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?

 

[La Mouette]

Just querying the point of the P1 email address and the P1 phone number

I received a cryptic text on Saturday saying that my flight details had changed, with a 1300 number to ring. I couldn't see any change in the booking, so I rang the 1300 number. It was just a generic number with 30min wait times for someone to ring you back. So I rang the SST, and they were able to assist me directly. In retrospect, I do wonder why they didn't contact me themselves, given one of their stated roles is to "personally monitor your travel"? At tbe very least, system-generated texts could include an appropriate number to ring based on your status.

 

[RichardMEL]

The SST are more or less an extension of QF Marketing and don't deal directly with reservations stuff, which is why such queries go through to res (in my experiences they have liased with the res agent in the background to ensure the agent knows it's a P1 and to act appropriately). Yes, SST can do things like courtesy upgrades and the like, but refunds, changes, cancels etc.. they basically act as a liason to the appropriate area. That's the way I've always seen it.

 

[RichardMEL]

Flew QF for the first time in SIX months over the weekend and had an interesting experience.

3 sectors flown. 1 unremarkable bar some apparent seat issue with the pax sitting next to me in row 1 with a rather large box apparently containing a hat. The CSM asked if anyone in row 3 wanted to swap. I have no idea what any of that was about. I wasn't asked to move so I don't think it was a travelling companion or anything. All a bit odd, but I was trying to NOT listen in on the conversation tbh.

Anyway that's not the P1 related stuff.

First flight on an A330.. CSM approached me with a greeting (the only 1 of a full J cabin) so guess I was the only P1 or CL in J. Very unusual for a MEL-SYD sector. That was a little unusual for me

but the 2nd flight, a 737, showing 0's all down the line. I was in 2F. I looked at the EF seat map for kicks, and low and behold it showed a block in 2D. Now given the availability display was J0 (and so were all other classes in J/Y) I figured that was a furphy, or maybe blocked for a deadheading crew or something so fully expected to have a seat mate.

I never did.

Now it may have just been whoever the block was for (eg crew) never showed for whatever reason, or that block was specifically for me. Obviously I'll never know. I never asked for any block(never do/would) and I wonder if it was all related to my long-ish absense from QF (honestly, I doubt this very much, but seemed a very nice coincidence nonetheless).

So maybe nothing to do with P1, or maybe something. I'll never know I guess. Thought I'd note it anyway.

 

[flychrisfly]

First flight on an A330.. CSM approached me with a greeting (the only 1 of a full J cabin) so guess I was the only P1 or CL in J. Very unusual for a MEL-SYD sector. That was a little unusual for me

I was SG on a long-haul QF flight heading to Oz and I presume I must've had the highest status on the plane as at least 3 crew made an effort to come up before and during the flight and welcome me and only me on board. I think that statistically, once at a certain level, it's inevitable that there will not be any higher status pax from time to time.

Also, I have enjoyed the shadow on an otherwise full flight also as a non-WP or P1.

Enjoy it!

 

[juddles]

Just did another of my usual. BNE-SYD-overseas in J.

I have to be honest - the only difference as a P1 was that at boarding a crew member said those normal words " welcome back".

Edit: am currently rating the P1 experience as 10 % better than vanilla WP. As someone who has to choose many international flights, this lacklustre experience will almost certainly mean the end of seeking P1. Can get LATAM Black Signature for far less dollars and they actually bend over.....

 

[mviy]

Just did another of my usual. BNE-SYD-overseas in J.

I have to be honest - the only difference as a P1 was that at boarding a crew member said those normal words " welcome back".

I think sometimes (I'm a WP) I've been welcomed back when boarding though not as often as it would happen for a P1.

 

[Dmac6345]

The whole P1 status is the most underwhelming experience. Sometimes I feel like the FA's go out of their way to ignore me more. Some crew and ok, some are poor, very few are excellent.

 

[Dmac6345]

I think sometimes (I'm a WP) I've been welcomed back when boarding though not as often as it would happen for a P1.

I get the "you fly more than we do" comment regularly. To me, that comment is pointless and not necessary. The amount of times lately I have stepped off an aircraft with a below average customer service experience is way too high. P1 or Bronze, shouldn't happen to either.
Gee, someone is grumpy today

 

[boomy]

Just did another of my usual. BNE-SYD-overseas in J.

I have to be honest - the only difference as a P1 was that at boarding a crew member said those normal words " welcome back".

Edit: am currently rating the P1 experience as 10 % better than vanilla WP. As someone who has to choose many international flights, this lacklustre experience will almost certainly mean the end of seeking P1. Can get LATAM Black Signature for far less dollars and they actually bend over.....

When flying J there are very little benefits to P1 over WP, apart from priority to clear F upgrade requests.
As someone who flys mostly Y domestically I'd rate P1 as at least 30% than WP considering SST, FlyAhead and ability to select any seat any time.
Still, there is very little added value compared to the very large amount of extra points needed to retain P1.

 

[danielt25]

Based on my 1st flight as a P1 which was in domestic economy, there is no different treatment from any other passenger. The only advantage was selecting row 4 in advance. Same chocolate cookie as the passenger sitting next to me! Even in domestic J, as a WP I didn't receive any better treatment than any other passenger sitting in J.

 

[kermatu]

I keep hoping there's some wonderful P1 experience around the corner. But frankly P1 is a nothing experience for me (which actually makes it negative considering the time/cost and huge jump in SCs to hit the tier, and the spin).

Over a dozen flights in the past couple of weeks - domestic and Trans-Tasman; mainly J but a few Y.

-- "You fly more than us" on one flight. Felt fake. Otherwise only one genuine / natural "nice to have you back, I see you are off to Auckland next..." chat, from a CSM I've flown with a couple of times in previous years.
-- No shadows in Row 4 on the 737s (taken by bronze or silvers best I could tell - planes not full).
-- No offers of drinks from the front when in Y. Thankfully though no greeting from CSM and "let us know if we can do anything" after we've started the descent.
-- No bottles of wine (opened or unopened) as a thank you.
-- While I was always near the front of the cabin, on a couple of occasions staff on personal travel (alongside me on the 737s or in front of me on the A330s) had their orders taken first. Not the norm though.
-- Priority baggage a myth.
-- Priority boarding actually OK in the main (international helps). Priority disembarking (eg, allow J customers to deplane first if using the 2nd door only on the A330) only enforced once in 3 or 4 such flights. Frustrating. Especially if in 2K you end up being the 50th person off the plane at best.
-- Zero contact from SST despite several delays. Though to be fair only one of them was a near-missed connection. (I tend to build in enough transfer time.) No escort at gate on the one which was very tight.

Appreciate some of the above aren't P1-specific things. But contribute to the underwhelming feeling. Also show how things I used to get at least occasionally (wine, drinks from the J cabin, met at gate for a tight international-dom transfer) have now been enhanced.

Aside from being able to pick Row 4, pretty sure the only thing I got above any other pax was one free quarter bottle of wine on a mid-arvo flight in Y.

Zero contact from SST in months. Zero offers. Zero invitations (in over 3 years).

All a bit of a joke.

 

[Matt_Sullivan]

As a former QF WP (in the days before there was a P1) and current CX Diamond, I can say that this is one area where CX, for all its current challenges and the unpopular changes to the MPC, really trumps QF. When travelling Y on CX, I always get a greeting, bottle of water, often a drink from J and so on. More importantly, I am upgraded about 35% of the time -- often to PY but also to J, and occasionally from J to F. This level of treatment, along with the general ease of redemption bookings, are the last real advantages of MPC over QFF

BTW, I'm pretty solid DM (generally re-qualify after 8 months or so) so I guess I would be a 2000- 2500SC flyer on QF, but not P1 value. I would imagine the DM+ (which to be fair is probably more like CL) do even better

 

[marki]

being P1 they blocked all these seats for me. I must be special P1 obviously nothing to do with the fact that there were only 7 people on this Qantas link Fokker 100!

 

[RichardMEL]

I get the "you fly more than we do" comment regularly. To me, that comment is pointless and not necessary. The amount of times lately I have stepped off an aircraft with a below average customer service experience is way too high. P1 or Bronze, shouldn't happen to either.
Gee, someone is grumpy today

Haven't had that line in awhile I admit, but just the other day the CSM was positively gushing with comments like "Oh you know where to go of course.. your name is practically printed on the headrest" ... yeah trying to be cute I guess. It doesn't bother me massively... I suppose in an average work day of say 2-3 sectors they may greet tens of P1/CL and have to (or feel they have to) think of some way to acknowledge the status. At least it's an effort.

I've had some more genuine and personal comments though... certainly a couple of times chatting to CSM's in the galley in downtimes etc they'll say things like "I understand just how much flying you must do to make P1" and not in a cow-towing kind of way, but more an understanding of how we've been there, done that kind of thing.

I think they have to strike a balance. I mean some people REALLY value the personal greetings and take literally the "If there is anything I can do...." lines and all that. I'm not one of those.. I don't mind if I don't get a personal greeting or comments about headrests but just be treated appropriately and fairly in line with other pax in the cabin. Now sure if I'm in Y and offered a glass of J wine I won't turn that down but I'm not one to make a big deal of status or demand attention.. in fact I'd prefer to shun it. That's just me. So you're a CSM or something the training says to acknowledge the high tier FF's.. you'll never please everyone.

Still, If they're going to make comments I prefer different lines so the headrest comment while a bit odd was.. different so it kind of made me smile

 

[njba]

All a bit of a joke.

The cynical reading of this is that the program is working as it should: it potentially influences those who could conceivably make P1 to do so while acknowledging that if you can legitimately reach P1 it is more by necessity than choice and are therefore somewhat of a captive market. Or, in other words, a nice, empty piece of marketing by QF.

 

[QF WP]

There appears to be a customer service issue with a range of the customer facing areas in QF, I don't know if it's customer fatigue or just they are blase about pax with status.

As a former QF Plat for 5.5 years (and now happily languishing at Lifetime Silver) it certainly doesn't make me want to go for QF Gold again, let alone P1, reading these comments from some of QF (and AFF's) most frequently flyers. Looks like a lot are voting with their feet/wallets (as I said to the former Red Roo last month when I met up with her). I have more desire to get back up to VA Plat because I was appreciated more often.

 

[TonyHancock]

The one thing I will say in the defence of QF is that P1 was promoted as a level where those that fly an awful lot would be looked after when things go wrong and perhaps receive a little more attention. I know it has morphed a bit with one or two defined benefits added but I am not sure it was ever intended to be a level to strive for.

In my time as a P1, I dropped off that perch in July 2016, I would say that I was quite well looked after by QF.

I wish QF would do more with the SST to make them more integrated with the WP customer service team and have the authority and ability do "do stuff". BA does this really well....at the moment....but I fear it will face enhancement shortly as it gets contracted out.

These days I am perhaps a bit more critical than I should be because I compare it to BA's GGL which has excellent benefits and is something to strive for.

 

[mviy]

Inevitably on communities like this negative experiences are probably more likely to be mentioned than positive ones.

Whilst inconsistency and a lack of additional perceived value from higher status can be negatives one has to take the good with the bad. As a WP I've been able to take an additional guest into the FLounge in MEL on the only occasion I've flown from AU with a guest so far whilst being a WP. I also got an unexpected op-up on a BNE to MEL flight and took 3 guests into the old J lounge (I was on a separate booking). Experiences like that may not cost QANTAS a lot, but it certainly makes one feel a lot better and valued. A failed upgrade request HKG to MEL as a WP and a failure to get any seats released last year when I asked for return J/F flights to LHR in the summer peak this year were negatives (but not really surprising), but overall the experience is positive imo.

Whilst I feel QF could do better, if I get close to P1 doing flying that I'd do anyway I'd probably do a status run to get there to experience it even if it is only the once. Fast tracking towards LTG (LT OWS) and securing OWE for another year are pretty nice benefits imo.

 

[kermatu]

The cynical reading of this is that the program is working as it should: it potentially influences those who could conceivably make P1 to do so while acknowledging that if you can legitimately reach P1 it is more by necessity than choice and are therefore somewhat of a captive market. Or, in other words, a nice, empty piece of marketing by QF.

True, except I sure haven't held back in my commentary to a lot of friends and in particular work colleagues around the country who fly a lot and are tempted to chase status or commit more of their own or business' money to QF. Not rubbishing the airline - as service is generally very good and domestically the better choice. But making it clear it is barely worth getting to WP (or OWE more to the point) let alone anything else, and internationally there are better choices for price and even service.

Given the vast majority of the population I suspect doesn't know P1 and CL even exist, my guess is the spin and marketing is more for those of us who do travel a fair bit, as you say. But to actually under-deliver to that group surely can't be regarded as a win.

I do take your point re captured market. That said, While I've earned over 5500 SCs so far this year, I'd guesstimate it would be closer to 8000 if I had flown QF or OW every time this year and a OW flight was available.

 

[TonyHancock]

....... securing OWE for another year are pretty nice benefits imo.

Two years.