Qatar Airways was teasing this week for several days on its Privilege Club page that something new was coming on Wednesday.
Turn out that this “something new” was much noise about practically nothing. Privilege Club has updated its brand identity and supposedly made online functions easier, although in fact booking awards and applying for upgrades are in fact more difficult today.
You can access Qatar’s page for Privilege Club here.
Here are the “enhancements” what Privilege Club advertises on its Facebook post:
We are excited to launch a refreshed brand identity by Privilege Club, under the slogan – ‘Don’t just collect miles, collect memories’. The new luxurious rebrand includes new programme enhancements and celebratory offers to make your experience more seamless than ever before. You can now book award tickets, nominate family members to join your membership account and update your personal profile online.
Conclusion
Turns out that this was big hoopla about nothing. Recent enhancements to Privilege Club has made it more difficult than easier for members to use their miles for awards and credits towards upgrades.
Privilege Club/reservations are no longer allowed to process these over the phone but you need to send them a message online and wait days for a reply. This makes absolutely no sense at all.
Qatar Airways misses an opportunity here. Many frequent fliers use Qatar Airways yet credit the flights to other programs due to issues with Privilege Club including myself. By making the program competitive they could capture the loyalty part of the business as well. You would need substance over creative communication that has nothing to do with reality, however.
