Jetstar Qantas Frequent Flyer Extra: Is it worth paying for?

Qantas owns Jetstar, but that doesn't mean you can earn Qantas Points on Jetstar flights.

Until recently, the only way to do that was to pay extra for a flight bundle - making your discount ticket suddenly a lot more expensive.

In my analysis, that could deliver some value if you're going to pay extra for checked luggage and seat selection and a meal anyway, but isn't worth it otherwise.

Now there's a second way to earn Qantas Points through Jetstar: Qantas Frequent Flyer Extra, a paid subscription service. As a frequent flyer expert, I can't recommend it, even though I fly both airlines regularly. Let's crunch the numbers.

How does Jetstar Qantas Frequent Flyer Extra work?

These are the basics of the scheme:

• To sign up, you need to be a Club Jetstar member ($65 a year) and a Qantas Frequent Flyer member (that's easy to join for free). On its own, I've found Club Jetstar worth it for the discounted seat selection and early access to major sales, but your mileage may vary (ahem).
• You then have to pay a $199 annual fee for Frequent Flyer Extra. For your first year of membership, Club Jetstar will pro-rate that fee. So if you've only got half a year left on your Club Jetstar membership, you'll pay around $100.
• Once you've joined, any Jetstar flights booked and taken during your membership year will earn Qantas Points and Status Credits. (Your membership has to be active to earn the points.)
• Domestic Jetstar flights earn 5 Status Credits per flight, while international routes earn 10 Status Credits.
• You're capped at earning a maximum of 75 Status Credits during your membership year.

That 75 Status Credits limit means this isn't an effective way of climbing Qantas' status tiers. Qualifying for Silver, for instance, requires 300 Status Credits. Even after taking 15 Jetstar flights and hitting your cap, you'd still only be a quarter of the way there. Options for earning extra Qantas Status Credits outside of flying Qantas itself have always been limited anyway, and this doesn't change that much.

How many points can you earn with Frequent Flyer Extra?

So if Status Credits are a bust, what about Qantas Points? The official rule is that you'll get 50% of the applicable Discount Economy earn rate. Here's how that actually looks for domestic Jetstar flights.

200 Qantas Points for Sydney-Melbourne is quite miserly. The same route on Qantas earns you 800 Qantas Points.

The picture isn't much better on international Jetstar routes.

Why Frequent Flyer Extra is not good value

When I first saw the announcement email for Qantas Frequent Flyer Extra, I thought that it might be an appealing concept for folks who fly for work regularly but who have a home airport which has a lot more Jetstar than Qantas flights. Gold Coast, Sunshine Coast or Launceston are obvious examples.

In practice, though, the low number of Qantas Points you can earn on each flight means this is unlikely to ever pay off. My standard valuation for Qantas Points is 2 cents per point (this assumes you use them for flights).

Using that value and with a $199 annual fee, you would need to earn 10,000 Qantas Points via Frequent Flyer Extra just to break even.

Jetstar flights earn Qantas Points, but not at generous rates. Image: Supplied

At 200 Qantas Points a flight for short-haul routes, that means (for instance) 50 Gold Coast-Sydney flights in a year. I do know folks who fly that often, but it's not a common scenario. And remember, that's just to break even on the value of the annual fee. (If you include the Club Jetstar fee, the barrier is even higher).

The same logic applies to international flying. You'd have to make 4 return flights to Bali just to cover off the annual fee for Frequent Flyer Extra.

Bottom line? Unless you're on a Jetstar flight dozens of times a year, you're unlikely to find Frequent Flyer Extra worth it. There are better ways to boost your Qantas Points total, from frequent flyer credit card sign-up bonuses to making sure you convert Everyday Rewards to Qantas Points.