Re Crowding and such. One of JohnK's faves re the devaluing of status if every woman and her ESA can have Plat..
QF doesn't seem to mind too much given this is the 3rd year in a row with global DSC promotions, and endless ongoing +50% promos(targeted) and heck there were 2 DSC promos last year alone.
Clearly QF feels the revenue gained from sales with these promotions is enough to offset the cost of providing the status (and let's face it, most AFF folks have some form of elite status anyway and/or most use these promos to retain Gold or Plat that they probably would have gotten anyway because honestly the diehards doing status runs like us are in such a small minority that it's not even a blip. JoeBusinessPerson might see the promo and book an extra flight or not, but probably not care too much (which is what they're counting on).
My intrest is in the cost to QF of extra status not just in the lounge facilities cost, f&b, crowding etc, but what about partners (it costs QF $$$ every time a QF plat enters the CX F lounges, for example, under their QF Plat status - for example). All that cost would add up too, but clearly they feel it's OK.
I do agree re crowding which is why I avoid peak times, and have a 0700 flight coming up this morning where there will be few around
I honestly feel QF does these promos for short term gain but do not consider the longer term aspects, specially if every year they will provide more opportunities.. if suddenly one can get Gold or Plat for half the cost more or less, QF is actually missing out on a bit of revenue from those who might make the effort to retain if they did not have such promos.. but again the numbers of people who would actually do this would probably be few relative to the QF passenger base.
It would be interesting to know the actual numbers QF would project, or believe they have seen, actually up their status levels via DSC vs regular travel patterns by those same pax. Obviously confidential, but they wouldn't keep doing these proms if they felt they were losing on it.. Remember these promos are for THEIR benefit, not ours.. at least that's the theory