Do QF Acronyms/Abbreviations work for Velocity? (Oh, and Velocity Platinum rumour)

[pshepvic]

So we have WP, SG, PS, QP and NB status acronyms for Qantas.

Should we be utilising these across the forum for Velocity as well? Considering the tiers are different (ie. top tier on Velocity is Gold whereas Qantas it is Platinum - or Chairman's Lounge if you count that) should the acronyms be adjusted accordingly, eg:

Gold = WG (w***ker gold)
Silver = SS (scum silver)
Red = PR (Pleb red - that has a nice ring to it!)

Or, if the rumour I hear the other day is true, assume that Virgin will introduce a Platinum tier? Then we'd keep the same terminology across both programs with WP, SG and PS, and then instead of NB have NR (nuthin' red)?

Oh yeah, while I'm at it - has anyone else heard that rumour about Virgin introducing Platinum? Haven't seen it mentioned anywhere, but I could have missed it.

 

[samh004]

Re: Do QF Acronyms/Abbreviations work for Velocity? (Oh, and Velocity Platinum rumour

I don’t think they have anything they could offer a Platinum member over a Gold member, especially considering the effort it takes to get Gold already. I could see them making Gold a bit less valuable to make Platinum more valuable, but that’d surely upset a lot of people, without a re-think on how status is earned.

As for the acronyms, that’s been discussed many a time, but legend has it that the original acronyms were decided in a QP meet… so surely a Lounge meet would be appropriate.

 

[pshepvic]

Re: Do QF Acronyms/Abbreviations work for Velocity? (Oh, and Velocity Platinum rumour

I don’t think they have anything they could offer a Platinum member over a Gold member, especially considering the effort it takes to get Gold already. I could see them making Gold a bit less valuable to make Platinum more valuable, but that’d surely upset a lot of people, without a re-think on how status is earned.

Agreed - I personally don't want them to bring in Platinum - I'm Velocity Gold and I'm likely to requalify for that, but if Platinum is brought in above, I'm not going to hit more that about 50k SC's, so would be unlikely to make Plat. It's already taken a fair bit of effort to get to WP with QF, so don't want to have to with DJ as well!

Unless they rethink how status is gained/retained - possibly Gold becomes Platinum, Silver > Gold, and then a "new" silver level is introduced, or something like that. I guess Velocity Silver is starting to get more than Qantas now, with priority check in removed from QF PS.

A few more international benefits with DJ would be nice though (lounges etc).

Will have to wait and see anyway I guess.

As for the acronyms, that’s been discussed many a time, but legend has it that the original acronyms were decided in a QP meet… so surely a Lounge meet would be appropriate.

Would you like to arrange the time and place?

 

[serfty]

... so surely a Lounge meet would be appropriate.

It would not be "a Lounge meet"!

No, a meeting would need to be held at "The Lounge".

 

[pshepvic]

Re: Do QF Acronyms/Abbreviations work for Velocity? (Oh, and Velocity Platinum rumour

Not "a Lounge meet"!

No, a meeting would need to be held at "The Lounge".

Flounge would be nicer ...

 

[samh004]

Re: Do QF Acronyms/Abbreviations work for Velocity? (Oh, and Velocity Platinum rumour

Flounge would be nicer ...

They don’t have an Flounge, the meeting would be held in one of their lounges…

 

[pshepvic]

Re: Do QF Acronyms/Abbreviations work for Velocity? (Oh, and Velocity Platinum rumour

They don’t have an Flounge, the meeting would be held in one of their lounges…

Was being slightly sarcastic ... hence the

Flounge would be nicer than The Lounge, but yes agree this would need to be in The Lounge!

 

[Gremlin]

Re: Do QF Acronyms/Abbreviations work for Velocity? (Oh, and Velocity Platinum rumour

I don’t think they have anything they could offer a Platinum member over a Gold member, especially considering the effort it takes to get Gold already. I could see them making Gold a bit less valuable to make Platinum more valuable, but that’d surely upset a lot of people, without a re-think on how status is earned.

I disagree. Something like Air NZ's Gold Elite could easily be on the cards as a "Platinum" offer for Velocity. From a personal perspective as someone who would be in line for a Velocity "Platinum" tier should it come into being, I feel like the partner membership is something that I would value - I really dislike that I get treated like flying royalty, but Mrs Gremlin is treated like scum of the earth (unless she's travelling with me).

I also disagree as to the effort it takes to get Gold. With the introduction of a Business Class service, for anyone flying premium on a regular basis Gold should be very easy to achieve. This is one thing I like about the Velocity program over the Qantas one and is something I hope they don't ditch with the overhaul - it rewards the most profitable customers more than it rewards the less profitable customers.

 

[samh004]

Re: Do QF Acronyms/Abbreviations work for Velocity? (Oh, and Velocity Platinum rumour

I disagree. Something like Air NZ's Gold Elite could easily be on the cards as a "Platinum" offer for Velocity. From a personal perspective as someone who would be in line for a Velocity "Platinum" tier should it come into being, I feel like the partner membership is something that I would value - I really dislike that I get treated like flying royalty, but Mrs Gremlin is treated like scum of the earth (unless she's travelling with me).

I also disagree as to the effort it takes to get Gold. With the introduction of a Business Class service, for anyone flying premium on a regular basis Gold should be very easy to achieve. This is one thing I like about the Velocity program over the Qantas one and is something I hope they don't ditch with the overhaul - it rewards the most profitable customers more than it rewards the less profitable customers.

Good points, I completely forgot about expanded guesting allowance or partner memberships, though I would have to say I’d expect a little more than that in a higher-tier.

As for the "spend to get status", I think quite a few disagree on that one, but we’ll just have to see what they come up with by mid-year.

 

[Gremlin]

Re: Do QF Acronyms/Abbreviations work for Velocity? (Oh, and Velocity Platinum rumour

Good points, I completely forgot about expanded guesting allowance or partner memberships, though I would have to say I’d expect a little more than that in a higher-tier.

As for the "spend to get status", I think quite a few disagree on that one, but we’ll just have to see what they come up with by mid-year.

I wasn't necessarily thinking just partner memberships. Air NZ's elite level comes with complimentary hotel/car hires, valet parking vouchers, upgrades etc.

In terms of the "pay to earn" concept I don't know what's wrong with it. Airlines earn a disproportionate share of profits from those paying premium fares. Why shouldn't they be rewarded disproportionately better than someone buying $75 Go or RedeDeal fares?

 

[pshepvic]

Re: Do QF Acronyms/Abbreviations work for Velocity? (Oh, and Velocity Platinum rumour

I wasn't necessarily thinking just partner memberships. Air NZ's elite level comes with complimentary hotel/car hires, valet parking vouchers, upgrades etc.

In terms of the "pay to earn" concept I don't know what's wrong with it. Airlines earn a disproportionate share of profits from those paying premium fares. Why shouldn't they be rewarded disproportionately better than someone buying $75 Go or RedeDeal fares?

Understand your view, but I guess it depends on how you define loyalty. Someone could fly a limited J class flights a year with Virgin, and then choose to do all their other flying with a different carrier, but still manage to hit silver or gold because of the high spend. Someone else who flies regularly but in the cheapest fares might not make gold. Who is more loyal? The person the spends more with the airline, or the person that flies more?

Should you not recognise the person that flies a lot as well as the person that spends a lot? That person might one day be in a position to spend a lot as well, and if you haven't looked after them in the early days, you might lose them as a customer altogether.

They are called "loyalty" programs after all, not "biggest spender" programs. That's where QF mileage based program is in some ways arguably better than a program based purely on spend. Yes, you do get more SC's when you spend more on fares above discount economy, but it ensures that people who might travel twice as far on half the money still get a degree of recognition.

 

[samh004]

Re: Do QF Acronyms/Abbreviations work for Velocity? (Oh, and Velocity Platinum rumour

In terms of the "pay to earn" concept I don't know what's wrong with it. Airlines earn a disproportionate share of profits from those paying premium fares. Why shouldn't they be rewarded disproportionately better than someone buying $75 Go or RedeDeal fares?

While that’s true, right now there are two ways to earn in the program, short-haul is dollar based and long-haul is mileage based, so they sort of need to sort it all out. As you could just do a cheap long-haul right now and almost get Gold, while doing cheap flights domestically gets you no where.

I’d suggest a dual way of earning, sort of like how some airlines use flight segments to gauge loyalty.

 

[Gremlin]

Re: Do QF Acronyms/Abbreviations work for Velocity? (Oh, and Velocity Platinum rumour

I'd argue that the customer flying regularly on the cheapest fare is showing loyalty to price not loyalty to the airline.

EDIT: but I wouldn't mind seeing some alternate segment threshold but not as a replacement to the current scheme.

 

[pshepvic]

Re: Do QF Acronyms/Abbreviations work for Velocity? (Oh, and Velocity Platinum rumour

I'd argue that the customer flying regularly on the cheapest fare is showing loyalty to price not loyalty to the airline.

Not necessarily - I fly Virgin Corporate Plus fares for all business travel, netting me over 2000 Points & SCs for each flight, which will easily qualify me for Gold.

I use QF/OW almost exclusively for personal travel - only really spending my money on red e-deals for domestic, using points for quite a few JASAs, and boosting my SCs when flying overseas gainining my status through JAL J class companion fares, AA YUPPS, and JQ *Class. So I'm not a big spender, but definitely loyal to Qantas, and am still able to achieve WP status by doing so.

So all up, there is probably more spent with Qantas overall - but remember that is WP status - if I flew enough just to retain SG my spend would be less than it is with Virgin. But I'd still say I'm more loyal to QF, because if my work flights stopped, so would my travel with DJ.

 

[notzac]

Re: Do QF Acronyms/Abbreviations work for Velocity? (Oh, and Velocity Platinum rumour

It would not be "a Lounge meet"!
No, a meeting would need to be held at "The Lounge".

Sounds like this would be something for when the Velocity program is overhauled later this year..!

I haven't heard anything, but it would be interesting to see if a new tier is announced ... Gold is kinda easy to get to if you travel in a premium cabin for long haul flights.

 

[munitalP]

Re: Do QF Acronyms/Abbreviations work for Velocity? (Oh, and Velocity Platinum rumour

I couldn't see the point. Virgin Blue are struggling at leaving the LCC mind set as it is (or new age airline or whatever other handle gets thrown at it) and short of sacking all the staff (FA's) and replacing them with business orientated flight crews, DJ premium will always be a flop.

Here's my most recent experience:

Friday last week - Darwin/Melbourne. Seat 2A. 737-700. All blue seats. Plastic tray thing implement thingy on centre seats - basically useless, on top of that, fitting the plastic thingo, narrows the A, C D & F seats! (at least Im sure it does).

It is easy to realise that a full AC (row 5 back didn't seem to have a centre seat free) that leaves around dinner time, that people are going to order hot food. Did the FA's pre-empt this and put the food in the ovens before take off? Nup. From order to being served - 20 minutes and I was the second person in the front half of the AC to order.

The CSM and her crew had no control on the PAX on the AC at all. At one point there were 7 people waiting to use the forward toilet while the CSM and another were trying to move about in the galley and move the meal trolley about. Fail.

Pax sitting down next to the Y+ PAX while waiting to use the toilets. Fail.

Pax stretching against row 1. In one case a bloke (40's) put his FILTHY runners onto the 1B centre plastic thingo and was rolling his ankles - 2 FA's looked and done NOTHING. I said very sternly to him to get his filthy feet off the table just as the CSM walked past - loud enough for her to hear, she then wiped down the table after telling him to return to his seat.

Solution, tray tables folded out across 1A,B,C & D. Good solution - NO. Effective - kind of.

A repositioning FA (male) from 3F, spent more time in the galley chatting up the CSM and her offsider than it seemed he did in his seat. This was disruptive to service and was bloody annoying seeing him in there talking while the girls were not feeding the PAX.

Thats the start of it, I could rant more but I wont. Platinum cards for DJ? MEH!

 

[serfty]

...
A repositioning FA (male) from 3F, spent more time in the galley chatting up the CSM and her offsider than it seemed he did in his seat. This was disruptive to service and was bloody annoying seeing him in there talking while the girls were not feeding the PAX. ...

To be fair I have seen this on several airlines.

 

[Gremlin]

Re: Do QF Acronyms/Abbreviations work for Velocity? (Oh, and Velocity Platinum rumour

Not necessarily - I fly Virgin Corporate Plus fares for all business travel, netting me over 2000 Points & SCs for each flight, which will easily qualify me for Gold.

I use QF/OW almost exclusively for personal travel - only really spending my money on red e-deals for domestic, <snip>
.

So domestically at least all your high margin travel is with DJ and your low/negative margin travel is with QF. If you keep that up I'm sure DJ will continue to hope you remain "loyal" to Qantas.

 

[notzac]

Re: Do QF Acronyms/Abbreviations work for Velocity? (Oh, and Velocity Platinum rumour

Friday last week - Darwin/Melbourne. Seat 2A. 737-700. All blue seats. Plastic tray thing implement thingy on centre seats - basically useless, on top of that, fitting the plastic thingo, narrows the A, C D & F seats! (at least Im sure it does).

whY+ is a joke on the short haul fleet; I think it's fair to suggest that you should wait until the J cabin arrives before criticising their premium cabin service.

It is easy to realise that a full AC (row 5 back didn't seem to have a centre seat free) that leaves around dinner time, that people are going to order hot food. Did the FA's pre-empt this and put the food in the ovens before take off? Nup. From order to being served - 20 minutes and I was the second person in the front half of the AC to order.

I'm going to guess here, but as the menu isn't standardised on one or two items -- maybe it's policy to only heat items that have been ordered? No idea what is considered correct procedure here, I make a point of not eating on planes unless I absolutely have to -- so I know nothing about meal service.

The CSM and her crew had no control on the PAX on the AC at all. At one point there were 7 people waiting to use the forward toilet while the CSM and another were trying to move about in the galley and move the meal trolley about, + many other examples of Fail.

I hope you're taking the time to send that feedback to DJ directly? I wouldn't be best impressed with service like that either.

 

[pshepvic]

Re: Do QF Acronyms/Abbreviations work for Velocity? (Oh, and Velocity Platinum rumour

So domestically at least all your high margin travel is with DJ and your low/negative margin travel is with QF. If you keep that up I'm sure DJ will continue to hope you remain "loyal" to Qantas.

Except that when I move into a position where I make the decision about who the company flies with, I'll be taking my business to QF, because they've recognised my loyalty even when I might not have spent as much with them (mind you I've still spent a significant amount of money with them over the years - and I'll pay up to 50% more for a flight with QF than JQ or DJ any day).

I'm not saying they shouldn't reward for spend - any business who doesn't do that will lose customers. But I am saying "today's low spend customer could be tomorrow's high spend customer", so rewarding loyalty as well as spend is important.