Frequent Fliers Anonymous - breaking the circle.

[wannabeinvestmentbanker]

So I ended up changing jobs so I don't fly anymore. Just started this week. I look forward to not going to the lounges for the sake of it.

Good luck with the new job and hopefully you won't get itchy feet too soon (from lack of flying).

I have spent the last 2 weeks in the office in Sydney and am so ready to kick back off again next week. Combining the frequent flying and time away from home aspect, I think there are some great benefits to being on the road for work a lot depending on your personal circumstances. It means I spend little of my own money during the week, get to eat great food in a different city, have some of my laundry done (big plus for a single guy) and earn plenty of points to spend on my time with friends and to see family.

Frequent long haul travel is not directly amenable to a healthy lifestyle but I still do think it can be sustainable. I hope you find the balance you are after in 2019 Juddles.

 

[Antoallison]

I don‘t have that problem about Lounges and Status runs..it would be another world to me but not one I would want as a byproduct of having to constantly fly for work.

I liked the Emirates lounge I went in once and the Delta lounge in LAX that I paid for..they served a purpose on the night, but I cannot imagine spending a lot of time in any of them.

I think posting your thread @juddles to discuss your feelings about the situation is a good idea, it always helps to talk about an issue - and maybe reading the replies will make the days away from home a bit easier for you.

 

[drron]

It's not airline loyalty schemes that I will be withdrawing from in 2019 but hotel programmes.
LTP now in Marriott and will still frequent our favourite hotels but choosing the best for us in other places.A good looking Virtuoso deal in Quebec in August.

 

[juddles]

It's not airline loyalty schemes that I will be withdrawing from in 2019 but hotel programmes.
LTP now in Marriott and will still frequent our favourite hotels but choosing the best for us in other places.A good looking Virtuoso deal in Quebec in August.

For some reason, although I got right into the airline programs thing, I have never done the same with hotels. They have always been for me the equivalent of BFOD. Being self-funded, and not travelling for pleasure, hotel stays are just a necesiity that I deal with on a specific needs basis - sometimes looking for something better if have a long stopover, but usually just whatever is cheap/convenient. Doing the same regular runs meant I looked for other options. On my old usual Australia - Colombia trips I usually managed circling the globe without hitting a hotel. In a way I feel good I never was a frequent stayer, as with my anonymity I felt less guilty sneaking in a bottle of rum rather than paying the obscene prices someone of my beverage indulgences would have to pay at hotel prices

Having said that, within Colombia I frequented several hotels in the bush - obviously not ones that have such things as "programs" - but it was very nice there to arrive at a hotel and know the staff by first name, they gave me my favorite room, etc. I do truly get that frequency brings a better level of service and experience whether it be an airline or a hotel.

But as I have always said, enough travel takes the fun out of it. It becomes an endurance thing. IMHO the best flying sleeping experiences I know are F in either QF or EK. Truly fantastic compared to other forms of air travel. But a coughpy single mattress on the floor somewhere private still beats them, IMHO

 

[tgh]

It's all grist for the mill , mel_t ….reading the thread is not compulsory..

 

[Gremlin]

I must admit, I never got/still don't get the allure of status runs and chasing status. As pushka said, I always felt like status occurs rather than is chased.

For me, other than when I travel for leisure with the rest of the Gremlin family, travel is to be endured rather than to be enjoyed. Yes, a nice glass of bubbles and a lie flat bed in the sky makes it easier to endure, but for me, it will always come second to a cup of hot chocolate and bedtime stories with my kids followed by falling asleep in my own bed.

 

[Renato1]

Hi Juddles,
Yours is an interesting perspective regarding top tier flying.

I regard flying as a necessary nuisance like catching the train. More onerous to actually get on the plane compared to a train, but usually more pleasant than the train during the course of the trip.

When I see all the top tier people getting in ahead of me to get on the plane to their better seats, I am most grateful and thank them or their employers for effectively having subsidized my flight in Economy. It's a case of Win-Win.
Regards,
Renato

 

[JohnK]

I must admit, I never got/still don't get the allure of status runs and chasing status. As pushka said, I always felt like status occurs rather than is chased.

Not necessarily.

@Pushka may have a point when you only fly a few times a year but when you do 40 odd returns a year SYD-BNE and 3-4 trips a year to Thailand and don't quite make it to Platinum then in my mind it's worth to try and reroute to get to Platinum as there's a huge difference between Platinum and Gold. I did this for quite a few years with cheap SE Asian business class add-ons.

Of course Qantas has now made that much easier by offering year round double SC offers and has cheapened Platinum to the point where there's not that much difference to Gold but still worth it in my eyes. The luggage allowance alone means that I don't have to worry about what I take or don't take with me. And bulkhead/exit row seat selections speak for themselves.

And to add to that I do enjoy going the long way. One of my not so crazy trips was SYD-MEL-PER-SIN-BKK for not much more than a direct. Unfortunately with young family now I can't put them through a similar routing but I can still go via SIN or HKG to break up trip.

 

[cambriamarsh]

They could pretty easily audit it afterwards. It's not really worth the risk.

But why are they doing it? Given the sacrifice in family time etc from business travel it was a way of the family benefitting for me when I travelled a lot for work. That enployer actually encouraged using the points to give the family some benefits.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

But why are they doing it? Given the sacrifice in family time etc from business travel it was a way of the family benefitting for me when I travelled a lot for work. That enployer actually encouraged using the points to give the family some benefits.

It's public money. And two issues stem from that... (a) decision on carrier should be based on price, not the number of miles or SCs that can be achieved and (b) public money shouldn't be used to accrue additional benefits outside of salary.

Government employees are already compensated for additional hours (for example with time in lieu), and they receive meal allowances.

I agree if an employee is unhappy sacrificing time with the family they should be offered the opportunity to change roles.

 

[cambriamarsh]

It's public money. And two issues stem from that... (a) decision on carrier should be based on price, not the number of miles or SCs that can be achieved and (b) public money shouldn't be used to accrue additional benefits outside of salary.

Government employees are already compensated for additional hours (for example with time in lieu), and they receive meal allowances.

I agree if an employee is unhappy sacrificing time with the family they should be offered the opportunity to change roles.

Sorry but I don’t agree with your perspective. Sometimes we are prepared to sacrifice a few things to help the employer and it’s generally advantageous for that to be a two way street. If I had an employer who took that quite hard nosed approach I for one would less prepared to go the extra mile and if another opportunity came up I’d be more prepared to consider it.

Swings and roundabouts I suppose.

 

[Blinky]

Sorry but I don’t agree with your perspective. Sometimes we are prepared to sacrifice a few things to help the employer and it’s generally advantageous for that to be a two way street. If I had an employer who took that quite hard nosed approach I for one would less prepared to go the extra mile and if another opportunity came up I’d be more prepared to consider it.

Swings and roundabouts I suppose.

I think you will find that it started with politicians getting massive amounts of points and status credits while travelling for dubious purposes (Fraser Anning anyone?). AFAIK, they no longer get this benefit. The mandarins then decided to remove this “perk” from public servants, who usually have well justified reasons for flying. So it’s not fair, but I can see how it happened.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Sorry but I don’t agree with your perspective. Sometimes we are prepared to sacrifice a few things to help the employer and it’s generally advantageous for that to be a two way street. If I had an employer who took that quite hard nosed approach I for one would less prepared to go the extra mile and if another opportunity came up I’d be more prepared to consider it.

Swings and roundabouts I suppose.

Difference between private and public sector. Public sector shouldn't benefit from public money (using tax money to accrue points and fund a holiday to Bali for example).

Also, public employment contracts are probably significantly different to many private sector contracts. If you go away overnight in the public sector and you travel out of hours you'll get time off in lieu. In the private sector you might just be expected to 'help out'. So the public sector employee may already benefit with a half day off somewhere else, at a time of their choosing, to spend with their family.

But out of hours is not always the norm. With public sector you may well find that travel takes place during work time, and travel allowance time may be quite generous (you might leave at 2.00pm from your office in Melbourne to fly to Sydney rather than with private sector doing a full day's work and leaving at 5.30pm).

 

[wannabeinvestmentbanker]

A little OT, but AFAIK public sector employees get SCs not points. I have a P1 friend who is ex Commonwealth Government but obviously no point earn. They do deserve some compensation for that continuous travel.

 

[purpleparrot]

I find the people who fly the most for government tend to be on higher salary bands and and generally don't get access to time in lieu, even for travel. It's just part and parcel of being senior enough and well paid that you put in the extra hours. Many times I've taken a junior staff member on work business, sat next to them and only one of us is getting paid to be flying.

But as you say, I often aim to travel during work hours for this reason. It's actually a great time to boot up the laptop and get some uninterrupted work done.

I still enjoy work travel so long as I'm not away all the time.

 

[Blinky]

More on topic, I was fanatical about achieving VA WP, and had a number of status runs. Since getting it (and maintaining it until at least July 2020) its become a bit “meh”.

I still enjoy flying and have the objective of reaching 1,000,000 points (about half way there), but not quite as fanatical.

 

[kermatu]

A little OT, but AFAIK public sector employees get SCs not points. I have a P1 friend who is ex Commonwealth Government but obviously no point earn. They do deserve some compensation for that continuous travel.

Correct. Commonwealth government fares attract SCs on all carriers. No points though.

 

[VPS]

Correct. Commonwealth government fares attract SCs on all carriers. No points though.

but State governments if you put your FF in after you can accrue points and SC and some people and some departments accrue TOIL but many don't

 

[cambriamarsh]

Difference between private and public sector. Public sector shouldn't benefit from public money (using tax money to accrue points and fund a holiday to Bali for example).

Also, public employment contracts are probably significantly different to many private sector contracts. If you go away overnight in the public sector and you travel out of hours you'll get time off in lieu. In the private sector you might just be expected to 'help out'. So the public sector employee may already benefit with a half day off somewhere else, at a time of their choosing, to spend with their family.

But out of hours is not always the norm. With public sector you may well find that travel takes place during work time, and travel allowance time may be quite generous (you might leave at 2.00pm from your office in Melbourne to fly to Sydney rather than with private sector doing a full day's work and leaving at 5.30pm).]

Interesting approach by the public sector. Does that apply to government owned trading enterprises, if AU has such things.

EDIT: I see at least part of my query answered subsequently.

 

[Gremlin]

Not necessarily.

@Pushka may have a point when you only fly a few times a year but when you do 40 odd returns a year SYD-BNE and 3-4 trips a year to Thailand and don't quite make it to Platinum then in my mind it's worth to try and reroute to get to Platinum as there's a huge difference between Platinum and Gold. I did this for quite a few years with cheap SE Asian business class add-ons.

Of course Qantas has now made that much easier by offering year round double SC offers and has cheapened Platinum to the point where there's not that much difference to Gold but still worth it in my eyes. The luggage allowance alone means that I don't have to worry about what I take or don't take with me. And bulkhead/exit row seat selections speak for themselves.

And to add to that I do enjoy going the long way. One of my not so crazy trips was SYD-MEL-PER-SIN-BKK for not much more than a direct. Unfortunately with young family now I can't put them through a similar routing but I can still go via SIN or HKG to break up trip.

I'm not saying I don't understand why you might do it, it's just that the allure to do it was never something for me. Each to their own, but I personally can't fathom booking SYD-MEL-PER-SIN-BKK rather than direct.

And my experience was at the other end of the scale, not the "only fly a few times a year" end. But granted, never at the "not quite make it to Platinum" point.