50% upfront status credit boost for the next year, more if your status is expiring in early to mid-2021.

Qantas has extended a second lifeline to its frequent flyer members, after providing a one-year extension on all statuses earlier this year.

This time round, Qantas will be giving members at least 50% of the status credits needed to retain their tier for another year. The precise number of status credits you’ll receive depends on the expiry date of your current status.

Here are the details:

Free 50% status credits

Qantas Frequent Flyer Silver, Gold, Platinum and Platinum One cardholders with membership expiry dates between March 2021 and February 2022 (after the one-year extension given earlier) will be given 50% of the status credits needed to retain their tier.

So that means you will receive the following status credits:

• Silver members – 125 status credits
• Gold members – 300 status credits
• Platinum members – 600 status credits
• Platinum One members – 1,800 status credits

The free status credits will count towards reaching and keeping Silver, Gold, Platinum and Platinum One. On top of that, the status credits will also contribute towards reaching Lifetime statuses.

However, the Status Credit Boost will not contribute towards any other bonuses including the Loyalty Bonus, Platinum Bonus Reward and Platinum One Bonus Reward.

Members whose statuses are expiring between Mar and Jun 2021 would have already seen these status credits in their accounts, while those with an expiry between Jul 2021 and Feb 2022 will instead get their bonus in the first month of their new membership year (e.g. if your status expires Dec 2021, you will receive your 50% status credits in Jan 2021).

Note that to keep your status, you will still need to meet the four Qantas/Jetstar flight rule within the last twelve months of your status.

Status Credit Support for some members

When Qantas first extended all its elite members’ status in Feb 2020, no one saw that Covid-19 will persist for pretty much the rest of 2020. Some members are well into their free year of status, with no end of the travel drought in sight.

To provide further support for some elite members who has less than a year left in their extended status membership year, Qantas will be providing a month-by-month status credit support of between 5 and 150 status credits for members whose status expire between Mar and Aug 2021. The number of months of support you will receive will also depend on when your status is expiring; needless to say, those with status expiring in March 2021 will receive way more help than those expiring in Aug 2021.

The exact number of status credits provided each month will depend on your status:

• Silver – 5 status credits
• Gold – 15 status credits
• Platinum – 50 status credits
• Platinum One – 150 status credits

The number of months of support provided will depend on your status expiry:

• Mar 2021 – 6 months’ support
• Apr 2021 – 5 months’ support
• May 2021 – 4 months’ support
• Jun 2021 – 3 months’ support
• Jul 2021 – 2 months’ support
• Aug 2021 – 1 month’s support

The first ‘payout’ for the support credits would have already been in your account earlier in July, and the last two tranches will be given in Aug and Sep.

Final thoughts

With no end in sight for Covid-19, updated support such as these are always a good gesture even as they struggle with their bottomline and managing a bleak future. Despite this, it’s a good sign that Qantas is thinking ahead to provide some level of certainty for its frequent flyer members.

What I’ll like to see from Qantas is actually a policy update on the expiry of points. While it’s easy for Australians to keep on earning points through everyday spending within Australia, this policy will be very helpful for offshore members to retain their points.