Qantas Platinum One experiences?

[aus_flyer]

To all the newly-minted Platinum One frequent flyers out there... I'm curious to hear... what's been your experience so far?

Anything different?

Free upgrades?

... or all hype?

 

[amaroo]

Called the Plat one number to request 3 x J BNE-HKG-BNE award seats for next month .... all released on the spot. I value this P1 benefit over all others.

 

[amaroo]

3 now needs to be four, so I tried my luck with another release... HKG-BNE was released on the spot, but no joy for BNE/SYD-HKG on the date we want.

Decided to buy #1 son the cheapest upgradable Y BNE-HKG ticket and have submitted a J upgrade request using my P1 account.... more than one way to skin a cat.

I am right to think that the request will be treated as a P1.

 

[defurax]

Decided to buy #1 son the cheapest upgradable Y BNE-HKG ticket and have submitted an upgrade request using my P1 account.... more than one way to skin a cat.

I am right to think that the request will be treated as a P1.

I remember that in a previous thread (I can't find right now) it was mentioned that the upgrade would be processed not at the same time as P1 passenger, but with the "P1 priority" at the time upgrade is processed. Meaning that a QF SG for which a P1 member is requesting the upgrade would have the top priority over other SG (apart maybe from a CL-P1 request...).
Never have experienced that, so don't know in practice.

 

[Brettmcg]

3 now needs to be four, so I tried my luck with another release... HKG-BNE was released on the spot, but no joy for BNE/SYD-HKG on the date we want.

Decided to buy #1 son the cheapest upgradable Y BNE-HKG ticket and have submitted a J upgrade request using my P1 account.... more than one way to skin a cat.

I am right to think that the request will be treated as a P1.

The upgrade request for your son is treated with P1 priority, but will only be assessed within the timeline of his own FF status.

That is to say, if he is Gold, the upgrade request will be at the top of the pile when assessed 24hrs out.

This is both the way the process has been explained to me by the SST, and also how I have observed it in practice.

 

[nutwood]

Hmm, things that make you wonder. I just received an e.mail from Qantas, urging me to keep Platinum One. I must admit that the last Qantas flight I took was nearly ten days ago and I am 280 SC's short of re-qualifying, but I do have four months to achieve them in! Only thing I can think of is that I don't have any flights booked at present.
Just how closely are they monitoring me? Anyone else receiving pleas to book?

 

[calmelb]

Hmm, things that make you wonder. I just received an e.mail from Qantas, urging me to keep Platinum One. I must admit that the last Qantas flight I took was nearly ten days ago and I am 280 SC's short of re-qualifying, but I do have four months to achieve them in! Only thing I can think of is that I don't have any flights booked at present.
Just how closely are they monitoring me? Anyone else receiving pleas to book?

How long were you P1 for? Maybe that contributes (given after a year of P1 I got no notice or even a goodbye)

 

[nutwood]

This is my first year?

 

[wannabeinvestmentbanker]

I got an email this afternoon urging me to push for plantimum one. Im 2300 odd with 4 months to go. Maybe all September year ends got it.

 

[juddles]

Hmm, things that make you wonder. I just received an e.mail from Qantas, urging me to keep Platinum One. I must admit that the last Qantas flight I took was nearly ten days ago and I am 280 SC's short of re-qualifying, but I do have four months to achieve them in! Only thing I can think of is that I don't have any flights booked at present.
Just how closely are they monitoring me? Anyone else receiving pleas to book?

Hi there nutwood, don't hold your breath

As I have posted before, not only have I only done a single international trip on QF this year, I also actively cancelled all my future trips with them. Now almost halfway through the year, bugger all SC, and no booked travel in the remainder. Not a even a blip on their horizon.

@calmelb raises how long one is a P1 member - as a data point I have been at that dizzy height for 3 (?) years now.

 

[nutwood]

It's all rather strange. If they're going to go the trouble of targeted marketing, they probably should make it relevant. I've been clocking over a steady average of something over 400 SC's/month. It has been hectic recently but unless something serious changes, I'll re-qualify with a comfortable margin. I would have thought it would make more sense to send me an e.mail thanking me for my custom? Do they really think I'm going to rush out and book a flight because they've sent me an e.mail urging me to re-qualify? If anything, it reminds me to check the renewal date on my Velocity card, to see if I could swing anything there!

 

[juddles]

Unfortunately (but understandably) much if not all marketing is done using basic criteria that invariably ignores the specific individual's history/situation/etc. I think it was only in the past couple of weeks I got an email from QF suggesting to me to "discover" Santiago - I have only been there just over 100 times - but to be fair only about 50 of those were flying Qantas That they send you your email is even more "way out there"! Maybe they have a simple algorithm/filter where any P1 who is 4 mths out gets that email? I will let you know in two months.....

 

[Happy Trails]

I get the admonitory email every year around the ninth month, even when I already have sufficient bookings to retain.
And one year, at least, it was the only P1 'experience' I had.

 

[juddles]

Happy Trails, I have not noticed that email - maybe I have missed them? But I am fairly certain I did not get them - I tend to look at anything regarding P1 with some care as it is the peak of my hobby interest - FF program-wise.

But there are many mysteries in P1 - such as why some members get different end-of-year gifts (remember the whole thing about Letter 1, 2, 3 etc?)

 

[calmelb]

Happy Trails, I have not noticed that email - maybe I have missed them? But I am fairly certain I did not get them - I tend to look at anything regarding P1 with some care as it is the peak of my hobby interest - FF program-wise.

But there are many mysteries in P1 - such as why some members get different end-of-year gifts (remember the whole thing about Letter 1, 2, 3 etc?)

I thought some of the letter things were because of government mainly (though weirdly I’m not government and 18+ yet still got the headphones so I don’t think we will ever figure out why)

 

[juddles]

I thought some of the letter things were because of government mainly (though weirdly I’m not government and 18+ yet still got the headphones so I don’t think we will ever figure out why)

I think some of our shared experiences disproved the government angle? But even if we all did band together and go through it all, and find some inkling of consistency, QFF would just hit their oft-used big red "Confound the customer" button and we would be back to square one.

 

[nutwood]

I figured they got a batch of headphones and sent them out randomly. The letter numbering thing was simply to match the letters to the gift. Nothing I've seen suggests their systems, or their IT people, are sophisticated enough to do anything clever.

 

[juddles]

I figured they got a batch of headphones and sent them out randomly. The letter numbering thing was simply to match the letters to the gift. Nothing I've seen suggests their systems, or their IT people, are sophisticated enough to do anything clever.

Agree in substance. My angle was that they had a certain number of bottles of bubbly, and any P1 numbers over that got a secondary gift. But it could be either way. It is hard to discern which way it was, as both gifts are nice, but both could also be seen to be irrelevant to a P1. (which P1 hasn't had their fill of bubbly, which traveller that does the km a P1 does still hasn't discovered headphones??)

 

[calmelb]

Like by comparison my dad and I earned similar levels for P1 (both between 3600-4000) and he got the champers and I got the headphones. He has been P1 longer than a year (but also we disproved the year thing). So it could well be random

 

[juddles]

Like by comparison my dad and I earned similar levels for P1 (both between 3600-4000) and he got the champers and I got the headphones. He has been P1 longer than a year (but also we disproved the year thing). So it could well be random

I could be cheeky here and suggest that "random" and "inconsistent" are very similar terms - some would say a modern day QF almost-trademarked concept

But at least in my experience, when things have gone wrong with travel (and in other serious things), the P1 SST has been extremely consistent - and outstanding. My quibbles about the champas are just that - minor quibbles.

 

[kermatu]

I'm 8 months into my year and also got the email. A few hundred SCs short at this stage. Had EK flights not counted I'd be nowhere near.

About 50-50 travel booked in next few months is QF-VA. May retain, may not. Not fussed.

Will retain VA Plat easily next week. Have used my 4 guaranteed upgrades quite nicely (for fares that were only 10 to 15 % higher than QF Y fares on those days/routes) so an easy winner over the intangible and random P1 benefits.

As an aside / reflection of the thought that goes into this rubbish, this is part of what the email says:






So sloppy. Does anyone who sends out these pathetic emails even read them and understand what the current benefits/conditions are??