Like many Australians, I LOVE wine, and buying wine through Qantas is one of the best ways to earn Qantas Points.

The Qantas Wine service is very convenient, it offers good quality drops, and there are often excellent opportunities to earn lots of bonus points.

Clearly, I’m not the only one who loves this points hack, because Qantas has released data today that shows Australians have earned over 1.5 billion Qantas Points from wine purchases since Qantas Wine launched in 2011.

Qantas Wine has even crowned its first “points millionaire”, with one person earning close to two million Qantas Points on red wine alone! (Sadly it’s not me).

The average Qantas Wine member earned approximately 10,000 points last year, which is actually quite modest given you can pick up that amount of bonus points on one moderately-priced case.

As the most popular varietal, Shiraz is responsible for sending the most Frequent Flyers on holidays, generating more than double the amount of points than the second most popular wine – Cabernet Sauvignon.

Head of Qantas Wine Lisa Hudson says: “Qantas Wine is a great way for our members to discover more than 2000 quality wines at all price points, handpicked from leading Australian wine regions by our expert buyers.”

“What we’re seeing now is people taking advantage of the points offering to get more value from their wine consumption, allowing them to enjoy their favourite tipple while topping up their points balance.”

When you buy wine from Qantas, you earn 1 Qantas Point for every $1 spent, and earn up to 10,000 bonus points per case.

Premium members earn 3 points per dollar spent plus get free delivery and other perks. Premium membership costs $99 or it’s free with some credit cards, like the Qantas Amex Ultimate Card.

To get tips like this delivered straight to your inbox, subscribe to our newsletter:

Bad news for Velocity Frequent Flyer members who redeem points for reward flights: Virgin Australia is introducing a “carrier charge” fee for bookings made on or after 1 January 2019, on all Virgin Australia operated flights, and Delta Air Lines operated and marketed flights between Sydney and Los Angeles.

Virgin Australia argues that “this is in line with local industry practice” – which is mostly true – and that Velocity “remains competitive” – which is much less true. In fact, the airline is losing one of its main advantages: since its main competitor Qantas has a superior network and alliances, the fact that Velocity’s reward fees were lower was one of the program’s key selling points.

Much of that competitive edge is now gone – at least on international flights.

Here are the new charges.

Combined with the news that the points transfer rate from Velocity to Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer is about to get worse, it’s shaping up to be a bad week for loyal Velocity Frequent Flyer members.

To get news like this delivered straight to your inbox, subscribe to our newsletter:

Bad news for Velocity Points holders who like to transfer points to Singapore Airlines’ KrisFlyer program (and vice versa): the airlines have announced that the points conversion rate between the two programs is about to get worse.

Right now, you can transfer points from one program to the other at a 1.35:1 ratio. In other words, 13,500 Velocity Points transfers to 10,000 KrisFlyer miles, and vice versa.

From 1 January 2019, this ratio changes to 1.55:1: a devaluation of 15%, which is quite significant.

This is disappointing news, since the ability to convert Velocity Points to KrisFlyer miles is a unique and valuable feature of the program. While Singapore Airlines award seats can be booked directly through Velocity, sometimes it’s cheaper to transfer miles to KrisFlyer, plus the program gives you access to a broader range of redemption options, the global Star Alliance network, and other benefits, like free stopovers.

If you want to transfer points to KrisFlyer before the devaluation kicks in, bear in mind you must use the points within three years otherwise they will expire.

I’ve written before about how to book Singapore Airlines’ sought-after business and first class seats with Velocity Points. I’ll update that article when the program changes kick in.

To get news like this delivered straight to your inbox, subscribe to our newsletter:

Early last week I received an email from Qantas re-ticketing an Emirates flight I’d booked using Qantas Points. It wasn’t clear from the email what had changed, but upon logging into my account to check the booking and all-important seat selection, I saw that the aircraft had been downgraded from an A380 to an inferior Boeing 777.

Instead of enjoying my upcoming Sydney to Bangkok flight in fully-flat business class seats arranged in 1-2-1 layout, with an onboard lounge bar to kick back in, I’ll now be flying in angled-flat seats arranged in a less-than-desirable 2-3-2 layout, and with no onboard bar. The 777 is also a louder aircraft and not as comfortable for flying in.

Fortunately, I wasn’t planning to sleep on my flight and it’s ‘only’ 9 hours long, and my partner and I were able to nab adjacent window seats, so the changes aren’t bad enough to warrant changing our travel plans. But I’m not sure I’d be as keen to fly longer or overnight this way, especially if I was travelling solo.

A few days after my ticket was reissued, Emirates confirmed that a number of its Australian flights had been downgraded this way. This includes:

• the daily Sydney-Bangkok-Dubai flight, which will be operated by a 777 from 15 January 2019 onwards – passengers lose the A380 bar and first class shower, and the business class seats are inferior
• the daily Melbourne-Singapore-Dubai flight has also been swapped from an A380 to a 777 from 2 to 20 November 2018 and 15 January to 30 March 2019 – the changes are the same as with the Sydney flight above
• the daily Adelaide-Dubai flight goes from a 777-300ER to a 777-200LR from 28 October to 30 November 2018 and 1 February to 15 April 2019 – that means no more first class seats, but in business class passengers will get an improved seat – so a win for them.

None of the 777s scheduled to fly to Australia have Emirates’ swanky new first class suites on board.

There are no changes to the aircraft flying to Perth and Brisbane, but the frequency of Perth flights has been reduced.

If you’re on one of the affected flights and you’re not satisfied with the changes, you may be able to convince the airline to give you a penalty-free cancellation or re-booking onto a different flight. Simply call the airline you’ve booked through (Qantas in the case of Qantas Points or codeshare bookings) to check what your options are. I’ve never had a problem with getting a refund or a re-booking in a situation like this, so be persistent if necessary.

To get tips like this delivered straight to your inbox, subscribe to our newsletter: