Australia’s largest airline is offering its frequent flyers a $50 travel credit, in a desperate attempt to revive its brand after months of delays, cancellations, and other disruptions.
This comes after a period of significant turmoil for the company, which has seen widespread customer dissatisfaction and a number of high-profile service failures.
In a video message to Qantas frequent flyers, CEO Alan Joyce said that the airline’s recent performance was not good enough, despite having “good reasons” for the mishaps.
“On behalf of the national carrier, I want to apologise and assure you that we’re working hard to get back to our best.
“Over the past few months, too many of you have had flights delayed, flights cancelled and bags misplaced,” said Mr Joyce.
“There are good reasons why, but when it comes to what you expect from Qantas, it’s not good enough.
“On behalf of the national carrier, I want to apologise and assure you that we’re working hard to get back to our best.
“We’re already seeing a sustained improvement in baggage handling and on-time performance, and while factors out of our control like weather can have an impact on our schedule, we expect things to keep improving each week …
“All our frequent flyers in Australia and New Zealand will be offered $50 towards a return Qantas flight, which equates to many millions in discounts.”
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The airline has also extended its ‘classic reward’ seat availability program, where seats are booked using Qantas points, through to 30 June 2023. Extra seats have also been added across international and domestic flights, as one in every 11 passengers carried by the airline uses a reward seat.
The formal apology has failed to win over the Transport Workers Union (TWU).
TWU national secretary Michael Kaine said that Qantas had let down its customers who paid premium prices for a premium service.
“Over the last 15 years, Joyce-led management has trashed safety and service standards by eroding working conditions, attacking hardworking families, and illegally sacking 2000 ground crew,” Mr Kaine said.
“Now management is having to pay people $50 to fly with Qantas. Australians see through this stunt. The thousands of passengers who’ve spent hours in call centre queues following cancelled flights, delays and lost luggage won’t want to waste more of their time attempting to cash in a voucher to buy themselves more of the same chaos.
“Enough of the gimmicks. If Qantas management, or indeed Joyce, really cared about customers, the right thing to do would be to appoint a new CEO with the business acumen to bring back highly trained, experienced workers and treat them with respect. Only then will the Spirit of Australia be returned to this nation.”
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What benefits are they offering?
The benefits are for Frequent Flyer program members and include:
- A $50 flight discount offer: all Australian and New Zealand-based members will be emailed a promo code to take $50 off a Qantas flight.
- Status extensions: members with silver status and above will be on that tier for an extra 12 months.
- Qantas lounge invitations: members with Qantas Lounge privileges will get an extra invitation to the Lounge to use for themselves or a “Frequent Flyer friend, colleague or family member”. That means an invitation to the Qantas Domestic Business Lounge for gold members and an invitation to the Qantas Club or an international business Lounge for silver members.
- Qantas points: this is for Platinum and Platinum One members. But Qantas hasn’t said how many points are on offer.
- Classic Rewards availability extension: Qantas is extending its pledge for 50 per cent more Classic Rewards seats on international, trans-Tasman and popular domestic routes until 30 June 2023.
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