Platinum Plus Perhaps ...

[serfty]

Prologue

I am about to head off by train to Broadmeadows station from where I'll catch a 901 bus to Melbourne airport. There I'll catch Virgin Australia to Cairns.

This trip was booked last year as a status run as part of retaining Velocity Platinum. The Business Class journey MEL to CNS via BNE each way should earn 320 status credits. I flew another of these in March; both bookings were made in early October last year.

These were planned to have me well on the way to requalification. Like many, I have the post COVID 28th February Velocity Review Date so travel needed to be in the 365 days after that.

A few days after booking something came up:

Major changes to Velocity Frequent Flyer

OK ... these changes have been dissected in detail by many and I'll not do that here. Suffice to say that on a personal level with these changes I could not envisage being able to achieve the new "Platinum Plus" level, let alone retain Velocity Platinum beyond early 2027 at any reasonable cost. So be it ...

But then a question was asked on Australian Frequent Flyer about Qualifying up a Velocity Status level after October 2025 and how it may work.

The post and it's answers got me thinking about the 365 days to qualify for a higher tier, soft landings and such ... I have come across is no indication this is changing.

Anyway, off to Cairns ...

 

[serfty]

Two trains and a bus later, I'm in the Virgin Australia lounge having some soup.

The trip was mainly uneventful, my late running second train may have strained the scheduled 5 minute bus connection at Broadmeadows, but the bus itself was running 10 minutes late.

One thing did happen though on the bus was a full sized spinner suitcase escaping from the grasp of its owner and carreening to the front of the bus as it braked, bouncing off sundry legs and fittings as it made us abrupt journey forward.

I did ask for some orange juice, but they only had a mixed fruit drink. It was ok.

My flight appears on time and is scheduled to board in 40 minutes.

 

[serfty]

Off to Brisbane; this was a strait forward flight on a route I have travelled over a hundred times.

The business cabin was attentively serviced by Yoey.

The meal options were:

• Beef Quesadilla with charcoal salsa
• Vegetable and Chickpea Tagine with optional Chicken.

I chose the tagine ... I did enjoy it.

There was a 10 minute arrival delay due to weather passing through the airport.

 

[serfty]

I had effectively an hour transit at Brisbane. I went to the lounge and fired up my laptop for some research. Boarding for the flight to Cairns was on time and soon I was in my seat.

On-board I was approached by David who took my pre departure drink but then advised there would be at least a 20-minute delay due to a late flight from Perth with 26 connecting passengers. We would be waiting for them.

Looking around, this made sense as only four of the eight business class seats were occupied. The cabin had been showing as full that morning. I used flightradar24 to follow the late flight noting it landed at about the time of our original scheduled departure. It was to use a gate two down from my flight

Noting it was still raining at the airport I resumed watching the movie I had not completed on the earlier flight.

The connecting passengers made their way across in dribs and drabs, the business cabin filled and we eventually left the gate 25 minutes late. Takeoff was further delayed as the flight used the newish runway 19R which meant a taxi seemingly almost to Redcliffe. We took off at 6:32pm after waiting for a Singapore Airlines flight to do so. I guess their taxi was longer.

In-flight service did not start for another 25 minutes after takeoff due to the surrounding weather and expected turbulence. Once the seatbelt sign went off the really great service by David commenced.

Meal options were:

• Southern Style Chicken with roast potatoes wedges, zucchini and bacon/bresaola mushroom cream sauce.
• Thai yellow vegetable curry with optional chicken.

I chose the former; the chicken was relatively substantial although the meal was generally "not crisp".


Throughout the flight David came around several times proactively offering "Pantry" items along with regular drink top ups. Really outstanding service.

The flight eventually arrived at its gate in Cairns 35 minutes late.

While waiting for the aerobridge to connect I checked Uber, and it was showing a fare to my accommodation of $13. By the time I proceeded to book a few seconds later, that had increased to $17, I accepted as this was still less than an expected taxi fare. I had experienced expensive Uber from Cairns earlier this year, requesting after being landside and eventually taking a taxi. This time I decided to request as early as I felt one could do so. It reminded me of this thread:

Thread 'Uber drivers at CNS routinely cancelling rides to manipulate surge pricing'

Mar 19, 2025

Arrived into CNS and decided to use Uber. Booked and then driver assigned and soon cancelled. New driver assigned and then cancelled. happened multiple times and each time the price was going up - due to "high demand". Gave up and wandered back to the taxi rank and no wait at all and a very pleasant taxi driver. He explained that the Uber drivers often manipulate the surging at the airport in this way. Taxi ride was lower cost than the surging Uber price at that time.

Return to the airport and Uber drivers were unable to manipulate the surging and readily/quickly available. Got a very...

• NM
• Replies: 174
• Forum: Taxis & Ridesharing Apps

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I had a talkative driver who came from Deniliquin. We talked about AFL on the short trip, and I was at my accommodation by 9:20pm and asleep soon after.

 

[serfty]

The DONE4

Last year I purchased a four continent Oneworld Explorer Business Class fare (DONE4) departing Japan. I used an extremely competent Travel Agent to book this and the cost all up was a little over $9K.

This would be flown as three separate trips, beginning in February. The first trip would credit to my current Qantas membership year, the other two crediting to my next "year".

With oneworld Explorer fares, the departure of the last flight in the booking needed to be within one year of the first flight. Since at the time of booking the expected dates for the later flights were not within the 353-day booking window, it was made using dummy dates for those flights with stopovers and transits set to match that envisaged. After flying the first part and once the booking window opened for the remaining segments, they would be fulfilled with the actual dates and flights.

The booking was split into three separate journies. Having double status credits, the earn for the first part would be over 1000. The remaining status credits to get to 1200 would been earned during the "year". Total earn for the second two parts would be well over that magical 1200.

With this three-part plan, positioning flights needed to be booked - this was mainly done with award bookings. The availability of long haul business class awards somewhat dictated flight timings and the DONE4 has been booked to match.

• Japan to Australia/New Zealand, finishing in Sydney in February.

For the first part I needed separate bookings to get from Melbourne to Japan to start, then from Sydney to Melbourne. I was able to purchase a business class fare on Virgin Australia's now defunct Cairns-Haneda service at the end of January. Connecting from Melbourne the day prior, the cost was about $1.3K. Bonus here was that I would requalify Velocity Platinum for the reminder of 2025 with this booking. Sydney to Melbourne to return home was booked as a simple red e-deal.

• Sydney to Europe/Middle East then North America, finishing in Los Angeles. All before Christmas this year.

To recommence the trip and get back to Sydney from Melbourne a simple domestic flight has been booked on JetStar International. How lucky do I feel about that flight still existing in late November? To get back to Melbourne after parking the trip in Los Angeles my Qantas Platinum status enabled me to call and successfully request a Business Award flight release.

Much of the Europe travel has been booked on Qatar airlines

• Los Angeles, around North America then back to Japan in in the new year.

For the last part to get back to North America, I was able to book a Qantas award in Business on Fiji Airways via Nadi. Return from Japan at the end of January back to Melbourne is currently booked using Singapore Airlines Kris Flyer.

I had a fairly uneventful completion in February to the first part of this booking, although I did get a terrific view of greater Tokyo with a go around when trying to land at Haneda Airport. The JAL metal day flight was interesting, but I did not take notes and having travelled trans-Tasman over 160 times, to me the travel was straight forward.

Post in thread 'Ask The Pilot'

Feb 1, 2025

I was travelling into HND last night on VA77 from CNS. We had internet and I was watching FR24 as we approached the airport from the South.

All of a sudden we did a go around veering to the left and doing a clockwise loop with those on the right windows getting a terrific view of Tokyo in the evening. We landed 34 minutes later.

The pilot came over the PA suggested that due to separation/congestion issues our flight drew the short straw.

From what I recall and looking at the track, we had a lot of course changes coming in but otherwise, aircraft were spaced out on the flight path...

• serfty

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[RooFlyer]

@serfty thus is obviously a very 'technical' group of itineraries. What was the motivator to break up a DONE4 into the three trips? SCs split between status years, a sense of adventure or....?

 

[serfty]

@serfty thus is obviously a very 'technical' group of itineraries. What was the motivator to break up a DONE4 into the three trips? SCs split between status years, a sense of adventure or....?

You last sentence is the answer being two basic things. Firstly, give a great leg up to earning WP for two years until late 2027; Secondly to actually go some places I had not been before. In this case, 2 days each in Budapest and Warsaw as well as a week in DOH. Note, these locations were influenced by "Simpler and Fairer".

 

[serfty]

My Cains accommodation was basic with no status benefits; booked via Qantas Hotels with the cost significantly improved by a Points Club $50 voucher. It did the job, I slept well and the shower was fine but no late check out for me.

Uber at a more reasonable rate than the prior evening had me at the airport with several hours to spare. No problem at Cairns, although I had no lounge they have several tables airside with places for maybe 40 providing power/charging points (although the seats were hard). I was able to do some of this trip report, research and generally while away the time.

Doing a lap of the terminal for some exercise I was surprised to hear my flight called for boarding a full 40 minutes before scheduled departure time. This may be normal in other places for domestic flight (such as the USA), it is unusual in this case.

Anyway, I hightailed it to the gate.

 

[serfty]

There were no remaining seats available on the flight, showing full, J0/Y0 so I guess they were keen on getting us away. The doors were closed a full 17 minutes early and push back was 3 minutes after that. Takeoff soon followed.

The Cabin Manager for the flight was Aleric. Their service was as good as that on the flight up; in some ways better.

Meal options were the same as the flight up - this time I took the Thai Yellow curry with side chicken. It was great - just wish there has been more on the plate.

Interestingly, after I had requested a G&T as a drink while taking meal orders they went further and asked what I would like with the meal. "Shiraz" was my surprised answer. Soon enough drinks were distributed to all business passengers. A little later before the meal was served, I was offered a refill to my G&T.



During the flight, service was proactive - quite an enjoyable flight.

Landed 20 minutes early and off to the lounge for my 150-minute transit.

 

[pyffii]

You’re game serfty in allowing just a 3 hour transit on different PNR’s….We’ve bought DONE4 ex Tokyo for years but always overnight as I can’t trust Qantas to get us there on time to connect