On the 6th of July, Qantas and Afterpay announced their new partnership, expected to launch this week, where Qantas frequent flyer members would be able to collect points through the ‘Buy Now Pay Later Platform’. For these two iconic Australian companies, the move appears to be quite customer-centric, with their chief executives expressing their pleasure to introduce new kinds of rewards for their diverse client base.
Olivia Wirth, Qantas Loyalty CEO, saying “With our 13 million members all having different spending habits and financial preferences, it’s great to be able to offer more options and more rewards.” Afterpay’s co-founder and CEO Anthony Eisen also expressed his optimism about the partnership, saying “We are always looking for ways to add value for our customers and this partnership between two iconic Australian brands is a great way to reward them for shopping with Afterpay”.
Cashing in on the spike in online retail expenditure, new Afterpay customers can earn 500 Qantas points by signing up and linking their Qantas Frequent Flyer Membership to their Afterpay account. Once the accounts are linked, new customers earn one Qantas point per AUD1 spent with Afterpay and can accumulate a total of 5,000 points.
For existing Afterpay customers however, this does not apply. In fact, current Afterpay customers will be able to link their account and earn one Qantas point per AUD1 spent with Afterpay, however, they will not receive any bonus points. Also, there are two major caveats for existing Afterpay account holders. Only the first 50,000 customers to link their accounts will be able to earn points, which is a mere 1.5% of Afterpay’s 3.2 million user base.
The second catch is that you can only earn points once you have already spent AUD1000 with Afterpay. This effectively means that to achieve the maximum of 5,000 points per year, an existing Afterpay customer would have to spend AUD6000, therefore, the exchange rate would be AUD1.20 per Qantas point. Again, existing Afterpay customers who have linked their account will be able to accrue a maximum of 5,000 Qantas points per year. the first 50,000 existing Afterpay customers to link their accounts.
Nevertheless, 5,000 points does not buy you any free flights – Qantas’ subsidiary Jetstar offers the cheapest flight worth 5,600 points. Also, any stores that accept Afterpay will contribute to your Frequent Flyer point count.
Approximately 15% of online retail sales in Australia are conducted via Afterpay, which is offered by more than 48,000 retailers around the world.