Qantas’ loyalty program is, without a doubt, the biggest in Australia with now over 12 million members. Due to that, the program has had to make some changes (some positive and some negative). A few months ago we saw the program go through a devaluation of sorts for all premium cabin rewards meaning you would have to spend more points, but on the other end of the spectrum, economy tickets required fewer points, as well as taxes being reduced slightly.
The airlines’ program is still expanding at a fast rate, and they’ve today just announced a new enhancement which is positive and going to be extremely popular, more so for European travellers.
From today, Qantas frequent flyers are now able to both earn and burn points on Air France as well as KLM. Qantas has had a codeshare with both airlines for a while but today’s announcement allows passengers to redeem for award seats as well as get benefits if you’re an elite member flying these Skyteam airlines. The new partnership between the airlines has added an extra 60 destinations for Qantas flyers.
KLM 747-400
Per Qantas Loyalty CEO, Olivia Wirth:
“Members will now have access to hundreds of thousands more reward seats in popular destinations including Paris, Amsterdam, Rome, Barcelona and Athens, as well as new destinations across France, Italy and Northern Europe.
“Frequent Flyers used 10 billion Qantas Points booking dream trips across Europe last year. We know this partnership will allow our members to explore more of the continent and find reward seats more easily.”
As you can see below, here are both the carriers now showing up on the Qantas website:
One important thing to know is that sadly, you will be unable to use your Qantas points for first redemptions on Air France as they only allow their top elite members to book these flights.
And here are the benefits for KLM flights for Qantas elites:
And here are the benefits for elites for flights operated by Air France:
To find out exactly what you’ll earn for the AF/KLM flights, use the calculator here and to find exactly how many points you’ll need for a redemption, use this calculator.
Europe is a huge travel market for Australians with the United Kingdom, Italy, France and Germany being some of the most popular destinations for not only tourists but also Australians wanting to live there short or long term. This new partnership will make travel to these destinations a lot more accessible and give passengers better options.
Many travellers will often not want to go via the middle east, and these airlines are a great option for them as they can easily connect via Asia. Qantas already has quite a substantial route network to and from Asia, but with these airlines, they operate out of airports where Qantas don’t have services, e.g. Taipei, Hanoi and Shanghai.
I, for one, haven’t flown either Air France or KLM, but with this new partnership, I think I will try and change that in the new year. I’m planning to go to Europe twice in the year so will definitely consider these airlines, especially Air France as I’ve heard some pretty great things about them as well as KLM because who can say no to a 747 flight right?
2 comments
I reckon the codeshare with Qantas is wonderful, as the flight to Singapore is on Qantas metal and from Singapore it could be either KLM or Air France…..what is not to like on that opportunity
Exactly right!
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