Latest news with #QantasFrequentFlyer
7NEWS
7 days ago
- Business
- 7NEWS
Major change for Qantas Frequent Flyer Points program with millions of customers affected
Qantas Frequent Flyer points will now be worth less for customers. In the first major change to the popular program since 2019, Qantas has increased the number of points required for most reward seats, including a 15 per cent to 20 per cent increase in business and first-class redemptions. For domestic flights, the airline has increased the number of points by 5 per cent. Qantas is also increasing fees and surcharges, in a second blow after the points devaluation. A Sydney to Melbourne business class seat will jump from 18,400 points and $55, to 19,300 points, plus $76. Meanwhile, a Sydney to London economy class seat will go from 55,200 points and $263, to 63,000 points plus $263. The changes will take effect on August 5. The good news for customers is that Qantas will release up to one million more Classic Rewards seats, through deals with Hawaiian Airlines, Finnair, Air France, KLM and Iberia. Meanwhile, Jetstar will now offer Reward seats starting from just 5700 points. The route will be from Sydney to the Gold Coast which was 6400 points and $35, to now 5700 points and $35. Qantas also says passengers can earn up to 25 per cent more points on domestic flights and the removal of the earn cap from tiered members travelling in premium cabins. For example, for a Platinum member flying business class from Sydney to Melbourne previously earned 2000 points, now they will earn 3500 points. Qantas Loyalty CEO Andrew Glance said: 'These adjustments will ensure we can continue to invest in enhancing the program for the long term and continue to grow the levels of Classic and Classic Plus Reward seat availability for members year on year.' The points change comes after the Qantas hack occurred last month. The national carrier said cyber criminals had targeted a call centre and gained access to a third-party customer servicing platform. Personal details, including Qantas Frequent Flyer details, were obtained. 'We then took immediate steps and contained the system. We can confirm all Qantas systems remain secure,' the airline said. 'There are six million customers that have service records in this platform. 'We are continuing to investigate the proportion of the data that has been stolen, though we expect it will be significant. 'An initial review has confirmed the data includes some customers' names, email addresses, phone numbers, birth dates and frequent flyer numbers.'
Sydney Morning Herald
04-08-2025
- Business
- Sydney Morning Herald
The new financial battleground for divorcing couples
Disputes over frequent flyer points and hidden cryptocurrency have emerged as battlegrounds in property fights between separating couples amid a rise in digital assets, family law experts reveal. Kalus Kenny Intelex Lawyers partner Josephine Sergi, a family law specialist, said frequent flyer and other reward points were increasingly forming part of property settlements. 'It's often an afterthought for a lot of people because when they're giving details of their assets and liabilities they don't think of those,' Sergi said. Points 'can be quite valuable' Some rewards points could be cashed in or transferred, Sergi said, and 'they can be quite valuable'. In a 2017 Family Court case, then Justice Robert Benjamin said a de facto couple's 'Qantas Frequent Flyer points are property and have some value'. '[For] some inexplicable reason, the de facto husband had declined to provide full details of his Frequent Flyer account,' the judge said. But the husband had 'a clear obligation to disclose that detail', Benjamin said. The points were said to total a combined 1.7 million at the time of the hearing. The judge ordered the husband to transfer 200,000 points from his frequent flyer account to each of their children's accounts, totalling 600,000 points. The wife was authorised to redeem the points for the children's flights.
The Age
04-08-2025
- Business
- The Age
The new financial battleground for divorcing couples
Disputes over frequent flyer points and hidden cryptocurrency have emerged as battlegrounds in property fights between separating couples amid a rise in digital assets, family law experts reveal. Kalus Kenny Intelex Lawyers partner Josephine Sergi, a family law specialist, said frequent flyer and other reward points were increasingly forming part of property settlements. 'It's often an afterthought for a lot of people because when they're giving details of their assets and liabilities they don't think of those,' Sergi said. Points 'can be quite valuable' Some rewards points could be cashed in or transferred, Sergi said, and 'they can be quite valuable'. In a 2017 Family Court case, then Justice Robert Benjamin said a de facto couple's 'Qantas Frequent Flyer points are property and have some value'. '[For] some inexplicable reason, the de facto husband had declined to provide full details of his Frequent Flyer account,' the judge said. But the husband had 'a clear obligation to disclose that detail', Benjamin said. The points were said to total a combined 1.7 million at the time of the hearing. The judge ordered the husband to transfer 200,000 points from his frequent flyer account to each of their children's accounts, totalling 600,000 points. The wife was authorised to redeem the points for the children's flights.
Sky News AU
17-07-2025
- Business
- Sky News AU
Qantas obtains interim junction in NSW Supreme Court to prevent data stolen in massive cyber attack from being released
Qantas has gone to court to stop the personal data of millions of customers being released by the group behind the recent cyber attack. The data of about 5.7 million Qantas customers was leaked earlier this month including residential addresses, phone numbers, dates of birth and even meal preferences. Qantas insists there is no evidence that any stolen data has been released, but has taken action to prevent this from happening. The national carrier said it has obtained an interim injunction in the NSW Supreme Court to prevent the data from being accessed, viewed, released, used, transmitted or published by anyone. 'We want to do all we can to protect our customers' personal information and believe this was an important next course of action,' a statement from Qantas says. Qantas said it is working with the Australian Federal Police, the National Cyber Security Coordinator and the Australian Cyber Security Centre for its investigation. The airline stressed it had become 'aware of increase reports of scammers' impersonating the airline and urged for passenger caution. 'We recommend customers remain alert for unusual communications claiming to be from Qantas or requesting personal information or passwords,' the airline said. 'Qantas will never contact customers requesting passwords, booking reference details or sensitive login information.' The airline said no credit card details, personal financial information or passport details were accessed in the breach as they are not stored in the compromised system. Customers received emails in the week after the breach with details outlining exactly what pieces of their personal details have been accessed. The email, titled "Confirmation of your details impacted by the cyber incident", was sent on behalf of Qantas Group CEO Vanessa Hudson. It outlined what elements of their personal information was accessed following an investigation by Qantas cyber security teams. The airline said 1.3 million addresses, which included residential and business addresses alongside hotels for misplaced baggage delivery, were taken in the breach. The date of births for 1.1 million customers, alongside 900,000 phone numbers, the genders of 400,000 and the meal preferences of 10,000 were also leaked. At least 1.2 million customers' names and email addresses were taken, while another 2.8 million customers' name, email address and Qantas Frequent Flyer number were stolen. The majority of these had their tier list included while a smaller group had their points balance and status credit details stolen. Qantas first detected unusual activity on a third-party platform used by an airline contact centre several weeks ago. The airline said it took "immediate steps and contained the system" and assured customers all of the airline's systems remained secure. An investigation into the cyber incident is ongoing, and additional security measures are also being put in place to "further restrict access and strengthen system monitoring and detection".
Sydney Morning Herald
16-07-2025
- Business
- Sydney Morning Herald
Credit card airline points could be wound back due to surcharge ban
Australians who take advantage of credit card offers to earn airline loyalty points could be in for a rude shock, the Reserve Bank and rewards experts warn, as earning rates and other sweeteners are likely to be scaled back in response to a proposed ban on card surcharges. On Tuesday, the Reserve Bank revealed its proposal to ban surcharges for debit and credit card transactions from July next year, following a review that found 'surcharging is no longer achieving its intended purpose of steering consumers to make more efficient payment choices'. If implemented, the ban is expected to save consumers $1.2 billion a year, or $60 for the average user. Cards supplied by Visa, Mastercard and Eftpos would be subject to the proposed ban, which the Reserve Bank can implement under its existing powers. Applying the rules to American Express would rely on separate reforms. The proposed measures include lowering the cap on interchange fees. These fees form a large part of the service charges that businesses must pay to companies such as Square, Tyro and banks that provide terminal facilities to process card payments. These payment providers in turn must pay interchange fees to the bank that issued the card to the customer. Lowering the cap on interchange fees is estimated to save customer-facing businesses $1.2 billion a year, according to the proposal, but would lead to a $900 million annual cut in fee revenue for card issuers. Loading Interchange fees historically have been a significant funding source for banks in covering the costs for reward points, which are issued to customers usually for each dollar they spend. Customers can also gain bonus points for signing up to cards, which are often gamed by 'points hackers' who cycle through cards to accrue bonuses. Banks may issue points in their own rewards schemes, such as CommBank Awards, which the issuer can then offer to convert to points in airline loyalty schemes, such as Qantas Frequent Flyer or Virgin Velocity.
