Qantas Platinum One experiences?

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QF doesn't have any incentive really to throw if you are going to fly as much?

I suspect that’s the case.

Worth thinking about splitting travel so you can get PPS with SQ or CK with AA.

 

[jbmemories]

@lurker - if you have the ability to choose airlines you travel, extension in a Star Alliance to get lifetime *A Gold, perhaps with one that you will travel the most (UA, SQ, Luft, etc) might be the way to go.

Followed by SkyTeam, but they probably won't have value here in AU

 

[Andy72]

Surprise invite to CL Sunday afternoon in Brisbane. I suspect they might be quiet

 

[jane blogs]

I was P1 for several years and the biggest benefit for me was being able to walk onto the next available flight rather than waiting for my booked flight, saved me lots of time and angst. I never received any invitations & mostly no special acknowledgement in domestic lounges or flights. I have been in the CL Sydney and Canberra many times but never as the guest of QF and apart from the quietness of it, not somewhere to aspire to. The VIP team were/are also amazing especially during the COVID mess and subsequent travel periods. Internationally, partner airlines treated me as a very special passenger and of course access to all first class lounges. QF First in Sydney is now very ordinary lounge but as a platinum still have access to that. I had knee replacement last year so wasn't walking let alone flying so I dropped to Platinum which I thought would be a shock to the system but so far have not noticed a difference from P1. I'll requalify for P easily but so far I can't see the value in aiming for P1 again, so as I already have lifetime gold, (and will never make lifetime P1) will maybe take everyones advice here and have a crack at upping my star alliance level I think. Although as I mostly fly and like One World, not sure what the real value would be in that? Mmmm

 

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will maybe take everyones advice here and have a crack at upping my star alliance level I think.

It’s horses for courses. If you’re tied to OW, it’s worth sticking with Qantas and P1 does have some extra perks. If you want to split your spend, depending on your travel patterns you could aim for SQ PPS and QFP and hold both. I find star alliance useful for intra “continental” Europe travel where there isn’t a OW airline.

 

[pagingjoan]

Anyone going to the Collingwood game today?

 

[Cloud9]

Anyone going to the Collingwood game today?

Nah - Magpie supporters are too violent for my liking.

 

[pagingjoan]

Nah - Magpie supporters are too violent for my liking.

I hear you.
But there are ways of being insulated from that!

 

[Andy72]

Another free upgrade with thanks from the vip team. Admittedly a regional E190 alliance flight. Still good. Only one in J. Good meal (only one loaded, no choice) which was useful as at destination maccas is the only place open after 830 pm

 

[Larko1]

Just had an interesting call to the VIP Service Team to book some CR flights that were unable to be booked online.
First call, connected, gave details, ring, ring, then nothing, then asked to rate the call, 112. HUCA
Second call answered promptly by Sam and within 10 minutes all booked and ticketed.
Very happy

 

[jamesatfish]

I inadvertently qualified for P1 last Monday, despite having decided at the start of my membership year that I was just going to re-qualify for WP but then shift all my international flights to SQ and domestic to VA.

So far, so impressed. Received a phone call (which I missed) and subsequent email from the VIP team about 2 hours after my final qualifying flight landed making sure I knew the special call centre phone number for any future travel requirements.

I've already made use of the gift Platinum membership, as well as the 2400 QF SC gift Gold that came through after the same flight, both to very grateful recipients. I'm tempted to re-qualify for P1 next membership year solely to ensure those people keep those benefits.

My welcome pack arrived yesterday, as mentioned in the other thread I would have liked to wait a week and get a new blue tag but the monogrammed laptop case and other bits & pieces were nice anyway.

I just received my first event invite today, to the Socceroos game in Canberra in a few weeks time. Sadly I'll be overseas that day but I'm impressed to have been invited to something so quickly.

I haven't yet taken a QF flight to know if there will be any difference there, but I'll be in the SYD F lounge again in 3 weeks time so I'm keen to find out if my experience is any different to what I've been reporting as a 'regular' WP flying F.

 

[Kangol]

I inadvertently qualified for P1 last Monday, despite having decided at the start of my membership year that I was just going to re-qualify for WP but then shift all my international flights to SQ and domestic to VA.

So far, so impressed. Received a phone call (which I missed) and subsequent email from the VIP team about 2 hours after my final qualifying flight landed making sure I knew the special call centre phone number for any future travel requirements.

I've already made use of the gift Platinum membership, as well as the 2400 QF SC gift Gold that came through after the same flight, both to very grateful recipients. I'm tempted to re-qualify for P1 next membership year solely to ensure those people keep those benefits.

My welcome pack arrived yesterday, as mentioned in the other thread I would have liked to wait a week and get a new blue tag but the monogrammed laptop case and other bits & pieces were nice anyway.

I just received my first event invite today, to the Socceroos game in Canberra in a few weeks time. Sadly I'll be overseas that day but I'm impressed to have been invited to something so quickly.

I haven't yet taken a QF flight to know if there will be any difference there, but I'll be in the SYD F lounge again in 3 weeks time so I'm keen to find out if my experience is any different to what I've been reporting as a 'regular' WP flying F.

Congrats!

Who was the laptop case made by? My original was from The daily edited, but looks like it went into administration a few years ago and was bought. Their website is down (landing page only).

 

[jbmemories]

The Hobart/P1 team reps are a wealth of knowledge, and some are long-term employees (10-15 years on average) at Qantas. They are willing to work with you in fixing flights or tickets that were messed up in the backend to resolve the situation.

Based on Qantas' travel systems, flights may change and complicated/mixed itins will have 'auto-accepted' changes, even if this change happened at a later date. (i.e., made complex flight 13th Nov, but flight time changes occurred 3rd Dec - system will show that it was accepted for whatever reason). They are willing to actually delve into the history, etc.

They stuck with me for nearly 2 hours sorting out my ticket and going through the GDS commands to resolve some flight issues; whereas if I didn't have luck and got the overseas team, I would probably get shut down quite quickly, saying 'it's not possible'.

I'm not sure what the exact team is called, but they have a direct contact point to the backend Master Data/GDS specialist team, who can sort out problems, and the Hobart team followed up with me to make sure I get my refund after the system messup is resolved.

 

[jamesatfish]

Congrats!

Who was the laptop case made by? My original was from The daily edited, but looks like it went into administration a few years ago and was bought. Their website is down (landing page only).

I'm assuming it's the same mob, it has a silver 'tde' on the inside.

 

[token01]

who does p1 get put through to after hours when hobart is closed. -is it this qantas VIP team that OS sometimes connects you to then i get disconnected because my number is only a wp. can you get access to them 24/7. i find such a difference between hobart and fiji sometimes that i just hang up.

after 15 years in a row since the teen years as a WP im thinking about pushing to P1 maybe just to see what little fuss they make.
after feeling so hollow after lifetime gold, or no recognition for 10 years on the trot ( i assume plenty of friends here online are 15+ 20+ years conservatively) i just don't feel the love anymore.......the company man adage inside me is dying......

 

[Princess Fiona]

who does p1 get put through to after hours when hobart is closed. -is it this qantas VIP team that OS sometimes connects you to then i get disconnected because my number is only a wp. can you get access to them 24/7. i find such a difference between hobart and fiji sometimes that i just hang up.

after 15 years in a row since the teen years as a WP im thinking about pushing to P1 maybe just to see what little fuss they make.
after feeling so hollow after lifetime gold, or no recognition for 10 years on the trot ( i assume plenty of friends here online are 15+ 20+ years conservatively) i just don't feel the love anymore.......the company man adage inside me is dying......

After hours you get routed as a P1 to one of the OS call centres.
Usually NZ or SA.

In fact when it’s busy during office hours you might get routed to one of those IME.
So if pushing to get to P1 for the call centre then I wouldn’t bother.
For me the biggest benefit of P1 is access to award seat releases that a Platinum could only dream of.

 

[token01]

hey PF thanks for the reply - i do get releases as WP - are u telling me they will release more? not just the ones that have sale fares left??? mind shedding some more light on this???

 

[Andy72]

hey PF thanks for the reply - i do get releases as WP - are u telling me they will release more? not just the ones that have sale fares left??? mind shedding some more light on this???

Agree, 2 main benefits. Reward seats for travel with family. 4 to North America at Christmas (one in J). 2 F tickets from London in April. Haven’t paid for holiday flights with cash for years.
The other major benefit is points upgrades. Upgraded every international flight economy since COVID. Mostly to J. A couple to F from J. And a couple to W when planes were very full.
I fly a lot domestically too and it’s really handy to fly forward when i am done on time.
The call centre is great, even SA seems to me more empowered.
And if flights get cancelled, you are often rebooked, even before the airport staff know it’s cancelled.
But it’s a lot of flying, and 90% of my flights are on Qantas metal.
The odd treat is nice but wouldn’t change my decision

 

[Princess Fiona]

hey PF thanks for the reply - i do get releases as WP - are u telling me they will release more? not just the ones that have sale fares left??? mind shedding some more light on this???

Agree, 2 main benefits. Reward seats for travel with family. 4 to North America at Christmas (one in J). 2 F tickets from London in April. Haven’t paid for holiday flights with cash for years.
The other major benefit is points upgrades. Upgraded every international flight economy since COVID. Mostly to J. A couple to F from J. And a couple to W when planes were very full.
I fly a lot domestically too and it’s really handy to fly forward when i am done on time.
The call centre is great, even SA seems to me more empowered.
And if flights get cancelled, you are often rebooked, even before the airport staff know it’s cancelled.
But it’s a lot of flying, and 90% of my flights are on Qantas metal.
The odd treat is nice but wouldn’t change my decision

P1 is the only tier that can have a manual request via the route controller if the computer says no.
Can request if D class available, Platinum can only do so if I class.

Also agree with @Andy72 with points upgrades.
Top of the pile for that.

 

[TeaKozy]

For me the biggest benefit of P1 is access to award seat releases that a Platinum could only dream of.

Having been P1 for all of a fortnight, this will probably be the most bitter pill to swallow for when I eventually lose it. Flights for what I recently booked are currently showing:

J9 C3 D0 I0 Y9 B9 H9 K9 M9 L9 V9 S9
J9 C4 D2 I0 Y9 B9 H9 K9 M9 L9 V9 S9 N9 Q9

Seems like access to even C class availability is discretionary based on yield management - got one day either side of what I was looking at for 2xJ (with the return sector over the Easter break). Not only that, the points for a previous booking that I'd refunded hadn't landed yet back in my account - the agent put me on hold, manually processed the refund and subsequent payment, allocated seats and got something more timely on the connecting SYD-MEL sector released. Also tried to see if there were any alternatives that mightn't have been considered when putting in the request. As a WP I don't recall an agent so committed to helping out - feel like my last comparable experience was booking a Oneworld Classic Reward ticket back in 2017 (and that was as a lowly SG).

Also got a comped upgrade on a MEL-SYD sector the other week and invite to Illume at the Arts Centre in September. Certainly not expecting the charm offensive to continue, but it's somewhat reassuring that the system 'works' to some degree. Similarly got the phone call and Welcome Pack (and invoice for the new card).

That said, for the peasants that shlep in Y domestically, a guaranteed shadow (except in the case of IRROPS) for Row 4 would be a pretty welcomed inclusion...