Re: Lunch invitation for the Qantas Corporate Travel Show in Canberra: Are you coming
I was there.
I had a very long chat with a QF ACT rep. My first question was about Platinum One and, unsurprisingly, she said she'd rather not say much. She did say "about October' would be when details would be released. I had a chat with her about priority boarding and she said she didn't think QF offered it domestically. Imagine my surprise. Then I went on to outline my huge disappointment about the removal of anytime access. She listened and then ask if I could see QF's point of view, saying there were a lot of people that would use the lounge and then fly Virgin. I only remembered later that I should have asked her how they in fact had these figures, given one of the arguments on the thread was that the great majority of people never seemed to have a record taken of their anytime access (eg. a note in the computer or a tally, although I think MEL were doing this towards the end).
The Hilton stand were giving out DoubleTree umbrellas. Epic fail. They'd be lucky to keep a dwarf out of the rain. In fact, I couldn't even get mine up (the umbrella, people, the umbrella) so it went straight in the bin. I did have a good chat with one of the reps there about the difference between HHonors Diamond (top tier) and Gold Passport Diamond (top tier) and how I feel HHonors offers very little incentive to go beyond Gold (second top tier).
Crown from Melbourne had a good stand. To their credit, their giveaways were tailored male and female with the former offered a nice tape measure with Crown on the side. Hyatt's stand was decent. They didn't have much info on the refurbed Park Hyatt Sydney other than there would be three penthouses.
The BA stand reps were useless. I asked them if a Qantas Platinum flying economy could use the LHR T5 Arrivals lounge. The answer was yes. Then I asked if I could use it travelling in Euro Traveller from, say, Athens to London. Again, yes. She clearly didn't have a clue. In contrast, the AA stand rep had much better knowledge. There are no plans for a Flagship lounge at DFW, primarily because no matter which terminal they put it in they'd disappoint people. The rep also had much better knowledge about AA LHR T3 Arrivals lounge access for QF passengers. Simply, only when flying QF in J or F. No access for Platinum (unless in J or F).
