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Qantas has unveiled a sweeping overhaul of its Frequent Flyer program from late 2026, signalling a new phase in global airline loyalty as it leans into everyday spending, status credit rollovers and an expanded digital rewards experience that could ripple across alliances and competitive carriers.
A Landmark Overhaul for Qantas Frequent Flyers
The Australian flag carrier is framing the 2026 shake-up as the most significant reset of status and benefits in the history of Qantas Frequent Flyer. Announced alongside strong half-year financial results and rapid growth in loyalty earnings, the revamp underscores how central the program has become to Qantas Group strategy.
From late 2026, Qantas will begin rolling out new mechanics that change not only how members earn and retain status, but also how they search for and redeem reward seats. Executives describe the changes as a response to a more competitive, more data-driven loyalty landscape in which carriers must work harder to keep high-value travellers engaged.
While the airline is not merging programs with other carriers, the scale of the update is expected to have implications for partners across alliances and codeshares, as Qantas positions its loyalty arm to compete more directly with major North American and Asia-Pacific rivals.
Status Credits Move From the Sky to the Ground
One of the most striking changes is the decision to let members earn status credits through everyday spending rather than flights alone. Following trials in 2025, Qantas will introduce a permanent structure allowing members to unlock up to 140 status credits per membership year through transactions with partners in categories such as retail, finance, utilities, travel and sustainability.
In practice, members will earn status credits once they accrue a specified volume of Qantas Points in each category. The model effectively links status progression to broader lifestyle spending, rewarding those who direct more of their daily outlay through the airline’s partner network. Qantas has framed this as both a recognition of changing travel patterns and a way to deepen engagement beyond the booking path.
For frequent travellers, the additional status credits could meaningfully narrow the gap to higher tiers, particularly for members already close to requalification thresholds. At the same time, the move signals a clear intention to compete more aggressively with bank and coalition schemes that have long used tiered status to lock in high-spending households.
Rollover Relief and Tougher Retention Rules
Qantas will also introduce a long-awaited rollover feature that allows members to carry a portion of unused status credits into their next membership year. Tiered members who exceed the requalification requirement will be able to roll over up to 50 per cent of those excess credits, subject to caps that vary by tier. The airline says this will give customers more value from periods of intense travel and smooth out the peaks and troughs of annual flying activity.
At the same time, retaining status will become more demanding from 2027, when Qantas shifts to a single status credit threshold for both earning and renewing each tier. Under the new structure, members will need to hit the full status target every year, closing a long-standing gap between initial qualification and annual renewal that had favoured established elites.
Industry analysts note that the combination of rollover credits and higher retention thresholds may recalibrate behaviour rather than simply making status harder to keep. Travellers with concentrated work travel in one year, then lighter schedules the next, are likely to welcome rollover flexibility, even as they confront a steeper annual target.
Lifetime Milestones and Added Perks at the Top
In a bid to keep its most loyal customers committed over decades, Qantas is expanding its lifetime status framework. From 2027, Lifetime Gold members who continue accumulating large volumes of status credits will begin unlocking “banked” years of Platinum status at defined milestones, with up to five complimentary Platinum years available for those who reach the highest thresholds.
The benefit is designed to recognise travellers with sustained long-haul flying histories, including those whose future travel may taper as careers and lifestyles evolve. By allowing members to activate these banked Platinum years at a time of their choosing, Qantas is effectively offering a future-proof safety net that could keep its most profitable flyers anchored to the program.
Lower in the hierarchy, Silver members are set to gain additional value through extra lounge invitations and new on-the-ground vouchers and discounts tied to tier. Qantas says further details of tier-specific perks will be confirmed closer to the 2027 launch of the refreshed benefits structure, but has signalled an emphasis on tangible, everyday value rather than purely aspirational rewards.
Programs Axed in Push for Simplicity
Not all elements of the overhaul will be welcomed by frequent flyers. Qantas has confirmed it will begin phasing out its Points Club and Green Tier subprograms from the end of 2026, citing a desire to reduce complexity and consolidate benefits into the core Frequent Flyer framework.
Points Club, introduced in 2020 to reward members who earn large volumes of points from non-flight activity, has been especially popular among points enthusiasts. Its removal raises questions about the future of specific perks, particularly the ability to earn status credits on Qantas Classic Reward flights booked with points, which has been a powerful incentive for high-engagement members.
Green Tier, launched as a sustainability-focused recognition layer, will also be retired. Qantas has indicated that environmental actions will continue to be recognised within the new on-the-ground status credit categories, but critics argue that dismantling a dedicated green tier risks diluting the visibility of climate-related initiatives within the program.
Qantas executives counter that folding the most valued features of these subprograms into the main scheme will make the overall experience easier to understand. However, the airline is still working through how some benefits will be replicated, and frequent flyers are waiting for clarity on which elements will survive in the redesigned structure.
New Digital Tools and Competitive Pressure
Alongside structural changes to status, Qantas is investing in technology to make redemptions more transparent. A new reward search tool, expected to be fully rolled out from March 2026, will allow members to scan reward availability across Qantas and dozens of partner airlines in a single view, addressing long-running frustration with the time and effort required to find classic reward seats.
The airline sees this digital upgrade as critical to unlocking the value of its enlarged network and growing partner roster. With rival carriers also revamping their loyalty platforms and apps, an intuitive, faster search experience has become a baseline expectation rather than a differentiator for frequent travellers.
For the broader industry, Qantas’s 2026 loyalty overhaul will be closely watched. By binding status more tightly to everyday spending, experimenting with rollover mechanics and reshaping lifetime benefits, the carrier is testing how far a traditional frequent flyer program can stretch while still rewarding actual flying. The response from members over the next two years is likely to influence how other global airlines fine-tune their own schemes as loyalty competition intensifies.