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.
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Curious to hear if other long-term high-tier elites are seeing the exact same corporate apathy when dealing with executive escalations?
I'm LTG and 16 years of platinum on both Qantas and Virgin Australia. I certainly haven't experience anything that I would describe as apathy. I also wouldn't describe your template response as apathy. Yes, I've had the exact same template responses. But I have also been able to escalate to get a real response, when it matter to me.
In terms of the claims about spending 100s of thousands on Qantas; Up until Covid when I stop tracking flight costs, I'd spent $146000 on Qantas earning flights (hint that includes Qantas earning partners) and $46000 on Virgin - that got Lifetime gold and 10 years of double platinum (QF and VA).
I've certainly spend more post covid on flying, but my travel patterns have also changed from being predominately Domestic pre-covid to predominately international post Covid. The outcome of getting onto a couple of international boards in 2021/22.
Qantas is consisentwith customer experience for mine. Sure the standard might be lower than I'd like and lower than other airlines, but they are consistent. I can set my expectations to deal with the standard that way I don't need to cut off my nose.
Qantas 737 has IFE streaming you don't need a screen on the seat. It's actually been this way for years.
aside= 767 is a fairly big error. Someone gave you the benefit of the doubt about 767 being a typo for 737. I'm just looking at my keyboard and wondering how it's possible to mis type a 6 for a 3. 747, 727, sure... I'd even expect 757 before 767./aside
To clarify a few assumptions: my Platinum history goes back much further than 6 years, stretching back to heavy corporate travel in the early 2000s that the current system doesn't fully tally. Furthermore, an upcoming return Business Class trip to Europe on Emirates will restore my Platinum status anyway so this isn't a case of a 'disgruntled flyer who stopped spending.'
I find Qantas system track my histroy perfectly fine going back to the early 1990s.
Regarding priority boarding, you're missing my point. I'm not saying the scanners don't work; I'm saying the perk has been completely diluted. When the 'Priority' queue is so bloated that the general lane is actually shorter and faster, the benefit ceases to be premium.
This is highly ironic. That priority boarding line is full because it includes platinum, lifetime gold, business etc. The priority line is bloated with people who think they're special people who deserve special treatment. This demostrates that there a thousands of special people, which explains the template response from Qantas when raising issues. You didn't get the response you thought you deserved as life time gold and 6 years platinum so you're jumping ship, and while you're at it the priority boarding is rubbish. Highly ironic.
BTW you can use whichever lane you like, priority boarding is granted by "Boarding Group 1" on your boarding pass, not the lane.
Finally, this isn't a Qantas vs. Virgin debate. Everyone can make up their own mind on which carrier they prefer. My point is purely about the erosion of actual, tangible advantages for the dollar spent. When the premium perks become indistinguishable from a standard ticket, the value proposition is gone
I'd suggest you've actually made this about Qantas vs Virgin. Your response to a domestic flight problem with Qantas is to jump ship. In the context domestic flying the only competitor is Virgin Australia. As a platinum with Virgin Australia for 14 years, I look forward to your assessment of the value proposition on Virgin.
It would be very expensive as you’d need separate tickets and no advantage of a through fare (cabotage rules).
A cheaper option would be to fly via Sydney for the 789 services.
Remember the context is AFL grand final. PER-MEL on Singapore Airlines is very much cheaper for the Grand Final. Dummy booking right now on 25 September, Singapore multi city PER-SIN, SIN-MEL in Y is ~$1080. Qantas PER-MEL is $914 for the midnight red eye and $1300+ for any other flight. Business ~$5100 on SQ cf ~$4500 on Qantas
As pointed out above, your reward for loyalty is lifetime gold. VA offers nothing by comparison.
As someone who qualified 6 times over for platinum on Virgin in a single year, all on VA metal in the business cabin, I can confirm VA is far worse than QF in terms of customer service.
as for tv screens being stripped out, QF offers streaming to your personal device. VA has no screens at all.
Pretty sure virgin have lifetime status now. Your 6x time VA platinum year should be included in your lifetime total now. Sure there might be issues with the calculation of the life time status balance, but my 16 years of VA platinum = 75% of Forever Gold
VA also has no screens because they also offer streaming.
