Qantas Lowers Air Fares Paid by Frequent Flyer Points

27th Jun 2015

Australia's largest carrier Qantas revealed today it will cut fees on tickets for international destinations that were paid for with frequent flyer points as a result of lower fuel prices.

The airline will lower ticket fees by between 3 per cent and 25 per cent. In average, the cost reduction for international flights will be around 12 per cent.

The change applies to all Qantas' international flights for premium economy and economy tickets paid for by redeeming frequent flyer points, and booked from 1st July this year.

25% Cut to Tickets for North and South America

The biggest cut (25 per cent) will be applied to Qantas flights from Australia to the Americas. This is where Qantas operates one of its most popular routes to Los Angeles, with many travelers using frequent flyer points to pay for their tickets.

Qantas already cut the cost of using FF points to pay for tickets in January by around 14 per cent. This resulted in lowered tickets by as much as AUS$142 for economy and AUS$169 for premium economy tickets.

Qantas Under Pressure to Lower Fuel Surcharges

Qantas, along with Emirates and Singapore Airlines have been under pressure to drop its fuel surcharges on tickets with the price of oil going down last year.

The Australian airline started reforming its international ticket costs in January, making fuel surcharges a part of the base fares. However, this was before the price of oil (Brent crude) was between AUS$71 and AUS$84 per barrel.

ACCC (Australian Competition and Consumer Commission) is examining passenger surcharges since January. However, it did not say if it had found evidence of misleading or deceptive conduct by the carrier.

The ACCC did say that, even though it is legal to include a surcharge, it is still illegal to mislead the customers.