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?

 

[danielt25]

I'm not sure how the invite lottery works. Based on location? Clearly every P1 spends a minimum so I don't think that's a factor.

 

[kermatu]

I'm not sure how the invite lottery works. Based on location? Clearly every P1 spends a minimum so I don't think that's a factor.

Based only on this thread, I’d say there is no logic to the invitation lottery. If there was any design to it, people wouldn’t routinely be invited to events when they are overseas and/or flying somewhere on a Qantas flight.

But there probably is some assessment of a P1s actual value.

 

[TonyHancock]

I
Chairman's lounge access
Upgrade certificates
International upgrades confirmed up to 14 days out (or some other figure that's longer than for P1).
Fly ahead as a defined benefit even on Red E-Deal flights
Two guests for QF operated First Class Lounge
Arrivals access to QF operated First Class Lounge
Access to QF lounges anytime regardless of which airline flown (if any in the case of Domestic lounges).
Able to gift Platinum to a family member/friend in addition to Partner Platinum for spouse from P1
Lifetime Platinum (one can dream, right?)

And then undefined things e.g.
Free upgrade if spare seat in higher cabin more regularly than the ~10 flights that P1 seems to get it. Obviously lower priority than points upgrades etc. still.

What you are describing is pretty much GGL (3000 TP's) with BA - although BA gives a little more.

CCR Access at 5000TP's
Gold Upgrades for 2 and 1 at 2500 and 3500 TP's
International Upgrades for the whole PNR, confirmed at time of booking
Fly ahead - mmmm not so much
Two guests in F lounges
Arrivals access with guest
Anytime Access - not so much - a touch tricky with airside access
Able to gift anyone Gold (OWE) and two Silver (OWS)
Lifetime Gold (OWE) at 35000 TP's

Plus
The ability to force open reward availability for a whole PNR for five people twice per year. (Gold Redemption)
Hilton Diamond.
A further Gold Redemption at 6000 TP's
At 7000, 8000 and 9000 the choice of Gold Upgrades, a Gold Redemption or 50,000 points.

TP's are earned at a similar rate to QF SC's.

 

[La Mouette]

Based only on this thread, I’d say there is no logic to the invitation lottery. If there was any design to it, people wouldn’t routinely be invited to events when they are overseas and/or flying somewhere on a Qantas flight.

I received two (yes, 2) invites within an hour and 13 minutes:
Madame Butterfly on Saturday 27/10
Cirque du Soleil on Saturday 28/10

I thought it was a bug, given the new FF website fiasco.

Do they think I have no social life (correct) and therefore need to go out two nights in a row, and Saturday is the typo? Or do they think there are two of me to attend events with non-transferrable tickets at the same time and 27/10 is the typo?

Seriously, the one thing they were meant to have done today is process my upgrade request 7 days out, which they seem to have forgotten about, as F is completely empty on the flight.

If they checked my bookings, they might have seen not only that upgrade request, but the fact that I'll be away again by Saturday 27/28.

I do appreciate the effort, and these are the third and fourth invites I've received this year, but ARGH!

P.S. I don't get free upgrades, though. I always request points upgrades or am flying in the highest class anyway.

 

[La Mouette]

The upgrade fairy arrived in time for me to nab my favourite seat

The 7 day upgrade window is by far my favourite P1 benefit. In my view, it's worth far more than an invite to the opera.

 

[ameno]

Nothing here either as Brisbane local.

Feel like I'm on the same ****list as @kermatu in regards to receiving these invites.

1 year in Melbourne as P1 with no invites, 2 years in Brisbane as P1, again with no invites and will fall just shy of 4900sc by the end of my review period this month.

 

[RichardMEL]

This could well be a developing story but I provide for the info of our fellow P1's.

I decided to gift one of my 2 new precious P1 lounge invites to my dear NB sister who is doing a trip out of MEL on Saturday. International. So I thought I'll treat her to the Flounge to help her slide into the Y flight...

So transferred it to her nd she got it, and linked it to her flight.

The confirmation email she got though indicated she was allowed access to the J lounge only.

Well when she sent me that I had a moment of rage we're all used to

Anyway emailed P1 for confirmation about this if it was a bug or what. They've told me they've notified the F lounge to expect her on Saturday and guarantee entry which is lovely and maybe they'll follow up with the work experience kids about what might have happened there

You can probably understand that I am half expecting a call or text on Saturday about a denial of entry.. I sure hope not!

So... I await to see how this one pans out.

 

[Princess Fiona]

This could well be a developing story but I provide for the info of our fellow P1's.

I decided to gift one of my 2 new precious P1 lounge invites to my dear NB sister who is doing a trip out of MEL on Saturday. International. So I thought I'll treat her to the Flounge to help her slide into the Y flight...

So transferred it to her nd she got it, and linked it to her flight.

The confirmation email she got though indicated she was allowed access to the J lounge only.

Well when she sent me that I had a moment of rage we're all used to

Anyway emailed P1 for confirmation about this if it was a bug or what. They've told me they've notified the F lounge to expect her on Saturday and guarantee entry which is lovely and maybe they'll follow up with the work experience kids about what might have happened there

You can probably understand that I am half expecting a call or text on Saturday about a denial of entry.. I sure hope not!

So... I await to see how this one pans out.

That is actually incredibly annoying. It’s good that you gave it to your sister and she knew to follow up with you before the day.
I wonder what would happen if I gifted mine to a more distant relative or colleague who didn’t want to bother me by letting me know that the invite came through as the J Lounge or worse still didn’t notice and was refused entry to the F Lounge on the day??
I would be mortified and really angry.
I hope this has been escalated to the highest level (not the SST) for rectification across the system ASAP !!

 

[RichardMEL]

That is actually incredibly annoying. It’s good that you gave it to your sister and she knew to follow up with you before the day.
I wonder what would happen if I gifted mine to a more distant relative or colleague who didn’t want to bother me by letting me know that the invite came through as the J Lounge or worse still didn’t notice and was refused entry to the F Lounge on the day??
I would be mortified and really angry.
I hope this has been escalated to the highest level (not the SST) for rectification across the system ASAP !!

It would be interesting to know if any other of our P1 members have even tried this yet and if similar has happened.

My sister is a pretty inexperienced flyer.. her last int trip was 2 years ago when I surprise upgraded her to J and she thought it was the bees knees That made me happy. When I mentioned to her I was doing this I mentioned the Flounge and sent her the menu to get her excited for the experience (she's never been in, only that one time in the int J lounge)... and I had to tell her how she has to go upstairs between gates 9 and 11 (and then she proceeded to tell me that she knew where it was, that was where she went last time SMH).

The thing is she just sent me the confirmation as a fyi. She didn't notice (or comment) on the lounge name thing... I think it's because I said to her this whole e lounge pass thing was new and I'd be interested to see how it worked for her... glad I did so I saw "Melbourne International Business Lounge" I freaked out.

As I wrote above I'm half expecting this to not run smoothly - and it's so sad I have this lack of trust (but we've all had our own experiences of this sort of thing to be cynical I think!).

BUT having sent the confirmation to P1 and asked for clarification ahead of time it's document and if something goes wrong I will go to town on them and at the very least demand replacement of the P1 invite.

However, I must try to not jump the gun and assume things won't work out (specially after SST said they'd notified the Flounge to expect my sister)... hopefully all will go well and she can really live it up for a few hours

but yes, on the surface very annoying! SST just said well it's a new system so we'll pass it on to IT to figure out.. but why the hell can't they get this stuff right before deployment? typical QF and that's the REALLY disappointing part.

 

[RichardMEL]

btw this is what SST wrote regarding the IT issue:

As you are aware this is a new system and I have requested the IT team investigate what has happened here as [ sister ] should have been able to select the first class lounge and therefore receive a confirmation with this information. We are now working on fixing this system error.

I have asked her if she did get an option to select lounges or not (I was not with her) but have not heard back from her. At any rate surely it should say you can use the J or F lounge (sure, why would you go J when you can go F right?)

Like I said I've never used one of these things... it seems silly if one has to select which lounge as the above implies.. specially if they don't really know!

So curious to hear if any other P1's have gifted these and the experience either of linking and if one has to select a lounge (which seems stupid) or what.

Maybe my sister stuffed up the procedure, but she's not stupid and I mentioned First lounge to her heaps and if she had an option and wasn't sure she prob would have messaged me anyway

Anyway I'll update hopefully with good news later on

 

[Pleb Status]

It would be interesting to know if any other of our P1 members have even tried this yet and if similar has happened.

My sister is a pretty inexperienced flyer.. her last int trip was 2 years ago when I surprise upgraded her to J and she thought it was the bees knees That made me happy. When I mentioned to her I was doing this I mentioned the Flounge and sent her the menu to get her excited for the experience (she's never been in, only that one time in the int J lounge)... and I had to tell her how she has to go upstairs between gates 9 and 11 (and then she proceeded to tell me that she knew where it was, that was where she went last time SMH).

The thing is she just sent me the confirmation as a fyi. She didn't notice (or comment) on the lounge name thing... I think it's because I said to her this whole e lounge pass thing was new and I'd be interested to see how it worked for her... glad I did so I saw "Melbourne International Business Lounge" I freaked out.

As I wrote above I'm half expecting this to not run smoothly - and it's so sad I have this lack of trust (but we've all had our own experiences of this sort of thing to be cynical I think!).

BUT having sent the confirmation to P1 and asked for clarification ahead of time it's document and if something goes wrong I will go to town on them and at the very least demand replacement of the P1 invite.

However, I must try to not jump the gun and assume things won't work out (specially after SST said they'd notified the Flounge to expect my sister)... hopefully all will go well and she can really live it up for a few hours

but yes, on the surface very annoying! SST just said well it's a new system so we'll pass it on to IT to figure out.. but why the hell can't they get this stuff right before deployment? typical QF and that's the REALLY disappointing part.

Look at the positive side, at least you did not need to wait 49 to 59 minutes for a call back to chase up their mistake...

 

[RichardMEL]

True. SST responded very quickly

 

[Chalkie]

I just received an invitation to Melbourne wine event. It is plainly clear the P1 team pays no attention to my custom because on the day of the event, I am flying up and back to Sydney. I find this sort of thing really, really irritating. For heaven's sake just look at your own records and don't send invitations for things when you know that I am spending my hard earned cash by flying in your planes.

I don't think well of QF when they do this. Rather than being grateful for the invitation, I just get irritated that they cannot be bothered to know the first and most important thing about me as their customer - when I am flying on their planes.

 

[samh004]

Far be it for me to read the last hundred pages I have missed but does anyone know of any positive experiences for international P1 members? I ask because my mother is close to cracking P1, but she is based in Hong Kong. It makes me wonder if they would invite her to overseas based events or if she would just miss out?

 

[RichardMEL]

Yikes P1 based in HKG?

Well the QF lounge would spoil her rotten I would say, but I suspect if she is that regular on QF out of HKG they would know her as a regular anyway and go the extra mile.

Other things? goodness... great question. Hard to know really. I suspect not a lot though

 

[casanovawa]

btw this is what SST wrote regarding the IT issue:



I have asked her if she did get an option to select lounges or not (I was not with her) but have not heard back from her. At any rate surely it should say you can use the J or F lounge (sure, why would you go J when you can go F right?)

Like I said I've never used one of these things... it seems silly if one has to select which lounge as the above implies.. specially if they don't really know!

So curious to hear if any other P1's have gifted these and the experience either of linking and if one has to select a lounge (which seems stupid) or what.

Maybe my sister stuffed up the procedure, but she's not stupid and I mentioned First lounge to her heaps and if she had an option and wasn't sure she prob would have messaged me anyway

Anyway I'll update hopefully with good news later on

Certainly seems like a lot of hoo ha and nonsense just to stop a few lounge passes being sold on eBay....

 

[QF WP]

Anyone see this piece from AusBT's David Flynn on executivestyle.com.au?

And what's beyond Platinum One? Right now, that's as high as you go. But don't rule out another stratospheric loyalty tier.

At the launch of the Qantas Premier credit card earlier this year, Qantas Loyalty CEO Lesley Grant remarked to High Flyer that when considering branding for the airline's own credit card, 'Diamond' was ruled out in case it was needed for a new Qantas Frequent Flyer tier.

If that's the case, diamonds may one day become a frequent flyer's best friend.

Sounds intriguing! Anyone from here heard anything about a new super status?

Read more: The elusive frequent flyer level that's better than Planitum
Follow us: @executivestyle on Twitter | executivestyleau on Facebook

I wonder whether they are holding the Diamond level towards which P1's can aspire - perhaps 10 (non-consecutive) years of P1 gives you the Diamond level. I'd posit that it would probably give Lifetime Platinum benefits...and it does make sense to name it differently unlike the Platinum / Platinum One debacle.

I'd ring up David and ask, except he's over in SEA at the Boeing Factory looking at the 2nd QF 787 being put together on the floor and soon will be winging his way back to SYD on the first 787 delivery flight.

 

[Dmac6345]

Did anyone get an invitation to the '787 welcoming event' in Sydney on Friday morning?

 

[Pleb Status]

QF may want to relaunch P1 as Diamond some time in the future with some actual benefits rather than the vague service promises they cannot/will not fulfil.

P1 always sounded like WP+ rather than a tier of its own...

 

[pjm99au]

Did anyone get an invitation to the '787 welcoming event' in Sydney on Friday morning?

No but I have an invite to an “open day” on Sunday morning