1600+ Aussie frequent flyers have just voted for the best airline rewards program

Australia’s frequent flyers have voted on the best airline rewards program – with Qantas Frequent Flyer taking the top spot on a national level, but Velocity Frequent Flyer the preferred program in some States and among younger flyers.

The findings come from a poll of 1686 frequent flyers who are community members on Point Hacks (pointhacks.com.au), an independent platform for one of Australia’s biggest pool of frequent flyers and rewards point experts. The community was asked to vote for the program that delivers (a) the best flight availability, and (b) the best points-per-flight values.[1]

The Qantas Frequent Flyer program secured the most votes nationally (33 per cent of respondents), followed by Velocity. However, frequent flyers in Queensland, the ACT and Tasmania rated Velocity as number one (34, 55 and 48 per cent of voters in those States respectively). Singapore Airlines’ KrisFlyer came in third place, with a quarter (25 per cent) of frequent flyers finding the best value in this program.

Interestingly, lower income earners more than high earners voted Velocity as the leading program: 35 per cent of voters earning less than $50,000 annually preferred Velocity, against just 23 per cent of the same income earners who voted for Qantas.

However, KrisFlyer might be a little-known secret among higher income earners: it was selected as the number one program by 40 per cent of respondents in investor and shareholder roles.

Daniel Sciberras, Point Hacks’ spokesperson and frequent flyer expert, says: “The results reflect not only the value of the points and availability of flights in these programs, but also the different factors that can affect this. Qantas still has the majority of corporate contracts, which could account for Victorian and NSW-residents ranking the Qantas Frequent Flyer program the best due to travelling with the airline for work. If you’re flying on one airline for work, it’s more likely you’ll also fly with them for personal travel. Gold and Platinum members may also favour this program as they have access to a Platinum Lounge in Sydney and Melbourne, while Queensland and South Australia only have a general Business Lounge.

“Velocity was voted the best by Queenslanders, potentially due to Virgin being the predominant carrier in Gold Coast and Virgin being headquartered in Brisbane. KrisFlyer on the other hand, may be more popular among higher income earners as they offer a very premium product. Singapore Airlines created and were the first to introduce the Suites Class which has strong appeal for higher-income earners which allows them to retain their customers.”

Ranking of best airline rewards programs based on award flight availability and points-per-flight value