Qantas Frequent Flyer is reducing the Qantas Point earn rate for elite members who take an Uber to or from an airport in Australia.
Note that Uber is launching its own loyalty program, Uber Rewards, in Australia in early 2020. It will offer the ability for higher-tier members only to convert their Uber Rewards points into Qantas Points. Spoiler: it’s bad value.
How to earn Qantas Points on Uber rides to/from Australian airports
From 13 December 2019
From this date, elite Qantas Frequent Flyer members will no longer earn a bonus when travelling to/from Australian airports. All members—regardless of status—will earn 1 Qantas Point per $ spent on eligible airport rides.
This is inferior to the ability to earn at least 2 Velocity Points per $ spent on airport rides with Ola.
Until 12 December 2019
Up until this date, Qantas will continue to reward their more loyal frequent flyer members with more points based on their Qantas elite status:
- Gold, Platinum, Platinum One and Chairman’s Lounge members: 3 points per $ spent
- Silver members: 2 points per $ spent
- Bronze members: 1 point per $ spent
Key terms
The key condition for earning Qantas Points from your Uber ride is that you need to be travelling to/from an included Australian airport:
Adelaide, Avalon, Brisbane, Byron Bay, Cairns, Canberra, Gold Coast, Hobart, Maroochydore, Melbourne, Newcastle, Perth, Sydney, Toowoomba and Townsville
In addition, you’ll need to have pre-linked your Uber and Qantas accounts, which can also be done within the Qantas app.
You can book your Uber ride directly with the Uber app (rather than having to go through the Qantas app).
Bonus for first-time riders
For anyone who hasn’t registered with Uber yet, there are also 2,000 Qantas Points on offer for new Uber riders after initiating your registration from the Qantas app.
Summing up
More options for earning points are (almost) always good, and the ability to earn Qantas Points with Uber rides is welcome.
However, the restriction on earning points only for rides to/from specific Australian airports means that you’re not going to earn a ton of points from this partnership.
Be sure to read our comparison guide for earning points with rideshare and car booking services. ingogo, for example, offers 1 Qantas Point per $ spent on all rides, not just ones to and from the airport.
Supplementary images courtesy Qantas and Uber.
The Uber Icon isn’t showing in the app… have you managed to link yours already?