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QANTAS: Redeeming points for flights is a bit of a disaster right now, according to Australian Frequent Flyer

QANTAS: Redeeming points for flights is a bit of a disaster right now, according to Australian Frequent Flyer

Pre-pandemic, I have successfully redeemed Qantas FF points for 1st class on a Qantas A380 to London. Even after the pandemic struck, I have been able to regularly upgrade domestic economy to business on points and have even booked a fare from Uluru to Sydney in business using points.

However, trying to find anything besides an economy Classic Rewards ticket to London or anywhere on Qantas for the next 365 days is about as productive as looking for a needle in a haystack.

As an educated frequent flyer and reader, I am sure you already understand that redeeming frequent flyer points for anything other than flight upgrades and Classic Reward redemptions is akin to burning bank notes!

an escalator in a building
Qantas First Lounge entry, Sydney

Not just my experience

I’m highlighting this because I can echo Australian Frequent Flyer’s (AFF) experience in trying to find premium seats on international flights. AFF and Editor Matt Graham have done the work, so I am not going to repeat the saga here.

I direct you to the article: Qantas Points ‘The Envy of the World”? Absolutely Not!‘ on the AFF website.

Set out below are the salient points Matt covers:

a seat in a plane
Qantas domestic business class B737-800

2PAXfly Takeout

This is another timely reminder to wear your seatbelt when seated. Holding you close to your seat will protect you from the sort of injuries sustained on this flight, when unsecured passengers flew to the ceiling of the aircraft, and then came crashing down once the ‘drop’ ceased.

The hope will be that this is an anomaly – a ‘freak accident’ in casual parlance. If it is a systemic error either mechanical or electronic, then this is a larger concern for the airlines that fly Boeing Dreamliner 787 aircraft. Let’s hope it isn’t. If it is, it will pile on the woes to Boeing’s existing stack.

I know that things are tight for all airlines at the moment, and Qantas is not the only airline where redeeming points has become difficult. The thing that sticks in all of us frequent flyers’ throats about Qantas is that they big-note Points Planes, and boast about how many rewards they have flooded the market with, but the reality and users’ experience tends to contradict them.

I understand that in the layoffs Qantas made during the pandemic, they might have lost some call centre staff with extensive knowledge and that it will take time to restore that. But, tell us that, and introduce an escalation system where mistakes can be rectified and a timeline for when full pre-pandemic call centre service will be restored.

I would much prefer more honesty from Qantas. Let them admit they are restricting premium redemptions and that the compensation is Points Planes and more economy seat redemptions. Tell us when they hope to restore the number of redemptions in premium cabins to pre-pandemic numbers. Is that too much to ask from the ‘Spirit of Australia’?

And finally, fix your website. It’s a slow-burning unholy dumpster of a mess. It takes an eon to return redemption options, and you can no longer access the date grid showing classic reward availability for a month or so at a time. Or, maybe I’m just searching wrong. I’m sure someone decided to eliminate that for a reason – presumably so customers can’t see that there are no premium awards available. In reality what it does is make us all spend way more time on your site desperately searching for availability, multiple times. That adds to the work your dusty website servers have to do, and I am sure inhibits its efficiency even further!

Qantas, I love you, but I’m finding it more and more difficult to defend your actions.

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