The more you eat, the further you fly
The more you dine out, the more points you will be able to save up for flights and upgrades under a new initiative by the Qantas Frequent Flyer program.
As of Thursday, travellers can receive rewards by making reservations at select restaurants around the world.
Members of the loyalty program will be able to earn 100 points per person for every booking made in one of the 18,000 restaurants across 12 countries.
The new point system, which was launched in partnership with restaurant booking platform Quandoo, came after Qantas ended its agreement with Dimmi and Rockpool Dining Group restaurants.
“We know how much our frequent flyers like to dine out, so rewarding them with Qantas Points for eating at their favourite local restaurant or somewhere special while they are on holiday is going to be a real drawcard,” said Qantas Loyalty CEO Olivia Wirth.
“Food and wine constantly rank as some of the top interests for our members … the ability to now earn points for booking restaurants overseas is a great addition to people’s travel experience and helps get them closer to their dream trip.”
Frequent Flyers can start earning points by booking through the platform on August 15.
The announcement follows the airline’s rewards program overhaul in June, when the airline unveiled that it will make more reward seats available while increasing the number of points required to upgrade to a premium cabin.
Qantas said the changes represented the biggest transformation that the Frequent Flyer program has seen in its 32-year-history.
The loyalty program overhaul, which affects its 12.7 million members, will be rolled out over the next 12 months.
Qantas’ collaboration with Quandoo came after Virgin Australia ended its restaurant booking partnership with OpenTable in July. Members of the airline’s Velocity Frequent Flyer program are no longer able to earn 300 points for every table booking made on the OpenTable platform.