Qantas' 2026-27 Status Changes: Your Action Plan

In February 2026, Qantas announced what it called the biggest changes to status in the program’s history. For once, the marketing line is no exaggeration. From late 2026 through to later in 2027, several of the rules that matter most for earning and retaining status will change: some Status Credits will roll into the following membership year, members will be able to earn Status Credits without flying, the lower retention thresholds will disappear, and the Loyalty Bonus will be retired.

Most coverage has simply listed the changes. This guide focuses on the part that matters: what you should do next, depending on your current status and earning pattern. Every figure below is drawn from Qantas’ published material on the program changes and was verified in July 2026. Where the original announcement and the current Qantas page differ, or where important details may still change, we say so.

The timeline of changes

8 December 2026: four major changes begin. Qantas confirmed the date, and settled the remaining numbers, in an update to its program-changes page on 26 August 2026.

First, Status Credit rollover. Eligible members will carry a proportion of the Status Credits earned above their tier’s attainment threshold into the following membership year. Silver members will roll over 25% of the Status Credits earned above 300, capped at 100 Status Credits. Gold, Platinum and Platinum One members will roll over 50% of the Status Credits earned above their respective attainment requirements of 700, 1,400 and 3,600. Rollover is capped at 350 Status Credits for Gold and 500 for Platinum and Platinum One, and permanently replaces the Loyalty Bonus.

Second, earning Status Credits on the ground becomes permanent. Members will be able to earn up to 140 Status Credits per membership year by earning Qantas Points across ten categories, including credit cards, banking, insurance, hotels, utilities and shopping. These Status Credits will count towards Lifetime Status. Qantas has not yet published the permanent earning thresholds or the amount available from each category.

Third, the existing Loyalty Bonus will be retired. It currently provides 50 bonus Status Credits for every 500 eligible Status Credits earned on Qantas or Jetstar flights, up to four times per membership year.

And last of all, Points Club and Green Tier retire. Members can continue qualifying until the programs close on 8 December 2026. Points Club benefits already earned will remain available for the rest of the member’s current membership year and until the end of the following membership year. Green Tier benefits will generally end when the program retires.

During 2027: new lifetime milestones arrive.

Members will receive a banked year of Platinum at lifetime balances of 25,000, 35,000, 45,000, 55,000 and 65,000 Status Credits, with a maximum of five banked years. New tier benefits will also begin from early 2027.

Later in 2027: the single Status Credit target takes effect. The number required to attain a tier will also become the number required to retain it. In other words, the lower retention thresholds will disappear. Gold moves from 700 Status Credits to attain and 600 to retain to a single target of 700. Platinum moves from 1,400 to attain and 1,200 to retain to a single target of 1,400. The Platinum One requirement remains unchanged.

One number moved during the year and has now settled. Qantas' February announcement put the Gold rollover cap at 350 Status Credits, the program-changes page then said 300 for a period, and the page's 26 August 2026 update confirms 350. The same update put a firm date on the December changes. We re-verified every figure in this guide against the updated page on 27 August 2026; the episode is a reminder of why we date every claim.

What does not change

To attain or retain Silver, Gold, Platinum or Platinum One, you will still need at least four eligible flight segments in each membership year with a Qantas (QF) or Jetstar Group (JQ or GK) flight number on the ticket.

Lifetime Silver remains at 7,000 Status Credits and Lifetime Gold at 14,000 Status Credits.

Qantas has not announced any changes to the flight Status Credit earning tables used by our Status Run Builder.

Double Status Credits offers have also continued in 2026, with broad promotions running in February, May and August. The August window, open for bookings until 2 September 2026, is covered in our Double Status Credits guide.

The real takeaway: retention just got harder

Strip away the headline features and the core trade-off is this: Status Credit rollover and Status Credits earned on the ground are the offsets for losing the lower retention thresholds and the Loyalty Bonus. Whether those offsets are enough will depend on how you earn Status Credits and on the permanent ground-earning rules Qantas has yet to publish.

Consider a Gold member under the current rules. You need 600 Status Credits to retain Gold. Once you earn 500 eligible Status Credits on Qantas or Jetstar flights, you can select a Loyalty Bonus of 50 Status Credits. That reduces the effective flying requirement to about 550 Status Credits.

Later in 2027, the same Gold member will need a flat 700 Status Credits to retain Gold, and the Loyalty Bonus will disappear. Before allowing for rollover or ground earning, that is an increase of 150 Status Credits, or about 27%.

Members will also be able to earn up to 140 Status Credits per membership year on the ground. However, Qantas has not yet published the thresholds or earning amounts required to reach that maximum.

Status Credit rollover will primarily help members whose flying varies from year to year, but only after they exceed Gold’s 700-Status-Credit attainment threshold in a qualifying year. A member finishing with 1,000 Status Credits would roll over 150 into the following membership year, while a member finishing with 1,400 would reach Gold’s 350-Status-Credit rollover cap.

The clearest losers are the steady Gold members who repeatedly retain near the current thresholds. Members with uneven travel years should benefit most from Status Credit rollover. Members already active across several Qantas partner categories may also benefit from ground-earned Status Credits, but it is too early to say how much until the final rules are published.

Your action plan, by situation

If your current membership year ends before rollover applies

This is your last cycle under the existing rules, so Status Credits will not carry into your next membership year. Extra Status Credits will continue to count towards Lifetime Status and may count towards other eligible rewards, but they will not help with status retention in the following year.

If you are already over the line, there is little reason to earn more solely for annual status. If you are short, remember that the current retention thresholds of 600 Status Credits for Gold and 1,200 for Platinum will later increase to 700 and 1,400.

Check the Status Run Builder before deciding whether the remaining gap is worth closing, and note that Double Status Credits offers historically land once or twice a year.

If your membership year qualifies for rollover

Overshooting Status Credit tier thresholds begins to have value. A Gold member finishing with 1,000 Status Credits would roll over 150 into the following membership year. A member finishing with 1,400 would reach the 350-Status-Credit cap.

If discretionary travel could reasonably fall on either side of the change, placing it in your first membership year eligible for rollover may provide a useful head start on the higher retention target. Wait until Qantas confirms which anniversary dates qualify before rearranging travel around it.

If you are a steady Gold member earning around 600 Status Credits a year

Retention becomes materially harder later in 2027. You will need 700 Status Credits and the Loyalty Bonus will be gone, compared with an effective flying requirement of about 550 today.

Ground-earned Status Credits may close part of that gap, but Qantas has not yet published the permanent thresholds or category amounts. For now, identify which of the ten categories you already use rather than moving spending or changing providers prematurely.

For your own travel, compare QF-marketed fares and earning categories carefully. Domestic Business Sale and Business Saver fares fall within the standard Business earning category, which can produce strong Status Credit value when the fare is reasonable.

Where your travel dates are flexible, plan ahead so you are ready to book during a Double Status Credits offer. Register for every offer, then bring planned travel forward or defer it where the booking and travel windows make that worthwhile.

If you are chasing Lifetime Gold at 14,000 Status Credits

Ground-earned Status Credits counting towards Lifetime Status may be the most important change in the announcement. At the maximum of 140 Status Credits a year, that would add 1,400 Lifetime Status Credits over a decade without additional flying.

That is an upper limit, not a forecast. Qantas has not yet disclosed how difficult or expensive it will be to earn the full amount. Review the categories once the permanent rules and commencement date are published. There is no indication that spending before the feature begins will count retrospectively.

If you are in Points Club

Points Club and Points Club Plus retire on 8 December 2026, but benefits already earned will not disappear immediately.

Members who attain or retain either level before the programs retire can continue using the relevant benefits for the remainder of their current membership year and until the end of the following membership year. That includes earning Status Credits on eligible Qantas-marketed Classic and Classic Plus Flight Rewards while the benefit remains active.

If you are close to qualifying and genuinely value the benefits, reaching the threshold before retirement could secure a useful transition period. Do not manufacture spending solely to get there without first valuing the benefits you will actually use.

If you hold or are chasing Platinum One

The core requirement remains 3,600 Status Credits, including at least 2,700 earned on Qantas-marketed flights. Status Credits earned on partner airlines can contribute towards the overall 3,600, but not towards the separate 2,700 Qantas-marketed requirement.

Rollover gives credits earned above the target some value for the first time. Half of the Status Credits earned above 3,600 can carry forward, capped at 500.

That may make the following membership year easier, but it does not reduce the underlying Platinum One requirement. The new lifetime milestones also provide a banked year of Platinum at 25,000, 35,000, 45,000, 55,000 and 65,000 Lifetime Status Credits, giving long-term high-frequency flyers another form of protection.

Price the cost of closing your gap

The Qantas Status Run Builder lets you test the transition against documented fares and live deal prices collected from Qantas. It applies the current retention thresholds, the rollover rules beginning 8 December 2026 and the single tier targets arriving later in 2027, then shows what it could cost to close your remaining Status Credit gap.

If you are deciding whether to defend your status before the rules change, run your numbers through the Builder first.

The Rewards That Fly verdict

Qantas has staged the overhaul carefully. The member-friendly features, including Status Credit rollover and ground-earned Status Credits, arrive first. The higher retention targets and the removal of the Loyalty Bonus follow later.

The downside is already measurable; the value of the offsets is not. Members with uneven travel patterns should benefit from Status Credit rollover, and those already earning across several Qantas partner categories may benefit from ground-earned Status Credits.

But steady Gold and Platinum members who regularly retain near the current thresholds are likely to be worse off. They face a higher target, lose the Loyalty Bonus and may have few excess Status Credits to roll over.

Between now and later in 2027, focus on the parts you can control. Confirm when your membership year becomes eligible for rollover, plan flexible travel around Double Status Credits offers, and identify the ground-earning categories you already use. Do not redirect spending solely for Status Credits until Qantas publishes the permanent thresholds and partner rules.

We will keep this guide current as Qantas finalises the details, including the discrepancy in Gold’s rollover cap. Every material update will be recorded in the Program Change Log.

Methodology and last checked

All figures verified 22 July 2026 against Qantas' program-changes page (qantas.com/program-changes) and the Qantas Newsroom announcement of 26 February 2026. Where the announcement and the live page conflict (Gold's rollover cap, Silver's rollover rate), we use the live page and say so in the text. Ground-earning thresholds and category amounts are unpublished; nothing above assumes them. Program rules, eligibility and dates may change; verify with Qantas before booking or directing spending towards Status Credits.