Qantas status is the gateway to a more enjoyable travel experience with Qantas and its partner airlines. Earn Qantas status and you’ll enjoy perks like lounge access, bonus points, more upgrades, extra baggage allowance and many more benefits. You’ll also be able to skip the airport queues with access to priority check-in, security and boarding lanes.
Every Qantas Frequent Flyer member starts out with a Bronze card. To earn Qantas status, you’ll need to accumulate enough status credits in your Qantas Frequent Flyer membership year. Status credits are separate to frequent flyer points and can only be earned by flying. But there are a few shortcuts!
There are four Qantas status levels – Silver, Gold, Platinum and Platinum One. The benefits increase with each new tier. Qantas Frequent Flyers with Gold and higher status receive complimentary Qantas Club and international Business Class lounge access, among many other benefits. But the domestic Business Class and international First Class lounges are reserved for Platinum and Platinum One members.
When you earn status with Qantas, you’ll also receive reciprocal status benefits with Oneworld airlines. Qantas Silver, Gold and Platinum is equivalent to Oneworld Ruby, Sapphire and Emerald status, respectively. This means your loyalty will also be recognised when flying with Oneworld airlines including Cathay Pacific, Malaysia Airlines, American Airlines, Japan Airlines and Sri Lankan Airlines.
Earning Status Credits
This table from the Qantas website shows the number of status credits you’ll need to qualify or re-qualify for Qantas status:
In addition, to earn Qantas status you’ll need to take at least 4 Qantas or Jetstar flights within each membership year. Qantas codeshare flights operated by partner airlines also count, as long as the flight number on your ticket starts with “QF”. Jetstar flights only count if you’re purchased a Plus or Max Bundle with your ticket.
So, how many status credits do you earn per flight? This depends on:
- The route
- The (marketing) airline
- The fare class
In general, you’ll earn more status credits on longer flights and on more expensive tickets. For example, you’ll earn 10 status credits on a cheap red-e-deal Economy ticket from Melbourne to Sydney. But you’d earn 20 status credits with a Flexible Economy ticket or 40 status credits for Business class on the same route. On a longer flight, such as Sydney to London or New York, you would earn 70 status credits on a cheap Economy ticket or as many as 420 status credits if travelling First class.
You can find out how many status credits you’ll earn for your flight by using the Qantas points calculator or studying the labyrinth of airline earning tables on the Qantas website. If you’re flying with a partner airline, check to see which earn rate applies to your fare class, and note that some fare classes don’t earn any Qantas points or status credits!
How to Earn More Qantas Status Credits
Generally speaking, you’ll earn more status credits for Qantas flights with “QF” flight numbers than for bookings with partner airlines. You’ll also earn status credits at a higher rate when you book a more expensive fare or travel in a higher cabin class. Here are some more tips and tricks to increase the number of status credits you earn…
Why fly direct, when you can connect?
As this old saying on AFF goes, flying indirect can yield great returns. You’ll earn status credits for every single flight you take, so taking an indirect routing means more status credits! It’s often the same price – sometimes even cheaper – to choose a route with more stops.
Status runs
If your planned travel is going to leave you just a little bit short of the next status level, you can book what’s known as a “status run”. This is where you travel somewhere purely to earn status credits. If you’re going to do this, you’ll want to make sure the benefits of the higher status tier outweigh the cost on the flights!
See our list of the best Qantas status runs: Five Qantas Status Runs
“Double status credit” offers
Qantas typically runs “double status credit” promotions once per year. Any Qantas flights booked during the promotional period will earn twice as many status credits. So by taking advantage of these deals, you can earn Qantas status with half the normal amount of flying! The most recent double status credits promotion was in February, so we’d expect another one early in 2019. But there is currently a 50% bonus status credits promotion.
Qantas Loyalty Bonus
Each time you earn 500 status credits from Qantas and Jetstar flights, you’ll be offered a loyalty bonus (up to 4 times per year). You can choose a bonus of 50 status credits or 8,000 Qantas points. By using your loyalty bonuses to your advantage, you could earn Qantas status with fewer status credits than would otherwise be required.
Qantas Status Challenge
If you’ve recently made the switch to Qantas Frequent Flyer and already have status with another airline, this could be for you! Qantas offers a status match “challenge” to frequent flyers with Virgin Australia, Air New Zealand, Singapore Airlines and other competing carriers. If you already have the equivalent of Gold membership with another airline, you could be offered the opportunity to earn Gold Qantas status by accumulating just 200 status credits in 90 days. If leveraging your existing Platinum status, you could earn Qantas Platinum status by reaching 400 status credits in 90 days.
The Qantas status challenge is offered on a discretionary basis and is not a published offer. But if you think you’re eligible, there’s no harm in contacting Qantas to request a challenge.
Find out more: Qantas Status Challenges
Lifetime Qantas Status
Your Qantas status will be valid for the rest of your current membership year, and 12 months after this. If you don’t earn enough status credits in the following membership year to renew your status, it will drop down a level.
But Qantas does recognise loyalty shown over a long period of time through lifetime status. If you earn 7,000 Qantas status credits over any amount of time, you’ll receive Lifetime Silver status. Lifetime Gold is earned with 14,000 lifetime status credits. There is currently no Lifetime Platinum tier.