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Qantas frequent flyers will be able to maintain their status level for 18 months should they take time off to care for a new addition to the family such as a newborn, foster child or adopted child.
In a similar scheme to Virgin Australia’s Velocity frequent flyer program, Qantas’s “Status Hold” will allow parents who are taking at least six months off work to continue to receive the benefits of their silver, gold or platinum status even if they do not fly enough to re-qualify for another year of elite status.
The new initiative was one of several changes to the program announced on Tuesday alongside increased limits for families transferring points from one member to another and allowing members to make an unlimited number of points transfers in a 12-month period, from a maximum of four previously.
Qantas Loyalty chief executive Lesley Grant said feedback from the frequent flyer program’s 11 million members prompted the changes.
“Status Hold is designed to suit their evolving lifestyle and family needs,” Grant said in a statement.
“We recognise that all families are a bit different, so Status Hold will apply to men and women and those welcoming a foster or adopted child.”
Virgin’s “Membership Pause” allowed members who have a new addition to the family to place their membership on hold for six months. After this six-month period, they will have their silver, gold or platinum status for a further 12 months. Virgin also allowed family members to “pool” points and status credits into the one account.
More information on Qantas’s Status Hold can be found here. Meanwhile, details on the Velocity’s family benefits are here.
Trent
says:So typical Qantas will always let someone else be the guinea pig, then they decide it works and follow suite. When will the flying kangaroo champion it’s own ideas and become innovative,? Ah waitwait! I forget we are talking about Qantas!
Goeff
says:Trent they are still waiting on the rest of the ‘guinea pigs’ (ie the rest of the world) to test out the Boeing 777. Qantas are still doubtful! haha
Kim
says:Hard to get Status points on Qantas for International flights from Adelaide, as Qantas doesn’t have any. Why put up with another flight and stopover just to obtain points? Maybe they’ll look into this as Adelaide flyers are disadvantaged when flying to Europe or eastern USA.
Geoff
says:I would have hoped Qantas would have allowed for retired from the workforce 65+ flyers to have a 2 year Status Credit cycle. Trying to maintain Platinum now retired is a lost battle with the bank balance.