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?

 

[Dmac6345]

Interesting. Enjoy the open day.

 

[Princess Fiona]

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

Yes but not from P1. I did get a P1 invite to the Sunday event at SYD.

 

[danielt25]

Ok, so follow up to the Bledisloe cup invite this weekend.

While on phone to P1, just out of interest I asked a few questions about invites and found out:

Invites *not* done on revenue spend

If you are based in the port of the event and have that activity as an interest in your profile then you will be narrowed

They do check to make sure you are around and not flying
(however anecdotal reports here from other members suggest otherwise)!

They send a few invites out at a time so they don't overbook the event!!

Only 18 P1s (including Qantas representatives) got an invite to this Bledisloe cup.

So look forward to meeting anyone else who did who lurks this forum!!

 

[Chalkie]

I just got an invitation to a Qantas Dreamliner Open Day at Melbourne Airport for Sunday, 29 October. I am not flying with QF that day and will definitely be going to this! On one level it will just be looking at a plane in a hanger, but on another level it will be looking at a plane in a hangar. The latter is, I think, pretty cool!

 

[Chalkie]

They do check to make sure you are around and not flying
(however anecdotal reports here from other members suggest otherwise)!

After my irritating event invitation for an event on a day on which I am flying, I sent a grumpy email to the P1 team to "grump" about this. The P1 team responded very smartly and apologetically. The respondent confirmed they do check profiles, but in my case they did it just before I'd booked my travel for the day I was flying. So that does corroborate danielt25's report. I suggested to P1 double checking just before the invitations are sent out, and I apologised for being an old grump, but I think I was up to be my third event invitation I had to knock back because of prior flying with QF commitments.

 

[QF WP]

I just got an invitation to a Qantas Dreamliner Open Day at Melbourne Airport for Sunday, 29 October. I am not flying with QF that day and will definitely be going to this! On one level it will just be looking at a plane in a hanger, but on another level it will be looking at a plane in a hangar. The latter is, I think, pretty cool!

@Chalkie, having had the pleasure of seeing Hanger 96 in SYD for the inaugural QF1 flight to DXB (2011), trust me you won't be disappointed.

View attachment 14127

View attachment 14128

Or the QF Maintenance Hanger visit I arranged in BNE for Flyertalk 2 years ago (here's a couple of pics to whet the appetite):





That reminds me - must arrange another one for AFF.

 

[BAM1748]

I just got an invitation to a Qantas Dreamliner Open Day at Melbourne Airport for Sunday, 29 October. I am not flying with QF that day and will definitely be going to this! On one level it will just be looking at a plane in a hanger, but on another level it will be looking at a plane in a hangar. The latter is, I think, pretty cool!

Make sure you sit in the captains seat and get the crew member to take a snap.

 

[RichardMEL]

Wait there's a 787 open day in MEL and they are inviting P1's? *checks empty mailbox* boo!

 

[QF WP]

I wouldn't be disappointed with your invites @RichardMEL. Everybody needs to have a go - however @Princess Fiona does take the cake at the moment snagging (separate) invites to both todays event (nothing to do with P1 of course) and Sundays...

You could go anyway and see if you can wangle an invite if there are no-shows, of course...

 

[RichardMEL]

It's all good. I'm just joshing. I'm all good

As for Princess Fiona... well.. she IS a Princess.. so she has event priority of course!

 

[samh004]

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

I'll post on her behalf when she gets there and clue everyone in

At this stage, not expected until May 2018, but on track to hit it with travel already completed and pre-booked flights. I'm not sure she's particularly thrilled at all the connections I've booked her on though!

 

[wannabeinvestmentbanker]

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?

I'm sure people have asked but why not CX or BA? Their top tier programs seem to offer far superior benefits and perks. QF P1 would likely be enough to attain CX Diamond or Diamond + or BA GGL so it seems a waste if based out of HKG to be crediting mainly to QF

 

[samh004]

I'm sure people have asked but why not CX or BA? Their top tier programs seem to offer far superior benefits and perks. QF P1 would likely be enough to attain CX Diamond or Diamond + or BA GGL so it seems a waste if based out of HKG to be crediting mainly to QF

She was previously with CX but never able to move above Gold. As you’ll know, the dominant player in the market is usually the most expensive... so QF was often cheaper than CX and crediting to their program makes more sense if flying them. A lot of travel is to Australia too, with travel to the UK every few years only, so BA wasn’t a consideration.

Truth be told, this year travel has increased a lot, making P1 attainable, however the past few years it has been just Gold or Platinum.

I am sort of kicking myself now considering all the travel as I might have got a free BA Gold membership, saving myself from having to re-qualify, hah!

Not everything is as clear cut as it seems, but I digress, I don’t mean to go off topic.

 

[wannabeinvestmentbanker]

She was previously with CX but never able to move above Gold. As you’ll know, the dominant player in the market is usually the most expensive... so QF was often cheaper than CX and crediting to their program makes more sense if flying them. A lot of travel is to Australia too, with travel to the UK every few years only, so BA wasn’t a consideration.

Truth be told, this year travel has increased a lot, making P1 attainable, however the past few years it has been just Gold or Platinum.

I am sort of kicking myself now considering all the travel as I might have got a free BA Gold membership, saving myself from having to re-qualify, hah!

Not everything is as clear cut as it seems, but I digress, I don’t mean to go off topic.

Ahhh the unexpected travel and benefit of hindsight. With BA 15/16 one need not travel to UK but rather route via SIN on 2 occasions and drop into the QF lounge or CCR and perhaps rendezvous with Tony Hancock.

But yes back to the genuine P1 discussion. Bit of a disincentive reading most of the comments in this thread sadly. Makes me very tempted to switch to BA as I'm only 2000 odd SCs invested in QF, in my mid 20s and likely to retain WP each year with my role.

 

[RichardMEL]

Quick update on the P1 guest pass F lounge access.

My sister reported she met resistance from the Flounge who originally tried to send her to the J lounge (!) but she claims she "stood her ground" and got in (but has not provided more detail on if they actually found her name on the list-or wherever as SST advised they had informed the Flounge to expect her) but they did, apparently, relent and let her in.

She also implied via msg that her Bronze Y BP got her a bit of an "elitist attitude" when she entered which is a bit disappointing.

I will just follow that up with SST more for their info knowing there's nothing they can really do but if this happens again then there could definitely be an issue with the new pass system (or training).

At least she got in for an hour or so and was able to enjoy herself (though the spa was closed which disappointed me but that's a whole other issue)

 

[mviy]

She also implied via msg that her Bronze Y BP got her a bit of an "elitist attitude" when she entered which is a bit disappointing.

That is terrible. QF should treat people well regardless of what their status is.

 

[Princess Fiona]

Quick update on the P1 guest pass F lounge access.

My sister reported she met resistance from the Flounge who originally tried to send her to the J lounge (!) but she claims she "stood her ground" and got in (but has not provided more detail on if they actually found her name on the list-or wherever as SST advised they had informed the Flounge to expect her) but they did, apparently, relent and let her in.

She also implied via msg that her Bronze Y BP got her a bit of an "elitist attitude" when she entered which is a bit disappointing.

I will just follow that up with SST more for their info knowing there's nothing they can really do but if this happens again then there could definitely be an issue with the new pass system (or training).

At least she got in for an hour or so and was able to enjoy herself (though the spa was closed which disappointed me but that's a whole other issue)

Why does this not surprise me? ............

 

[danielt25]

Ok so the Bledisloe Cup event turned out to be a behind the scenes change room tour with John Eales then a sit down dinner before the game at the corporate sponsors function. I thought it would have been in a corporate box. Seating just in front of NZ team coach box. 3 tables for Qantas at the dinner (10 to a table). About 6 Qantas staff (head of Qantas operations in Brisbane; Qantas sports sponsorship head; a few marketing people) so around 24 guests. Speaking to the others, most travel a lot overseas. One chairman's lounge member who does a lot of business with Qantas. Anyway overall a great night and all the better because the Wallabies won!

Anyway this invite just came through. Surely there must be more P1s (who lurks here) going to this:

 

[RichardMEL]

Why does this not surprise me? ............

yeah well the whole reason I posted last week was because I thought it wouldn't be smooth sailing... sad to be proven correct. gah!

however I just, this minute, got a response from SST re my feedback saying they were sorry it happened and they'd follow up with the MEL management, and that IT was also apparently onto the issue to fix that stuff out

and they've promised me another P1 guest pass to try it out again next time which I think is a absolutely wonderful thing to do (I did not ask for anything) to make up for it. I have a friend flyin Y on QF9 next week so I may just try it again with her!

I think that's been a really delightul follow up from the SST and can't fault their efforts to address it when I brought it up last week before the day of travel, and in responding to my feedback

(plus I also got a separate invite to the MEL 787 event but I do not think that is related.

So kudos to the SST on handling of this from my point of view.

 

[RichardMEL]

btw when QF themselves call it a 787-900 one loses hope lol (I had same wording on my invite of course)