One other point I think is worth considering with regards to status, is to take a look at all the flights you took in the past year and ask yourself, could I have done something different? A lot of people new to the points and status game may book whatever flight is the cheapest or most direct without first considering whether it makes sense to book strategically in some areas. For instance, if you are flying in economy from Australia to North America, there a number of airlines that will get you there, many providing either a non stop or single connection to said destination. Often the prices will be cheap or very similar, maybe the non-alliance airline will have a slightly better routing too. But then you must consider how much would seat selection cost? What about baggage? What about lounge? So in those cases you want to think, would it make sense to book in alliance (i.e. American, Qantas in your case) versus saving a couple bucks and choosing United or Delta? The other thing to consider too when looking back is again to ask yourself, what benefits would I have gotten had I booked a Qantas fare that I actually would have used instead of say a Virgin fare?
Looking back at my bookings thus far this year, aside from my overseas trip (which was booked using points in business class and the occasional KLM flight to save on checked bag charges as I'm a Delta Gold Medallion), most of my flights were either with Qantas or JetStar (within the Qantas Group). For my Qantas and to some extent the JetStar flights I took, the main benefit for me was the Qantas lounge access. Now it is true, I do have an AmEx Platinum card which provides me with access to a number of lounges (including Virgin when flying them) but not every airport in Australia has these lounges, and I would argue that many of the Qantas lounges are a cut above your typical Rex lounge you have access to via AmEx. Certainly trying out the Emirates lounge at Sydney during my flight to Christchurch last year was a real highlight of my Gold card membership experience. The other benefit I sometimes found helpful was seat selection, although as everyone is probably aware, most blocked seats open up at 80 hours prior to flight departure. The one status I matched last year that I never really used was Virgin Australia. I never really had an opportunity to fly them this year, and the one time I did fly them (from Sydney down to Melbourne) I was on a business award ticket, so all my Virgin Gold benefits were moot. The other status I earned last year that I didn't really use much was my Delta Gold Medallion status. So far it has saved me a couple of bucks on a checked bag to Hamburg, and provided KLM lounge access at Amsterdam twice. I'll be flying Delta in October in Basic Economy so I will get a free checked bag there, but that's it. So if I were to take inventory of all of this, I would probably focus a lot more on getting Qantas status, and in my case earning World Platinum status (per my spreadsheet I'll be 105 status credits away after my trip in October with a November 30 end date). I'm still debating how to get those missing status credits. Do I take a couple of weekend trips in November on JQ/QF to earn the status? Or maybe I spend an afternoon flying to Philadelphia from Pittsburgh on AA in business with a connection on the return to earn 120 status credits there. What I will say though is it's a no brainer to chase World Platinum status for the simple reason that I'm guaranteed status for the next 3 years. I'd have QF Platinum till November 30, 2024, QF Gold til November 30, 2025 and QF Silver til November 30, 2026 per QF's unofficial soft landing policy. That for me is worth spending the extra $500 or $600 to make this happen but YMMV. The last thing I'll point out is that even if I have no intention of flying QF or OneWorld next year (and say move back to United), having status with QF is beneficial since it means I can then status match back to United to get status.
My Goodness, what on earth are you carrying?!
Maybe best I don't ask
No, it's perfectly fine to ask. I was living in a different country (UK) doing a Masters but would regularly fly back to North America. In addition to attending conferences and visiting family/friends, I would also use this as an opportunity to move items between where I was living in the UK and my home in Canada. It also provided me with a way to shop for items they don't sell in the UK (i.e. Crest toothpaste, Coffee crisp, Kraft Dinner etc.). This also meant that when my PhD was over, I only had 3 suit cases I needed to check in to bring most of my worldly belongings back home. In January 2020 I flew over to Sydney start my PhD with 3 suitcases but not before first flying to the UK to do the commencement ceremony and receive my paper degree which the University needed to verify that I qualified for the program. So in that case I was travelling with 3 suitcases from Toronto, Canada to London (Heathrow), UK, then head up to York to do the commencement with those three bags, then back down to Heathrow to take a United flight from Heathrow to LA (then onwards to Sydney). Good thing my mileage upgrade cleared at check-in, 32 hours of business class goodness (including the Polaris lounge at LAX) for just 35,000 United miles and a $600 USD co-pay. Not bad considering I booked that flight as a $900 return flight between Heathrow and Sydney.
-RooFlyer88
