Seven easy ways to earn Qantas status credits

Looking to move up the frequent flyer ladder, through Qantas’ Silver, Gold, Platinum and Platinum One tiers? Whatever your goal, you’ll need status credits to achieve it.

Status credits aren’t difficult to earn, and by keeping your eyes peeled for new opportunities to boost your balance, you’ll be enjoying perks like airport lounge access in no time.

Seven easy ways to earn Qantas status credits

1. Earning status credits on paid flights

While frequent flyer points can be earned in a variety of ways, status credits originally served to measure each traveller’s progress towards frequent flyer status with Qantas, and initially, could only be earned from flying.

Qantas has since expanded the ways in which status credits can be earned, but flying with Qantas and its partner airlines remains the key way to accrue status credits.

Earning status credits on Qantas, Jetstar flights

Whether you’re sitting up the front or right down the back, Qantas status credits can be earned on every commercial Qantas airfare, to any destination.

As you’d expect, you’ll earn more status credits on longer flights and on higher-priced tickets, versus shorter hops taken on discounted fares.

To see how many status credits you’ll collect on your next Qantas flight, click here.

Earning status credits on Jetstar flights works a little differently, as Jetstar doesn’t offer status credits (or Qantas Points) in Australia unless a passenger has purchased an eligible add-on bundle with their flight – such as a Plus Bundle or Max Bundle, which includes status credits.

Australian travellers who don’t purchase these add-ons won’t earn status credits on their Jetstar flight, regardless of the ticket price or their frequent flyer status.

Read more: How to earn Qantas status credits on Jetstar flights

Earning status credits on partner airline flights

As well as flights taken with Qantas – and eligible flights on Jetstar – status credits may also be earned when travelling on one of Qantas’ many partner airlines.

On journeys booked under a ‘QF’ flight number, status credits are amassed as though Qantas itself was operating the flight: so, book Air New Zealand (on NZ domestic routes) under a Qantas QF codeshare , and you’ll get the same rewards as if Qantas were taking you there.

Other flights, which have been booked under a Oneworld or Oneworld Connect flight number – such as with American Airlines, British Airways, Cathay Pacific, Fiji Airways and more, still earn status credits on eligible fares, but typically at a lower rate than a Qantas flight number would offer.

Qantas’ airline partners outside the Oneworld alliance – including Air France, China Eastern, Emirates, KLM and others – only provide status credits when booked on a QF flight number, as above.

As the earning rates can be complicated, you can again see what you’d earn on any partner airline flight by using the calculator on the Qantas website, and switching the airline from Qantas to your chosen partner, after beginning your search.

2. Earning status credits on flights booked using points

Normally, Qantas status credits can only be earned on paid flights: that is, where the itinerary was purchased with dollars rather than with points – but for Qantas Points Club members, status credits can also be earned on Qantas-operated reward flights.

Whether you book business class or economy using Qantas Points, you'll earn status credits as a Points Club member.

This is a great way to keep your status credits flowing in, and with Qantas Points Club membership extended to those who earn at least 150,000 Qantas Points each year – primarily from activities on the ground, such as credit card spend and sign-up bonuses – getting into Points Club is within reach of many.

Once you’re a Points Club member, here’s how many status credits you can earn across Qantas’ domestic network, based on the distance of each flight, and the cabin you book:

Points Club members can also earn status credits on Qantas international flights booked using points, although given Australia’s travel restrictions, these opportunities are currently limited – primarily covering New Zealand.

3. Give your status credits a boost with loyalty bonuses

For every 500 status credits that you earn in a single membership year from Qantas and Jetstar flights, you can choose between a bonus of 8,000 Qantas Points or 50 status credits.

This opportunity is provided up to four times each membership year, and is known as the Qantas ‘loyalty bonus’.

Think of the loyalty bonus as a 10% status credits booster, every time you get to that level from travels on Qantas and Jetstar.

However, each time you become eligible for this bonus, do consider whether the bonus Qantas Points or the bonus status credits are a better fit for your needs right now.

For example, a Qantas Gold member who has already retained Gold, but won’t make it to Platinum even with an extra 50 status credits in their account, may prefer to take the points – while those closer to reaching the next tier, or retaining their membership, may find more use in the status credits.

4. 'Double status credits’ offers

From time to time, Qantas runs short promotions to encourage new flight bookings, through which travellers can earn more status credits than they normally would, when flights are booked during the promotion period.

The bonus offer is typically between 50% and 100% – a 100% bonus being a reward of twice as many status credits as would normally be provided.

With double status credits coming your way, every one-way earns the status credits of a return trip.

These bonuses always come as a welcome top-up for members, and they’re particularly appealing to travellers taking longer flights and those booking more expensive fares.

Take Sydney-Perth, as an example. Normally, a return trip on most business class fares would net 160 status credits – but when booked during a ‘double status credits’ promotion, that’s pushed to 320 status credits.

A Gold frequent flyer doing this twice would earn enough status credits to lock in a further year of Gold membership, without having to take another flight all year. Similarly, a Platinum member doing this four times in a year would comfortably hold onto Platinum for a further 12 months.

Qantas is often careful not to run ‘double status credits’ offers at the same time as significant airfare sales, however.

This avoids people paying less than usual, and getting a reward much higher than the norm – but these offers can be great for business travellers who have company bookings to lock in.

5. Flight cancelled? Ask for bonus status credits

If you’ve booked Qantas flights that have been cancelled, including overseas flights that aren’t operating due to international travel restrictions, you may be entitled to a full cash refund of the amount paid for your ticket.

But rather than simply handing over that refund, Qantas may decide to offer an incentive for customers that take a voucher rather the cashback.

Some Executive Traveller readers have previously reported offers of double status credits from Qantas, or a fixed bonus (such as 100 status credits), if they opted for a Qantas travel voucher in lieu of a cash refund.

Whether this option holds more appeal will depend on the passenger and their upcoming travel plans: but for those who’d be booking new flights to other destinations anyway, any opportunity to earn bonus status credits isn’t one to be ignored.

6. Pocket status credits via your credit card

One of the newer ways to earn Qantas status credits is from an eligible credit card.

In some cases, these come as a one-off bonus on selected products, such as the Qantas Premier Platinum Mastercard, which currently provides 80 bonus Status Credits when you apply by August 4 2021 and make your first eligible purchase by September 4 2021.

Choose the right credit card, and a purchase on the ground can earn you status credits, without leaving home.

On other cards, such as the Qantas Premier Titanium Mastercard, the offer of extra status credits comes when you book Qantas flights using that card.

These customers earn 20% more status credits on Qantas flight bookings made directly using their Titanium card, for instance.

Also read: Best Qantas Frequent Flyer credit card sign-up offers

From time to time, Qantas may also offer status credits as an incentive to manually transfer credit card points to Qantas Frequent Flyer, for those holding cards where this is possible.

Under the program's most recent offer, travellers converting Qantas Points from the Ascent Premium tier of American Express Membership Rewards were offered one status credit per 5,000 Qantas Points converted.

That's an easy 20 status credits per 100,000 Qantas Points converted during that recent promotion, being the same number of status credits ordinarily earned on a short domestic return hop in economy (Sydney-Melbourne, for example).

7. Earn extra status credits through other offers

On occasion, Qantas Frequent Flyer members can earn status credits in ways that wouldn’t normally be possible.

Until September 30 2021, Qantas Frequent Flyer members enrolled in BP Rewards have the chance to grab an easy 50 bonus status credits.

Simply fill up or shop at BP up to five times between July 1 and September 30, and spend at least $50 per transaction on each of those five visits, and those 50 status credits can be yours.

Previously, Qantas was also providing 10 status credits every time a member earned Qantas Points via Everyday Rewards – through which, 2,000 Everyday Rewards points convert into 1,000 Qantas Points – but like BP, this was a temporary offer only (and was similarly capped at 50 status credits).

Also read: Why you should set your sights on Qantas Lifetime Silver

Chris C.

Chris is a a former contributor to Executive Traveller.