Qantas Platinum One experiences?

[aus_flyer]

To all the newly-minted Platinum One frequent flyers out there... I'm curious to hear... what's been your experience so far?

Anything different?

Free upgrades?

... or all hype?

 

[kermatu]

Zero contact prior to my first flight in 327 days. No upgrade or recognition onboard. A belated welcome back email and phone call after I made contact with the VIP team with a query.

Underwhelming. But fine. Nothing has changed.

 

[Sprucegoose]

Zero contact prior to my first flight in 327 days. No upgrade or recognition onboard. A belated welcome back email and phone call after I made contact with the VIP team with a query.

Underwhelming. But fine. Nothing has changed.

Did they offer you a free spring water ?

guaranteed happiness is quite possible if one lowers expectations.......

 

[Matt_01]

Zero contact prior to my first flight in 327 days. No upgrade or recognition onboard. A belated welcome back email and phone call after I made contact with the VIP team with a query.

Underwhelming. But fine. Nothing has changed.

You state 'underwhelming' what were you expecting? the red carpet to be rolled out and a welcome back @kermatu. Most P1's I know have commented on the better service level and experience from the QF VIP team. The new team seems to be able to deal with flight changes, fee waivers and all the other cough that P1's come up with or dream up. Also as for your 'no upgrade' on this thread there have been very few reports of upgrades and from what I have read the upgrades seem to be on very low yield routes.

Personally I think QF want to keep as many P1s as they can, if you do not like the program you can vote with your wallet.

 

[kermatu]

Red carpet is definitely the least I deserve.

 

[nutwood]

You state 'underwhelming' what were you expecting? the red carpet to be rolled out and a welcome back @kermatu. Most P1's I know have commented on the better service level and experience from the QF VIP team. The new team seems to be able to deal with flight changes, fee waivers and all the other cough that P1's come up with or dream up. Also as for your 'no upgrade' on this thread there have been very few reports of upgrades and from what I have read the upgrades seem to be on very low yield routes.

Personally I think QF want to keep as many P1s as they can, if you do not like the program you can vote with your wallet.

To date, I'd have to support the "underwhelming" description. I've no wish to criticise the VIP team. They've always been perfectly polite and friendly but as far as any tangible benefit, I'm struggling to find one.
To put in context, apart from April and May, I've been flying solidly throughout the last year.

 

[Matt_01]

@nutwood everyone has a different expectation of the program so the term "underwhelming" is most likely subjective. What is a tangible benefit, from the QF web site:

"Your VIP Service Team
As a Platinum One member, we invite you to access the Qantas VIP Service Team who are available seven days a week between 7am and 11pm (AEST/AEDT), wherever you are in the world, to take care of all aspects of your Qantas travel journey. As well as handling your routine requests for flight bookings and upgrades, the team personally monitor your Qantas travel, and manage any flight changes to minimise disruption. You'll find the team's contact details when signing in to My account."

In the SST days, QF only monitored QF international flights, or at least that was my experience, I have not flown international since March 20 and as such cannot make a comparison between SST and VIP. As a P1 for seven years leading up to 2020 I rarely contacted SST, SST couldn't help or so it seemed with issues other than QF international flights. The VIP team can seamlessly manage to deal with bookings both domestic and international, which in my opinion is an improvement. As far as I am concerned the tangible benefit that QF publishes is no different to the past i.e find "SST" and replace with "VIP". Just saying.

 

[RichardMEL]

I had an experience of the SST monitoring a domestic flight (which did surprise me!). It was a MEL-CBR flight. I was doing a MEL-CBR-SYD routing because.. well.. why fly direct right? Anyway I was at MEL saw the cxl and thought ugh ok so went to the service desk (back in the days when that was a thing ) and sorted it.. right after I finished with them QF Premium Res in BNE called me to advise and rebook and I said it was already sorted but thank you.. then 10-15 minutes later SST called. I felt overly coddled that morning. lol

but yes honestly SST mostly helped with international and that was fine.

As for underwhelming .. I guess it's all about expectation isn't it? And those can vary wildly.

 

[nutwood]

These things are always subjective. I had several years of P1 flying domestically under SST and I have continued flying domestically under the new arrangements. I prefer what I had before, however it is early days yet so I am not complaining.

 

[nutwood]

Put the Avis President membership to the test again. This time booked a Corolla and was asked if I wanted a SUV. Declined the SUV and was offered a hybrid Camry. Actual invoice shows: "Vehicle Group Rented: Eco Friendly. Vehicle Group Charged: Standard."
Considerable saving there so quite happy.

 

[nutwood]

As a comment on the new P1 services, I've found that they are not a lot of help when enquiring about current COVID issues.
Obviously COVID is a tricky and fast moving situation but surely this is where a dedicated service should be able to excel? Every time I've enquired, they look at the same web pages I'm looking at and give me the same vague answers.
I discussed it today and was told that they simply refer PAX to the State Government websites as it changes so often, they don't want to give wrong advice. My thought is that if you're offering a premium service, you need to be on top of this stuff and you don't offer wrong advice because you are all over the latest information.
I'm fully capable of looking at websites. It becomes harder when I'm travelling and working with the little screen. It'd be nice to think that there's a P1 team out there who've got my back.

 

[Kangol]

As a comment on the new P1 services, I've found that they are not a lot of help when enquiring about current COVID issues.
Obviously COVID is a tricky and fast moving situation but surely this is where a dedicated service should be able to excel? Every time I've enquired, they look at the same web pages I'm looking at and give me the same vague answers.
I discussed it today and was told that they simply refer PAX to the State Government websites as it changes so often, they don't want to give wrong advice. My thought is that if you're offering a premium service, you need to be on top of this stuff and you don't offer wrong advice because you are all over the latest information.
I'm fully capable of looking at websites. It becomes harder when I'm travelling and working with the little screen. It'd be nice to think that there's a P1 team out there who've got my back.

What specific issues were you enquiring about?

 

[nutwood]

What specific issues were you enquiring about?

I've enquired about various issues. Generally related to borders and transiting through airports. Also lounge access.
I'm probably being unfair saying not a lot of help. When I've been on the road, heading for an airport 500 kms away and needing information, they've provided. They haven't had the information to hand, but they've googled away and got it. Something I couldn't do whilst driving and with borderline reception. As I've said before, very friendly, very helpful but they don't seem very empowered.

 

[Fergo747]

Took my first flights in a long time over the weekend. Was only SYD-CFS-SYD but was overall a positive experience. Got a call from the VIP team a couple of days prior to see whether there was any assistance I needed, had a blocked seat next to me on both flights (flights were pretty much full) and was given a pre-departure bottle of water on each flight - no other persons were given one. Whilst these are pretty minor in the scheme of things they were appreciated.

Whilst not specific to the actual travel, was also easily able to change my flight with the VIP team when my plans changed and needed to come home early.

 

[nutwood]

Continuing my ongoing assessment of the Avis offer, I booked a "Compact" (Kia Rio). On pickup, this turned into a Kia Cerato. I'm not sure, but I'm thinking this was one step up and would be classified as "Standard". Bit bigger, more power etc. I queried whether there was a Camry available but apparently "love to help but no stock".
From my three trials so far, I would suggest that Avis Presidents Club is in keeping with the general P1 ethos, in that you may well get upgraded, but if it's important to you, book it the way you want it because you can't rely on it happening.
For those interested, the Cerato was adequate for my purposes, running about Sydney and a return trip to Newcastle. Comfortable enough and fuel economy was good. I wouldn't be selecting it for anything more and to be honest, given other options, I probably wouldn't select it at all. I did an equivalent trip in December with a hybrid Corolla and that would be my preference.

 

[calmelb]

I discussed it today and was told that they simply refer PAX to the State Government websites as it changes so often, they don't want to give wrong advice. My thought is that if you're offering a premium service, you need to be on top of this stuff and you don't offer wrong advice because you are all over the latest information.

Late to reply, but I can see why they do that. Given even some state governments can't have their own call centres up to date/ accurate on the laws then what hope does Qantas have. Its between a minor annoyance they read what you can have in front of you or a major issue if say Victoria made your area a red zone and you were turned around and fined $4500

 

[Matt_01]

Just wondering if anyone else saw the banner in their account offering a 20% P1 discount. It seems like similar T's and C's to those in the past.

 

[Fergo747]

Just wondering if anyone else saw the banner in their account offering a 20% P1 discount. It seems like similar T's and C's to those in the past.

Just had a look and yep - mine says I need to book by March 5.

 

[nutwood]

Note the fine print; "Booking must be made at least 28 days before travel"

 

[nutwood]

Also excludes Red e Deals.

 

[Kangol]

The link has the heading: Platinum One Briefing for Feb 2021.
I don't recall getting an email this month, maybe I've missed it or it will be arriving soon!