Switching FF programs from Velocity to Qantas: How to maximise our chances of getting a status match?

Frequent Flyer Programs
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Looking for advice on a couple of things. First of all, my partner and I are Platinum and Gold (will also be Platinum by mid next month) status respectively. Both of us have regular work requirements that prefer us to fly Qantas as the preferred airline and for sometime we have been resisting the change.

Unfortunately now we do need to shift to using Qantas, but we’d like to ask Qantas to reciprocate our status levels and allow us to transfer our frequent flyer points (we have around 350,000)

Any advice on

  1. How to go about approaching Qantas about this
  2. Maximising our chances of matching our status points and allowing points transfers
Thanks

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Hi Mike,

Unfortunately, I don’t think you’ll have much luck on both counts here. :frowning:

I (and others) have never heard of Qantas crediting  (or matching) new accounts with rival frequent-flyer program points, and there is nothing to force them to do it.

EDIT: Apparently, a friend’s wife was matched from Qantas Gold status to Velocity Gold status. Not sure how about how mechanics of that worked, and I’m not sure it would work the other way (Velocity to Qantas) - but worth trying! I think your best bet is to ring call centre.

I don’t think you’ll have any luck getting them to status match you either - unless you’re the CEO of a big company (with lots of travel bookings for employees) who is looking to move all your travel business across to them.

Sorry that it wasn’t better news!

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  1. Qantas don't do status matches. The only status they give out is Chairman's Lounge, and you basically need to be a politician to get that
  2. Frequent flyer program points are non-transferable. The only airline to airline partnership I know of is VA to SQ. The only way you'll be able to use these points is to spend them. Etihad and Singapore Redemptions through VA are good value, so have a look at those and see what you can afford with the 350k points.
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As John S says one of the very few points transfer allowed is Virgin Australia to Singapore.  Airlines don’t even allow transfers within the same alliance so there would be zero chance of Qantas letting transfers from a rival.

Same deal goes with status.  Qantas never do status matches from other airlines.  They only recognise other higher tiers in oneworld airlines.

Lastly you should just redeem your Virgin points, with that large sum you should get some good business flights

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