Obviously the problems with the airline industry are a sensitive issue for you. I am sorry if you or anyone you know has been affected by the shutdowns.
I know that legally QFF is a seperate entity, but it is still in a very tight partnership with QANTAS. It is after all still carrying the QANTAS brand as part of the business name to underline the linkage to the main business.
The point I was trying to make was that in the midst of the COVID businesses have to adapt and the travel industry, which QFF is firmly part of, have to make allowances that they may not have made previously. I was not asking that QFF give me something for nothing. I was suggesting that they may reaslise that some grace could be extended in these times because people are not able to behave or spend in the same manner that they had pre-COVID.
Thanks for the suggestions so far. I have tried transferring the points out, but you have to have a minimum of 5,000 points to do so. I tried shopping in their store, but alas there was nothing within our point range to buy.
1 QFF mile is worth $0.005 +/- depending on what it is redeemed for. When one has enough for a premium seat on an international flight and can get a seat, it can be in the order of $0.01 +/-.
I get QFF from my credit card, Woolworths, BP and some other places. You can look it up and see who gives you the points on Qantas website.
More to the point is that you need a lot of points to get anything. I try to save mine for free flights or upgrades but the latter are hard to find to fit with my travel and it takes forever to get a large number.
i just logged in and have opted to keep my woollies points as woollies points off my shop rather than Qantas points. with covid i wont be travelling anywhere for a long while so why dont we just all change our woollies cards to shopping discounts and bye bye to Qantas.
They used to give a lot more warning than that, my daughter got at least two months warning that hers were due to expire. She spent some on a gift voucher for a book which kept the rest active for another 18 months.
Other options that may or may not suit you in keeping them active that I have are:
a) a Woolworths reward card that generates a few QFF points. You only need to go once or twice in 18 months, which is probably as often as I go there!
b) Also I signed up to RedPlanet surveys ages ago. Occasional surveys, which even if you are not eligible (deliberately or not) generate some QFF points. In both cases my points total stays alive.
I haven’t flown since 2017 and can’t predict when I will again, but my points stay active. That said I did spend a lot of them in the very early days of Covid main due to the fact I didn’t see using them on flights was going to occur anytime soon.
Just sign up for woolworths rewards and choose convert my points to frequent flyer points. I’ve earned thousands of points this way. In my WA country town, we only have a Woolworths, a Coles and an Aldi for grocery shopping. I prefer Woolworths for most things as they have more organic products, plus the Woolworths petrol station is usually the cheapest, I get that converted to Frequent flyer points too. Usually I use my points to try and get an upgrade when I fly East, but I have recently used 60,000 of them to buy 2 Icebreaker Merino jumpers on points plus pay as I won’t be flying any time soon and Icebreaker are very expensive to buy.
In response to the CV-19 crisis, some airlines, but unfortunately not Qantas, have paused points expiry or extended the expiry date.
Qantas seems to be focusing on getting members unable to get points by flying to keep points alive by buying stuff, esp health insurance, and reminding them of other ways that they can get points.
Alex Carlton did this excellent story for Choice about this issue, and hotel rewards points, in May.
In it she mentions downloading and using the Qantas Well Being App and getting others to do so as a way to get points. I have not needed to do that yet so can not comment on it.
Seems to me that Qantas should have given you much more notice of the impending expiry of points.
If your points have expired, and you are unable to get Qantas to reinstate them, I suggest lodging a complaint with the Airline Customer Advocate http://www.airlinecustomeradvocate.com.au/
They have provided support to their Silver, Gold and Platinum status holders to retain their status during the pandemic.
In relation to frequent flyer points, check the partner list to see if their is business one uses which also participates in the FF program. If one uses one of these businesses, an easy way to retain points is to have FF accrued when using these businesses products or services. One will need to contact these businesses to have points awarded to their FF account.
Just found out the easiest way to retain point (prevent expiry) is to use your QFF card when buying fuel at BP servos. Maybe one could buy some fuel at BP every so often to maintain point currency.
Thinking of heading off - whether it be cruising the Pacific Coast Way, weekend in Noosa or just a day out? Choosing bp for fuel and snacks is an easy way to earn Qantas Points.*
Simply join BP Rewards for free and choose to earn Qantas Points. It only takes a few minutes to join and link your Frequent Flyer number to your BP Rewards account.
Hurry! Join before 18 August 2020 to earn an easy 250 bonus Qantas Points.^
I was informed in May 2021 that my points would expire in December 2021. Of course there is better value in the points to redeem an upgrade or flight however it is my choice to not fly domestically at the moment, too much hassle with state borders closing all the time. This has provided sufficient time for my washing machine to break and redeem a good guys voucher, not as fun as an upgrade to Europe business class but at least some compensation for all of those boring by business trips. There is better value in redeeming an item or a voucher for a specialty store vs woolies and coles.
Flying isn’t the only way to accrue points. One can accrue points through frequent flyer partners (link provided above) and some of these won’t cost you anything if you already use their services/make purchases through them. As soon as points are accrued, the expiry date is reset, that being for Qantas. 18 months from when the last points were added to your QFF account.
Not sure if you know anything about it but here is my story.
As a lot of travellers, my and my husband’s flights to France in April 2020 were cancelled because of the pandemic. I booked using Velocity points so now our money is sitting in travel bank. I called Virgin help desk several times and I’ve been told that our money will not allow us to travel to France in 2023 like we’d like to but we’ll be able to travel within Australia only or, for now, Bali or Fiji.
My husband has never been to France and I want to take him there and meet with my family.
Thank you for answers.
When using points or credits issued by Airlines for travel, one needs to be able to travel as a passenger of that airline. That is done two ways, if the airline flies to a destination one wants to travel to, then one travels on the airline’s planes to that destination. Alternatively, if an airline doesn’t fly to a destination, the airline might partner with another airline so you can travel on another airlines plane still as a passenger for the original airline one has credit or points with.
In relation to Virgin Australia, they don’t fly to France, so there is no opportunity to fly on a Virgin plane as a Virgin passenger to France.
In relation to Virgin Australia, which has new owner after April 2020, they would a partner airline to travel internationally to a selected destination as a Virgin Australia passenger. Virgin Australia currently don’t have any active partner airlines to allow this option to occur. See:
This means that you won’t be able to book with Virgin Australia to travel to France using another (partner) airline at point in time. They even suggest to fly with airlines where Velocity points can be earned, to book directly with these other airlines (which will be travelling as the other airline’s passenger)
Do you wait? The above Virgin webpage indicates that there may be active partners in the future. If partner airlines exist in the future it is possible that they might not let existing credits/points (before a certain date if at all) be used for booking partner airline tickets. This is because partner airlines may invoice Virgin for the ticket meaning they could be out if pocket - rather than issuing a ticket on one of their planes where they lose opportunity for revenue.
Thank you for you message.
I need to specify that I used my velocity points for my flight and paid my husband’s flight with Amex. We were to fly with Singapore airlines, therefore one of Virgin’s partners.
I know that Virgin is currently retrieving bookings but note sure what they are and when from.
I’ll wait until mid January 2023 to see if we can go to France otherwise I’ll book New Zealand and maybe Bali.
It’s still very frustrating and I feel I’ve been robbed
That would have been with the pre-April 2020 company since then Virgin Airlines went into administration, assets/liabilities and name acquired by Bain Capital. They restructured the company and it is a different entity to that which existed when you originally booked with them.
Their relationship with partner airlines would have ceased when in administration and I expect many may be nervous re-establishing partnerships as it may expose them to greater risks.
Won’t hurt if you have time left before you can use your points/credits. Check with any future bookings that international flights can be booked directly with Virgin Australia or their partners using the points/credits you have.
It is frustrating, but, on a positive note - if Virgin Australia didn’t come out of administration as a result of a creditor deal with an investment group, then you could have potentially lost everything.
