privilege. Not high on the credibility scale, but high on the political points-scoring scale.

dashman

The cynic in me says it was really only a matter of time before such changes occurred... As a result I tend to be a pretty active mileage burner who in this instance, like others in regional centres, will be particularly affected by the changes. For example: current economy award ABX (via SYD) to CNS/NAN/AKL/CHC etc = 30,000 new = 52,000. Now that’s points devaluation

under the clocks

Qantas Head of Marketing, Martin McKinnon appeared on Melbourne radio ABC 774 this morning and came under attack. The interview can be heard here from 10 am AEDT 25/11. The link will be up for 7 days.

SFSC

And I guess that rare bird, an operational upgrade on QF international, will now become extinct.

serfty

Dashman, This means that ABX to AKL with SYD transfers each way will be two "trips" at 18k pts each=36K, up from 30k (+$170 approx)

Kiwi Flyer

I think NZ stacks up better following the recent changes, at least for premium pax. Biz and first now earn 2-4+ times econ (varies by route).

goback

I imagine there are lots of policy types in the Department of Transport who like to use their points to upgrade and who will now be somewhat upset. It will make them more likely to offer less resistance to the idea of SQ flying from SYD/MEL to LAX/SFO.
I imagine that there will be less sympathy for QF as QF will be seen as just another corporation trying to minimise costs (eg. new crew bases overseas, etc.) and not as a 'national icon'.

Mr Smith

thanks to QF's greed i'll be spending my dollars with Star Alliance now, i'm going to cash in my miles for a trip of some sort and start using UAL and Star carriers.

it wasnt even 18 months ago since they last jacked it up, I'm from Perth and we've been royaly screwed!

martynriddle

My comments were not particularly meant as a either polictical rant or in support of the ALP (until yesterday I wasnt even an Australian citizen so couldnt vote and therefore hold no specific allegance to any particular political party). I am well aware of the fact that the ALP are not particularly strong in country areas and therefore the funding issue has little direct impact on them. The point I was making was that 40% of the total fund was allocated in the 6 weeks before the election and most of this allocation went to electorates where the Nationals were on a sticky wicket from an Independant challenge or electorates where they had lost a seat previously. For some reason, the phrase 'pork barrelling' comes to mind. Of course, there is the other possibility that this is just a coincidence brought about by statistics.

And maybe it is just a coincidence again that Australia has an informal closed skies policy despite the protestation of innocence from the government and as a result, the passengers get a right royal (or should that be governmental) shatfting.

Go the Waratahs

martynriddle

The interview starts at 14 mins 20 secs into the clip.

ALEIN

Its my understanding that QANTAS staff have no feedback lines to the upper eschelons of the company. If enough of us jump up and down screaming at the customer care department at: http://www.qantas.com.au/needhelp/dy...ackform?cat=ff maybe they will hear us

ALEIN

This is a post from http://www.frequentflyer.com.au/disc...er=asc&start=0

just thought id pop in and let you know whats going on with frequent flyers. Ive had a look at qantas.com.au and this is what i found

firstly- changes effective immeadiately-
* etickets baby! there is no longer the option to purchase a flight on an etktable routing and get a paper ticket- (mainly due to security reasons)

*Family transfers! yay! are finally here, but please be aware that you can only do one once every 12 months, and the internet gives you an exact anniversary date of when you can do it again. However!!! if mary decides to transfer all of her points to her hubby fred, and also their son James' points you can d it! there are no restictions on the amount of points the recipeint can recieve- only that you must transfer a min of 5 000 and a max of 100 000 points

*Top up points! This is something that i wasnt expecting- you can now purchase 'top up points' online at qantas.com.au. now once again you can only do it once every 12 months, and it is a little expensive. now the other conditions are that you must purchase these points so that you can do a flight, and you can only purchase less than 15% of your award flight's cost.

****so as of next year- heres a short run down

1. it will be 2500points to book with a member of the frequent flyer team

2. you can still book online for FREE!! or using anna (heh good luck!!)

3. The award table will be transformed from the current 5 zones into 10 zones of one way travel

4. The frequent flyer flights will be a series of one way trips

5. Loyalty Bonus points will be introduced in place of the upgrade credit system, so if you earn 450 status credits, you recieve a bonus of 5000 points that you can use towards cars, hotels, flights!

6. You will no longer be able to upgrade flights booked as red-e deals, or as they say heavily discounted fares in N, O or Q classes of travel.

7. Now, for the new 10 zone table: like the old one it works on how many miles you travel, so here we go:
(straight from the website)
Award flight tables
Qantas Award table
Zone One-Way Miles Economy Business First
1 0-600 8,000 16,000 24,000
2 601-1,200 12,000 24,000 36,000
3 1,201-2,400 18,000 36,000 54,000
4 2,401-3,600 25,000 50,000 75,000
5 3,601-4,800 30,000 60,000 90,000
6 4,801-5,800 36,000 72,000 108,000
7 5,801-7,000 42,000 84,000 126,000
8 7,001-8,400 48,000 96,000 144,000
9 8,401-9,600 56,000 112,000 168,000
10 9,601-15,000 64,000 128,000 192,000
Plus 2,500 for Assisted Award booking fee (if applicable)

Additional charges and taxes are payable on Award flights at the time of booking and are subject to change.

so i think thats pretty much it, if you have any more drop a line to qantas directly- if you want to vent or itf you want some answers YOU NEED TO TALK TO THESE GUYS!! at http://www.qantas.com.au/needhelp/dy...ackform?cat=ff

Craigo

Fair enough Martyn. I just get annoyed when the media make sweeping statements without checking the facts. BTW, congrats on becoming an Australian citizen.

You realise that you won't be able to vote for the ALP federally. How could you support two losing teams .

mcsmcs

After listening to the head of Marketing it is clear that they have not done any research on these changes especially with regard to confirming upgrades which is really the only way I use my points.

If they had asked us they would have learned that none of us really want to play russion roulette with upgrades even at WP level as the changes now mean there is no guaruntee for any of us.

As has been said before I would not be thrilled to take my young famliy and all the luggage that entails with the hope of an upgrade. I couldnt handle the fall out when if it did not come through.

The spin from Qantas on this is that they are protecting the upgrades for people like me by not allowing NB to take the upgrades before me.

I would prefer to have to book 364 days out and know I have an upgrade than to take the risk.