20% Reduction in Platinum/Platinum One Retention Thresholds (July/Aug/Sept Membership Year Ends)

Ah no, it simply isn't. Emirates F lounge is far far ahead. Never too busy (either one) as they are capacious. I think even Princess F would agree.

Ive never been to SYD Emirates lounge, but my old boss who is a CL says QF First is better than the EK Lounge and he has been to a lot more lounges than me, given he has the privilege of flying internationally in J or F at least once a month to US/EU/Asia/NZ.

Anyway I wont sell out my principals to fly a ME carrier no matter how much someone else talks up their lounge experience. And again this is a QF thread about QFF status (and flying some sectors on QF is required). If you value EK so much perhaps you'd be better off joining their FF program, I'm pretty sure they aren't giving away free extensions anymore.
 
Ive never been to SYD Emirates lounge, but my old boss who is a CL says QF First is better than the EK Lounge and he has been to a lot more lounges than me, given he has the privilege of flying internationally in J or F at least once a month to US/EU/Asia/NZ.

Anyway I wont sell out my principals to fly a ME carrier no matter how much someone else talks up their lounge experience.
Well, I'm referring to EK lounge in Dubai. It's not relevant to compare a home ground Lounge (as in Sydney) with a non home ground lounge (EK Sydney). The EK lounge in Dubai is far superior to Qantas F lounge in Sydney.

BTW I don't think anyone can claim high morale ground for any country unless you rewrite history.
 
Well, I'm referring to EK lounge in Dubai. It's not relevant to compare a home ground Lounge (as in Sydney) with a non home ground lounge (EK Sydney).

Disagree, SYD is where I fly from. I don't fly via the ME so what a carrier who is not OW offers in a city I don't fly to/through is irrelevant to me.

Home ground isn't always an advantage, for example the QF Business lounge in HKG is now better than the Cathay J lounge. I have heard no complaints about the QF First lounge in SIN either. I've also been told that CX lounge in LHR is nicer than BA.
 
Disagree, SYD is where I fly from. I don't fly via the ME so what a carrier who is not OW offers in a city I don't fly to/through is irrelevant.

Also home ground isn't always an advantage, for example the QF Business lounge in HKG is now better than the Cathay J lounge. Have heard no complaints about the QF First lounge in SIN either.


Other than Singapore being very crowded and is now limiting passengers. But whatever, QFI has abandoned Adelaide so one less golden link. And that's all.
 
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Well, I'm referring to EK lounge in Dubai. It's not relevant to compare a home ground Lounge (as in Sydney) with a non home ground lounge (EK Sydney). The EK lounge in Dubai is far superior to Qantas F lounge in Sydney.

BTW I don't think anyone can claim high morale ground for any country unless you rewrite history.

I think it's more imperative for EK to make the DXB lounges good, as their whole business model involves routing people through DXB.

QF has far more O/D pax from SYD and MEL.

My experience with EK is that they're flashy but lacking substance. Everything is for looks and show but doesn't always make sense. Like giving you a mini bar at your seat - but who the hell wants to drink room temperature Coke? How about you bring me a cold one?

I've ranted previously but my best example of what I'm not overly fond of them is in a J meal they served roast lamb. It was quite good. The beverages were served after all pax had received their meals, so by the time I finally got my glass of red, I'd already finished my meal. EK J is just PE service in J seats, IMO.

Also, as I'm just realising for my upcoming trip via DXB, I can't bring Stilnox with me (that I have prescribed) as it's a controlled medication you need to apply to the Department of Health for an import permit. Not worth the risk of arrest.
 
But again a roll-over of some SCs would be the better option as it keeps everyone flying into next year and incentivises those who lose their status to try harder.

Instead this decision just rewards those who didn't fly enough and zero benefit for those who did fly. Way to piss off your actual customers whilst rewarding those who flew with non OW carriers.
If they are addressing the issues of Platinum expiries over the next three months, a rollover into next year isn't much of a benefit. Qantas would have a view of the numbers, and whether the folk they are tragetting have upped their flying since Oct 2022.

This decision would have been very data driven.
 
My take on this:

I can see that QF has made an effort to address the rather large imbalance they created with the last extension lasting til June and then nothing. I think what they have done here goes some way to try to even it up a little, but imo it's just added to the lack of fairness for many members.

(to be upfront here - I've requalified P1 with 3900 SC's on the board with an Aug anniversary, so this extension does nothing for me personally and I'm writing considering the overall situation).

I feel both the lack of including Oct-Dec anniversaries at all AND the huge snub to Silver/Gold members is not a great look for those affected groups. Certainly if I was mid tier member I'd feel very unvalued by QF.

I understand a line has to be made somewhere, and before today it seemed June 30 was that line. Now the message to punters is that we care about the higher yield folks but the rest of you... meh.

If they were going to do it this way, I think there are many more fair ways to do it. eg: do the same for Oct-Dec too, or stagger the requirement levels for all tiers (as they did with status support right through - as in P1 got an advantasge with status rollovers over the other tiers). eg QF could have declared say a 10% discount for Silvers, 15% for Golds, 20% for WP/P1. It still would not be fair, but at least give the impression the other levels matter while giving QF some level of control over the clearly inflated body of Golds(specially) and Silvers that it seems this is saying - there's too many so no favours for you (and we all know about the lounge crowding at times that is probably a factor here).

Finally (and this would affect me personally), that there's nothing for those WP/P1 that qualified already (given how late they've announced this) isn't great. IMO they could have applied the same 20% discount into a status rollover into 2024/25 membership year - that would have given recognition to those that had already qualified and not left them feeling that those who had gotten within that 20% value now had an unfair advantage. Is it a big deal? probably not, but they had done this thing already before so would have been more consistent.. but as we know Consistently Inconsistent(tm) (and I'm fully aware that this whole notion would be self serving to my personal situation so I do have a bias there).


Overall though I think QF could have done this better for the majority of punters in the July-Dec membership anniversary positions. I understand from their point of view not wanting to extend more the majority of status holders in the mid tier (e Gold) for the oft discussed issues of huge numbers in this pool, but it still leaves a bit of a poor taste for those folks the message this move sends to them, and nothing at all for Oct-December folks - well it doesn't change the situation at all as it stood before today.

Seems clear to me that QF has clearly identified that the top tiers are the focus - and why not - a large yield comes from the WP and P1's and throwing a bone to at least attempt to keep some onside vs jumping ship is fair enough from that point of view. I still feel they could have done this better though.

Again, whatever QF did they would create unhappiness and feelings of inequality - as has happened right through this pandemic/status support period - the curse of having rolling status anniversaries - you'll never please everyone. Ideally, just giving the same for Jul-Dec that was given to Jan-Jun would appear the most "fair" in many respects, but I definitely see what has been attempted with this "tapered" approach that's been taken.
 
Colour me skeptical but I see this announcement as really a devaluation to the Platinum (and Platinum One) programs. For instance, consider Platinum status with one of the published benefits being earning lifetime Gold status after just a dozen years qualifying (and re-qualifying) for. Well between status extensions, roll over credits and now a reduction in status credits required to retain Platinum, it means punters are going to have to spend a few more years retaining Platinum to earn that coveted Lifetime Gold status.
Totally irrelevant in ny view. LT status is a totally separate function of the QFF program and requires a specific SC earn requirement. It's NOT based on consecutive years at a level or anything. You could earn 14000 SC's by under 2.5 years of >5k SC earn or 28 years earning 200 SC a year - it would still equal the same thing. In no way does that devalue WP/P1 in my view.

It seems you don't quite understand how LT status works - it's got nothing to do with yearly earned status at all.

What this does do is create lower requirement to retain for THIS membership year for roughly 1/4 of QFF members (ie" Jul-Sep folks) at the top two tiers. Given the timing, most folks would have already retained if that was their desire - or be close to it. If not, already booked trips would either see them fall over the line, or possibly make the original requirements already - would this stimulate some buy in to get there if short by say 25-30% and say a September anniversary - possibly, but the status chasers are probably a fairly small proportion of customers, and would already have taken advantage of the prior status support, DSC etc.

I suspect the actual numbers being impacted here are probably less than we imagine, and while data may have driven this, the more I think about it, this announcement seems to be more window dressing than substance in that "hey we've done something for you lot" rather than materially affecting large numbers of customers. imho anyway.
 
Big issue with QF from my experience in the past year has been the lack of the route network. Why is it I can fly United or Delta to the US but would struggled to find a single flight on the Roo stateside? Sure you can point out that right now you can take flights to destinations like San Francisco or New York on Qantas, but that wasn't the case just a couple of months ago. This likely explains the additional status support for Platinum and Platinum Ones who struggled to close the gap this year.

-RooFlyer88
What on earth are you talking about?

for pretty much a year or more now QF has steadily operated the usual SYD-LAX and MEL-LAX flights along with BNE-LAX (yes 332, but still a service) and added MEL-DFW in addition to SYD-DFW. Pretty much QF's route network to the US (and throw in YVR going to a year round from seasonal too) is fairly close to, if not expenaded from pre-pandemic levels (YVR was seasonal, there was no MEL-DFW). Yes, QF was operating to SFO for brief periods - that is the main one to return and has been pushed back, and of course we now have AKL-JFK (more or less replacing the pre pandemic LAX-JFK problamtic tag).

It could be argued that QF's capacity and network with North America is in some ways superior to what it was in say Feb, 2020 though I suppose that is subjective.

Also linking the QF network reach to North America to Platinum/P1 seems to be a bit of a narrow focus. Sure, many higher status folks ply these routes - as much as they road warrior on the Golden Triangle domestic, or to Asia, europe etc.

I realise your personal focus is on North America due to your origins, but it's not the centre of the universe for QF frequent flyers :)

(oh and kudos to UA for identifying and taking advantage of the hole with their aggressive expansion in AU routes - adding BNE, doubling down on SYD from LAX/SFO and of course MEL which daily from SFO and going daily from LAX soon. I just flew them transpac and flights were chokkas. there's demand there, and they have the airframes to meet them - and could afford a crazy order for 200 more 787's to boot - QF's not in the same league).
 
What on earth are you talking about?

for pretty much a year or more now QF has steadily operated the usual SYD-LAX and MEL-LAX flights along with BNE-LAX (yes 332, but still a service) and added MEL-DFW in addition to SYD-DFW. Pretty much QF's route network to the US (and throw in YVR going to a year round from seasonal too) is fairly close to, if not expenaded from pre-pandemic levels (YVR was seasonal, there was no MEL-DFW). Yes, QF was operating to SFO for brief periods - that is the main one to return and has been pushed back, and of course we now have AKL-JFK (more or less replacing the pre pandemic LAX-JFK problamtic tag).

Furthermore, the key words relevant to status re-qualification (for Platinum One's, not for WPs) are "flying on Qantas marketed flights". So QF's reach in the US is not restricted to QF ports, there are a significant number of destinations for those who a travelling from (or to) Australia on QF that travellers can reach using QF marketed services on AA, instead of DL or UA. That's the whole point of the operation of the AA/QF agreement/alliance.
 
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My take on this:

I can see that QF has made an effort to address the rather large imbalance they created with the last extension lasting til June and then nothing. I think what they have done here goes some way to try to even it up a little, but imo it's just added to the lack of fairness for many members.
........

Seems clear to me that QF has clearly identified that the top tiers are the focus - and why not - a large yield comes from the WP and P1's and throwing a bone to at least attempt to keep some onside vs jumping ship is fair enough from that point of view. I still feel they could have done this better though.

Again, whatever QF did they would create unhappiness and feelings of inequality - as has happened right through this pandemic/status support period - the curse of having rolling status anniversaries - you'll never please everyone. Ideally, just giving the same for Jul-Dec that was given to Jan-Jun would appear the most "fair" in many respects, but I definitely see what has been attempted with this "tapered" approach that's been taken.
Just my 2 cents worth QF could have made this quite simple in August 22 when they put out thank you email with the status extension and points. My take on this when it was handed out was that QF placed a value on WP and P1 membership at 15K points. I have a July rollover so received 30K points which I did not need as I have oodles of them. MrsM was in the Jan-Jun roll over bracket so received a 12 month status extension and 15K points. Hindsight comes with 20/20 vision and IMO QF could have handled the thank you message in a better way by offering all who were getting something (cannot remember what SG and PS where offered) a choice of either a 1 year status extension or points. This would not have been difficult to do as they have provided similar offers pre covid and I would suggest that for members who knew they would hit the status requirements they would select points, and vice-versa for those who were unsure if they would hit the status requirements.
 
The more I think about this offer, I think ‘why publicise it?’

Making all this public just annoys the majority of people who don’t benefit - why not just email the people QF is gifting status too?
 
The more I think about this offer, I think ‘why publicise it?’

Making all this public just annoys the majority of people who don’t benefit - why not just email the people QF is gifting status too?
I guess the info would leak out through social media anyway and then they'd be accused of a cover up. Not sure they can win either way.
 
The more I think about this offer, I think ‘why publicise it?’

Making all this public just annoys the majority of people who don’t benefit - why not just email the people QF is gifting status too?

Well they didn't send an email to everyone like with previous covid support, I'm a July anniversary but was not notified via email obviously because I actually earned my status by flying enough. Only place I saw it posted was here, so not publicising it very much.
 
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Well they didn't send an email to everyone like with previous covid support, I'm a July anniversary but was not notified via email obviously because I actually earned my status by flying enough. Only place I saw it posted was here, so not publicising it very much.
I'm eligible, not yet requalified, and also didn't receive anything... though I have do forward bookings that easily knock over the true goal, so perhaps that is taken into account already when they determine their distribution list. As @muppet says; why annoy those who are already sorted. Just target those who are not, and hope social media and news doesn't aggravate too many others! :)

Cheers,
Matt.
 
Well they didn't send an email to everyone like with previous covid support, I'm a July anniversary but was not notified via email obviously because I actually earned my status by flying enough. Only place I saw it posted was here, so not publicising it very much.
I'm also July anniversary. I got the email about it. I was already on track to get the 1200 before the end of the month, which they would be able to see from forward bookings. I had already reached the reduced target, which the email mentioned.
 
The more I think about this offer, I think ‘why publicise it?’

Making all this public just annoys the majority of people who don’t benefit - why not just email the people QF is gifting status too?
I suppose QF didn't need to announce this at all unless they were looking for publicity, or perhaps hoping for forward bookings.

As I recall pre-COVID, QF used to unofficially provide status extensions if you didn't re-qualify, based on a 2 or 3 year average? They could have done the same here and quietly extended people who met the reduced criteria.
 
I reckon if QF kept it quiet as just a, if you like, targeted offer it would have leaked as noted by others and still there would have been angst. It's one of those "can't win" type things. Probably better to put it out there rather than not.

I'd also note that as far as I can tell the "announcement" has been via third parties (eg: ET) rather than a QF newsroom post or web page - so to that extent is it really an official announcement, or folks like ET pouncing on the email and confirming details with QF and reporting it? In which case it actually is more of the former....
 

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