Qantas is looking to grow membership in its frequent flyer program by over 20% to hit the ten million mark, or close to one in every two Australians.
Qantas Frequent Flyer already reaches into more than half of Australian homes, according to the airline, which detailed the current state and future goals of Qantas Frequent Flyer during its annual ‘investor strategy day’ held today.
Simon Hickey, CEO of Qantas Frequent Flyer, listed 10 million members among the program’s key measures of success for the next financial year.
The Red Roo already rakes in over a billion dollars from its frequent flyer program, so its no surprise that a desired outcome for the scheme is the frankly-stated ‘increased share of wallet’.
Hickey revealed that Qantas Frequent Flyer members redeemed their points to purchase some 3.8 million seats on flights, along with 500,000 products from the Qantas Frequent Flyer store.
Qantas also claimed that it was now making available a higher number of Classic award seats, compared to the Any Seat award seats which cost more points to book.
Central to both increasing membership and increasing ‘share of wallet’ will be online retailer and loyalty program specialist Wishlist, which Qantas acquired in August this year. Wishlist runs employee ‘reward and recognition’ schemes for over 100 companies, as well as online retail, and Hickey sees Wishlist’s reach and online retail capabilities as providing “new capabilities in rewards sourcing and fulfillment.”
“This was an acquisition which was designed to get us into a market” Hickey stated at the time of the acquisition. “It's a different market, but leveraging the same capabilities. Ultimately what we're about is managed growth in areas that leverage our capabilities and current position in the market.”
Qantas challenger Virgin Australia currently has around 2.75 million members, recording an increase of 10% in the past four months – a spike of some 250,000 new members contributed by an aggressive status match deal for members of the Qantas Frequent Flyer program.
David Flynn is the Editor-in-Chief of Executive Traveller and a bit of a travel tragic with a weakness for good coffee, shopping and lychee martinis.
Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer
19 Nov 2011
Total posts 243
Recommendation:
1. Remove $82.50 joining fee
2. Partners with foreign financial services e.g. credit cards / other businesses (telecom, subscriptions etc.) to open membership to overseas. I can see the problem especially for Oneworld member airlines, only want to open their frequent flyer programs to their respective country and Qantas should not attempt to market them. But this hasn't been a problem for British Airways Avios / Executive Club program selling their frequent flyer to US customers.
3. Increase availability of Reward seats - as membership increases, so is demand - Qantas is not winning awards for seats availability
4. Not too stingy on the points - e.g. 2 points for every $1 for Optus Service, no bonus points. Comparison to Virgin Velocity Frequent Flyer, 3 points for every $1 and bonus 4000 points for sign up to 12 or 24 month plans.
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