Is QF considering Lifetime Platinum?

[Captain Halliday]

I know some people have a perception the folk at ausbt are very closely aligned to QF, so this yarn caught my eye: How would Qantas Lifetime Platinum change your flying habits?.

It made me wonder if QF may be flying a kite to gauge people’s reaction to the idea.

*Apologies in advance to those who are rolling their eyes and thinking “this topic again”.

 

[mviy]

I would like to believe they are considering LTP, but I doubt it.

It would certainly encourage me to stay loyal to flying QF for longer (after all once LTG is reached and if flying Business internationally anyway there's less reason to fly QF if you're not currently holding WP or above), but QF is understandably concerned at the increased cost to them and lounge crowding.

If they are planning a LTP then their recent decision to cut out anytime any airline access for CL to lounges makes a lot of sense as a preparatory step.

 

[casanovawa]

Highly doubt it.... Don't make bonanza profits giving that stuff away...

Especially when you see the half coughd nonsense each year when the double status credit offers come out and the shiny card brigade go nuts booking flights to nowhere...

 

[juddles]

We all wish that QF would introduce a LTP thing, but despite the article I am not hopeful - QF has not done it yet, and they are fairly steadfast on certain things.

Having said that, in my amateur view they should go there. I can only use my own situation and viewpoint for that belief: 7 years ago I was not a QF FF member - had zero SC and was bronze. Due to increased flying and discovering AFF, I got keen on the whole FF thing and due to this I was able to rapidly "rise". I attained LTG a year or two ago, and enjoy P1 status.

With the absense of LTP I have lost all need for QF other than retaining that P1 status - my last membership year I calculated things and ended up aquiring just enough to stay on P1. But I also gained megastatus on two other airlines. Half of that would have gone to Qantas if LTP existed.

Like all status things, it hurts to "drop". I once aspired to be Silver Then when you get Gold you would hate to "only" be silver. Now when I face the prospect of losing P1 I would hate to "just" be WP. It is a horrible reality

BUT, there is another side to this. When you fly enough to be P1, I am sure the joy of travel wans for many. If you have to fly, then any goal is just an additional part of the equation and something like LTP is a small benefit that is nice to aspire to. But the day I lose P1 status I will hurt. And wont want to fly. This may appear obscene to most of us AFF'ers, but even LTP is just that - platinum! If you have flown the several million miles that would be required, you will have got over the whole status thing. You learn that if you fly QF in the pointy end there is really no significant difference being P1 or Bronze.

I have my LTG. When I am a pensioner doing a trip or two each year, I have sufficient status to get access to a lounge, which is enough for me.

I ask the question, what is the real value of LTP over LTG unless you are in a tiny subset that flies only in economy, and internationally? We all get blinded by earnt status - we make travel decisions and spend 1000's to get/retain. Money that would buy so much more in real terms using cash.

 

[marki]

I don’t have a shiny card and never go nuts. Always book flights to somewhere lol lol

 

[opusman]

With all the enhancements they've made to WP benefits over the past few years, Gold is the sweet spot anyway.

 

[juddles]

..... but QF is understandably concerned at the increased cost to them and lounge crowding.....

mviy, is this a real issue? I do not know. Just how many people who would attain the 28000 SC (or whatever it would be) would then go on to "crowd" the lounges? In my opinion, most people who get that obscene amount of SC would probably be accustomed to flying in a class that would gain them lounge access anyway.

 

[juddles]

.... when you see the half coughd nonsense each year when the double status credit offers come out and the shiny card brigade go nuts booking flights to nowhere...

Exactly. QF knows that double SC offers entice more bookings, and the financial repercussions from added status are less than the cost of the impact on lounge usage.

 

[marki]

Juddles I have seen you with your shiny card it hurts to look at it without dark sunnies!

 

[Sdtravel]

As i noted in the article. I will obtain LTS this year then decide if LTG is worth chasing based on enhancements along the way.

LTP? maybe but there have to be good incentives for loyalty and positive enhancements that make it something to aspire to.

 

[moa999]

With the absense of LTP I have lost all need for QF other than retaining that P1 status - my last membership year I calculated things and ended up aquiring just enough to stay on P1. But I also gained megastatus on two other airlines. Half of that would have gone to Qantas if LTP existed.

But if they had LTP, once you attained it, it may be 80% going to other airlines.

Not having LTP means at least you have to be somewhat loyal to QF each year to retain

 

[juddles]

Juddles I have seen you with your shiny card it hurts to look at it without dark sunnies!

I have never used my card - since the day I got it it went somewhere - has never seen the light of day

 

[marki]

I have never used my card - since the day I got it it went somewhere - has never seen the light of day

Not somewhere but the destination I believe is nowhere. We have all been there

 

[mannej]

A number of members here would recall the lunch where Lesley Grant and Stephanie Tully explicitly stated that LTP was not on the cards.

Unlike politicians, they have held true to their word.

 

[mviy]

But if they had LTP, once you attained it, it may be 80% going to other airlines.

Not having LTP means at least you have to be somewhat loyal to QF each year to retain

There are members here who having reached LTG have ditched crediting to QF and started crediting to BA and flying BA (where possible) instead. A LTP would help dissuade some from such behaviour.

 

[JessicaTam]

A number of members here would recall the lunch where Lesley Grant and Stephanie Tully explicitly stated that LTP was not on the cards.

Unlike politicians, they have held true to their word.

But neither of them are still doing what they did when they said what they said.

 

[marki]

I am holding myself from lol

 

[Pushka]

mviy, is this a real issue? I do not know. Just how many people who would attain the 28000 SC (or whatever it would be) would then go on to "crowd" the lounges? In my opinion, most people who get that obscene amount of SC would probably be accustomed to flying in a class that would gain them lounge access anyway.

Mr P is well over halfway to that 28k and other than when he book awards and the very occasional paid flight in J, it’s all in Y.

 

[marki]

Had to stop and look up my lifetime SC and I was a little surprised. Just over 38K by all rights I am a LTP ( if 28K were the threshold) shock horror like Mr P above mostly Y.

 

[juddles]

Had to stop and look up my lifetime SC and I was a little surprised. Just over 38K by all rights I am a LTP ( if 28K were the threshold) shock horror like Mr P above mostly Y.

That amount of flying should earn you rest, not status