Demoted in Transit!

[Graham Caldwell]

Others might wish to watch out for this embarrising situation with Qantas...

This week, returning from Sydney to Melbourne, I was told politely by the Qantas check-in clerk that I should not have queued up in the Business Class / Platinum line to check in for my flight as I'm only "Gold" status. I indignantly pulled out my Qantas Platinum Membership Card of two years standing and the Boarding Pass I arrived on earlier in the week clearly stating that I was indeed "Platinum".

It was explained to me that I should have received notification of my 2004/05 status and new membership pack (which incidentally was waiting for me in my mail at home).

What an embarrassing thing to happen in front of the other passengers in my line and what a cruel way to find out. I wonder how many others have ever been "demoted in transit?" Sob, sob.

Regards,
Graham Caldwell

 

[straitman]

What an embarrassing thing to happen in front of the other passengers in my line and what a cruel way to find out. I wonder how many others have ever been "demoted in transit?" Sob, sob.

Graham. Thanks for your post and welcome this forum.

I sympathise with you and offer my sympathy.

Can't say I've had this problem, however I can understand the dilemma as I have had precisely the opposite news during a trip. I guess the CSO was just doing his/her job however they should be able to be diplomatic where necessary.

I guess the cynical will say that you should have known your renewal was due and been aware that your status would be reducing to SG. :wink:

 

[serfty]

Gold/Business Class Check in

I believed SGs could check in using business class counters:
http://www.qantas.com.au/fflyer/dyn/program/statusPrivileges.

However, I rarely check in at SYD domestic and would be unaware if they have a queue marked Bus/Plat only. If they do, it goes against their published policies.

 

[Alan in CBR]

serfty, SYD and MEL (I think they are the only ones) have three check-in lines. Instead of one all-purpose line for anyone with any sort of status, there is a separate line for Business and Platinum only (I'm guessing oneworld Emerald in another FF programme would be OK too).

Economy Class travellers with Gold, Silver or Qantas Club status use a different line, while those in Economy Class with no status use ... well, who cares?

On the face of it, it looks like this contradicts the web site, but really it's just that Qantas have created a new queue for Business and Plat. The mistake they made was calling it the "Business" queue rather than "super special privilege if-you-don't-know-whether-you-are-allowed-to-use-this-line-then-you-aren't" queue.

 

[serfty]

Alan, I avoid travelling with checked luggage whenever possible, normally using QP CS or Quick-Check.

I live in MEL and you basically cannot enter the QANTAS domestic terminal there without going past most of the check in counters, so I have a good idea of their layout. Not so with SYD, so you are probably right on.

Anyway, MEL has a bank of 6 or so counters for QP & Silver (generally crowded), 2 for J/SG/WP (Always a few queued up), 4 for Quick-Check with Bags (varies), about 15 for NB/WHY (Almost Always long queues) with JQ right down the end (never go there).

If I need to check in luggage in MEL Domestic I normally use either the J/SG/WP or the Quickcheck (with Bags) depending on the length of the queues. As a SG I have not had any issues when using the J counters.

 

[Kiwi Flyer]

I live in MEL and you basically cannot enter the QANTAS domestic terminal there without going past most of the check in counters, so I have a good idea of their layout. Not so with SYD, so you are probably right on.

Depends on the door you enter. Coming from intl terminal for example can completely bypass MEL dom checkin.

 

[serfty]

True Kiwi Flyer, you can walk down behind the group and priority checkin counters to get to xray.

Living in Melbourne myself, I rarely transit from international to domestic so forgot about this corridor.

Only the most frequent flyers would know of this route when transiting, most seem to go up the travellator from customs, then past the old QF/BA International counters, the QANTAS ticket sales booth and come around to the front of the counters.