Qantas Club Life Membership Expiry!?

[VPS]

I can't say for sure whether the OP is correct about 50 years. 40+ years absolutely.

I do agree with the OP that we have a contract with a vendor to whom we have paid money for a service. It seems reasonable to expect that the service should be acquitted, or the purchaser should be offered a refund. If the vendor has lost supporting documentation, then maybe a good-will gesture is appropriate? In this case, cost to the vendor is the most trivial of rounding errors, and I would expect a precedent to exist.

<bit of background>
I can't remember when QF introduced lounges because I was seriously Ansett. Logic is telling me early 80s, and I believe both airlines introduced lounges and memberships at the same time. Does not feel to me like lifetime anything could have been offered in the 70s, but I wasn't watching QF so closely. I took out GW membership when I moved to Sydney in 83.

IIRC: Ansett offered GW Life Membership some time after 86, and I was doing a bit of commuting SYD/MEL. The Life offer was $500 at the time, against annual fee of $65 (can anyone confirm?). What I do remember very clearly: I did the numbers, and decided ROI in 8 years was a good deal.... and it certainly was.

I clearly recall a trip in mid 80's when my GW membership got me into the (then very tiny!) Cathay Pacific lounge in HK while I was travelling SYD/LHR with CX, so reciprocal access between airline partners worked for sure. And when Mrs TheMaiz arrived in the 90s, we we bought her a special-offer spouse Ansett LTGW membership for $1k. Not cheap, but again it seemed like a good investment. Unfortunately, we didn't anticipate 9/11 or the Kiwis. Hrrmph. No GW, no more access to Star Alliance.

RE Qantas: sometime around late 80s, with enough international travel happening on QF, I took a 3-year QC membership, because LT was already extreme. Slight amounts of travel turned into lots of travel and I made SG each year for around 30 years except for one 3-6 month period somewhere in the middle when I dropped out. But then I clicked back over the SC trigger and became SG once more. So for 30 years my paid QC membership was sitting patiently waiting with no fees and maybe 6 months (or less) of decrement.

Then just pre-COVID I became LTG, leaving a QC membership with no clock to tick downwards any more. The almost full value of a three-year QC membership is sitting... somewhere. That's in the same box as the OP question.
</bit of background>

Bottom line: I would really like to hear from anyone who has had experience of getting a refund on an annual or three-year QC membership after becoming LTG!

Check out this thread.

I got a refund when I reached LTG but it was only an annual subscription.

Thread 'Unused QC pro-rata refund?'

Mar 22, 2023

I've had ~22 months of paid Qantas Club membership 'parked' since 2010 when courtesy of a DONE4 I jumped from NB to WP in a couple of months (and, a couple of years of SG notwithstanding, have remained there). A couple of years ago, just prior to the pandemic, I achieved LTG. So the QC membership is now redundant to me. I have read over the years (though nothing for a long time) of people receiving a pro-rata refund for the unused portion of the QC membership. I figured asking QF for money during the pandemic was probably not wise timing, however now that they are back into big...

• tuapekastar
• qantas club round the world
• Replies: 21
• Forum: Qantas | Frequent Flyer

• 

Edit - added link

 

[drron]

Both QF and AN. Introduced LT membership in the early 80s. I first bought TTQC when Amex and the AMA together came up with the special price f $400. I have a LTPC 6 numbers beginning 13. That was ~ 43 years ago and despite that length of time I am no where near LTG. Basically because AA about that time introduced a rapid way to Life Time status and I reached LTP in ~ 7 years about the time it got them to recognise that they were a little bit too generous..

Now Diners took on Amex very soon after their LTQP offer with a LTGW which I bought for Mrsdrron. Didn’t realise GW would have a much shorter life but I only paid out $350 and we both got return J seats SYD LAX and were only 2 days away from redeeming a second trip on UA.

 

[DLCCCC]

Almost.

TAA’s Flight Deck was the early 80s (like late 82j.

I remember Lifetime membership at $440 in around 1985/6? which at the time was quite a lot of money!

I first joined TAA flight deck for $25pa. Life membership was $100. (Oh, the benefits of hindsight!)

 

[JennoH]

I held an Ansett Golden Wing Lifetime membership! It went down the drain when Ansett collapsed!!

 

[Dmac59]

I held an Ansett Golden Wing Lifetime membership! It went down the drain when Ansett collapsed!!

Welcome aboard @JennoH

 

[kpc]

I held an Ansett Golden Wing Lifetime membership! It went down the drain when Ansett collapsed!!

Ditto here

 

[markis10]

I held an Ansett Golden Wing Lifetime membership! It went down the drain when Ansett collapsed!!

So did a lot of Sydney cab drivers who would park up near the cop shop and wander in for a free feed

 

[themaiz]

So did a lot of Sydney cab drivers who would park up near the cop shop and wander in for a free feed

Or park the cab on one of those coin-and-turn meters that were right down the western end of the carpark. I think I did that one night when I needed to get out of the office and do some work.

 

[CaptJCool]

So did a lot of Sydney cab drivers who would park up near the cop shop and wander in for a free feed

Shock horror

Go in whenever you like when not flying…. Gosh no wonder it went belly up

 

[themaiz]

Shock horror

Go in whenever you like when not flying…. Gosh no wonder it went belly up

Yep that was the early policy, but they eventually changed the rules to make flying a requirement for entry... probably around the same time that they stopped serving Glenfiddich. But I don't think you can blame lounge policy for the airline going belly up.

It was very annoying. I had good reason to believe that "Life Membership" would refer to my life and not that of the airline. Turns out I was wrong. I do expect to fare a bit better with LTG.

 

[oz_mark]

It was very annoying. I had good reason to believe that "Life Membership" would refer to my life and not that of the airline. Turns out I was wrong. I do expect to fare a bit better with LTG.

With regard to Life Memberships, I've held a couple of life memberships (another was for a gym). Both were limited by the life of the company!