Lunch with Lesley – Attendees

[Flying Fox]

Actually, who was at the table with me that raised the analogy about saving up baggage allowance and using it all at once?

What kind of cheeky bugger would say that ???? ...... [slowly raises hand in air].

1500+ KGs of baggage allowance for the previous financial year from travelling with only hand luggage

Next time I would like to check-in my car without paying any excess luggage fees please

 

[QF WP]

See what happens. People don't like these changes and mention that their travel plans will change away from Qantas.

And at the first mention of Double SCs they run back....

You mustn't be talking about me then, as my travel plans have been substantially VA since I joined on 25 August 2011 (enough to qualify Plat in Feb 2012 and then re-qualify twice). My jump was due to the QF changes back then and wanting another alternative (the status match at the time was the final hurdle removed). My QF SC earning has remained at Gold since 2008 - I put sufficient SC's every year to re-qualify Gold.

QF WP has been pretty consistent with commentary about moving and sticking with VA. The only running I see is the other way...

One tries to be consistent amaroo, one tries . If QF wish to assist some pax with re-qualifying, then that is at their discretion - as it is our discretion to opt in (or not). Given that I haven't received an offer, the narrow window of opportunity for booking flights and with my April/May already looking relatively full, I would only be able to possibly arrange day trips to ADL and SYD, so hardly much of a DSC usage:

22/04/2014 VA464  BNE/PER     
24/04/2014 QF594  PER/BNE    
08/05/2014 VA304  BNE/MEL         
08/05/2014 QF634  MEL/BNE    
23/05/2014 QF824  BNE/DRW    
23/05/2014 QF1939 DRW/ASP    
26/05/2014 QF1940 AYQ/ASP        
26/05/2014 QF722  ASP/ADL    
26/05/2014 QF656  ADL/BNE

This change to QF earning tables will probably cement my current BFOD or best schedule (within price parameters). Thus in my PER and MEL trips, outbound with one carrier and return with the other happened to work thus. That helps to advance SC totals towards re-qual with both carriers. The QF upcoming flights (PER/BNE, MEL/BNE and BNE/DRW) are all JASA's whilst the only other revenue flight is AYQ/ASP. The other QF flights (DRW/ASP, ASP/ADL and ADL/BNE) are AAwards.

 

[Hvr]

Well I got back to MEL and then drove to work, finished at 04.00am and went home exhausted. I had a quick look at AFF and sent an email thanking Chelsea for her organising skills.

I certainly enjoyed the day and speaking to Lesley and the team. They did cop a grilling from us and took it with good humour.

I spoke with Lesley, Justin and Red Roo and of course many AFFers. Having previously met Red Roo I was very impressed that she not only remembered the conversation but was able to mention my cat by name. Essential skills for her role.

I look forward to the opportunity to attend another function in the future and in the meantime to catch up with fellow AFFers where ever possible.

 

[JohnM]

I too would like to thank Red Roo and her team for the organisation of this event. It was great to finally meet fellow AFF members, so thanks for the great day.

On another note, I have just received a customer feedback form from QF regarding the delay to QF571 yesterday. Bit surprised but appreciative as I hadn't submitted any feedback.
I am just wondering if Reggie and JohnM have received the same?

+1 for the function.

I also received the apology/feedback email.

 

[JohnK]

The QF flight back to BNE has been delayed - thanks JohnK...

And the delay to the MEL and PER flights.

The BNE flight must have been delayed ~40 minutes. An ex AFFer was also on the flight. Then waited for the train with samh004. When I got to Roma St station I waited for the train to Milton which didn't take off as there was a medical emergency so waited some more for next train. Finally got to apartment ~9:30pm and crashed shortly thereafter.

All my muscles are aching today.

 

[Danger]

And arrivals access was sneakily wound back from dom and international to domestic only.

I was thinking of SIN in particular, which I was using frequently at the time.

Arrivals access at international Business lounges still exists for Platinum members.

https://qantas.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/6609/kw/arrival access

 

[Danger]

Really nice thank you gift from Qantas Loyalty
View attachment 27065

Well come May 13th that very classy set of books will become obsolete with the need to remove the third book from the bootom. It has a Qantas logo when in fact it should have a Jetstar logo.

 

[mannej]

Well come May 13th that very classy set of books will become obsolete with the need to remove the third book from the bootom. It has a Qantas logo when in fact it should have a Jetstar logo.

It's still a seasonal best seller ;-)

 

[QF WP]

Just snaffle a JQ sticker and put it over the Red Roo logo

 

[JohnK]

It was a wonderful lunch and very informative. It was also good to see some familiar faces and also meet some new people.

Thanks to Red Roo and everyone at Qantas involved in organising the event. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to attend and your continued interaction on AFF is greatly appreciated.!

 

[ALH]

.........All my muscles are aching today.

That could be from all the salt in the pretzels

 

[Happy Trails]

Arrivals access at international Business lounges still exists for Platinum members.

https://qantas.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/6609/kw/arrival access

That's interesting and I hadn't noticed it in the FAQs before, but it's contradicted by the lounge access pages which all include the 'next onward flight' provision:

Platinum Frequent Flyer	Next onward flight must be on a Qantas^, Emirates^, Jetstar Airlines+ or oneworld flight number.#

Lounge Locations | Singapore Changi International Airport | The Qantas Singapore Lounge


And this from the QF website at the time of ATA removal:

+ From 1 February 2011, to access Qantas Domestic lounges, Platinum Members must be travelling on any flight the same day that shows Qantas (QF), a Jetstar Airline (Jetstar (JQ), Jetstar Asia (3K) or Valuair (VF)) or a oneworld® flight number on your ticket. To access Qantas International lounges, a Platinum Member's next onward flight that day must show a Qantas (QF), a Jetstar Airline (Jetstar (JQ), Jetstar Asia (3K), Valuair (VF)) or a oneworld® flight number on your ticket. Other lounge access conditions apply

 

[JohnK]

That could be from all the salt in the pretzels

That could be it. Serves me right for munching on pretzels and not eating anything after lunch.

 

[Reggie]

That could be it. Serves me right for munching on pretzels and not eating anything after lunch.

I helped you with the pretzels.

 

[Ben_F]

That could be it. Serves me right for munching on pretzels and not eating anything after lunch.

But even then, the pretzels looked delicious, so is it really a bad thing?

 

[Chase]

i myself is so very thankful for the wonderful opportunity to be part in such an amazing event (thanks Redroo! ( daym! ) for me being a newbie and my first aff event the highlight would be meeting such a great bunch of people specially the melbournians and being in a table with the infamous JohnM, JohnK, PrincessFiona, Medhead, Pablo, flyingfox. it was amazing to finally being able to put faces on handles here and i can't wait to meet more of you guys and to attend more aff events. special thanks to SamH for taking notes and updates here. again thank you all heaps!

 

[Isochronous]

As far as I recall yes. It was phrased more of a "What if I can't fly QF or QF code ?"
QF stated that they had had a lot of feedback in particular from members who flew from Asia (SIN and HKG) to LHR and that this is something they were looking at as "no changes set in stone".
Medhead also brought up very well the difficulty facing ADL members wanting to fly internationally.
The question of relative increased points and SC earn from WA to the Middle East was dodged IMHO with something vague about Zones IIRC.

I thought it was gone but you can still earn SCs and points on Any Seat awards


A few things will be looked at

- Review of how ADL is affected with changes
- More codeshares with partners for onward flights from SIN/HKG to Europe and more specifically LHR
- Review possibility of upgrades from Any Seat awards or Classic

The ADL one is interesting. They have had a lot of feedback.

The best thing to do with Asia-Europe would be to subject it to the general partner airline/other routes table. BA and CX don't want to do the codeshare, so AY would be the only option and some might want a direct service to LHR or CX's other EU ports.

 

[JohnK]

What is changing is that an Any seat award will no longer be book able in classic award fare buckets. That is Marginal ASAs. You will still be able to book revenue fare buckets using points+pay. As a revenue fare it will of course still earn.

Yes I remember now.

Points + Pay is the new Any Seat award and people do not like it as it prices closer to the cost of the airfare at 0.7c/point.

 

[medhead]

Yes I remember now.

Points + Pay is the new Any Seat award and people do not like it as it prices closer to the cost of the airfare at 0.7c/point.

My feeling is there are opportunities to price better than masa. But for travel that is unattractive to the majority here.

I'm not sure if you've seen any of The Hobbit movies but when I feel the need to say point plus pay are anyseat awards I'm like golum. A deep, guteral lurgy cough of golum, golum; points plus pay.

 

[Danger]

That's interesting and I hadn't noticed it in the FAQs before, but it's contradicted by the lounge access pages which all include the 'next onward flight' provision:

Platinum Frequent Flyer	Next onward flight must be on a Qantas^, Emirates^, Jetstar Airlines+ or oneworld flight number.#

Lounge Locations | Singapore Changi International Airport | The Qantas Singapore Lounge


And this from the QF website at the time of ATA removal:

+ From 1 February 2011, to access Qantas Domestic lounges, Platinum Members must be travelling on any flight the same day that shows Qantas (QF), a Jetstar Airline (Jetstar (JQ), Jetstar Asia (3K) or Valuair (VF)) or a oneworld® flight number on your ticket. To access Qantas International lounges, a Platinum Member's next onward flight that day must show a Qantas (QF), a Jetstar Airline (Jetstar (JQ), Jetstar Asia (3K), Valuair (VF)) or a oneworld® flight number on your ticket. Other lounge access conditions apply

Well I'm dumbfounded. I've never known the Qantas website to offer contradictory information.

Besides, things are so much simpler now.