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]

Little touches have certainly declined too. I used to regularly get a CSM visit when in Y on a reasonable length flight (90+ minutes). Now, very rare, and as we are descending so the "let me know if I can do anything" is rather ridiculous. Also been over 18 months since a bottle of wine (or even a half bottle) has been offered on exiting the plane.

Also no real point to my post. QF has received the key feedback we've all given -- introduce more specific and guaranteed benefits, including guaranteed upgrade 'certificates' and remove the random lottery feel etc etc -- but I doubt anything will change.

They would cost revenue. Whereas my upgrade - nice as it was - took me from seat 4D to 1D where I became the 4th J pax in the cabin. Even with a scotch and couple of wines - pretty costless.

 

[TonyHancock]

QF has received the key feedback we've all given -- introduce more specific and guaranteed benefits, including guaranteed upgrade 'certificates' and remove the random lottery feel etc etc -- but I doubt anything will change.

To give a little perspective I received 8 upgrade for one vouchers and one upgrade for 2 voucher from BA for my year ending Jan 8th. these can be used for an entire trip. (Only on BA flights and metal of course.) My fear is that BA will send me a bottle of plonk next year and remove these real benefits.

 

[Per_Travels]

To give a little perspective I received 8 upgrade for one vouchers and one upgrade for 2 voucher from BA for my year ending Jan 8th. these can be used for an entire trip. (Only on BA flights and metal of course.) My fear is that BA will send me a bottle of plonk next year and remove these real benefits.

To offer another perspective. I was P1 from the start and have racked up 40k+ LTSC. However. early into my membership last year I realised that I was going to have about 6 months of not flying and so would be unlikely to requalify. I took this as the catalyst to change how I travel - essentially by picking flights solely according to price and schedule - in the past I would occasionally 'tailor' my schedule so that our company TA would end up having to put me on Qantas/OneWorld. What I've realised (I'm a slow learner) is that being P1 makes almost no difference compared to WP - especially as a Perth based flyer doing mainly international J flying. EK still give me occasional J-F Op-Ups - I suspect P1 doesn't appear on their manifest and I now get to fly exactly when I want to (not the day before when QF happens to be cheaper).

I'm currently 6 months into my new membership year and am sitting on 1850 SCs. My new policy has 'given away' about 1400 SC that would normally have gone to QF. Looking forward I suspect that I'll end up just scraping back into P1 - but it really won't bother me either way. the lack of defined benefits, such as for a BA GGL, simply don't make it worthwhile for this flyer.

 

[La Mouette]

Anyone had any experiences with lost baggage as a P1?

Did you get reunited with your bag?

 

[juddles]

Did you get reunited with your bag?

Yes!!

To make this relevant to this thread:

Upon arriving at BOG I made the standard lost-baggage process with Avianca staff.

I emailed the SST with my woe and got a reply basically saying that responsibility lies with the last carrier. But they asked for the lost-baggage file number, which I sent them.

They replied saying that they had confirmed that my bag had been found and would get to me.

Meanwhile Avianca contacted me and three days later I got my bag.

In summary, the first email from SST made me feel "blah". The second was far more upbeat. I don't think that the SST had any influence on my succesful bag receiving, but they did at least acknowledge me. In total was a neutral experience.

If that makes sense?

 

[kermatu]

Yes!!

To make this relevant to this thread:

Upon arriving at BOG I made the standard lost-baggage process with Avianca staff.

I emailed the SST with my woe and got a reply basically saying that responsibility lies with the last carrier. But they asked for the lost-baggage file number, which I sent them.

They replied saying that they had confirmed that my bag had been found and would get to me.

Meanwhile Avianca contacted me and three days later I got my bag.

In summary, the first email from SST made me feel "blah". The second was far more upbeat. I don't think that the SST had any influence on my succesful bag receiving, but they did at least acknowledge me. In total was a neutral experience.

If that makes sense?

The "it's not our responsibility" line is expected but I reckon in the past that's all you'd have received. The fact they took your number then emailed to say it's found means they did at least make some enquiries and gave you, as you say, some reassurance. That's decent service (albeit perhaps based on low expectations)!
Edit: and glad you got your bag back!

 

[RichardMEL]

Another post with nothing useful to say except that...

they're NOT "op ups" when the SST gives US an upgrade and pops the msg in. Those are complimentary upgrades issued by P1, usually on lightly loaded sectors and usually a day or so out.

A real operational upgrade will almost always happen within hours to minutes of a flight's closing and, as the name implies, be for operational reasons, like last minute cancels,, a/s sub or whathave you. Now sure, in theory CL and P1 should be top of the pile when it comes to the rare real op up, but that's very different to P1 issued upgrades.

Just being a nit picker

 

[Happy Trails]

Kind of academic here, having had none of the above since 2015.

 

[kermatu]

Another post with nothing useful to say except that...

they're NOT "op ups" when the SST gives US an upgrade and pops the msg in. Those are complimentary upgrades issued by P1, usually on lightly loaded sectors and usually a day or so out.

A real operational upgrade will almost always happen within hours to minutes of a flight's closing and, as the name implies, be for operational reasons, like last minute cancels,, a/s sub or whathave you. Now sure, in theory CL and P1 should be top of the pile when it comes to the rare real op up, but that's very different to P1 issued upgrades.

Just being a nit picker

ExpertFlyer 12 to 24 hours out usually gives me a strong hint that I'll get a P1 SST upgrade.

 

[RichardMEL]

ExpertFlyer 12 to 24 hours out usually gives me a strong hint that I'll get a P1 SST upgrade.

Exactly.

I may have been known to book a lunchtime 330 MEL-SYD on a Saturday specifically that if it was going to happen, it was likely to be on that sector.. and if it didn't no worries sitting in row 23. (And it did)

of course the one time I kind of didn't want it, I got it (the 789 when I wanted to try PE).. I know.. complaining about a free upgrade is not cool, so I'm not. It was just kind of amusing to get it and not actually really want it LOL

#firstworldproblems

 

[docjames]

Not the same, but my only lost (or misconnected) bag issue as P1 happened about 18 months ago.

I flew SFO-LAX-MEL with LAX-MEL an upgrade to F.

<snip>

SG and J - I had effectively the same experience in 2015.

YVR-LAX late by almost 90m. Turned connection onto QF94 into a 75min connection.

I made it (with time for lounge) from the AAEagle nest back to main terminal straight onto a TBIT "QF" bus.

Told at landing bag had missed (I had assumed it was going tomiss), bag delivered home ~ 3pm following day.

Pretty seamless.

 

[juddles]

Another day, another P1 experience.....

An hour ago I got an auto email from Qantas advising me that a flight I am doing with my family in March had changed - it simply advised that my BNE-SYD flight 501 had a change and we were now departing 6am instead of 5am.

This is not what I wanted - that is the first leg of a BNE-SYD-AKL trip, and the change would mean no chance for me to take my wife and kids to the Flounge at the start of our rare holiday.

I checked expertflyer and established that the change was a schedule change for the QF501 flight, but I also saw that there was another flight (557) still departing BNE at the original 5am. I flicked an email to the SST and within half an hour got a reply, that Amanda had changed us to the 557 flight, and retained our all-of-row1 seating

This is what I value with P1. A simple problem that should be equally simple to fix, but in the world of aviation is usually not so. But they fixed it, very quickly, and I am happy.

My wife will get her eggs-benny with a champagne after all - and that will make the start of a good trip

 

[kermatu]

Received an invitation to the A350-1000 "test"flight in Sydney on the 12th. I am in the country but just can't commit a day to get to there and take the 90 minute showcase flight. Such a shame - would have been an interesting experience.

But the invitation and follow-up chats with the lovely Esther are very much appreciated.

 

[juddles]

I just cannot understand why the needs of P1 people are not matched to reality. In my time as P1 i have never heard from QF as to what I value. I have had excellent service in times when things have gone bad. But how hard would it be to simply ask your P1's what they want? I for one have never had that interaction.

 

[RichardMEL]

Gee that A350-1000 thing would be awesome. Jelly of the offer!

 

[kermatu]

Gee that A350-1000 thing would be awesome. Jelly of the offer!

Tried very hard to switch a few things around to get there. Just couldn't manage it. Esther was very patient and gave me a few days to try and sort.

Was willing to cop flights up and back as well - kind of have to in CBR I reckon - as I agree it would have been a pretty unique opportunity, as it actually involved a 90 minute flight. Oh well.

5 spaces given to QF (I'm assuming in addition to the actual QF people they are targeting for the demonstration) - so assume there are some P1s or CLs going along.

 

[juddles]

each to their own, but the offer of any "test flight" does not really do it for me. I have still not boarded an A350, but I suspect most P1's would value more a day without an aircraft involved

 

[RichardMEL]

Juddles -

Oh, no doubt. Specially when many of us fly enough that days at home can be the best, even if that means working in the office

Still, some of us are either avgeeks of some sort, or fly so much that seeing a new (well the A350 is not NEW per se but still) aircraft with the possibilities for QF service. When one flies so much in metal (or composite) tubes sometimes little things can make a big difference to the expereience. I like that QF would offer this to (very few) of their best customers who, more than most, might have a usefl opinion.

I just think it's neat to get to go to an airbus event. They must be pushing super hard to win QF favour is all I can think.

I remember back in 1994 or so Boeing sent a 777-200 (then brand new and not yet flown commercially) to MEL and SYD to woo AN and QF. I was lucky enough to get an invite, through a media contact(who may yet be reading this post ) to get to MEL. Boeing went all out to AN to try and sell it (little did they know that was a wasted effort huh? ) with all sorts of maps and charts about the range of the 777 from MEL and pushing it hard. They would have done similar to QF in SYD. Not a product trip for them in the end, but it was really interesting from my point of view.

 

[kermatu]

I do enjoy flying, and only occasionally do I feel it a chore. Don't do so much long-haul now, and when I do it's generally leisure.

90 minutes flight would be fine and as you say RichardMEL an interesting experience (though I'm sure all the technical stuff would be way over my head). Up and back on (most likely) Dash-8s and SYD airport navigating less appealing though.

 

[GoldCanyon340]

I remember back in 1994 or so Boeing sent a 777-200 (then brand new and not yet flown commercially) to MEL and SYD to woo AN and QF.

IIRC it was December 1995. I was working at Coward Street at the time.