Qantas To Halve Earn Rates On More American Airlines Flights From May!

The last few months have been a bit rocky for partners Qantas and American Airlines. The joint venture was denied to the carriers last November and from then on there have been quite a few major changes. Earning rates got majorly slashed at the start of this year for both airlines, codeshares were being removed etc. Now Qantas have made another big bad move:

Qantas has announced that they will slash status credits earn rates on partner services (American Airlines) between Australia and the United States. There are also some major changes to earn rates for flights within the U.S. which were announced a few months ago.

Here is the earn chart for American Airlines services to and from Australia to the Unites States:

And here are the earn charts for flights within the United States and Canada:

The changes are quite major and it’s sad to see the airline reduce rates like that. But is American just sitting there doing nothing? Nope, they’re retaliating to Qantas’s move.

Ironically, American are also making changes to earn rates on Qantas on the exact same day. The earn rates on Qantas from American are also pretty bad and it now makes my decision to switch programs easier. I think I’ll be switching to Alaska after seeing these announcements…

Obviously, this doesn’t benefit any passengers. The earn rates have been massively reduced and there’s no where near as much value in AA First flights for cheap Qantas status any longer. Some routes and combinations remain unchanged but this is still not a positive move. With these changes, It makes the decision to switch programs a lot easier.