Article: Is Qantas or Velocity Status Harder to Earn?

[justinbrett]

lol indeed. Switch the topic to overseas & look over there ...

The article is not about flying domestically.

I’m pretty sure you fit in the group of people I was referring to:

Its been a factor sometimes. For instance, some upcoming bookings to MAD on QR could either originate in CGK or SIN. QR has a premium own lounge in SIN but a Plaza Premium lounge in CGK. SO that was a tick towards SIN.

 

[Hampton Mike]

Its pretty well covered what some of the optimal status runs are in the status run master thread that the OOL-MEL-AKL J runs are among the highest earning. Pair that with some DSC cinematography and you'll get some very cheap status.

There's a few other crazy routes youll find but those tend to be overseas based. Just a note 18k is expensive for a P1 run. You can achieve that much lower if you know what you're doing.

Recent special OOL-MEL-AKL return for $1495 in business yielding 560 SCs per trip (based on DSC). Four status runs for $5980 = 2240 SCs leaving another 1360 to be obtained from other trips. Easy to get if you go to Europe on $ once on DSCs in business class.

 

[antycbr]

VA should be cheaper when you consider the limited attractions of VAs lounge network, the caveats on partner lounge access and lack of differentiation between Gold and Platinum/Business lounges.

Comparing status earn cost isn’t really that meaningful when the bundle of contractual rights you get is so vastly different.

 

[The Flying Brick]

VA Status earning is now just a sad joke.

E.g. Flight from CNS-BNE-SYD in J used to earn 135 Status credits.
Last Saturday the same flights in J earned me only 53 Status Credits in total.

Virgin have gone to the dogs.

And they seem to care much more about them than their Business class passengers.

 

[AFF Editor]

The thing that caught my attention was the notion that a "status runner" could earn Platinum One for a spend of only $18,527 . Are you prepared to spill the beans on that one Matt?

Given how hard it has become to get Classic rewards to Europe (I know everyone wants the same thing!) even as a Plat, I wonder if P1 would bring some worthwhile advantages.

A few people in this thread have already suggested some ways that you could earn Platinum One status for around that price, or even less.

For the purposes of this article, we basically just calculated the cost of earning Platinum One (without DSCs) using the absolute cheapest available status runs out there.

The $18,527 figure is based on using a couple of status runs such as this one (flying on oneworld partners) to earn 900 SCs, and then a bunch of OOL-MEL-AKL status runs in Qantas Business to get the other 2,700 from QF flights. Of course, this doesn't account for the cost of positioning to the start/end points of those status runs, nor the cost of accommodation during overnight transits, etc. etc. etc.

Thanks Matt! Great article specially for someone like me who isn’t much of a VA flyer.

Just want to check I’ve understood this right: with the new status calculation, if Mr.A book an overpriced J ticket for $3k+ and do that twice, Mr.A would go from no status to Silver, then Gold after the second one? So basically two flights and Mr.A's Gold? Or am I missing something here?

(I know… not exactly the best value play!)

Correct. If you're earning your Velocity status credits from VA marketed flights, you're earning 1 status credit per $12 for any Choice, Flex or Business fare. So, buying severely overpriced flights will earn you status quickly.

@AFF Editor one thing that i just thought of that isn't discussed and is very hard to quantify but is a major part of any clued in status player on the QF side is PCP classic awards earnings SC.

That feature (whilst hard to utilise right now as finding QF CR isnt the easiest) can make huge jumps if you're point rich. Ive done Syd - Mel runs via CBR (harder now without the 717s) where ive earnt 72 SC for 18k points +$140 one way during DSC offer.

This year i think im earning 400+ SC from award flights thanks to OWA booked during a DSC.

I did think about including this as part of the article, but there's no equivalent with Velocity. One can't really compare the cost of earning status through Classic Rewards when Velocity doesn't give you this option. It's also a bit hard to calculate the cost of earning status this way with Qantas, since you have to somehow account for the cost of getting Points Club in the first place and the value of the points spent. (I guess we could use the AFF Point Valuations as an estimate for the latter calculation.)

 

[levelnine]

One can't really compare the cost of earning status through Classic Rewards when Velocity doesn't give you this option.

Indeed. Such a simple concept.

 

[levelnine]

Being handicapped on the VA partners which are as a whole better than QF mainline is what the "overseas" earners are losing out on. Someone that will buy SQ J to go to London?

If only the article didn't already take that into account ...

That is why VA & QF are practically equal in this category:

 

[eastwest101]

Thats a really good attempt to look into the issue. One thing that would be really interesting would be to compare the status earn and spend of say a domestic economy traveller and run two different case scenarios of a passenger booking flights 4-6 months in advance vs another passenger booking last-minute walkup economy fares (say 2-3 days before takeoff with both passengers flying the same number of sectors and same destination basket. I'd be interested in seeing that, but understand obtaining all the data would be a long-term project..

 

[Aeryn]

DSC promos don't just benefit the "status runners" as defined in this article.

Most people fly for a mix of categories i.e. that could be a mix of work and leisure travel and also a mix of domestic (capital cities and regional) and international (to/from Aus as well as intra country/region).

I've never done a pure status run but have flown indirectly for trips i wanted/needed to do anyway to get more value from a DSC. Some of the cost estimates used in the article seem crazy to me. I can safely requalify for QF WP earning about 1,340 SCs for about $5.5k/year and that includes flights which aren't DSC.

 

[RooFlyer]

I agree @Aeryn . The best status earned comes from the flying you were going to do anyway. The contribution of DSC to my annual QFWP may be 100 or 200 SC’s via a banker ( aka cinematic) booking. Could have a shed lot more via bankers but don’t need them.

That’s a great out come for you $ wise, but given the spread of scenarios Matt looked at, absent DSCs, i’d say it’s a reasonable comparison of monies required to earn Qantas and Virgin status.

 

[justinbrett]

DSC promos don't just benefit the "status runners" as defined in this article.

Most people fly for a mix of categories i.e. that could be a mix of work and leisure travel and also a mix of domestic (capital cities and regional) and international (to/from Aus as well as intra country/region).

I've never done a pure status run but have flown indirectly in trips i wanted/needed to do anyway to get more value from a DSC. Some of the cost estimates used seem crazy to me. I can safely requalify for QF WP earning about 1,340 SCs for about $5.5k/year and that includes flights which arent DSC.

Agree. It’s difficult to answer if QF status is easier to get if you’re going to exclude all the avenues that VA doesn’t also offer. Also First and Premium Economy was included in the comparison where VA has no equivalent.

Only looking at international fares from Australia is going to bump the price up considerably, when many of us here know it’s cheaper to book from overseas ports and use a positioning flight to get there. The $/SC goes significantly down even discounting DSC (as often these carriers are not QF). Add on that intra continental / foreign domestic flights and you can definitely rack up a lot of SCs on a single trip of normal travel (not a status run).

I guess the real answer is the cost of QF status is so variable it’s not comparable to VA status unless you fit neatly into one of the AFF defined profiles. Obviously some of this applies to VA as well but the requirement to get 50% of SC from VA flights means that part is not.

It is covered in the text that QFF can be gamed, but I think those looking at the charts taking away “VA is cheaper, case closed” I think are not getting the picture.

 

[jase05]

I have pivoted away from both Australian programs as there just isn’t any real benefits for the flying we do as its in J anyway plus I have Forever Gold and Mrs Jase is 740 SC’s short of Forever Gold Mrs Jase is a QF Gold whilst I’ve moved over to QR Privilege and have Platinum with them and are pretty happy with the program overall. I now credit all my VA flights over to VS flying club so have SkyTeam Elite Plus
That pretty much covers bases and has lounges in Australia covered too

 

[Flyerwin]

This is the graph that I’m most interested in.

Looks like status runner is the way to go.

 

[MooTime]

Side note but with many factors not considered, QF PC, international variances & DSC the cost figures are really just a throw away figure.

I appreciate it's very tough to compare cost with numerous situations.

QF WP cost range is $6k to ~$30k while VA is a lock at ~$12k.
Based on that Id say both can be seen as roughly even and if played smart QF is more economical & with their obvious lounge & global benefits I have to wonder about the countless meetings and sexy preso's VA had in the boardroom.

 

[RooFlyer]

Looks like status runner is the way to go.

Why? You spend money on flights just to get 'status' (on Qantas, I assume you mean) so you can use lounges etc on the next status run?

 

[jase05]

Why? You spend money on flights just to get 'status' (on Qantas, I assume you mean) so you can use lounges etc on the next status run?

Yeah, each to their own and I’ve done the odd run if I’m a few SC’s short nearing the end of my qualification period but I just don’t see the attraction of doing a massive status run just to get status for the sake of it.

 

[clifford]

Why? You spend money on flights just to get 'status' (on Qantas, I assume you mean) so you can use lounges etc on the next status run?

As a retired person, the Qantas option is the obvious one. You may sneer at "status runs", but in my case they can actually be combined with going where you want to go. It's really just about maximising the benefits from your desired trips.

YMMV.

 

[RooFlyer]

As a retired person, the Qantas option is the obvious one. You may sneer at "status runs", but in my case they can actually be combined with going where you want to go. It's really just about maximising the benefits from your desired trips.

YMMV.

Sure, way to go. But the example quoted and I addressed was picking out the case of 'the status runner' (only).

 

[Flyerwin]

in my case they can actually be combined with going where you want to go

Yeah when I refer to status run it’s choosing a slightly more expensive fare or adding transits to get to where I already need to go. I haven’t have to fly for no reason for status yet.

 

[Airbumps]

The thing that caught my attention was the notion that a "status runner" could earn Platinum One for a spend of only $18,527 . Are you prepared to spill the beans on that one Matt?

Given how hard it has become to get Classic rewards to Europe (I know everyone wants the same thing!) even as a Plat, I wonder if P1 would bring some worthwhile advantages.

This for me the is real issue. Outside of lounge acces which can be gained from credit cards or other means, the access to rewards is key. If QANTAS continue to reduce Classic Awards at the pointy end (yes, I know they've said they aren't - I don't believe them) then I'll be looking overseas at options.