I've been meaning to report back on our recent trip, which was first time for me with the new upgraded status. VIP was printed on my boarding pass. I had used my (previously-earnt) Platinum Partner bonus to upgrade my wife's status back to Platinum from Gold.
We were travelling CNS-BNE-CNS in J anyway, but wondered if we might get any bonus onboard, such as first meal selection. I usually select row 1 to improve that chance, but on both flights, for various reasons, we were in row 2. I think the first flight, the CSM took orders 1AC 1DF, then us in 2AC, but I think both meal options were still available. On the return, they went 1AC and then us in 2AC.
Obviously, I don't know what the status of other pax were in J, but there's not usually too many high status members on CNS flights.
Both CSMs were very attentive and helpful, but I've had good service from J CSMs on most VA flights, so didn't put that down to being P+ particularly.
In BNE, I was too chicken to walk down the gang plank to the separate Beyond lounge entry and try my boarding pass at the entry kiosk, so just went straight to the entry coutner at the lounge. Unfortunately, was not escorted over to the extra entry to the Beyond lounge, though did see them taking someone else there later, so the staff do know where it is
.
I felt like the staff member who checked me in did later attempt to make an effort to recognise the P+ status. While we were there, I went back to the service counter to ask about an infant seat for our son - I had already done a walk around to see if I could see any myself. The other staff just started saying things like, "oh it's over there... [pointing toward the back wall]" and "just see the F&B staff over that way...", however the staff member who had checked us in offered to go over and find it for me, so we started walking together in that direction, and they (individual) even offered to bring it over to me themself, which was very kind of them to offer, but I was happy to walk with them to collect it together. I may be wrong, but did feel like that was a bit of a slight extra effort compared to the other staff, as they (indiv.) may have recognised my status from entry.
I did have to change the return flight to an earlier flight on the same day, which I changed the day before, and had to call. Got the Premium Service line, which was nice. As it was a Business Flyer booking, I am accustomed to being transferred to the Business Flyer centre, however, the Premium Service centre handled it all - just took a bit longer to make the change, as they explained they had to jump between different systems or something, but that was fine.
Being a J flight, and knowing how they do tend to fill up with upgrades etc in the last 24 hours, I didn't want to risk waiting until same day to use Fly Ahead to guarantee moving onto an earlier flight. I had been monitoring fares on EF, but thought I didn't even want to risk waiting until midnight to call up to activate the "same day" Fly Ahead benefit. There was a fare difference which I had to pay, as I expected. The service centre operator even agreed when I mentioned it was a bit of a risk and shame waiting to use the Fly Ahead benefit when changing the flight the day before - but obviously didn't offer to waive any fare difference (not that I expected that to happen). It's just a shame when there is a hard rule that changes between 11:59 PM and 12:01 AM to activate a benefit such as this. (Though I must admit, I've never called as early as midnight to test whether they would approve a Fly Ahead request on the "same day"...) But of course, rules is rules, and I get that there has to be a line somewhere.
I haven't tried to use an upgrade voucher since getting the new status. I'm not sure how I'd feel about trying to use one on a Choice fare without first calling up to ask if that is possible before I booked the fare. So I haven't tested that as a data item to add yet. It's always been a simple approach for me to first check for a Business Reward seat, then book the Flex fare, and then call up and activate the upgrade voucher (and hope the Business Reward didn't magically disappear in the meantime - though it never has.)
