Qantas to Expand FFP with Green Membership Tier

(29 Nov 2021)  Qantas is expanding its frequent flyer programme with a new Green membership tier, set to roll out early next year.

The Green tier is designed to educate, encourage and reward the airline’s 13 million frequent flyers for all the sustainable good they do, from offsetting their flights and staying in eco-hotels, to walking to work and installing solar panels at home.

Basically, Qantas will reward frequent flyers for being more sustainable in the air and on the ground.

Members will need to complete at least five sustainable activities across six areas – flying, travel, lifestyle, sustainable purchases, reducing impact and giving back – each year to achieve Green tier status.

Qantas is expanding its frequent flyer programme with a new Green membership tier, set to roll out early next year.

Once achieved, members will be rewarded with benefits like bonus Qantas Points or status credits. These benefits will be in addition to the rewards they get under their existing flying status or as part of Points Club.

While the program will not officially start until early next year, frequent flyers can already offset flights, home and car, install solar panels or make a contribution towards protecting the Great Barrier Reef and will see these actions go towards meeting their sustainability target as part of attaining Green tier status.

Other environmentally friendly behaviours, like walking to work and contributing to the purchase of sustainable aviation fuel, which significantly reduces the emissions from flying, will also be rewarded after the program launches officially next year.

Offset Emissions

Members can now offset their home and car emissions through the Frequent Flyer program.

The investment from customers will see Qantas, which is already one of the largest private sector buyers of Australian carbon credits, support more conservation and environmental projects. This includes restoring local inland ecosystems, reforestation projects, Indigenous fire management projects in Arnhem Land and the development of wind farms in developing countries.

In practical terms, members can use a simple calculator on the Frequent Flyer website to estimate direct emissions from their home and car and choose to offset them for a year at a time.

Members earn 10 Qantas Points per $1 spent when they offset their home or car. The average annual cost to offset home energy for a family of four with two cars would be approximately $200 or 26,000 Qantas Points.

If just 100,000 frequent flyers offset their home and car emissions for a year, the initiative could see a reduction of more than 1 million tonnes of carbon – the same amount that would be saved from installing 170,000 rooftop solar panels.

Alan Joyce, Qantas Group CEO, said, “Our customers are concerned about climate change and so are we. There’s a lot of action we’re taking as an airline to reduce our emissions and that means we have the framework to help our customers offset and take other steps to reduce their own footprint. This new Green tier is a way of encouraging and recognising those who want to do their part by offering Qantas Points or status credits, which we know helps shape customer choices.

“Offsetting is one of the main ways Australia can reduce its net emissions in the short to medium term until new low emission technology becomes available. As an airline, we’re looking at structural changes to reduce our greenhouse gases, including investment in more efficient aircraft that can cut emissions by 15 per cent and using sustainable aviation fuel that typically cuts it by up to 80 per cent.

“In Europe and the United States, there’s a growing sustainable aviation fuel sector that proves the potential for Australia to create one of its own. We’re having conversations with the rest of the industry and governments on how we kickstart that. In the meantime, we are finalising our first significant purchase of sustainable aviation fuel.”