Lost My Status - What Did I Do Wrong?

[Deborah66]

I have been Platinum QFF for over 7 years and decided to use some of my mill+ points - took 2 RTN Business flights to US in one year - no status credits, no points - and I am now downgraded to my Lifetime Gold. What did I do wrong? It is not Frequent FLYER, it is Frequent PAYER that is rewarded.

 

[Tortuga]

I have been Platinum QFF for over 7 years and decided to use some of my mill+ points - took 2 RTN Business flights to US in one year - no status credits, no points - and I am now downgraded to my Lifetime Gold. What did I do wrong? It is not Frequent FLYER, it is Frequent PAYER that is rewarded.

I'm no expert but I think you will have to provide a lot more details before you get any help.

 

[mannej]

I have been Platinum QFF for over 7 years and decided to use some of my mill+ points - took 2 RTN Business flights to US in one year - no status credits, no points - and I am now downgraded to my Lifetime Gold. What did I do wrong? It is not Frequent FLYER, it is Frequent PAYER that is rewarded.

Classic awards do not earn status credits or points. If you took an any seat award, you would have no issue.

 

[dot]

Welcome to AFF Deborah66

I have been Platinum QFF for over 7 years and decided to use some of my mill+ points - took 2 RTN Business flights to US in one year - no status credits, no points - and I am now downgraded to my Lifetime Gold. What did I do wrong?

You don't earn miles or status credits on classic award flights. If you didn't earn enough status credits on your other earning flights during your membership year to requalify as a Platinum, you're going to drop back to Gold (or Lifetime Gold in your case) - it's how the QFF program works and has always worked. It's the way pretty much all frequent flyer programs work in my experience - some programmes will drop you right back to nothing if you had no earning flights for the year, whereas QFF will soft-land members down one level per year (not really applicable for you as a lifetime gold member)

It is not Frequent FLYER, it is Frequent PAYER that is rewarded.

You cannot earn status on credit card purchases or any other 'PAYER' method of earning miles - only earning flights will do that. Status Credits can only be earned on flights. Some other airline programs allow you to earn status with purchases, but not QFF.

I am a little surprised that such an experienced flyer would not know these things already.

 

[simongr]

I would also add that two returns to LHR in J in a year is not a frequent flyer. In fact even if they had been paid flights you wouldn't have retained platinum. What happened to your travel profile to drop from being platinum to nothing?

 

[cove]

The downside of using Classic points redemptions is your status credit totals score as a zero for those flights. When the points totals for Any Seat JASAs is crazy I am happy to book Classic without hesitation but what you see is what you get and nothing extra.

 

[Deleted member]

Welcome aboard , Even two JASA flights :SYD - DFW would have given you 800 status credits.
You may have had to search for them to get a good deal, but it can be done.
I have two ( for me and Mrs GPH) FASA's to LHR in April 2013, for less than you burned in Classic , and I earn 740 odd SC's on each .
It's already been asked , but how did you miss this vital piece of information ( about status) over the last few years ?
As you appear to fly a lot anyway, it should be no real problem ascending to the lofty heights of Plat once again?


It is I, Leclerc !

 

[amaroo]

The downside of using Classic points redemptions is your status credit totals score as a zero for those flights. When the points totals for Any Seat JASAs is crazy I am happy to book Classic without hesitation but what you see is what you get and nothing extra.

Booking for a family of 4, I love classic. Most times it means flying F or J on other OW airlines.....the pool is diminishing with routes being dropped & JSA argreements being ripped up.

Classic are brilliant for multiple tickets & spur of the moment bookings.

 

[JohnK]

You cannot earn status on credit card purchases or any other 'PAYER' method of earning miles - only earning flights will do that. Status Credits can only be earned on flights. Some other airline programs allow you to earn status with purchases, but not QFF.

Just to be pedantic that is not quite true.

I know it is still considered flying but you can earn status and SCs with miles earned from credit card purchases only if you book Any Seat awards and then some people are lucky and receive double SCs offers as well.

And I know this is another argument but I am one of those people who believe you should earn SCs for bookings from miles earned from flying. There is no difference between a Classic award, a Oneworld award or an Any Seat award. Especially when the cost of each is roughly the same. And people on this site have bragged about the number of cheap Any Seat awards they can find that are no different to Classic.

Reward people for flying not for shopping or paying company tax bills....

 

[markis10]

I would also add that two returns to LHR in J in a year is not a frequent flyer. In fact even if they had been paid flights you wouldn't have retained platinum. What happened to your travel profile to drop from being platinum to nothing?

Considering the OP mentioned the US as their destination, and it's possible to retain Platinum ex Aus with two return J flights, I would say that is very much a frequent flyer, especially when there is no detail as to departure and destination cities .

 

[dot]

Just to be pedantic that is not quite true.

I know it is still considered flying but you can earn status and SCs with miles earned from credit card purchases only if you book Any Seat awards and then some people are lucky and receive double SCs offers as well.

You still need to fly to earn SCs - even if you spend you points on a xASA, you are earning for the flight, not the spend. You cannot earn SCs through buying your shopping at Wollies or paying for your flight on your credit card or spending points earned on a credit card for a xASA - you have to fly to earn SCs.

 

[Alanslegal]

I would also add that two returns to LHR in J in a year is not a frequent flyer. In fact even if they had been paid flights you wouldn't have retained platinum. What happened to your travel profile to drop from being platinum to nothing?

Its frequent enough in QF's eyes, that's 960sc (say syd-lhr rtns) which is enough to qual/requalify for SG (but irrelevant for the OP though).

 

[TonyHancock]

I would also add that two returns to LHR in J in a year is not a frequent flyer. In fact even if they had been paid flights you wouldn't have retained platinum.

I think the OP was traveling to the US but in your analogy if one flies QF9/QF1/QF2/QF10 it nets 560 SC's per return journey, so yes it doesn't quite get one over the line to WP but it is 1120 SC's.

May I be cheeky p) and remind you:-

Frankly if you manage to do 1,800 SCs of travel (1350 on QF metal) - I wouldnt begrudge you P1 status...

 

[medhead]

What did I do wrong? It is not Frequent FLYER, it is Frequent PAYER that is rewarded.

I would think your mistake was to forget that flying is measured by status credits. Simply taking a flight means nothing if you don't get the status credits.

Those in the thread who say 4 flights isn't frequent flying would do well to remember this as well. Status credits are the measure used to provide comparability over the multitude of flying patterns.

 

[simongr]

I think the OP was traveling to the US but in your analogy if one flies QF9/QF1/QF2/QF10 it nets 560 SC's per return journey, so yes it doesn't quite get one over the line to WP but it is 1120 SC's.

May I be cheeky p) and remind you:-

Fair point re the US thing - I misread that.

Re the reminder - I will point out that 1,120 is not 1,800

I would think your mistake was to forget that flying is measured by status credits. Simply taking a flight means nothing if you don't get the status credits.

Those in the thread who say 4 flights isn't frequent flying would do well to remember this as well. Status credits are the measure used to provide comparability over the multitude of flying patterns.

I will happily state that four flights isn't frequent flying.

Sure under the SCs four flights could still be a highly valuable customer to QF but it is not frequent. In my current QF year I will have about 60 flights - about 54 of them on QF metal. To me that is frequent flying. To others that actually wouldn't be that frequent.

 

[TonyHancock]

Re the reminder - I will point out that 1,120 is not 1,800 .

....yes but.... you were saying that 1800 (1350 on QF) was fair enough for P1 not WP. So by that reckoning 600 is fine for WP requalification?

Incidentally I don't disagree with you on what constitutes frequent flying...just arguing that you can't have it both ways.

 

[whatmeworry]

What did I do wrong?

You should have checked out this forum first!

 

[drewbles]

Just to be pedantic that is not quite true.

I know it is still considered flying but you can earn status and SCs with miles earned from credit card purchases only if you book Any Seat awards and then some people are lucky and receive double SCs offers as well.

And I know this is another argument but I am one of those people who believe you should earn SCs for bookings from miles earned from flying. There is no difference between a Classic award, a Oneworld award or an Any Seat award. Especially when the cost of each is roughly the same. And people on this site have bragged about the number of cheap Any Seat awards they can find that are no different to Classic.

Reward people for flying not for shopping or paying company tax bills....

"You cannot earn status without flying".

There, problem solved

 

[juddles]

.... It is not Frequent FLYER, it is Frequent PAYER that is rewarded.....

Perhaps they should ditch the whole SC thing and simply do it on an actual dollar spend? Say silver at $10000, gold at $30000, platinum at $60000, and P1 for $100000? LTS at $50000 accumulated spend, LTG at about $250000. And have a LTP at a round million dollars. Easy.

 

[medhead]

I will happily state that four flights isn't frequent flying.

Sure under the SCs four flights could still be a highly valuable customer to QF but it is not frequent. In my current QF year I will have about 60 flights - about 54 of them on QF metal. To me that is frequent flying. To others that actually wouldn't be that frequent.

No need to pretend that value isn't the primary determinant in QFF (and I guess other FF programs). We are talking about level in QFF here not a strict dictionary definition of "frequent".

Perhaps they should ditch the whole SC thing and simply do it on an actual dollar spend? Say silver at $10000, gold at $30000, platinum at $60000, and P1 for $100000? LTS at $50000 accumulated spend, LTG at about $250000. And have a LTP at a round million dollars. Easy.

Sort of like DJ used to do?


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