Qantas is giving travel agents access to discount domestic fares as the airline adds thousands of points planes to coastal destinations in time for summer.
The airline is offering agents an always-on discount of up to 4 per cent on base domestic fares when they book via the Qantas Distribution Platform (QDP).
This means that from now on, travel agents and their customers will be able to take advantage of cheaper domestic fares via Qantas’ own platform, compared to other indirect booking systems.
Qantas’ executive manager of global sales and distribution, Igor Kwiatkowski, said the lower pricing is part of the airline’s investment to modernise its distribution capabilities.
He said the discount is just one of the many capabilities already enabled through the Qantas Distribution platform such as richer content and increased customer personalisation.
“With 60 international markets now able to connect to the platform, our trade partners both around the world and at home will be able take advantage of up to 4 per cent lower Australian domestic fares and other benefits of the platform,” Kwiatkowski explained.
“Working collaboratively alongside our trade partners, we know we can deliver a great outcome for our mutual customers and we look forward to welcoming more partners onto the platform in the coming months.”
CEO of Express Travel Group (ETG) and AFTA chair, Tom Manwaring, said that this announcement from the national carrier vindicates ETG’s decision to embrace both change and technology to ensure access to its airline partners’ most compelling content.
“This announcement should encourage agents to prioritise NDC and work with their Technology Partner to secure NDC access as soon as possible,” Manwaring added.
“As an industry we need to continue to embrace change so that we can remain competitive and ensure we’ve got access to the best content and offers for our customers.”
Meanwhile, Qantas has also released its biggest-ever spate of points plane flights, with more than 225,000 reward seats to coastal destinations across 21 routes.
For 72 hours from 11am on Tuesday, frequent flyers will be able to book reward seats on all flights between 9-22 January and all of February 2023 on the following routes:
- Melbourne to Hamilton Island, Merimbula, Townsville, Devonport, Burnie and the Gold Coast
- Sydney to Byron Bay, Hamilton Island, Merimbula, Townsville and the Gold Coast
- Brisbane to the Whitsunday Coast, Hamilton Island and Townsville
- Adelaide to Townsville, Kangaroo Island, Mount Gambier, Whyalla, Port Lincoln and the Gold Coast
- Perth to Broome
Frequent Flyers earned over 118 billion Qantas Points last financial year, with more than two-thirds of those earned on the ground via credit cards, shopping and a large number of other partners.
All seats in Economy and Business on the designated Points Planes can be booked as Classic Reward seats until 11am, 2 December 2022.
Featured image: The Pass, Byron Bay (iStock/Camila1111)
