Greetings / CBR QP Overcrowding

[Platy]

You forget the obvious to restrict invitations to QC for statused members of the FFP...SG and WP are given free membership of QC to recoginise their status. If you don't like it don't use it. i.e. "Go Away"

Suggestions that EITHER paid members OR higher status "complimentary" members be denied access to alleviate the over crowding are equally absurd. Both have a right to be there - neither has a greater or lesser "claim" than the other.

Paid members are "lucky" that they live in Australia and not, say, the UK, where complimentary access to British Airways lounges requires status.

The only progressive solution is to provide more extensive lounges and associated services.

Unfortunately, management of lounges by QF has been a lot less than perfect and problems have been allowed to grow and fester for years whilst QF rakes in the cash from membership fees, inane promotions, making use of member details for marketing campaigns, etc, without delivery of requisite service being paid for and/or promoted.

Cash before customer...

 

[Dave Noble]

Paid members are "lucky" that they live in Australia and not, say, the UK, where complimentary access to British Airways lounges requires status.

Umm.. a paid QP member is entitled to BA lounge access when travelling BA and I would say that typically BA lounges are better than the Qantas Clubs

Paid QC members are unlucky that they do not have access to BA quality lounges in Australia

Dave

 

[justinbrett]

Paid QC members are unlucky that they do not have access to BA quality lounges in Australia

Dave

Whilst possible, I think you'd find a much smaller percentage of QP members in BA clubs than in Australia. If there was such a large percentage using BA clubs, you would think it logical that BA would start their own paid program.

I maintain one of the reasons the BA clubs are much better than QPs are because they are much more exclusive and are funded solely by the airline.

 

[Dave Noble]

Whilst possible, I think you'd find a much smaller percentage of QP members in BA clubs than in Australia. If there was such a large percentage using BA clubs, you would think it logical that BA would start their own paid program.

BA used to have paid membership; infact paid membershop was the only way to access the lounges;

Around 1987, the cost to join the BA Executive Club was GBP140 a year and received a nice silver card

Later, BA brought out the Blue/Silver/Gold memberships and ceased to permit new members to join the paid lounge silver scheme; a cpl of years ago they finally terminated the paid programme to the few remaining members

Ba took a decision to re-aim their lounges to not be a paid scheme however there is the Qantas Club workaround for those that know

Regardless of how many times this gets argued, Qantas has decided that a mix of complimentary membership via status and paid membership is the way to go. Also, when it comes up, it seems that people are keen to restrict other peoples access whilst maintaining their own. I haven't seen anyone argue that they themselves should not be allowed in

Dave

 

[medhead]

Suggestions that EITHER paid members OR higher status "complimentary" members be denied access to alleviate the over crowding are equally absurd. Both have a right to be there - neither has a greater or lesser "claim" than the other.

Paid members are "lucky" that they live in Australia and not, say, the UK, where complimentary access to British Airways lounges requires status.
etc, without delivery of requisite service being paid for and/or promoted.

Cash before customer...

Not sure why paid members are lucky. They have PAID for they membership and access to the lounge - access is not complimentary. Maybe you mean that BA doesn't offer paid membership.

Both suggestions are no doubt absurb. But if over corwding is a problem the answer is not to attack the core members who are QC members first and foremost. If this problem needs to be tackled the starting point has to be memberships that are being given away for free. Certainly before Status the quality of the service in the QP was substanially better.

 

[opusman]

I think the biggest problem is that the QP isn't "exclusive" enough, or at least not as exclusive as, on the face of it, you would expect it to be. Maybe they really should rebrand it as Qantas Pub, at least then people wouldn't be surprised if it was full

Let's face it, a few hundred $ a year isn't a huge amount of money - you would only need to fly 2 or 3 times a year to make it worthwhile joining. For me the biggest advantage of the QP is the ability to ODU and I think I would join just for that, but for a lot of people it's the free booze and the feeling that they are somehow "better" than the average traveller that makes it worth their while.

Hopefully the new Dom J lounges will take some of the load off the QP but at the end of the day the best thing (IMO) is that QF raise the prices to at least try to make QP membership a bit more exclusive again. Of course I say this from the security of a life membership

 

[thadocta]

BA used to have paid membership; infact paid membershop was the only way to access the lounges;

Around 1987, the cost to join the BA Executive Club was GBP140 a year and received a nice silver card

Correct - I was actually a member back then, as BA membership got you into both the TN Flight Deck lounges and the AN Golden Wing lounges - cheaper than paying for both programs.

Dave

 

[simongr]

Not sure why paid members are lucky. They have PAID for they membership and access to the lounge - access is not complimentary. Maybe you mean that BA doesn't offer paid membership.

You seem to be refusing to acknowledge that status and the benefits associated are paid for as part of the ticket price.

I personally am arguing for improvements if there need to be. Most of my lounge visits are the F lounge and the HKG Wing/Pier. In fact I take pressure off the lounge through my status

Out of interest can we get some stats on how many QP/SG/WP members there are - just you know for accuracy - so we can show exactly how core the QP membership is?

No, they are required to provide benefits to OW status members ( what is elite about having sat in a plane I still wonder ). They do not have to have a ruby,sapphire and Emerald membership themselves; e.g. BA do not offer a ruby membership in their scheme

Apologies for my clumsy wording - I meant that QF are required to provide lounge access to their elite members under the current agreement. That of course is subject to change.

I dont see either set of members as better or worse. I would happily restrict numbers by raising qualification levels or the price - but I am very lucky in how I fly and who I work for - but would prefer that the QPs were properly enhanced if it is a problem.

 

[Flashback]

.... Of course I say this from the security of a life membership

Keeping in mind this is Qantas' definition of "life".......

 

[straitman]

medhead,

This is all just a windup isn't it :?:

 

[NM]

G'day Gold Member , welcome to AFF.

About the spell checker, I am using Mozilla FireFox and it comes with an inbuilt spell checker. :idea:

Aww, that takes all the fun out of people trying to work out what I really meant to type

 

[Mal]

Only real issue is it's UScentric, wanting to replace words like realise with realize etc.

There is always the Australian dictionary available... https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/browse/type:3

After installing/restarting Firefox, compose new message, right click, Language and change to English/Australia.

 

[v8Statesman]

Aww, that takes all the fun out of people trying to work out what I really meant to type

Good work, changing it back to something relevent.

Was starting to think to my self "Stop feeding the TROLL!!!!"

 

[tuapekastar]

medhead,

This is all just a windup isn't it :?:

Windup or not Bill, medhead made a very valid point - that some (IMO not necessarily any posters in this thread BTW) 'statused' QFF members (ie. Gold and Plat) who receive complimentary QC access via their status level, see paid QC members as a 'nuisance' whenever the lounge is crowded and not really deserving of sharing the lounge with the SGs/WPs. Which as he/she said is rather lacking in logic. I would like to think not many SGs/WPs think this way.

Perhaps as a paid QP member I notice it more than many here, but the attitude is certainly out there. There is a post on another recent thread which positively reeks of it.

 

[Platy]

Not sure why paid members are lucky. They have PAID for they membership and access to the lounge - access is not complimentary. Maybe you mean that BA doesn't offer paid membership.
.

Exactly! IF you lived in the UK and were using BA as your principal airline, you would not be able to buy access to their lounges...

"Fortunately" living in Australia and using QF for travel you can pay for access to their lounges without having to fly many times to attain status.

As I said, for QF Club access BOTH paid and status members are equal in my eyes.

 

[Platy]

If this problem needs to be tackled the starting point has to be memberships that are being given away for free.

No, it is NOT given away for free. For example, I have spent anywhere between $15,000 to $25,000 a year for many years on QF flights, travelling up to 100 domestic flights per year, many in business class. (I also paid for a QC membership for myself and two family members (who hardly ever use it) before attaining Gold/Platinum, which led to suspension of the paid membership). One or two percent of that revenue is factored in to pay for the supply of QC services.

Why shouldn't the starting point be correcting the low cost of corporate QC membership? Putting the price up for membership would fix the problem!!!

Having said that, I now frequently give up on the QC if it is busy and go and have a quiet (paid) beer somewhere else in the terminal - it is usually quieter, more relaxing, and lacks the animals feeding in a zoo atmosphere (no disrespect to zoos or zoo animals!).

The real solution is for QF to supply what people have paid for/been promoted. More space - more catering.

 

[Platy]

Umm.. a paid QP member is entitled to BA lounge access when travelling BA and I would say that typically BA lounges are better than the Qantas Clubs

Oh? I recently looked into buying my mother (UK based) a QC membership to get her into BA lounges when travelling BA, QF etc overseas (ie not Australia). I was told by QF membership services that a QC membership does NOT grant her access to any OVERSEAS (QF, BA or other OneWorld) lounges overseas ONLY domestic QF lounges...is that correct or incorrect??? :shock:

 

[opusman]

Oh? I recently looked into buying my mother (UK based) a QC membership to get her into BA lounges when travelling BA, QF etc overseas (ie not Australia). I was told by QF membership services that a QC membership does NOT grant her access to any OVERSEAS (QF, BA or other OneWorld) lounges overseas ONLY domestic QF lounges...is that correct or incorrect??? :shock:

QP membership gets you and a guest into BA Terraces and Executive Club lounges, and AA Admirals Club lounges, when you are travelling on those airlines on that day. It doesn't get you into any other OW lounges.

 

[dajop]

Still think the solution to the QP overcrowding problem may lie in DJ becoming a full on member of an alliance and opening a few more lounges in key ports (such as PER). Don't think QF will like that solution though. Overcrowding in QP's really only started to become a problem in Sept 2001 ...

 

[Dave Noble]

Exactly! IF you lived in the UK and were using BA as your principal airline, you would not be able to buy access to their lounges...

Of course you could; there is nothing to stop a UK resident purchasing QC membership; in fact they , of course, get it cheaper due to their not needing to pay GST; QC membership provides the access required

Dave