[scottmac99]

I thought you might be interested in my experience to date with ordering from the new Qantas online FF shop.

Essentially, I have given up on being able to use my points for actually flying somewhere, and instead ordered a nice new plasma TV from Qantas to clean out my points balance. On the face of it, this is an ideal solution for me.

At the time of writing, just over two weeks (12 working days, nearly 3 weeks) after submitting the order, nothing has yet happened, but if I am to believe the info on the website, I should have had delivery by last Friday (ie. 10 working days after placing the order).

I note, however, that the detailed terms and conditions in essence state that Qantas doesn’t promise to do anything at all in relation to goods ordered via points redemptions (which may be perfectly OK from a legal standpoint, but to me seems to border on fraud). That is, they can elect to not supply the goods at all; supply a subsistute of their choice; supply something else altogether; take until Xmas, if they wish, to supply anything, etc etc. And once something has been supplied, there is a hardly-generous grace period of only 5 days to return anything that was faulty on delivery, and presumably this will have to be to somewhere in Sydney (I live in Melbourne). In other words, responsibility for the warrantee remains with the manufacturer and not Qantas nor its agent Carlson Marketing.

So I am waiting with baited breath to see what happens. I did speak to a FF rep last Friday, who said he would "follow up" the status of my order, but that it would take "2 or 3 days" before he had an answer. [I know what my clients would say if I gave them that kind of response to a query for lack of meeting an order.]

I could have gone down to JB myself and purchased this TV two weeks ago, so I can't see why Qantas/Carlson are having such trouble in supplying it via points redemption. In fact, there's an idea, why not just send me a voucher for the amount involved, and I can source it myself, plus have the added value of a real store to return it to if it breaks ?

[I've generally given up on Qantas, which I am loathe to do because I am one of their long-suffering shareholders. In fact, I am traveling to Canada in September, and have chosen to fly Air NZ, partly because they have Prem Econ, and Qantas doesn't start its Prem Econ service to Nth America until Dec and partly because my last few trips on Qantas internationally have been pretty average. I should finish on a positive note, however - went to Vietnam with Jetstar last year and to my surprise the experience was actually good.]

[dangerfield]

jeepers.

What also sh!ts me is the archaic members annual fee. Airlines like Etihad, Emirates, Singapore are all free and their programs are just better, both from a seat perspective and a merchandise perspective.

Interestingly, the article in saturday's SMH stated that as less flights will be available due to less planes and generally increased demand...the old flight redemption may well be a thing of the past for qantas unless you are willing to forgo 1m points for a national flight.

Their ff membership base and currency value will also soon be a thing of the past in my opinion.

[oz_mark]

Originally Posted by dangerfield

jeepers.

What also sh!ts me is the archaic members annual fee.

Err, which annual fee are we talking about here? Air NZ's?

[serfty]

There used to be a $25 annual fee; this was canned at least 5 years ago.

ISTR, it was introduced with the 2001 changes but lasted only 18 month or so. It may not have been payable by QP/SG/WP and perhaps PS.

[oz_mark]

Originally Posted by serfty

There used to be a $25 annual fee; this was canned at least 5 years ago.

Really? I don't remember such a fee !

[dangerfield]

Australian and New Zealand residents need to pay a once only joining fee of:
Australian residents - A$82.50*
New Zealand residents - NZ$50

[serfty]

Originally Posted by dangerfield

... the archaic members annual fee. ...

but that's not a joining fee.

(FWIW, even that seems to be easy enough to avoid in any case ...)

[scottmac99]

I should add that I did look at using my Virgin points for the same thing, ie. a nice big TV, but the model I looked at in the Velocity shop was a 3 year old Sony that even Sony Australia no longer list as being available.

How cheapa*rse is that?

[tuapekastar]

Originally Posted by oz_mark

Really? I don't remember such a fee !

Was definitely there for a short time (though I recall it as being $20).

PS. As serfty states, maybe certain levels did not get charged it (and I thought it was a year or two earlier than 2001...but could easily be wrong on that).

[flying1977]

I have found the Frequent Flyer shop to be of great value. I redeemed my points for a washing machine and it arrived within 7 working days. Also used my points to numerous Myer vouchers.

Very impressed. And there is no annual fee.

The FF store makes Virgins store laughable...