FF newbie questions

[Yada Yada]

Hi,

I've been a lowly bronze FF for about 10 years as I did not need to travel much for work. That has changed this year - in the last four months I've done a stack of flying and jumped up to gold status.

I have a few newbie questions that I hope someone can help with:

1. Where can I see a listing of the different classes of seats for QF? I see people talking about D, J and Y class but do not know what any of this means. I purchase a combination of tickets for my travel, e.g. often Red-e-deals to Melbourne or Brisbane and business class for the return leg, so I'd like to know how these are all classified.

2. It looks like I earn FF points faster as a gold status FF, but do I earn status credits faster also?

3. I joined the Qantas Club a few months ago, so that specific benefit of attaining gold status didn't really count. Is there any other major tangible benefit to being a gold FF?

The reason I ask is that it seems a lot of the FF program is smoke and mirrors rather that substance - i.e. the idea that you get better treatment and possible free upgrades, etc. I've already caught the bug whereby I feel that I have to maintain my status, as if I am in some type of competitive situation, so I try to fly QF wherever possible, even though some other airlines are less expensive and have better service (e.g. SQ in particular).

 

[QF WP]

Yada Yada, welcome to AFF.

In answer to your questions:

1. If you have received in your snail mail the new QF "Important change to your membership...24 November 2004" brochure, then turn to Page 32. There is now an extra handy reference table for all the fare bases on OW carriers.

2. Earnings points at 50% bonus for being Gold - yes. Earning status scredits faster - no, that is solely a function of the fare paid and distance travelled.

3. In fact, your Gold FF status has trumped your "paid" QP membership - that "paid" status is now "on hold". It won't recommence until you drop back to Silver (ie. You paid for QP membership 4 months ago buying a 5 year QP membership. Only when you drop back to Silver will the 56 remaining months re-commence the count-down).

Other tangible benefits:

* Higher staus means higher in the queue for waitlisted flights or upgrades using points/SC's.
* Better check-in facilities (as you can at some domestic airportscheck in at the J counters, just be careful with the sign-posting)

 

[Yada Yada]

Yada Yada, welcome to AFF.

Hi Lindsay. Thank you for the welcome.

1. If you have received in your snail mail the new QF "Important change to your membership...24 November 2004" brochure, then turn to Page 32. There is now an extra handy reference table for all the fare bases on OW carriers.

Thanks. I'll check that out.

3. In fact, your Gold FF status has trumped your "paid" QP membership - that "paid" status is now "on hold". It won't recommence until you drop back to Silver (ie. You paid for QP membership 4 months ago buying a 5 year QP membership. Only when you drop back to Silver will the 56 remaining months re-commence the count-down).

Ah, now I didn't know that! I purchased a 4-year membership and would only have used about 3 months of it before my FF status changed. That's a nice surprise, because I thought it would just be concurrent.

Other tangible benefits:
* Higher staus means higher in the queue for waitlisted flights or upgrades using points/SC's.
* Better check-in facilities (as you can at some domestic airportscheck in at the J counters, just be careful with the sign-posting)

If there is no posted QC check-in, I usually just head for the Business Class check-in counter. Is that what a 'J' counter is?

Thanks again for your help.

 

[Kiwi Flyer]

Yes. J is one of the booking codes for business class.

 

[NM]

And also remember that as a paid QP member, you only get access to Qantas, BA, AA and US Airways lounges when departing on those airlines flights. As a QF Gold FF (and hence OneWorld Sapphire) member, you also get access to all OneWorld airline business class lounges when travelling on any OneWorld operated and coded flight.

 

[Yada Yada]

And also remember that as a paid QP member, you only get access to Qantas, BA, AA and US Airways lounges when departing on those airlines flights. As a QF Gold FF (and hence OneWorld Sapphire) member, you also get access to all OneWorld airline business class lounges when travelling on any OneWorld operated and coded flight.

Thanks for the info, NM. There is so much detail to the FF program! I don't know how you guys remember it all!

Anyway, when I flew today I noticed that my boarding pass now shows FF Gold whereas before it showed QC Silver, so the Gold level does indeed trump the QC membership.

 

[thadocta]

And also remember that as a paid QP member, you only get access to Qantas, BA, AA and US Airways lounges when departing on those airlines flights. As a QF Gold FF (and hence OneWorld Sapphire) member, you also get access to all OneWorld airline business class lounges when travelling on any OneWorld operated and coded flight.

Thanks for the info, NM. There is so much detail to the FF program! I don't know how you guys remember it all!

Anyway, when I flew today I noticed that my boarding pass now shows FF Gold whereas before it showed QC Silver, so the Gold level does indeed trump the QC membership.

It does - sort of.

As a Gold FF, you get FREE membership to the Qantas Club, therefore you get free access to QF, BA, AA and US lounges. Sometimes the US lounge dragons need to be reminded of this however.

Where your Gold status trumps your QC Silver status is with the other OW carriers. As an example, I flew HKG-SYD last weeek on QF. As a QF Gold (OW Sapphire) I was entitled to use any OW J lounge. So being the sensible person that I am, I used the CX lounge - much better.

Note, that this is a OW benefit, not a QC benefit.

What am I trying to say here? Seems I am waffling. Will pop back in the morning and edit. But you know what I mean.

Dave

 

[NM]

Thanks for the info, NM. There is so much detail to the FF program! I don't know how you guys remember it all!

Having "lived" it for so many years (got my first FF card back on 1991), and ensuring I get maximum value out of my loyality, I tend to carry a lot of seamingly useless info around in my head. It does come in handy sometimes, though :roll: .

I am often amazed how many frequent flyers don't know the rules and how to get maximum value from their membership. These types of fora are a great to find out about such things.