Qantas, Optus reveal frequent flyer details
Airline giant Qantas and telco Optus have today unveiled the details behind a new frequent flyer partnership, announcing that Optus customers will earn two points for every dollar they spend on selected consumer and small-to-medium business services.
(Credit: Luke Hopewell/ZDNet Australia)
Optus customers can register immediately for the program to start earning points on both plans and prepaid services, while customers who aren't currently Qantas Frequent Flyers will have the opportunity to join for free, dodging the usual joining fee of $82.50.
Optus SMB customers will receive two points per dollar spent on eligible services until 31 December 2011. Going forward into 2012, the program will see only one point awarded to SMB customers per dollar spent. Optus consumer customers will always receive two points for every dollar they spend.
Michael Smith, managing director of Optus Consumer, told a press conference in Sydney today that tens of thousands of Optus customers and Qantas Frequent Flyers have already pre-registered for the program.
The deal was first announced back in May as part of an overhaul of the Qantas Frequent Flyer program. Since then, Optus and Qantas have been working on the finer points of the deal, as well as the integration of IT systems to get the partnership off the ground.
Dave Glover, Qantas' head of Loyalty IT, told ZDNet Australia that the integration of technology for the program would be simple on the Qantas side, having previously undertaken an integration of partner systems.
"[Getting the two systems talking] may seem complex, but we've obviously built interfaces with a vast number of partners today, and we try to re-use the model as much as we can so we'll be leveraging what we've done before. We don't see anything hugely complicated. That's from our side; I think Optus have a bit of work, because they've now got to capture member numbers," Glover said in an interview with ZDNet Australia.
As part of the partnership, Qantas has commissioned an Optus-branded 737 aircraft, complete with the menagerie of Optus animals and the Optus-Qantas Frequent Flyer logo. The plane was unveiled to the media today in a ceremony at the Qantas airbase in Sydney.
See photos of the unveiling of the aircraft in a ceremony attended by Michael Smith of Optus Consumer, Simon Hickey of Qantas Frequent Flyer and singer and actress Natalie Bassingthwaighte here.