CANBERA (dpa-AFX) - Qantas Airways Ltd. is introducing Classic Plus Flight
Rewards, offering its Frequent Flyers access to over 20 million additional
reward seats. This marks one of the largest expansions in the program's 35-year
history, enhancing travel possibilities to popular destinations like London,
Tokyo, New York, and Singapore using Qantas Points, even during peak periods,
the Australian airlines said in a statement.

While Classic Plus seats typically require more points than standard Classic
seats, they offer exceptional value with broader availability throughout the
frequent flyer program and are eligible for upgrades.

The points needed for Classic Plus seats will vary, mirroring regular airfare
fluctuations, with lower rates during off-peak times or when booked in advance,
and higher rates during peak periods. During sales and promotions, Classic Plus
seats may even be priced lower than Classic seats on the same route.

According to Qantas, Classic Plus reward seats can be booked starting Monday for
Qantas international flights departing Australia, for travel from July 1, 2024,
exclusively via qantas.com. This offering will gradually extend to all
Qantas-operated international and domestic flights by the year's end.

By the end of calendar year 2024, with the full rollout of Classic Plus, members
will have access to 20 million new reward seats within a rolling 12-month
booking window, ensuring similar availability ongoing.

Qantas said it will continue to offer more than 5 million existing Classic
rewards seats across Qantas, Jetstar and 45 partner airlines, with no change to
the points required to book these seats since 2019.

This financial year, Qantas will invest A$60 million in more flight rewards for
frequent flyers, which included adding 6,000 new premium Classic reward seats to
Europe during peak travel times last October.

Qantas expects that the program changes will deliver a substantial improvement
in member engagement and will help drive the long-term growth of Qantas Loyalty
as it continues to target A$800 million - A$1 billion Underlying EBIT by fiscal
year 2030.

The Classic Plus product represents approximately A$120 million investment in
fiscal year 2025, excluding benefits from the program. This investment includes
the value of displaced seat revenue in the airlines as well as the non-cash
impact to fair value assumptions applied to future sale of points in the Loyalty
Segment. The combined financial investment will be managed within the existing
planned customer investment of A$230 million for fiscal year 2025.

Following the launch of the new product, Qantas Loyalty is now expected to
deliver between A$500 million - A$525 million Underlying EBIT in fiscal year
2024 before returning to growth of about 10 percent in Underlying EBIT in fiscal
year 2025.

Qantas confirmed the buy-back of up to A$448 million will commence and subject
to market volumes is expected to be completed by 30 June 2024.



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