Qantas frequent flyer program is about to get an overhaul as the airline tries to improve its tattered image – here’s the details

Australian airline Qantas is about to overhaul its popular frequent flyer loyalty program as the carrier seeks to refresh its image following a string of controversies.

Under new CEO Vanessa Hudson, who took the helm late last year, the carrier has been developing a plan to upgrade the program used by 15million Australians with a roll out date of July 1.

The draft documents relating to the proposal reveal it will include a whole new tier called Classic Plus which will sit between the Classic Rewards and Points Plus Pay levels.

The documents, seen the the Australian Financial Review, suggest the Classic Plus program will convert one point into 1c for economy flights and 1.5c for business flights.

The documents also show Classic Plus appears to be only be available on Qantas flights and not Jetstar or partner airlines such as Emirates.

If seats are on sale, the reduced fares apply even if buying a ticket with points.

Passengers can get flights refunded for a 6000-point fee. 

In the current system the number of points needed for Classic Rewards, where tickets can be purchased entirely by points, is lower than Points Plus Pay, where points are used to lower ticket prices. 

However, the catch is Classic Rewards seats are in low supply and hard to find.

An internal notes from the documents suggests the new tier will provide more seats available to book with the program.

‘The widespread availability of Classic Plus reward seats will mean more options for frequent flyers to use their Qantas Points to book seats in premium cabins at the times when frequent flyers want to travel,’ the internal note reads.

The changes to the program will mean there should be more seats on flights available to book with points but you will need to use a few more points to do so 

Under the proposed changes, a $12,000 on-sale return fare to London flying on a Qantas plane would cost 289,200 points if available as a Classic Rewards seat. 

The same flight would cost 800,000 points using Classic Plus – nearly three times as many points – but less than half of the 1.7 million points required for Points Plus Pay.

A Qantas spokesman said: ‘We’re finalising improvements to our frequent flyers program which are responding to what members are telling us about the importance of redeeming points for flights at the times they most want to fly.’