Qantas Platinum One experiences?

aus_flyer

Established Member
Joined
Feb 15, 2005
Posts
2,021
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?
 
I'm under the impression P1 SST were actively monitoring P1 flight disruptions, but VIP is just a premium call centre. A way to get calls answered in less than 2 minutes. I guess for me P1's biggest (and only?) benefit is still award seats release.
 
I have had 6 flight disruptions of late and no contact from VIP team for any of then.
I’m thinking it’s ok to cut them a bit of slack due to the pandemic.
FWIW my experience with the VIP team so far has been overwhelming positive.
I have been contacted by them proactively on more than one occasion.
Still to test international IRROPs of course but the previous SST was very good in that regard in the past.
 
In the SST days i seem to recall that they only ever monitored international flights. I a pretty sure I was not called when domestic flights were changed, cancelled or delayed and at that time I was on planes every week.
 
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I agree Princess when I have needed to call they have been brilliant its just the proactive isn't there and happy to cut some slack under the circumstances but also given less travel by all how hard would it be to be more proactive?
 
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I've had a couple of dozen domestic disruptions, none of which the team contacted me about, but they were far enough away I was fine to look at the usual emails and booking notifications.

And on the several times I've called them of late (mostly about those disruptions) they have been great and the call answered immediately. No waiting time at all.
 
In the SST days i seem to recall that they only ever monitored international flights. I a pretty sure I was not called when domestic flights were changed, cancelled or delayed and at that time I was on planes every week.
Very similar experience to me.
The SST did call me very early one morning to advise of a QFLink cancellation that would have impacted my stay by 24 hours to re-book me.
But yes vanilla triangle flights the old and new teams don’t involve themselves as to be honest it isn’t really needed.
 
I was booked LST-MEL-SYD-GFF. LST-MEL flight cancelled so I drove to Devonport to do 6.30 am DPO-MEL. This flight was delayed and I missed the 8.30 MEL-SYD connection. When I arrived in Melbourne, I assumed I'd be rushed onto the next flight but they decided that there wasn't sufficient time for me to make the Griffith connection at Sydney. Subsequent research showed that there were three flights that left Melbourne after I arrived, that all arrived before the Griffith flight left. One of them gave 50 minutes to connect. The VIP team only became involved after I hassled them and by the time they thought about it and called back, the options had gone. They were happy to return me to Launceston but would still charge me the $700+ for the Griffith flight, even though all I'd had was an early morning drive and a flight to Melbourne and back. Alternatively, they could cancel the Griffith trip and send me to Adelaide which was my destination after Griffith. I took this option and they kindly charged me the top economy price; last minute booking, no discounts!
I still had work to do in Griffith so I put some miles on the hire car and simply drove there. Adelaide-Griffith is a long commute but at least I got there! The reality was that the VIP team's sole contribution was arranging bookings. They did nothing to anticipate the connection problem I encountered. In previous times I've been met off the plane, handed a new boarding pass and hustled on to the next flight.
I've no complaints with the VIP service. Very nice and helpful but the reality is that they are not doing the job that the SST were doing.
 
I’m thinking it’s ok to cut them a bit of slack due to the pandemic.

I'm a little perplexed by this (or possibly just ignorant). Given there are no internaional flights and one would assume significantly fewer P1s flying on any given day these days, why would they need to be cut slack? Wouldn't what they usually deal with be much lighter meaning that could be even more proactive now?
 
I'm a little perplexed by this (or possibly just ignorant). Given there are no internaional flights and one would assume significantly fewer P1s flying on any given day these days, why would they need to be cut slack? Wouldn't what they usually deal with be much lighter meaning that could be even more proactive now?
The team has been completely overhauled. They are now dealing with many more things that the previous SST wasn’t able to (reservations, awards etc).
The previous SST rarely got involved in domestic IRROPs and I think it’s even less likely that the new team will do so now.
I’d prefer that they kept the focus that they currently have. It’s an improvement.
 
cut my be the operative word here - a different word to slack but also starting with s - staff.

IIRC the SST staff in CBR are all gone. Maybe some redeployed(?) but I believe all gone sadly.

The VIP Team just may not have this function any more. Or perhaps "suspended for the duration" perhaps?

I mean VIP team did have a few invites and things out there iirc so there is still that functionality out there, and some comp upgrades (and things like CL invites too). Flight monitoring? seems to have gone.

I suppose it remains to be seen if this service, such as it was, will return whenever more general flying (and international) is a good question.

I do agree with al the cancels and disruptions going on for the relative few that have been actually flying over the past 18 or so months you might have thought this kind of thing would have improved.. but I definitely think this is probably a staff (shortage) issue.

I would like to say though on a very positive note I had great experience this week.

On Sunday I called (and got on to a VIP agent in HBA) to enquire about a flight credit booking that had not ticketed. Turns out it had a problem with a tax not being charged or something. Anyway agent very helpfully sorted that out quickly. Was friendly and pleasant.

The next day as it was near my membership anniversary I wanted to change my platinum gift for the next year. I decided not to phone and tie up QFF on this, but send an email to VIP Team. Well I got a call maybe 30 minutes later.. and blow me if it wasn't THE SAME agent from the day before(!). Long story short she liased with QFF to organise it but actually proactively called me back before doing it to check because it turns out my friend was to be extended anyway and thus wuld have Plat regardless so she wanted to check if I still wanted to do it, or leave it so I could pick someone else or whatever. Now I thought that was very good follow up on such a minor issue. I'd mentioned to her I'd emailed as I did not see it as a phone worthy thing given the times and demand but she was very clear in saying they were happy to have "their' VIP's call for anything and it was no problem. So I had a quickly responded to mail, personally via phone (rather than just a "OK we'll do it" email which would have been fine) and checked back with me again later on.

So they're still able to deliver some service. I was quite impressed.

I guess we have to wait and see what may happen with flight monitoring and other functions of the old SST as (hopefully, sometime) things improve.
 
cut my be the operative word here - a different word to slack but also starting with s - staff.

IIRC the SST staff in CBR are all gone. Maybe some redeployed(?) but I believe all gone sadly.

The VIP Team just may not have this function any more. Or perhaps "suspended for the duration" perhaps?

I mean VIP team did have a few invites and things out there iirc so there is still that functionality out there, and some comp upgrades (and things like CL invites too). Flight monitoring? seems to have gone.

I suppose it remains to be seen if this service, such as it was, will return whenever more general flying (and international) is a good question.

I do agree with al the cancels and disruptions going on for the relative few that have been actually flying over the past 18 or so months you might have thought this kind of thing would have improved.. but I definitely think this is probably a staff (shortage) issue.

I would like to say though on a very positive note I had great experience this week.

On Sunday I called (and got on to a VIP agent in HBA) to enquire about a flight credit booking that had not ticketed. Turns out it had a problem with a tax not being charged or something. Anyway agent very helpfully sorted that out quickly. Was friendly and pleasant.

The next day as it was near my membership anniversary I wanted to change my platinum gift for the next year. I decided not to phone and tie up QFF on this, but send an email to VIP Team. Well I got a call maybe 30 minutes later.. and blow me if it wasn't THE SAME agent from the day before(!). Long story short she liased with QFF to organise it but actually proactively called me back before doing it to check because it turns out my friend was to be extended anyway and thus wuld have Plat regardless so she wanted to check if I still wanted to do it, or leave it so I could pick someone else or whatever. Now I thought that was very good follow up on such a minor issue. I'd mentioned to her I'd emailed as I did not see it as a phone worthy thing given the times and demand but she was very clear in saying they were happy to have "their' VIP's call for anything and it was no problem. So I had a quickly responded to mail, personally via phone (rather than just a "OK we'll do it" email which would have been fine) and checked back with me again later on.

So they're still able to deliver some service. I was quite impressed.

I guess we have to wait and see what may happen with flight monitoring and other functions of the old SST as (hopefully, sometime) things improve.
I totally agree and have had similar experiences with the VIP team. I have no problem with the service at all, it's just that they are not doing the same job as the SST. They also don't start early which is a deficiency when you have an early flight and wake up to a Qantas SMS.
I do have a problem with Qantas at the moment though. As an example, Tasmania to SA. There have been very few Covid issues on this route for a long time now. Occasional flare ups in SA but no long term interruptions. The only direct flight is a 8.30 pm Jetstar flight out of Hobart. They had 717's between Launceston and Sydney. How hard would it have been to re-purpose and send to Adelaide?
Virgin have stepped into the slot now. Be interesting to see if Qantas follow. They often seem to, so instead of one profitable route, you have two marginal flying side by side.
 
Any recent experiences with requesting award seats? I was told there's no manual review at the moment - just the droid check. Which I think means the availability is the same as WP.
 
The team has been completely overhauled. They are now dealing with many more things that the previous SST wasn’t able to (reservations, awards etc).
The previous SST rarely got involved in domestic IRROPs and I think it’s even less likely that the new team will do so now.
I’d prefer that they kept the focus that they currently have. It’s an improvement.
Slow response but I just noticed this and had to disagree ( :)). All my flying is domestic and I felt I was very well looked after by the SST. I've seen a few comments saying that they were totally focused on international but that was not my experience. I have to say though, that considering P1 is WP x 3, none of the perks I've received were worth serious effort chasing but still gratefully received when you're doing the travel anyway.
 
Slow response but I just noticed this and had to disagree ( :)). All my flying is domestic and I felt I was very well looked after by the SST. I've seen a few comments saying that they were totally focused on international but that was not my experience. I have to say though, that considering P1 is WP x 3, none of the perks I've received were worth serious effort chasing but still gratefully received when you're doing the travel anyway.
My domestic flying was dwarfed by my international so your experience of the SST domestically will be greater than I had.

I definitely agree that none of it is worth chasing unless you are getting there with your usual travel.
Having said that I’m enormously grateful for the new extension as I’d rather resume my international travel as P1 than WP ☺️
 
P1 briefing arrived today.
Must be a bug in the system, it says:
You've clocked up undefined kms onboard
You've taken undefined flights
You've earned undefined and used undefined Qantas Points**

Anyone going for the decanter offer? Says it's exclusive to "elite tier P1/CL" but I can see it on the public site 😂
 
P1 briefing arrived today.
Must be a bug in the system, it says:
You've clocked up undefined kms onboard
You've taken undefined flights
You've earned undefined and used undefined Qantas Points**

Anyone going for the decanter offer? Says it's exclusive to "elite tier P1/CL" but I can see it on the public site 😂
Mine says "You've flown around the world 34 times", and everything else is "undefined"
 

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