Platinum [benefits]

[OzEire]

* Nary a hint of an opup in 7+ years of WP, domestic or international;

* Occasional extra chat from a CSM when in J or F (points upgrade) but usually no particular recognition, domestic or international on QF; EK made a fuss once, when I was on F on them;

* Have had an award J seat opened up for me on MEL/SYD-LHR and MEL/SYD-LAX a number of times, when 2-3 months out and no availability showing; only refused once, when enquired 2 weeks out. This is a material benefit, and useful

* Access to F lounges worldwide is the best consistently available benefit for me

* Seating priority/availability another significant benefit for me

* Priority boarding on OW airlines (other than Qantas, where it often doesn't exist) is useful - was extremely handy on LAN flights recently

* Priority in getting things sorted when things go pear shaped

+1

My WP experience is very similar.

 

[calmelb]

How long do you guys think it should take to receive my Platinum package?

 

[cmon0005]

How long do you guys think it should take to receive my Platinum package?

2 weeks normally

 

[calmelb]

Ok. It will be two weeks on this coming Monday. I was just wondering because even for PS & SG it hasn't taken this long. Maybe I was just lucky

 

[daturtle]

Ok. It will be two weeks on this coming Monday. I was just wondering because even for PS & SG it hasn't taken this long. Maybe I was just lucky

My plat tags never showed up and I had to call to get them sent out. Card showed up within the expected time however. You can just flick them an email and they'll respond pretty quickly.

 

[hopefulQFF]

Just requalified Platinum for another year - I've had a great experience as a WP this last year (my first year as Platinum) - I've had 3 domestic Op-Ups (BNE - SYD, BNE - MEL) and great treatment from staff in the lounges and on flights. Also good and knowledgeable staff on the Platinum helpdesk. Happy to be WP and enjoying QF.

 

[chooms]

Re-qualified another year from today (31 May is my cut off day).

Again, no op-ups at all in the past year. Plenty of use of the Dom J Lounges.

Best benefit used in the last year: priority upgrades J -> F SYD-LAX. Empty F cabin T-60 out from the flight and the text message was received and had the open cabin to selected. At close of doors the entire cabin was full. Oh, and the Flounge was great too.

Also, the priority phone service is good too. Made an entire upcoming travel booking over the phone including selecting flights not offered via the website (for connections).

Worst part about WP now: Priority boarding being opened up to SG members. No point in having this now, may as well have two lines for everyone.

 

[teamhamsandwich]

I just booked in my last flight to get WP by my year end date of oct 31. Did it the hard way in mostly discount Y and partner airlines! 56 flights in total. Pretty proud of this!

brisbane	mel	15
mel	syd	15
syd	mel	15
mel	brisbane	15
brisbane	mel	15
mel	syd	10
newcastle	mel	10
mel	london	95
london	munich	10
munich	berlin	0
berlin	munich	0
munich	london	10
london	mel	95
mel	nadi	20
nadi	mel	25
mel	singapore	60
singapore	shanghai	40
shanghai	lax	40
lax	vancouver	15
vancouver	dallas	20
dallas	greensboro	15
greensboro	charlotte	10
charlotte	lax	15
lax	seattle	15
seattle	lax	15
lax	shanghai	40
shanghai	sydney	40
sydney	melbourne	10
melbourne	sydney	20
sydney	shanghai	60
shanghai	syd	90
syd	mel	30

mel	syd	10
syd	mel	10
mel	perth	20
perth	mel	20
mel	syd	30
syd	shanghai	90
shanghai	beijing	0
beijing	yinchuan	0
yinchuan	shanghai	0
shanghai	kl	20
kl	chennai	20
chennai	kl	20
kl	bangkok	20
bangkok	hong kong	20
hong kong	shanghai	15
shanghai	tokyo	60
tokyo	okinawa	60
okinawa	tokyo	15
tokyo	shanghai	40
shanghai	hong kong	15
hong kong	london	30
london	hong kong	30
hong kong	shanghai	15
		1445

 

[Colster]

Well done. I am 5 points off requal which will be tomorrow, and three months early- all whY.

 

[Deleted member]

I just booked in my last flight to get WP by my year end date of oct 31. Did it the hard way in mostly discount Y and partner airlines! 56 flights in total. Pretty proud of this!

brisbane	mel	15
mel	syd	15
syd	mel	15
mel	brisbane	15
brisbane	mel	15
mel	syd	10
newcastle	mel	10
mel	london	95
london	munich	10
munich	berlin	0
berlin	munich	0
munich	london	10
london	mel	95
mel	nadi	20
nadi	mel	25
mel	singapore	60
singapore	shanghai	40
shanghai	lax	40
lax	vancouver	15
vancouver	dallas	20
dallas	greensboro	15
greensboro	charlotte	10
charlotte	lax	15
lax	seattle	15
seattle	lax	15
lax	shanghai	40
shanghai	sydney	40
sydney	melbourne	10
melbourne	sydney	20
sydney	shanghai	60
shanghai	syd	90
syd	mel	30

mel	syd	10
syd	mel	10
mel	perth	20
perth	mel	20
mel	syd	30
syd	shanghai	90
shanghai	beijing	0
beijing	yinchuan	0
yinchuan	shanghai	0
shanghai	kl	20
kl	chennai	20
chennai	kl	20
kl	bangkok	20
bangkok	hong kong	20
hong kong	shanghai	15
shanghai	tokyo	60
tokyo	okinawa	60
okinawa	tokyo	15
tokyo	shanghai	40
shanghai	hong kong	15
hong kong	london	30
london	hong kong	30
hong kong	shanghai	15
		1445

I would (just out of curiosity ) be interested to know what the $ spend was for all that.

 

[wisewoman]

I have been a QFF platinum member for quite a few years and am a lifetime silver.

Last year I spent $50k on Qantas flights. Today I have flights from Perth to Sydney to Fort Worth. From there I have several internal flights. Booked and requested a points upgrade to business for the Sydney -Fort Worth leg 6 months ago. A few hours ago (6 hours before my first flight) my upgrade was refused. Yesterday I was told there were 10 empty business seats.

My experience with qantas over the past 12 months is that platinum is the new silver. Very few benefits and little loyalty on their part. Many of my colleagues are changing to Virgin who are offering to recognise our qantas status on their velocity programme. I think it's time to move too as those who have seem to invariably get upgrades. Not happy qantas. I'm told by a Qantas insider that Perth FF are last to be given upgrades in favour of those from Sydney and Melbourne. It seems that might just be so.

Hey All,

I just reached WP (Woo Hoo!) this morning and am waiting till the esteemed package of my card arrives!

Since I've seen the Platinum One benefits thread and didn't see one for lowly Platinum's I think we should start one.

So, what have you WP's gotten in terms of status recognition when flying QF, EK or OW Airlines?

-calmelb

p.s. Thanks for all your help in teaching me the workings of the QFF system!

 

[Deleted member]

I'm wedded to QF. When I'm bereft of status I can at least fall back on LTQP.

 

[Colster]

I am 1100 away from LTG and then I may go virgin shopping, so to speak.

 

[teamhamsandwich]

I would (just out of curiosity ) be interested to know what the $ spend was for all that

No idea. Work covered most of it.

 

[token01]

Been A WP for a few years now and heres my experience:

I have Achieved WP flying purely domestic - (all long haul i do do is on SQ or LH)
This has been with 50 - 60 sectors booked in 90% flexible economy on BNE - SYD (80%) or SYD - MEL routes (20%) and 10% in Business class.
I upgrade around 70% of sectors before departure and have been lucky that the great staff at the domestic lounge in BNE or SYD have never failed to get me an upgrade seat on departure if the sms waitlist doesn't clear in time or i book last minute. All trips are self funded.

Furthermore 99% of flights i Take are the old J seats (hopeless and not worth a revenue purchase if self funded in my onpinion) and very rarely i get the blue lighting and maroon seats. I sure miss the 767's ha.

Experience in Lounge: purely comes down to being a familiar face and enjoy great rapport with some great staff out of BNE and SYD
Upgrades: always been charged points. Had 1 upgrade out of 80 flights over the last few years which i didn't upgrade on time before departure which was done after enquiring for any J seats (not sure if staff realised i wanted to use points and did it out of status and goodwill.)
On board: Scare recognition of status in J cabin, meal service sometimes prioritised, and one in a blue moon CSM's will do the personal introduction and thank for loyalty.
Call Centre: Premium has been good when i need a rare flight change and requested only 2 long haul J/F releases and received both eventually.
Other than that, i really haven't seen any benefit of WP, and if booked in J don't see any point of it domestically.
Priority Luggage: Lottery. Pure Lottery when bags come out (hardly use the Q tags)

I realise a lot of benefits might lie with long haul flights so its a shame that domestically you don't get too much. Plus every time i fly out of BNE or SYD there is never any FIN's left and poor staff are always chasing one from chairman's. I fly all revenue J/F/R with SQ and have seen benefits more with TPP and not much with QPP (in premium cabins nearly no difference). Im guessing the benefits experienced there would be the equivalent of P1 with qantas. I have considered booking revenue J with QF to achieve it however following this forum simulator time and a couple of corporate tickets for the rugby wouldn't do it justice ;p.
Then again I notice with interest the difference in amount of sectors as opposed to amount of revenue achieved by QF. I get that some people here fly long haul J/F that qantas earns a great deal more on that vs domestic flying. However when you are on QF metal at least twice a week, id like to see some recognition also of perhaps how many metal flights you take irrespective of status sector earn. This is strictly due to my patterns of flying with QF

That said Im tempted to flirt with Virgin. Only reason i havent yet is due to flying out of T2 and not T3 in Syd. Every time i get dropped off and you swing by T2 it looks like a zoo ha !

 

[TomVexille]

That said Im tempted to flirt with Virgin. Only reason i havent yet is due to flying out of T2 and not T3 in Syd. Every time i get dropped off and you swing by T2 it looks like a zoo ha !

Premium entry is nice

 

[ozbeachbabe]

I have been a QFF platinum member for quite a few years and am a lifetime silver.

Last year I spent $50k on Qantas flights. Today I have flights from Perth to Sydney to Fort Worth. From there I have several internal flights. Booked and requested a points upgrade to business for the Sydney -Fort Worth leg 6 months ago. A few hours ago (6 hours before my first flight) my upgrade was refused. Yesterday I was told there were 10 empty business seats.

Not happy qantas. I'm told by a Qantas insider that Perth FF are last to be given upgrades in favour of those from Sydney and Melbourne. It seems that might just be so.

I don't believe there's any truth to the last paragraph whatsoever.

Did you not select the 'opt-in' option for an upgrade on the day?

Wonder if you've changed your pin in the last 6 months and and upgrade request was done with the old one.

There should be no upgrade requests pending if a flight goes out with empty seats in J.

I"d call QF or pm Red Roo on AFF to look into it on your behalf.

 

[token01]

Well since i last posted here about the lack of FIN's everytime out of sydney domestic Business Lounge, there is a stack of 100 tonight. Big Brother??

 

[trippin_the_rift]

I have been a QFF platinum member for quite a few years and am a lifetime silver.

Last year I spent $50k on Qantas flights. Today I have flights from Perth to Sydney to Fort Worth. From there I have several internal flights. Booked and requested a points upgrade to business for the Sydney -Fort Worth leg 6 months ago. A few hours ago (6 hours before my first flight) my upgrade was refused. Yesterday I was told there were 10 empty business seats.

My experience with qantas over the past 12 months is that platinum is the new silver. Very few benefits and little loyalty on their part. Many of my colleagues are changing to Virgin who are offering to recognise our qantas status on their velocity programme. I think it's time to move too as those who have seem to invariably get upgrades. Not happy qantas. I'm told by a Qantas insider that Perth FF are last to be given upgrades in favour of those from Sydney and Melbourne. It seems that might just be so.

I enjoy dissecting these scenarios from and airline POV.
ozbeachbabe has some great suggestions and you should definitely follow up with Red Roo, however as someone who lives in the frequent flyer space; here's my take (which may or may not be reality but should give you some insight).

Your upgrade request to business may put you behind all Premium Economy -> Business upgrade requests assuming you were booked in Economy. Given the likelihood of upgrades from PE->Biz this puts you at the back of the list because you simply paid less for the ticket than them. Also likely there is at least 1x Plat1 with a similar request to you.
Assuming you were booked in econ - did you have a fallback upgrade to Premium Econ?

Flight loading can change dramatically on US flights if there are any irregular operations on the day of departure. You've also got last minute ticket sales, CL/Plat1's requesting upgrades for their family, seats that may be faulty/not for pax, First class passengers that may have been bumped to biz, other airlines buying last minute seats to put their VIP pax onboard...etc... many more potential reasons. The fact you called up and QF mentioned 10 available seats doesn't mean a great deal. Did you ask if your upgrade request was still in the system?

Now assuming QF did screw up somewhere (like your pin changing as suggested earlier) - and you did in fact pay more for your ticket to be able to upgrade - I would be demanding compensation to reflect the differences in ticket price.

In the future you could look at PER-DXB-DFW on Emirates - it's only a couple hours extra travel time and you'd have a bunch of extras in business class over Qantas like free chauffeur pickup/drop off, free inflight internet, more privacy and a380 the entire journey. Not to mention more QANTAS points and more status credits and likely a lower price. Oh, and that QF Plats on Emirates have a HUGE free-upgrade %rate.

 

[trippin_the_rift]

I'm wedded to QF. When I'm bereft of status I can at least fall back on LTQP.

3 beers, 2 hours and pen and paper.
I can help facilitate a divorce and introduce you to a much more loving and rewarding life in the sky