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GDSman

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Oct 18, 2004
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It's been a long time in the wilderness so I thought I'd celebrate - after (by my guess) about 15 years of LTG this morning my AY SCs posted from my recent LONE4 to tick me over to 1405 SCs in the year and a return to WP after a long exile. Roll on the better lounges, improved upgrade chances and all-round sense of importance I'll enjoy for the next year. Only pity is I qualified with just 14 days in my current year left...
Any tips for a newly re-minted WP? What have I been missing?Plat.PNG
 
Sorry, I have to deliver some negative news for what you’ve been missing.

Plats no longer get ‘guaranteed’ access to the Hobart call Centre. A call is just as likely to be answered by the Philippines or New Zealand, with commensurate poor training and less reliable answers to queries
 
GDSman said:
It's been a long time in the wilderness so I thought I'd celebrate - after (by my guess) about 15 years of LTG this morning my AY SCs posted from my recent LONE4 to tick me over to 1405 SCs in the year and a return to WP after a long exile. Roll on the better lounges, improved upgrade chances and all-round sense of importance I'll enjoy for the next year. Only pity is I qualified with just 14 days in my current year left...
Any tips for a newly re-minted WP? What have I been missing?View attachment 526250
Click to expand...
Welcome back.
Most noticable changes are:
- front / prefered seats selection is harder than it used to be.
- call center quality has become a hit and miss
- award seat release is getting harder.
- can t remember if on arrival lounge is still a thing. Maybe yes, maybe guesting has been restricted. It used to be up to 2 non flyer, now guest (before departure, and maybe on arrival) must be flying same day oneworld.
 
RooFlyer said:
Sorry, I have to deliver some negative news for what you’ve been missing.

Plats no longer get ‘guaranteed’ access to the Hobart call Centre. A call is just as likely to be answered by the Philippines or New Zealand, with commensurate poor training and less reliable answers to queries
Click to expand...

What's wrong with NZ?

Those guys are excellent.
 
GDSman said:
It's been a long time in the wilderness so I thought I'd celebrate - after (by my guess) about 15 years of LTG this morning my AY SCs posted from my recent LONE4 to tick me over to 1405 SCs in the year and a return to WP after a long exile. Roll on the better lounges, improved upgrade chances and all-round sense of importance I'll enjoy for the next year. Only pity is I qualified with just 14 days in my current year left...
Any tips for a newly re-minted WP? What have I been missing?View attachment 526250
Click to expand...
Your phone needs charging.

I've been Platinum every year bar one since 2018 and there's been a noticeable change in the published and un-published benefits of being Platinum.

Some are linked to changes such as Economy Plus (you can no longer get the best leg room seats for free, four days out like you used to), others are more down to pure luck of who will be on board providing customer service. Overall, I find I get better recognition of status on Cathay than I do on Qantas.

Saying that, I do value entry into the First lounges, higher chance of CR upgrades, more points etc.
 
offshore171 said:
View attachment 526269

A phone charger
Click to expand...
13% is 13%, you can recharge when it hits 3% or even wait until 1% if you're brave.
I have to laugh at Apple which sets iPhones to alert you at 20% and 10%, but not lower, where you need it.
20% means you can keep walking around Paris taking photos for a few more hours.
Do Apple staff never travel?

As far as WP is concerned, enjoy the F lounges.
I do hope they create an F lounge in PER when they move to T1.
However, if they only give us the 789s with no F cabin, that's unlikely.
Classic rewards seem harder and harder to get and reduced capacity means domestic upgrades are also much harder to get.
And not really worth it because it will just mean a recliner on a narrow body, even for trans con.
The almost complete withdrawal of the A332s from domestic service is driving both of those changes.
As far as customer service is concerned, I agree with @Invisible Monkey that CX give much better recognition to us as OWE than QF do as WP.
 
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offshore171 said:
Not a great idea to do regularly.

Draining below 10% is harmful to the lifespan of lithium batteries
Click to expand...
But I have the Apple Care extended warranty and that includes replacing the battery if the performance is degraded.

If I am just hanging around here I keep it charged.
But when I travel I often squeeze every last second out of it..
And yes I do have solid state magsafe batteries.
But life's too short to constantly think about such things.
 
ChrisMars said:
Welcome back.
Most noticable changes are:
- front / prefered seats selection is harder than it used to be.
Click to expand...
I would have said that there's a significant improvement now with Y+.

Free access at time of booking for the first however many rows of Y+ (and exit rows). Which is a noticeable difference on the A220s (can now select the 2nd row of the pairs, instead of the 7th!).

Yes, Row 4 on the 737s is a bit of cough shoot, but Row 5 is quite fine now. In fact, Row 6 is potentially better because there's always going to that person who'll happily plonk their cough in 4B/4E, 5B/5E over a nice aisle seat just because it's further forward and it might shave 30 seconds getting off the plane. I had a giant of a man sitting next to me in 5B earlier this week flying MEL-SYD. He was WP and surely could have done much better....there we even Exit rows free a few hours before departure.

Fortunately, most of my flying is International, so OWE and access to superior lounges, better seating selection and usually priority if things go pear shape is still very much a thing.

Still trumps just a J ticket.
 
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SYD said:
I would have said that there's a significant improvement now with Y+.
Click to expand...
I agree that it's an improvement but you have to be flying in whY in the first place to benefit from this.
The almost complete absence of wide-bodies on domestic routes, and all the implications of that, more than offsets this, IMHO, but YMMV.
 
Y+ has been a game changer. I have always been able to snag a window or aisle in that section and no longer set an alarm to try and snag a row 4 or exit row seat. Just confirm your aircraft has it.

Food in domestic lounges has been better this year. There is actually protein of animal origin to be found in SYD.

I’ve had great success with call centres being able to solve my problems and release award seats.

First lounges in SYD and SIN are still amazing.
 
markis10 said:
You missed the “some” Economy Plus seats, not all
Click to expand...
No, you can still select Row 4 for free after OLCI (subject to availability for “that guy” to park their cough in 4B/4E)…😂

I defer to the P1s, but I get the impression that P1 shadows in Row 4 are being exorcised for $55.
 

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