Time to read:
6 minutes
Posted:
August 30, 2022
Updated:
July 28, 2025
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Holding Qantas Frequent Flyer status means that you could be skipping lines and enjoying access to lounges. It might also be easier to book reward seats or to upgrade your next Qantas flight.
In this guide, we explain in more detail how to move up the five status tiers, the benefits available at each level, and how to extend your status with Qantas. You may also be interested in our beginner’s guide to Velocity Frequent Flyer status and benefits.
Qantas American Express Ultimate
- Sign-up Bonus:
- Up to 100,000 bonus Qantas Points¹
- Rewards Earn Rate:
- 1.25 Qantas Points earned per $1 on eligible everyday purchases. 2.25 Qantas Points per $1 spent on selected Qantas products and services in Australia. 0.5 Qantas Point per $1 at government bodies in Australia. After a total of 100,000 Qantas Points is earned in a calendar year, the everyday earn rate will change from 1.25 to 1 Qantas Point per $1 spent.
- Annual Fee:
- $450 p.a.
- Offer expires
- 5 May 2026
- Earn 70,000 bonus Qantas Points when you spend $5,000 in the first 3 months, plus an additional 30,000 Qantas Points when you spend a minimum of $1 on your Card within 90 days of paying your second year annual Card Fee¹. (Offer ends 5 May 2026. New Amex Card Members only. T&Cs apply.) This card includes an annual $450 Qantas Travel Credit, two Qantas Club Complimentary Lounge Invitations after eligible Qantas spend each year, complimentary international travel insurance, and Qantas Wine Premium Membership (valued at $99). Earn 1.25 Qantas Points per $1 on everyday spend, 2.25 on Qantas purchases, and 0.5 on government payments. The annual fee is $450.
How do I earn Qantas Frequent Flyer status?
Qantas status is earned by collecting enough Status Credits (SCs) within a membership year to get you to the next status tier. After your ‘membership year’ has ended, your balance resets to zero and you try again to maintain or upgrade your current status level.
Put simply, SCs are earned by flying with Qantas and its preferred airline partners. The actual number of SCs you earn depends on a vast range of rules, such as distance, cabin class and airline carrier.
In general, most cash tickets booked with a QF flight number — whether operated by Qantas or a codeshare partner, such as Emirates — should earn Qantas Points and Status Credits.
Reward seats booked with points usually don’t award Status Credits, unless you are also a Points Club or Points Club Plus member.
Also, most oneworld partner airlines, such as Cathay Pacific, American Airlines and Qatar Airways, will also award Qantas Status Credits on those flights. But the amount will vary and will sometimes be less than taking a comparable Qantas flight.
Visit the Qantas website for more information about status tiers →
Want to learn more about Status Credits? Watch this video:
What are the Qantas Frequent Flyer status membership tiers?
There are five public membership tiers in Qantas Frequent Flyer, from lowest to highest: Bronze, Silver, Gold, Platinum and Platinum One.
Qantas Frequent Flyer Bronze
To achieve: 0 SCs
To maintain: 0 SCs
There are no substantial benefits to this entry level tier. It just means you are a member of Qantas Frequent Flyer and is a base to start earning Status Credits to move up.
Qantas Frequent Flyer Silver
To achieve: 300 SCs + 4 eligible sectors
To maintain: 250 SCs + 4 eligible sectors
For lifetime status: 7,000 SCs
Oneworld equivalent: Ruby 
As the first step with Qantas Frequent Flyer status, you’ll gain:
- One complimentary entry to a Qantas Club or Qantas International Business Lounge per year.
- Use of Business Class check-in counters, regardless of booking class.
- Either 12kg of extra checked baggage or 3x32kg checked bags on international flights (varies by destination).
- On Australian domestic flights, pack a heavier checked bag when flying Qantas Economy (32kg, instead of the standard 23kg).
- Complimentary seat selection, where pre-selection is available.
- Priority telephone service.
- Priority waitlist.
- 50% bonus points on Qantas, Jetstar and American Airlines flights.
Qantas Frequent Flyer Gold
To achieve: 700 SCs + 4 eligible sectors
To maintain: 600 SCs + 4 eligible sectors
For lifetime status: 14,000 SCs
Oneworld equivalent: Sapphire 
In addition to Silver privileges, you’ll get:
- Access to Qantas Club, oneworld partner and most Emirates lounges, plus selected Air France, Air New Zealand, China Eastern, El Al, KLM and LATAM lounges, regardless of travel class.
- One or two extra checked bags on most Qantas flights, or 16kg of additional checked baggage weight (both vary by destination).
- Access to Premium Security Lanes, where available, before domestic flights. This includes Premium Lounge Entry in Brisbane, too.
- Priority boarding.
- Priority baggage handling.
- 75% bonus points on Qantas, Jetstar and American Airlines flights.
Qantas Frequent Flyer Platinum
To achieve: 1,400 SCs + 4 eligible sectors
To maintain: 1,200 SCs + 4 eligible sectors
For lifetime status: 75,000 SCs
Oneworld equivalent: Emerald 
In addition to Gold privileges, you’ll get:
- Access to Qantas, oneworld partner and Emirates First Class lounges where available (Business Lounges domestically), regardless of travel class.
- Use of First Class check-in counters, regardless of travel class.
- Priority immigration.
- Priority Economy seat purchase when holding or purchasing a Full Economy ticket for up to two people, including the Platinum member.
- 100% bonus points on Qantas, Jetstar and American Airlines flights.
- Other improvements to your checked baggage allowance, as vary by route and cabin class.
If you reach each 2,400 Status Credits in one membership year (about halfway between Platinum and Platinum One status), you’ll receive one of three Platinum Bonus Rewards:
- Complimentary Gold membership for a family member or friend; or
- Three complimentary Qantas Valet Parking or Chauffeured Transfer invitations; or
- 50,000 Qantas Points.
Qantas Frequent Flyer Platinum One
To achieve: 3,600 SCs (at least 2,700 on Qantas-marketed flights)
To maintain: As above
Oneworld equivalent: Emerald
In addition to Platinum privileges, you’ll get:
- Complimentary Platinum membership for a partner.
- Highest upgrade and award seat availability priority.
- Access to a dedicated VIP Services team.
- Free transfer to an earlier flight if seats are available.
- Waived fees for phone-assisted bookings and phone-initiated family points transfers.
- Complimentary extra legroom seating on selected international flights.
- Complimentary Premium Qantas Wine membership.
If you reach each 5,000 SCs in one membership year, you’ll receive 75,000 bonus points. By reaching 7,000 SCs, you’ll get another 100,000 points.
What is Qantas Lifetime Status?
You might have noticed a ‘for lifetime status’ line above for the Silver, Gold and Platinum tiers. Qantas awards you those status levels for life when you reach certain status milestones. These are:
- Lifetime Silver: 7,000 SCs
- Lifetime Gold: 14,000 SCs
- And, Lifetime Platinum: 75,000 SCs
To check your lifetime status balance, log in to your Qantas Frequent Flyer account and scroll down the page. On the left pane, you will see a summary of Status Credits balance:
Click on See Activity and scroll down the page until you see a summary of your Lifetime membership.
Why should I earn Qantas status?
As you would have gleaned from above, having Qantas status makes your journey smoother and more luxurious. Most people aim for lounge access as the most important perk to use.
Complimentary seat upgrades and access to award seat inventory clears in reverse order, starting from Platinum One down to Silver. Learn more in our guide to how Qantas Frequent Flyer upgrades work.
You’ll also earn a useful ‘loyalty bonus’ of 8,000 Qantas Points or 50 SCs for every 500 SCs you earn on eligible Qantas and Jetstar flights each year (up to four times, i.e. 4 x 500 SCs to a maximum of 2,000 SCs).
You can find more detailed information on Status Credits and tier benefits on the Qantas website.
Greater access to reward seats
A benefit that’s not clearly advertised of having Gold and Platinum Qantas Frequent Flyer status — and in some cases, Silver — is that Qantas makes more of its own Classic Reward seats available to those members.
This is a great perk if you have a healthy Qantas balance and you are competing for hard-to-find award seats. Anecdotally, Platinum and Platinum One frequent flyers can even request reward seats on flights where none are available, with varying degrees of success.
If you are just a few flights short of Gold, and have a stash of points you are planning to redeem with Qantas, then the additional reward seats available to status-holders could be worth doing those extra flights for.
Status Hold for new parents
Qantas Silver, Gold, Platinum and Platinum One status holders are eligible to put an 18-month hold on their status when they take a break from travel as a new parent. This is a great way to unburden yourself from maintaining status while raising a kid.
Qantas Frequent Flyer COVID-19 updates
The latest status extension offer
Do you already have status with Qantas? Then there’s a good chance you’ll benefit from the airline’s latest loyalty offers, as below.
- Travellers with Silver status or higher, whose ‘membership year’ concludes between January and June 2023 (inclusive), will receive a 12-month status extension. This sees that tier secure until 2024!
- For the same members, Qantas will rollover up to 40% of the Status Credits required to retain that tier from the current membership year. For instance, a Gold member could have up to 250 Status Credits from their current year rolled into their 2023-24 year, to help them retain their status after the free extended year.
This includes members on Status Hold, as well as those who have received a complimentary Gold membership or complimentary Platinum membership from a Platinum One member.
This follows Qantas’ previous status extension offers, including for those with a membership year ending in 2022.
Read more: Qantas extends frequent flyer status, offers gifts as an apology
Summing up
Qantas Frequent Flyer status is a valuable benefit for those who are loyal to flying Qantas and its partner airlines.
That said, many of the perks of status are available to those travelling in Premium Economy, Business or First Class, whether you are using cash or points to book that flight.
If you only travel infrequently but have enough points to head toward the front of the plane, then chasing status is probably not going to be worthwhile. It’s better for those who fly lower cabin classes more often.
Regardless, we wouldn’t suggest spending hard-earned cash purely to earn status outright. The system is geared towards those who, either for work or pleasure, spend a lot of time in the air on paid flights.
Doing this just to earn status probably isn’t going to do your wallet or free time much good. However, Qantas status does yield some decent perks for those who do travel enough to earn it.
Remember, once you have status with one airline, you have your foot in the door and can status match to other airlines and alliances.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I earn Qantas Status Credits on Reward Flights?
Generally, no. However, you can earn a limited number of Status Credits on reward flights if you are a Qantas Points Club member.
Does Qantas Frequent Flyer have a digital membership card?
Qantas Frequent Flyers with the Qantas mobile app can use their digital membership card to enter domestic lounges. Your boarding pass should also show this information.
Is it free to join Qantas Frequent Flyer?
In Australia and New Zealand, Qantas Frequent Flyer has a joining fee of up to A$99.50. However, we have multiple ways to join Qantas Frequent Flyer for free.
Supplementary images courtesy Qantas Frequent Flyer. This article was originally written by Matt Moffitt, with updates by Chris Chamberlin.
The beginner’s guide to Qantas Frequent Flyer status and benefits was last modified: July 28th, 2025 by
Community Comments
Hi,
I am a gold member.
I will finish my year with status credits at 595, five points under requalification for gold. It expires Dec 2023. Is it likely they will honor the gold again or will all that effort go unrewarded and go back to Silver?
Hi Nath, your best best is to call them and ask to see if they can make an exception.
I have a question regarding status credit (SC) roll-over: I am Gold member and also Point Club+ member, the SC roll-over are as follow:
250 SC for Gold member
100 SC for Club+ member
My question: for 350 SC roll-over, do I need to have at least 350 SC or only 250 SC ?
I have never understood what happens once you achieve your first status eg silver. If I finally achieve silver one month before my anniversary ends do I only enjoy it for only one month or do I get to enjoy it for the remaining month and carried out till the end of the next anniversary year as is the case with points plus.
Hi Mark! If you do finally reach Silver (or any other status), you will enjoy it for the rest of your membership year + the entire next membership year.
So in your example, you’d have Silver status for at least 13 months. And if you attained it very early in a membership year, you could potentially enjoy it for up to 23 months.
Hi Matt,
Should the section “Remember: you don’t earn Status Credits when redeeming points” be updated now to include that you can earn status credits on point redemptions as long as your are flying on a Qantas flight and have qualified for Point Club/Point Club Plus on the date you are actually flying?
Great article, very informative. I do have a question though and I was wondering if anyone has some insight – my membership year is ending in 2 months and I am 15 SCs away from retaining Gold. I have a couple of flights in the next few weeks so I will reach the threshold required. I also have the SC loyalty bonus coming up. Could I put activating the bonus on ice until I move into my next year in 2 months time and thus give my SC balance a 50 credit point head start for the next year? Or does the loyalty bonus not carry over? Thank you
Hi Chris
Yes, you can defer the use of your stats credit loyalty bonus to the following qualification year. Just make sure to use it before 3 months of when it was issued, or else it will expire.
I got a gold in 2013 as a Fifo worker from Adelaide to Roma route vice versa every month in just 1 year of flying. Then i got unemplyed for 18 months and my FF status was demoted to Silver, fair enough! I got my Job again in 2015 as a Fifo worker from Adelaide to Darwin everymonth up to may 2018! On top of this, i fly with One world Alliance (Qatar and Qantas) twice a year to Europe and US. i got points only in domestic flights but never in One world even though i always emphasise my FF membership no. A week ago i flew with Qatar from Adelaide to Greece via Doha and back from Madrid to Adelaide. dont know if Iberia is part of Oneworld from Madrid to Iceland and back. Never got a single credit point! And never got an upgrade to gold even an invitation to use the lounge once in 2 and a half years of flying with qantas on Adelaide Darwin Route. Sorry for my rant. Im just dis appointed with FF thingy.
Lucky yo to ge an upgrade! I get knocked back every time with my simple little bronze membership, despite having more than enough points.
I think Qantas can be crummy when it comes to allowing time to attain a higher level of status with the quick-fire expiration they put on status credits.
I run a family business and don’t travel too regularly, but when I do I often purchase premium cabin. Last April, I flew NTL – BNE – PER – MEL – NTL over a 2 day stretch gaining me 150 status credits (the BNE – PER leg was Business). At the end of 2016, when booking travel to the US (Business) in March 2017 I found out those credits were completely gone from my account because Qantas operate on a calendar year, instead of giving you 12 months to build on them. So theoretically you could fly the last week of December, and they’d be erased by January 1st. Frankly, I think that’s mean.
Bah, make that 130 credits. I’d picked up 20 flying return Jetstar to the Oz GP in March 2016.
You don’t say when you earned the SCs…?
I earnt them in March 2016 (20), April 2016 (130) and then would have earnt a boatload in March this year, which would have allowed me to finally get to silver status. Alas, not to be. I guess I dont fly frequently enough for Qantas to earn even a single step up the ladder.
Qantas doesn’t operate on a calendar year, it operates on membership signup anniversary – all my SCs expire at the end of November. Fairly similar in effect, of course.
Hmmm, thanks for the info. Their customer service people told me completely differently but what you’re saying makes sense. My signup was December 2014 so I guess it’s co-incidental.
Is the Chairmans Lounge worth mentioning?
I wish Perth had a First lounge so it would be worthwhile chasing Platinum, the business lounge is substandard and always packed because it’s basically the only lounge other than Singapore Airlines, which strangely only allows Singapore passengers in, not star alliance at all !! When I fly Thai airways I get directed to go in the Qantas lounge. Although I don’t really know what will happen once the PER-LON route kicks off and if all qantas international flights are moved to T4, Cathay, Qatar & other Oneworld carriers will have to come up with some other sort of other lounge arrangement.
How does Qantas Club fit in to the priority order?
I’m only Bronze since I don’t fly all that much but I get discounted Qantas Club through my employer. My success rate with upgrade requests over the years is 5/6 with the only missed one on a packed short haul flight so it was understandable.
QC is not related to earning points or SCs. It is purely a subscription method of accessing lounges.
Pretty uselesz if much of your travel is on non-QF ow airlines
Yes I’m well aware it has nothing to do with earning points or SC’s but I believe it does factor in to the priority for upgrades and other benefits.
A colleague and I both checked in together for a flight several years ago at the same time. I was offered a seat on an earlier flight (flights were leaving every hour) and they were not. The only difference in our bookings is I’m QC and they were not.
I’m not certain but I think it might count slightly towards priority in the upgrade system.
In bonus news, my upgrade to Business from MEL-PER tomorrow just came through! Up to 6/7 now on upgrade requests.