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Qantas is about to offer all fully-vaccinated customers a choice of rewards, including frequent flyer points, status credits, or flight discounts, as the airline pushes to see 70 per cent of the population vaccinated, and international borders opened.
From Tuesday, Qantas will offer all fully-vaccinated Australian frequent flyers a choice of three prizes via the Qantas App, while 10 lucky winners will secure free flights, accommodation, and fuel for a year.
All double-jabbed frequent flyers will be offered the choice of 1,000 Qantas frequent flyer points, 15 status credits, or a $20 discount to spend on their next Qantas or Jetstar flight, via the app.
Meanwhile, every person to claim their reward will automatically go in the running to win one of 10 ‘mega-prizes’, which include a year’s worth of free flights to more than 60 destinations around Australia, free accommodation across 345 Accor hotels, resorts and apartments, as well as free fuel from any BP service station.
Mega-prize winners will also be able to take off to any Qantas and Jetstar international destination, once borders re-open.
According to Qantas, one mega-prize winner will be picked from each state and territory. The final two winners picked will also then form part of a national TV campaign with Qantas.
To claim their reward, customers must upload their Medicare-provided COVID-19 digital vaccination certificate, via the Qantas App.
Vaccination information will be deleted upon verification, the airline said.
Customers will have until 31 December 2021 to get their vaccination and claim their reward.
Qantas CEO Alan Joyce said the campaign hopes to drive up vaccination rates, getting Australians out of lockdown and back out into the world.
“Getting vaccinated is an important step that every Australian can take that brings us that little bit closer to life as we knew it,” Joyce said. “As the national carrier, we want to recognise those who have made the effort to protect themselves and the community.
“This is one of the biggest giveaways we’ve ever done. The impact of the pandemic on the travel industry and our own Qantas Group team members means we have a clear vested interest in the success of the vaccine rollout.”
Joyce added: “Our crews can’t wait to get back to reuniting family and friends, taking people on holiday and putting some energy back into the whole tourism industry. For us, getting the vaccine rate up to 70 and 80 per cent means thousands of people can go back to work.
“With the federal government’s vaccine program ramping up across the country, now is the ideal time to say thank you to Australians for stepping up and protecting themselves and others.”
Qantas first announced back in May that it would begin to offer rewards and prizes to Australians willing to step up and get the jab.
At that time, it was said that incentives would be offered from July, however Joyce said the program’s rollout would be pending the mobile app being developed.
“We are trying our best to help with this rollout,” Joyce said at that time, speaking on Seven’s morning show Sunrise.
“We want to do everything that we can to ensure the borders domestically open and stay open and that we get international up and running.”
Joyce noted that Qantas still has around 6,000 of its staff, dedicated to the airline’s international network, stood down.
“And they will be stood down until we have the international borders reopened,” he added.
It follows the news that Qantas officially pushed back its intended start date for international routes from October to December.
“We are still planning to be ready at the end of this calendar year. We are activating the aircraft, we are training our crew, the government has given us a support package to do that and have asked us to be ready,” Joyce told Sunrise.
“I’m hopeful by the time we get to July-August we will have some certainty on which markets will open and when they will open, so we can give certainty to our travelling public and to our people about when they are going to be back at work.”
Notably, the federal government has said it does not expect international borders to open up until mid-2022.
The flag carrier has long been a strong advocate for vaccination, with Joyce repeatedly pledging that all international passengers on long-haul flights will require a COVID vaccine to fly.
“Our position on this is clear. We have a duty of care to our people and our passengers, and once a safe and effective vaccine becomes readily available, it will be a requirement for travel on our international services,” Joyce said in December.
Just last week, the airline announced it will also soon require all employees to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19, including frontline and corporate staff.
The airline has said from 15 November 2021 it will mandate cabin crew, pilots and airport ground workers to be fully vaccinated against COVID, while the remaining workforce will have until 31 March 2022 to get the jab.
Qantas noted that there will be exemptions offered to those who are unable to receive the vaccine “for documented medical reasons”, which the airline expects to be a “very rare” instance.
The policy applies to staff across both its Qantas and Jetstar brands, and the decision was made following consultation with employees across both airlines.
