How Did You Earn Your Qantas Status?

[Matt_01]

How does one buy Lifetime Qantas Platinum, though?

I think he is referring to life time Qantas pub (club)

 

[drron]

Yes it was written as LTQP not LTP. Though I do have LTP but with AA.
Back in the early 90s there was a special on QP life membership through the AMA. Cost was $400 which was a no brainer.

 

[Blackadder]

All self funded flying , mostly in whY domestically in Aus , and 1 international rtn trip SYD-LAX-SYD annually.
Within the US the Yupp fares on AA are your friend, and some good value can be found.

 

[HirafuHeartAttack]

Mostly corporate but a family business so there's always a fine line between booking for comfort vs value. Hence why VA status match was easy when VA J was same as QF flex economy I just jumped on 4 VA flights.
Primarily domestic for work, visited every state and territory except NT last year multiple times. I'm in charge of travel for the company as well so I tend to book a few trips when DSC promos come up.
I also tend to do 1-2x big personal trips. Last year was 6 weeks in the states, this year (so far) 3 weeks in japan and a couple days in Singapore.
The personal trips are also where the benefits really come into play. I don't tend to really eat or drink much in QPs or Business lounges when travelling for work, but being able to access first lounges with my partner certainly makes the 6am out/8pm return work flights worth it.

 

[Ade]

I have voted as "All Personal" because 95% of my travel is personal funded. I do, do some work travel which constitutes the remainder.

Personal travel - I try to keep it as much on QF as possible simply because I wanted to have membership & status in an AU based airline that services international routes, mostly India. Back when I started flying, QF used to have codeshare with Jet Aiwrays (9W), which shut shop a few years ago. After 9W it was C via HKG in & out of India, now it's Indigo (6E) or Sri Lankan (UL). I could have gone with VA and SQ route, but I don't why I did not consider this option. Another reason I started flying QF was because it was easier to earn QF rather than VA points via CC churning. There were not many VA CC with bonus points when I started to churn. There are a few now. Also, I did not understand the concept of MR (or Bank points) points that can be transferred to airline. So thought QF was the only way to go ... I'm slowly moving out of this now and trying to earn MR or Accent or Altitude points etc and transfer it to KF or VA or whichever is better to redeem on international J routes.

Work travel - I try to keep this to VA exclusively as most of my work travel is domestic. VA J is cheaper so I take advantage of this.

 

[Bindibuys]

From zero to hero (bronze to plat) via 3 x J DSC Syd - Akl all self funded.
Both my off-spring getting married this year, and both wanting overseas honeymoons. So getting to WP as a means to make those holidays a reality as easily as possible.
All booked now, and using the benefit of getting HBA call centre when tickets not issued in a timely manner.
I personally have several OS trips this year, so looking for ward to the F lounge again.
My next step is to "ask" QF for F seats to complete one of the honeymoons (J already booked)

 

[PuravidaTC]

Corporate international (YYZ, SJO and MNL) about a dozen times a year along with a lot of domestic - being based in Australia at present its a hard slog regardless of travel class.

Upgrade priority/success is of great benefit and I do use the lounges but I feel it's just what seems to happen in the background where I'm very rarely impacted or if am it's super smoothly resolved which is the kicker benefit and priceless that's probably less publicised.

 

[RichardMEL]

Self funded.

Back in the day used to be YRTWSTARx fares (yes, Y lol), post AN, moved to QF (I had gotten free QFF thanks to CO pulling out of Oz back in 1995 or so and they actually transferred existing miles and such over to QF at some sort of rate.. which in hindsight was such an unusual deal, but I digress). Built up with QF while mostly also flying UA and Star so spent a year or so at QF Silver, then Gold, finally Plat and P1 (where I have been for 9 years - yes including current extensions but requalifying for next year shortly). Mixes of domestic and international travel to UK and quite a bit of US travel plus odd trips to SIN/KUL and NZ.

Yes, played all the games with DSC' and related magical instruments, sale J fares and the like though some years did actually do P1 the old fashioned way.

Making a final push for MM status @ UA for LTG (and for now that means LT*G) and then to reconsider overall strategy.

I feel having status and mileage balances across two of the three major alliance groups to be very helpful when it comes to award travel (for example have combined QF awards to one leg, and UA awards to come home) while when visiting destinations not served by one, could usually be gotten to by the other (for example a few years ago, visiting YYG, it was AC or WS - oneworld doesn't reach very far into Canada.. so I could fly AC in and out and still have benefits.

 

[Matt_01]

It's unclear whether flying QF is the fastest way to earn QF status. Indeed, I reckon there are some on this very forum that would argue US domestic flights with AA/AS might provide a quicker way to earn said status.

The US used to be a great way to accumulate SCs as the AA flights F marketed flight used to earn SC at F rates and they were relatively cheap. It was around 2016/17 I seem to recall QF and AA readjusted the earn rate to be more in line with QF J. @serfty can most likely add insight on this. I am not sure what rate flagship first earns, F or J. As for some of the other OW partners the earn rate can be much lower than QF and in some discounted fares you get no SC.

 

[serfty]

The US used to be a great way to accumulate SCs as the AA flights F marketed flight used to earn SC at F rates and they were relatively cheap.

One example was more than 900 SC's could be earned for a ~USD410 return with an AA First class fare LAX to SJU with multiple segments.

Back then "First Class" in domestic 2 class metal booked into F, A or P.

Three things changed at various times and not necessarily in the following order:

• Origin Destination one way routings were limited to three or sometimes 2 segments.
• Qantas introduced "Simpler and Fairer", placing NorthAmerican earn into defined routes with much reduced earning as well as extending basic zones from 600 to 750 miles.
• "First Class" in domestic 2 class metal was changed to book into JCDI fare buckets.

These days opportunities are fewer, I saw yesterday ~USD340 to earn 200SC.

 

[RichardMEL]

Flagship F is booked into "real" First booking classes, so it still earns as F - these of course are few and far between.

Remember also the days of the YUPP/KUPP type fares (also sometimes called "instant upgrade") would book into P (iirc) and earned at F levels. When AA realigned their domestic F booking classes into the JCDIR booking classes these of course have given Business SC's so the value in the US is less than has been in the past but still decent SC values can be had depending on fares, as discussed

man those YUPP days were great!