Lounge access - Red member flying a lot in 30-45 day period

[chrispy3276]

Hi all,

Seeking some advice in regards to Lounge access. I'm fairly loyal to QF (have had Silver status for a few years - earn around 500 SCs a year at present + a Club member, plus regular travel on classic flight reward tickets), but will be travelling a fair amount (at least 2 flights a week in Y) on VA for about a 6 week period as a Red member. I'm looking at Lounge options, and it seems like the only two options are to pay the joining fee + 1 year membership (which I'd prefer not to do given I'm not likely to use it at all after the 6 weeks), or pay for single lounge visits every time (which isn't quite as much cost wise, but not far off). Are these the only two options I've got, or can regular VA flyers offer another solution that I might have missed?

Many thanks for your help.

 

[RooFlyer]

I stopped holding it a year ago, but the Amex Plat Rewards card used to come with Virgin lounge access. There's a hefty annual fee, but with a number of other benefits (travel credit etc), and, depending on how much your other lounge options are, it could well pay for itself (as well as being a points earner).

If your VA flying is at least 3 weeks away, you might like to check it out, and/or, others will comment.

 

[serfty]

Is "pilot gold" a chance here?

(You get granted Gold status for three months [lounge access] and to extend that for a year you need to earn a minimum number of SC in that the months.)

 

[Daver6]

I was also going to suggest the Amex Platinum charge card. You don't say where you're flying to, but it looks like you're in Sydney. The Amex card will also get your Priority Pass so that can be used for food and drink at various outlets at Sydney airport too.

 

[AustraliaPoochie]

Don't get any lounge access as a frequent red VFF flyer, but hope is not lost.
Once you get up to 250 VFF SC, you can buy the Lounge membership for no joining fee, so only the yearly/annual fee.
That is what I did.
I don't get to fly to the required SC for VFF SG, but VFF PS is not hard.
With your regular flying, it would be 3 months to get to VFF PS, ten buy the Lounge membership for only Aud$300!
Really though, while having access to a lounge is a nice thing, the VA the Lounge is really quite basic, the QP is much much better, but I am happy to pay $300 a year, for it.
This was before the (Air)NZ and VFF relationship breakup though.
You can buy the Lounge single access to see whats it like for Aud$65 per shot.
MEL/SYD/PER the Lounge would be good, ADL the most basic one. MEL and SYD the Lounge were formerly the Ansett Club, so those space is huge. PER at T1d is the newest, BNE is new too.
Edit: you could contact VFF and see about getting a status match, see if they will play ball.
They had one a while back, a QF SG could get VFF SG, not sure if thats whats meant by "pilot gold".

 

[SuzieQ68]

Is "pilot gold" a chance here?

(You get granted Gold status for three months [lounge access] and to extend that for a year you need to earn a minimum number of SC in that the months.)

+1 for the Pilot Gold option. We did it (a long time ago now), but it worked a treat in terms of getting immediate access to SG perks (including lounge access). From memory, it's fairly easy to sort and definitely worth the effort.

 

[chrispy3276]

Thanks so much all for the advice, really appreciated. Looks like Pilot Gold might be the way to go. Had no idea it existed, so thanks for the tip!

(To answer an earlier question, most flights will be SYD - BNE - SYD in Y, so may not reach 250 SC over the next two months, but won't be far from it).

 

[AustraliaPoochie]

Gusty, if they deny you pilot gold, and if you are not with Coles FB, join up, link that to VFF and you can get VFF SC, 1 SC per $100 spent.
The SC from Coles FB goes across to VFF about 05 of each month.
If you have more than 1 adult in the family, you can pool all Coles FB SC into one holding account, ie, yours.
If you buy your groceries from WW or others, put them all aside for the time being.