6 Years Platinum & Lifetime Gold – Voting With My Wallet After Executive Team Apathy

[buzz62]

After decades of loyalty, I have officially reached my limit with Qantas and have begun shifting my business and personal transcontinental spend to the Virgin Australia and Singapore Airlines ecosystems.

This decision wasn't a knee-jerk reaction to a single delayed flight. It is the culmination of a steady, systemic erosion of value for top-tier flyers. As a Lifetime Gold member, I have watched core program benefits completely evaporate. Forward-cabin seating access is routinely restricted, priority boarding is rarely enforced on the ground, and securing a Classic Flight Reward or a Business upgrade has become a near-impossible lottery. Furthermore, the administrative customer service is in a shocking state. I was flat-out ignored by a manager who promised a direct call back to discuss these ongoing issues, leaving me to constantly chase them down for basic account updates.

The final straw occurred on a transcontinental Perth to Melbourne return trip. I intentionally booked wide-body A330 aircraft for both legs specifically to ensure product consistency and cabin comfort—booking Economy outbound to utilize upgrade capacity, and redeeming a large chunk of points for a Business Class seat on the return leg to secure the premium international-standard lie-flat suites.

Instead, Qantas substituted both aircraft to outdated, regional 767 configurations:

• Perth to Melbourne: The aircraft swap completely decimated the available Business Class upgrade capacity, trapping me in the back. Compounding this, the ground infrastructure failed entirely. The baggage system at Perth Airport was down, forcing me into a massive manual queue to get handwritten physical tags, followed by a second queue to load my own luggage, and culminating in tarmac boarding via stairs in the elements instead of using an aerobridge.
• Melbourne to Perth Return: My return leg points-redemption was completely degraded. Instead of the premium private capsule and flatbed comfort I explicitly selected and booked, I was forced into a standard, outdated regional Business Class seat. To top it off, the aircraft lacked basic modern features, including non-functional inflight entertainment and a complete absence of seatback screens. Qantas effectively devalued the purchasing power of my loyalty points in real-time.

I formally escalated these sequential failures directly to the Executive Team. The written response I eventually received from Linda in the Customer Advocacy Team (Ref: 1xx_xx_x) was the absolute definition of generic, templated corporate gaslighting. While she acknowledged my 6 consecutive years as a Platinum flyer (2017–2023) and my Lifetime Gold status, the response completely ignored my request to pull my full legacy profile from the early 2000s to verify my tenure. The email offered a few paragraphs of hollow apologies about how my experience "diminished the trip I had planned," but offered zero resolution, zero compensation, and zero real accountability.

Qantas has made it perfectly clear that they view their frequent flyer program as a massive profit engine to sell credit cards, rather than a mechanism to protect and recognize the long-term premium customers who built their business.

My new American Express Velocity Business Card arrived this week. I gave Qantas management every opportunity to retain my business, and they chose to reply with a PR script. Silence and a massive drop in account activity will be my final response.

Curious to hear if other long-term high-tier elites are seeing the exact same corporate apathy when dealing with executive escalations?

 

[VPS]

Welcome to AFF - I'm sure you will have a lot of feedback

 

[trippin_the_rift]

There is no shortage of similarly themed threads on AFF.
It almost seems like a rite of passage to have a string of poor experiences and then disengage with the brand.

If having status over the decades has taught me one thing, it's that everything is temporary and you should always and only ever fly with whoever gives you the best deal. You have LTG to fall back on when it suits you, and you can now focus on flying and earning with whichever airline rings your bells.

The grass isn't ncessarily greener on the other side, but it's good to have options.
Fly with whoever treats you the best.

 

[BrianQQ]

Gurl... SQ is not any better. Plane swaps just... happen.

Why just not push further to get an actual response? CS is clearly not any business's forte but there's surely just one staff that could help you out?

Edit:
Also moving to SQ means that you'd have to move to VA???????

How is that gonna work in your favour like ever?

 

[AuSammy]

Not sure how Perth Airports baggage handling system failure has anything to do with Qantas

Plane swaps happen, they happen regularly with all airlines including one of my preferred QR and agree they are infuriating.

You probably are aware you won’t get a “premium private capsule” on any other domestic airline in Australia.

QF (and some other airlines) should amend their fares or provide some compensation for down gauging/grading the experience but unfortunately they regularly don’t- where’s the government’s promised consumer guarantee legislation/rules

Oh and if you book economy and get economy that is not a downgrade. Hoping for an upgrade that wasn’t available is bound for disappointment.

 

[buzz62]

There is no shortage of similarly themed threads on AFF.
It almost seems like a rite of passage to have a string of poor experiences and then disengage with the brand.

If having status over the decades has taught me one thing, it's that everything is temporary and you should always and only ever fly with whoever gives you the best deal. You have LTG to fall back on when it suits you, and you can now focus on flying and earning with whichever airline rings your bells.

The grass isn't ncessarily greener on the other side, but it's good to have options.
Fly with whoever treats you the best.

Spot on, and I think you’ve hit the nail on the head.

Having that Lifetime Gold status definitely takes the pressure off. It means I can treat Qantas purely as a backup option when the route or price dictates it, rather than blindly feeding them my core corporate and personal spend out of habit or misguided loyalty.

Moving forward, my strategy is exactly what you just described: absolute commercial agnosticism. I’ll be flying with whoever puts the best product in the air, offers the best availability, and actually respects the transaction. It's a liberating feeling to finally step off the hamster wheel.

 

[ChrisMars]

Plane swap happens, its part of the risk on those route.

Qantas call centre has completely deteriorated, and will never go back to what it was. Even platinum suffers from that. Having say that, there is a serious hope that AI will fix that in the coming years, bringing consistency and baseline quality, either by augmenting agent capability, or by replacing them. It's another debate.

Qantas points are loosing value year after year, and it's accelerating. Yes upgrade are much harder to get, there is more competition, and more paying customer too. It's not going to improve. I still get value, but it's deteriorating rapidly, will give up soon, hopefully as I hit LTG in the next 2 years.

You might get better luck with virgin / SQ. Please come back in 6-12 months to tell us about it.

 

[markis10]

I’m wondering how I get a regional 767, have we gone back 15 years till I first got LTG?
The grass is not always greener……don’t sweat the small stuff…..if your business mattered to QF and their execs you would be able to access the chairman’s lounge, that is the reality.

 

[buzz62]

Not sure how Perth Airports baggage handling system failure has anything to do with Qantas

Plane swaps happen, they happen regularly with all airlines including one of my preferred QR and agree they are infuriating.

You probably are aware you won’t get a “premium private capsule” on any other domestic airline in Australia.

QF (and some other airlines) should amend their fares or provide some compensation for down gauging/grading the experience but unfortunately they regularly don’t- where’s the government’s promised consumer guarantee legislation/rules

Oh and if you book economy and get economy that is not a downgrade. Hoping for an upgrade that wasn’t available is bound for disappointment.

Thanks for the comment. To clarify a few points from my perspective:

Regarding Perth Airport's baggage system, while the infrastructure is managed by the airport, premium airlines are expected to have robust contingency plans and ground staff communication for their top-tier elites, rather than letting the premium check-in experience devolve into total chaos with zero staff direction.

You also asked about the government's consumer guarantees. The Aviation Consumer Protection Bill 2026 is currently moving through parliament to legislate a mandatory Passenger Charter and an independent Ombuds scheme with major civil penalties. It’s designed specifically to target airlines that down gauge premium experiences without automatically offering fair, systemic compensation.

Lastly, my point regarding the Economy leg wasn’t about feeling 'entitled' to an upgrade. It was about product consistency. When an airline systematically swaps a wide-body A330 for an outdated regional aircraft, it destroys the overall upgrade capacity for the entire flight.

But it leads directly to the core problem: What actual advantage does a loyal frequent flyer have over a non-frequent flyer anymore? The value proposition has been completely monetized and diluted.

Take the recent rollout of monetized forward seating zones. Historically, being an elite member meant the front rows of the cabin were automatically held for you as a baseline perk of loyalty. Now, the airline has shifted to a model where anyone, even someone flying for the very first time can simply pay cash to buy those exact same seats at booking.

The same applies to the hardware. When an airline down gaugess an aircraft, strips out seat back inflight entertainment screens, and leaves you with nothing, having status doesn't magically make a screen appear. You are trapped in the exact same substandard environment as a non-member, despite having spent hundreds of thousands of dollars with the brand over decades.

Priority boarding has become a joke that is rarely enforced effectively on the ground, and lounges are constantly at capacity because the barriers to entry have been flooded through credit card partnerships.

Plane swaps happen to every airline, absolutely. But it’s the corporate response the total lack of a human review, the automated brush off from Linda and the Advocacy team, and the ghosting by management after multi-decade loyalty, that signals it’s time to move my commercial spend elsewhere. If the playing field has been completely flattened by monetization, the only logical response as a consumer is absolute agnosticism. I’ll buy the best ticket on the day from whoever is actually delivering the product

 

[Steady]

priority boarding is rarely enforced on the ground,

Welcome aboard @buzz62, I’m with you on everything except this part, my experience over the last 12-18 months has been anyone trying to board before their status are rejected by the computer

 

[vhojm]

Hate to be so negative but life time gold and platinum does not make you a long term elite and 6 years consecutive platinum isn’t going to make you stand out to anyone at the airline because they just don’t care. There’s something like 75,000 WPs out there and we all get lumped into the same premium line at the call centre and they aren’t very good,

If you want a response you’d want to be P1 or CL and even then, the VIP team has become mixed between the Hobart call centre and far more incompetent people in Auckland.

Also, 767 lol. Haven’t seen them since 2014.

 

[RooFlyer]

I think B767 is petty obviously a typo for B737 and hardly worthy of comment.

Welcome to AFF @buzz62 .

I agree with the others that the grass is not always greener on the other side. But you’ve done the right thing and shed any semblance of loyalty to any airline as they certainly will never be loyal back to you.

 

[burneracc]

I will say, the a330 aircraft swaps ex-per are a classic. Speaking from experience.

I do wish companies cared more about their customer base but it seems to be a growing trend worldwide not to. While I wouldn’t try to convince you to stay or go, it’s something to keep in mind when making the decision.

 

[buzz62]

Plane swap happens, its part of the risk on those route.

Qantas call centre has completely deteriorated, and will never go back to what it was. Even platinum suffers from that. Having say that, there is a serious hope that AI will fix that in the coming years, bringing consistency and baseline quality, either by augmenting agent capability, or by replacing them. It's another debate.

Qantas points are loosing value year after year, and it's accelerating. Yes upgrade are much harder to get, there is more competition, and more paying customer too. It's not going to improve. I still get value, but it's deteriorating rapidly, will give up soon, hopefully as I hit LTG in the next 2 years.

You might get better luck with virgin / SQ. Please come back in 6-12 months to tell us about it.

I think you’ve summarized the trajectory perfectly. When long-term elites are openly acknowledging the collapse of the call centers and the rapid devaluation of points, it's clear the system is fundamentally broken.

You hit on a crucial point about the increase in paying customers filling those premium cabins and that’s exactly where my frustration sits. I am not a points chaser; frankly, I think points are a waste of time. I pay cash for all my international travel and the vast majority of my domestic Business Class flights.

When you pay cash for a premium product, you expect consistency. Having status doesn't stop them from down gauging the aircraft, stripping out seat back screens, or failing to enforce priority boarding on the ground.

I’ve flown with world-class carriers like Qatar, JAL, Cathay, Emirates, and American Airlines over the last 12 months, so I know exactly what baseline premium service should look like. I’ll gladly report back in 6–12 months with a genuine comparison of how other global and domestic carriers handle a cash-paying customer compared to the current Qantas product.

 

[Daver6]

You probably are aware you won’t get a “premium private capsule” on any other domestic airline in Australia.

I see it more as not getting what you booked being a bigger problem without any recourse or compensation. You book VA J, they have a single product and will deliver it. There's no switcheroo.

 

[AuSammy]

I see it more as not getting what you booked being a bigger problem without any recourse or compensation. You book VA J, they have a single product and will deliver it. There's no switcheroo.

Agree. But he booked Y and hoped for J upgrade. Is VA any better in delivering J upgrades for Y tickets? I honestly have no idea as I only travel Y domestically unless it is a tag flight to an international sector.

 

[AuSammy]

Thanks for the comment. To clarify a few points from my perspective:

Regarding Perth Airport's baggage system, while the infrastructure is managed by the airport, premium airlines are expected to have robust contingency plans and ground staff communication for their top-tier elites, rather than letting the premium check-in experience devolve into total chaos with zero staff direction.

You also asked about the government's consumer guarantees. The Aviation Consumer Protection Bill 2026 is currently moving through parliament to legislate a mandatory Passenger Charter and an independent Ombuds scheme with major civil penalties. It’s designed specifically to target airlines that down gauge premium experiences without automatically offering fair, systemic compensation.

Lastly, my point regarding the Economy leg wasn’t about feeling 'entitled' to an upgrade. It was about product consistency. When an airline systematically swaps a wide-body A330 for an outdated regional aircraft, it destroys the overall upgrade capacity for the entire flight.

But it leads directly to the core problem: What actual advantage does a loyal frequent flyer have over a non-frequent flyer anymore? The value proposition has been completely monetized and diluted.

Take the recent rollout of monetized forward seating zones. Historically, being an elite member meant the front rows of the cabin were automatically held for you as a baseline perk of loyalty. Now, the airline has shifted to a model where anyone, even someone flying for the very first time can simply pay cash to buy those exact same seats at booking.

The same applies to the hardware. When an airline down gaugess an aircraft, strips out seat back inflight entertainment screens, and leaves you with nothing, having status doesn't magically make a screen appear. You are trapped in the exact same substandard environment as a non-member, despite having spent hundreds of thousands of dollars with the brand over decades.

Priority boarding has become a joke that is rarely enforced effectively on the ground, and lounges are constantly at capacity because the barriers to entry have been flooded through credit card partnerships.

Plane swaps happen to every airline, absolutely. But it’s the corporate response the total lack of a human review, the automated brush off from Linda and the Advocacy team, and the ghosting by management after multi-decade loyalty, that signals it’s time to move my commercial spend elsewhere. If the playing field has been completely flattened by monetization, the only logical response as a consumer is absolute agnosticism. I’ll buy the best ticket on the day from whoever is actually delivering the product

In general I agree with you. When travelling on the firms expense I was (way back when) top tier on both AN and QF and the treatment was terrific. Over the years Ive noticed most airlines (some noticeable exceptions) have moved to a lesser service level.

Now I travel my own dime I am a nobody with any airline as I choose the route airline class and fare optimised to my requirements for the trip in question [edit: I also often travel on points which doesn't give status]. Largely airline agnostic to a large degree although “in general” QR is great “most of the time”, but they regularly plane swap and disappoint in that perspective.

Where I was surprised was your comment regarding the boarding process as most recent posters relate that QF is religious about it and VA increasingly lax.

 

[mviy]

I have enough points for multiple J/F return trips to LHR if I could get the seats. Certainly if I still can’t get those points seats I’ll have to consider what I do once I reach LTG.

I would like LTP, but 75k LTSC to get there is so ridiculous that it’s not worth trying to get it.

 

[gaz0303]

Forward-cabin seating access is routinely restricted, priority boarding is rarely enforced on the ground

My experience this year is that seating has never been better. Economy Plus has been the biggest change that actually affects my comfort while I continue to buy the cheapest discounted Y ticket (and Forward seating always sticks). And add the new aircraft, more protein with dinner in the lounges, bloody gin shiraz on tap, I’m enjoying this flying year with QF (albeit from only 45 flights on QF this year so far).

 

[AuSammy]

I have enough points for multiple J/F return trips to LHR if I could get the seats. Certainly if I still can’t get those points seats I’ll have to consider what I do once I reach LTG.

I would like LTP, but 75k LTSC to get there is so ridiculous that it’s not worth trying to get it.

Prior to the ME war I generally got to travel J on points internationally annually on OW but you have to be very flexible with routing and timing which is oK for retirees, not so much for FT workers. That said I did help a friend recently burn his points and organise a OW CR to Europe for him and +1. It can be done.