Qantas complimentary lounge passes go electronic

From July all new complimentary lounge passes are to be issued / handled electronically. This also now means that the passes have to be linked to a flight on the day prior to travel, meaning that travellers have lost the flexibility to use or not to use those passes on the day of travel. More Qantas unfriendliness.

"Eligible Customers must link the Complimentary Invitation to an Eligible Flight in the Eligible Customer's Complimentary Invitations Portal at least the day prior to flight departure."

For the full terms read here - https://www.qantas.com/au/en/frequent-flyer/the-qantas-club/terms-conditions.html#complimentary-invitations

Most interesting is the flight cancellation clauses:

1- If an Eligible Customer cancels the Eligible Flight up to 24 hours before scheduled departure of that flight, the Complimentary Invitation will be unlinked from the Eligible Flight and become reinstated to unused status.

2 - If an Eligible Customer changes or cancels the Eligible Flight within 24 hours of the scheduled departure of that flight, the linked Complimentary Invitation becomes invalid, cannot be linked to another flight, cannot be reinstated and will be forfeited.

3 - If Qantas cancels the Eligible Flight up to 24 hours before scheduled departure, the Complimentary Invitation will be automatically unlinked from the Eligible Flight and reinstated to unused status.

4 - If Qantas cancels the Eligible Flight within 24 hours of the scheduled departure, the Eligible Customer is entitled to request for the Complimentary Invitation to be reinstated to unused status through the Qantas Refunds form.

It appears, between 3 and 4, that Qantas's computer systems aren't smart enough to handle on the day cancellations.

For Jetstar the process is even more onerous:

For 1 - For Eligible Flights operated by Jetstar, the Eligible Customer must log into the Complimentary Invitations Portal to unlink the Complimentary Invitation, to reinstate it to unused status.

For 2 - same applies - becomes invalid, cannot be linked to another flight, cannot be reinstated and will be forfeited.

For 3 - For Eligible Flights operated by Jetstar, the Complimentary Invitation will not be automatically linked to the new flight and the Eligible Customer must log into the Complimentary Invitations Portal to unlink the Complimentary Invitation and link it to the new Eligible Flight.

For 4 - same applies - is entitled to request for the Complimentary Invitation to be reinstated.

Can only see this as causing more customer confusion and demands on the call centres.

I'm curious - how does one use an electronic complimentary pass if their next flight is booked wholly through Jetstar, and thus doesn't show up in the Qantas Bookings page?

Yep, it's been heading this way for a while – most of the remaining card partners have gone digital, the last one (Westpac) makes the move on July 2, and we have a story going up tomorrow :)

I used to have here sitting in the wallet so I could hand out at the airport if I ran into someone I knew (esp when I was gold) and already had a guest lined up. The inflexibility here on timing is the only real issue I see - hopefully can be relaxed.

Geez they really could make it much more flexible, particularly if its an electronic system. You get delayed on the way to the airport and no longer have enough time to visit the lounge, or alternatively you weren't intending on visiting but your flight gets delayed. I think this is representative of the very small incremental deterioration in service that Qantas seems to be doing, nothing too dramatic in itself, but bit by bit its becoming an issue for customers.

Another minor warning ... a few months back I used a couple of electronic passes (in Melbourne) by linking to the flight and the lounge guardian angel could see it by scanning the boarding pass.