Qantas Premier Titanium card

[andytheturtle]

Would this be something to consider of someone who:
- Aims to fly to maintain QF Gold, status run if needed.
--> Take advantage of DSC promo wherever possibleMaybe 2x return J class to NZ/year.
- Does not fly a lot otherwise
- Self fund the above

I know the 20% extra SC does not work with DSC.
I am thinking with the recent trans-Tasman QF J class tickets we bought for two people to maintain the status, the 10% discount that comes with the card may help with those kind of purchases?

Thoughts?

 

[dairyfloss]

Would this be something to consider of someone who:
- Aims to fly to maintain QF Gold, status run if needed.
--> Take advantage of DSC promo wherever possibleMaybe 2x return J class to NZ/year.
- Does not fly a lot otherwise
- Self fund the above

I know the 20% extra SC does not work with DSC.
I am thinking with the recent trans-Tasman QF J class tickets we bought for two people to maintain the status, the 10% discount that comes with the card may help with those kind of purchases?

Thoughts?

Hi - there are certainly some advantages to be gained, but questionable whether these are worth the high annual fee(s) that come with the card ($1,200 + $100 for additional cardholders), in your situation.

I'd start with those [residual] fees you pay, after likely fare discounts, so that you can see what the product cost to you actually looks like. To totally offset the fee with 1 additional cardholder, you'd need at least $13,000 in QF base fares. That's not happening with 2 x 2 J returns to NZ. I have an example from an NZ booking I made recently - a peak J SYD-ZQN return with a published fare of A$2,850 per adult produced a base fare saving of $263.50 per adult. That's a discount of $1,054 for 2 x 2 J returns, and would leave another $246 of card fees unrecovered.

Residual cost aside - it does make maintaining status easier. A 'standard' J return to NZ from the AU East Coast, paid on the card earns 108SCs in each direction / 216SCs return. Do that twice in a year and you'll have 72% of the 600SCs you need to maintain SG. Flying indirectly (e.g. xSYD/MEL/BNE), adds 48SCs each way and you'll have more than what you need, at 618SCs. Of course, if you had 2 DSC bookings for the same travel, you wouldn't even need the card or to fly indirect to earn more than enough (720SCs) from the 2 x 2 J returns!

If you intend on booking J fares for NZ, anyway, then you already have better ground priority and the lounge access, and so the benefits for having this card and QFF Gold, if you don't travel often, are likely limited to the QF Club for any domestic travel, the 2 x F lounge passes for one of your o/s trips, and some extra points earn (plus the big SUB of 150K!)? The discounts are helpful, however as shown, you couldn't recover the fees from 2 x 2 return J tickets to NZ, even when they are at a premium.

The product works for me, but for me it bridges the sometimes gap to QFF Platinum, plus we tend to have higher cost INT J bookings each year that allow me to take enough from the base fare discounts to offset or better the card fees in full.

Hope this helps with weighing up!

Cheers,
Matt.

 

[andytheturtle]

Thanks for the detailed reply, Matt! That's awesome.

I was asking because I am looking for a reward CC to supplement the Amex Plat CC. Irks me when some merchants don't take Amex and the spending goes without points earned.

I mentioned 2x return J class to NZ mainly because that was what we figured would allow us to retain QF G on a reasonable budget while also travelling a bit. From your comment, it sounds like these flights would land on roughly 1K of saving using the Ti card.

That'd leave is $300 to consider if this card is worthwhile. I see this is based on a very generous calculation of paying for J class that's not on sale.

Most mid-tier reward CC would cost around $300/year. So if calculating this way, this card suddenly seems sort of palatable ...

Lounges: You're right that the lounge passes are not particularly useful for us, especially the QF J lounges/Qantas Club. Granted we have never been to the F lounge. Outside of the QF lounges, we can also count on the Amex Plat CC for a few more options, both in AU and overseas.

Other travel: When going further beyond NZ, we generally find that CX are cheaper, so that's who we tend to stick with. So maintaining the QF status is really just to get us into the CX lounges in HKG, plus a slightly more comfortable domestic travel here and there.

 

[oz_boater]

Well I took the plunge and signed up - simply on the basis that the 150,000 points were worth the $1,200 to me.

Thus far the experience has been farcical
Since I had the card anyway and was unlikely to be booking 2 premium trips in the next 12 months I thought I would the 10% discount for a rather expensive economy flight (Syd -> Sing -> BKK -> Syd over Christmas)

You must book this through the concierge, and you must use the card to book it.

So I rang the number the T&Cs say you have to use to get to the concierge. This is not their number. It is the number for QANTAS Money - who it turns out are a completely different organization who do not share a common computer system.

Thus after jumping through the "please identify yourself" hoops at Money, I then had to start again at the Concierge after I got transferred there.

Every time I have called the concierge (now 4 times) the line quality has been dreadful, the voice has been soft and distorted and we have had trouble understanding each other, leading to multiple rounds of trying to get names, phone numbers, flight numbers and CC numbers right.

Anyway - persistence wins through (or so I thought).

Managed to communicate details of what I wanted and got told as it was a a multi-stop flight the refund would have to be done manually and it would take 4-8 weeks.

Then I was told that as I was using the required CC there would be the normal CC surcharge.

Then I was told that because on the other flights was actually Jetstar (but sold with a QF flight number) there would be no discount on that leg.

When I asked for the dollar value of the discount I was given a number that was exactly 10% of the total (inc tax and charges price, and including the Jetstar leg)

I checked the concierge was serious (after all they had just told me the Jetstar leg got no discount, and the discount is supposed to be on the base fare anyway, not the total price) and when they confirmed it I asked for that in writing. I was promised an email that evening confirming. (It never arrived.)

This all took over half an hour to book the above flight where I had the exactly flight numbers and dates to use - most of the time spent going back and forth trying to get names, flight numbers, etc understood over the bad line.

The flight was booked successfully, and it currently attached to my FF account

A day or two later I wrote to QANTAS Money via their web-form asking for my email - no replay.

Instead, a week later, I got a email (asking for a reply) from "noreply@internationalsos.com" saying that the credit card I had successfully booked the flight using did not exist; so I was in violation of the T&Cs and no discount would be provided. (attached)



So I rang QANTAS Money to confirm my card was good, and they then transferred me to the Concierge who then told me that when they said "QANTAS" they meant "QANTAS Money" and so the same organisation that had issued the card denied it existed - even though the flight had been charged to it.

Another 45 minutes on the phone (over 3 calls because every time they put me on hold to call someone else it disconnected the call, and they had my phone number wrong so they failed to ring me back) and this agent was very helpful in seeking to resolve the problem - and I am now waiting on an email to say it has been cleaned up.

We even had a bit of a laugh together because it was so absurd. Pythonesque you could even say.

At the end of our last call the agent sent me though an "all the things you can use the concierge service for" (attached) which did make me laugh out loud when I read it.

After this experience I would have a root canal than try and seek assistance from the "QANTAS Titanium Concierge"

They have very high ambitions for this "service" - but it had been excruciating using them thus far and I will do what I can to avoid engaging with them in the future.

Thus proving yet again - a fool (me in this case) and their money ($1,200 for a farcically bad service) are soon parted

1 star - do not recommend
Unless you enjoy being in the middle of a Monty-python sketch that is

 

[Mr H]

Well I took the plunge and signed up - simply on the basis that the 150,000 points were worth the $1,200 to me.

Thus far the experience has been farcical
Since I had the card anyway and was unlikely to be booking 2 premium trips in the next 12 months I thought I would the 10% discount for a rather expensive economy flight (Syd -> Sing -> BKK -> Syd over Christmas)

You must book this through the concierge, and you must use the card to book it.

So I rang the number the T&Cs say you have to use to get to the concierge. This is not their number. It is the number for QANTAS Money - who it turns out are a completely different organization who do not share a common computer system.

Thus after jumping through the "please identify yourself" hoops at Money, I then had to start again at the Concierge after I got transferred there.

Every time I have called the concierge (now 4 times) the line quality has been dreadful, the voice has been soft and distorted and we have had trouble understanding each other, leading to multiple rounds of trying to get names, phone numbers, flight numbers and CC numbers right.

Anyway - persistence wins through (or so I thought).

Managed to communicate details of what I wanted and got told as it was a a multi-stop flight the refund would have to be done manually and it would take 4-8 weeks.

Then I was told that as I was using the required CC there would be the normal CC surcharge.

Then I was told that because on the other flights was actually Jetstar (but sold with a QF flight number) there would be no discount on that leg.

When I asked for the dollar value of the discount I was given a number that was exactly 10% of the total (inc tax and charges price, and including the Jetstar leg)

I checked the concierge was serious (after all they had just told me the Jetstar leg got no discount, and the discount is supposed to be on the base fare anyway, not the total price) and when they confirmed it I asked for that in writing. I was promised an email that evening confirming. (It never arrived.)

This all took over half an hour to book the above flight where I had the exactly flight numbers and dates to use - most of the time spent going back and forth trying to get names, flight numbers, etc understood over the bad line.

The flight was booked successfully, and it currently attached to my FF account

A day or two later I wrote to QANTAS Money via their web-form asking for my email - no replay.

Instead, a week later, I got a email (asking for a reply) from "noreply@internationalsos.com" saying that the credit card I had successfully booked the flight using did not exist; so I was in violation of the T&Cs and no discount would be provided. (attached)

View attachment 341626

So I rang QANTAS Money to confirm my card was good, and they then transferred me to the Concierge who then told me that when they said "QANTAS" they meant "QANTAS Money" and so the same organisation that had issued the card denied it existed - even though the flight had been charged to it.

Another 45 minutes on the phone (over 3 calls because every time they put me on hold to call someone else it disconnected the call, and they had my phone number wrong so they failed to ring me back) and this agent was very helpful in seeking to resolve the problem - and I am now waiting on an email to say it has been cleaned up.

We even had a bit of a laugh together because it was so absurd. Pythonesque you could even say.

At the end of our last call the agent sent me though an "all the things you can use the concierge service for" (attached) which did make me laugh out loud when I read it.

After this experience I would have a root canal than try and seek assistance from the "QANTAS Titanium Concierge"

They have very high ambitions for this "service" - but it had been excruciating using them thus far and I will do what I can to avoid engaging with them in the future.

Thus proving yet again - a fool (me in this case) and their money ($1,200 for a farcically bad service) are soon parted

1 star - do not recommend
Unless you enjoy being in the middle of a Monty-python sketch that is

Sounds like you have hit the jackpot. 150,000 points plus grounds for demanding cancellation with a refund of the annual fee.

 

[oz_boater]

Sounds like you have hit the jackpot. 150,000 points plus grounds for demanding cancellation with a refund of the annual fee.

I, however, have not yet got those 150,000 points yet

 

[dairyfloss]

Well I took the plunge and signed up - simply on the basis that the 150,000 points were worth the $1,200 to me.

Thus far the experience has been farcical
Since I had the card anyway and was unlikely to be booking 2 premium trips in the next 12 months I thought I would the 10% discount for a rather expensive economy flight (Syd -> Sing -> BKK -> Syd over Christmas)

You must book this through the concierge, and you must use the card to book it.

So I rang the number the T&Cs say you have to use to get to the concierge. This is not their number. It is the number for QANTAS Money - who it turns out are a completely different organization who do not share a common computer system.

Thus after jumping through the "please identify yourself" hoops at Money, I then had to start again at the Concierge after I got transferred there.

Every time I have called the concierge (now 4 times) the line quality has been dreadful, the voice has been soft and distorted and we have had trouble understanding each other, leading to multiple rounds of trying to get names, phone numbers, flight numbers and CC numbers right.

Anyway - persistence wins through (or so I thought).

Managed to communicate details of what I wanted and got told as it was a a multi-stop flight the refund would have to be done manually and it would take 4-8 weeks.

Then I was told that as I was using the required CC there would be the normal CC surcharge.

Then I was told that because on the other flights was actually Jetstar (but sold with a QF flight number) there would be no discount on that leg.

When I asked for the dollar value of the discount I was given a number that was exactly 10% of the total (inc tax and charges price, and including the Jetstar leg)

I checked the concierge was serious (after all they had just told me the Jetstar leg got no discount, and the discount is supposed to be on the base fare anyway, not the total price) and when they confirmed it I asked for that in writing. I was promised an email that evening confirming. (It never arrived.)

This all took over half an hour to book the above flight where I had the exactly flight numbers and dates to use - most of the time spent going back and forth trying to get names, flight numbers, etc understood over the bad line.

The flight was booked successfully, and it currently attached to my FF account

A day or two later I wrote to QANTAS Money via their web-form asking for my email - no replay.

Instead, a week later, I got a email (asking for a reply) from "noreply@internationalsos.com" saying that the credit card I had successfully booked the flight using did not exist; so I was in violation of the T&Cs and no discount would be provided. (attached)

View attachment 341626

So I rang QANTAS Money to confirm my card was good, and they then transferred me to the Concierge who then told me that when they said "QANTAS" they meant "QANTAS Money" and so the same organisation that had issued the card denied it existed - even though the flight had been charged to it.

Another 45 minutes on the phone (over 3 calls because every time they put me on hold to call someone else it disconnected the call, and they had my phone number wrong so they failed to ring me back) and this agent was very helpful in seeking to resolve the problem - and I am now waiting on an email to say it has been cleaned up.

We even had a bit of a laugh together because it was so absurd. Pythonesque you could even say.

At the end of our last call the agent sent me though an "all the things you can use the concierge service for" (attached) which did make me laugh out loud when I read it.

After this experience I would have a root canal than try and seek assistance from the "QANTAS Titanium Concierge"

They have very high ambitions for this "service" - but it had been excruciating using them thus far and I will do what I can to avoid engaging with them in the future.

Thus proving yet again - a fool (me in this case) and their money ($1,200 for a farcically bad service) are soon parted

1 star - do not recommend
Unless you enjoy being in the middle of a Monty-python sketch that is

Ouch - I booked direct on QF. Took screen shots of the fare breakdown information for them, and then emailed the ‘concierge’ to put in the request for refund of the 10% (rather than a discount). Much easier.

I had one pure QF ticket, and one multi-carrier one. They figured it out and the amounts refunded were in line with my calculations.

Cheers,
Matt

 

[oz_boater]

Ouch - I booked direct on QF. Took screen shots of the fare breakdown information for them, and then emailed the ‘concierge’ to put in the request for refund of the 10% (rather than a discount). Much easier.

I had one pure QF ticket, and one multi-carrier one. They figured it out and the amounts refunded were in line with my calculations.

Cheers,
Matt

Cheers Matt

The Ts&Cs require you to do the booking itself through them.
Good to know you you managed to ignore it.

When I talk to them again I will ask they put the above method in writing, would suck to buy a non-refundable fare and then have them point to the Ts&Cs and say "to bad".

After all they already have pointed to the Ts & Cs with me - copying them directly into the email to claim I had violated them somehow (on my brand new CC).

Incidentally, how do you email the concierge Matt?

I can't see an email address for them - other than this "noreply" one from (apparently) an emergency management company.

 

[dairyfloss]

Cheers Matt

The Ts&Cs require you to do the booking itself through them.
Good to know you you managed to ignore it.

When I talk to them again I will ask they put the above method in writing, would suck to buy a non-refundable fare and then have them point to the Ts&Cs and say "to bad".

After all they already have pointed to the Ts & Cs with me - copying them directly into the email to claim I had violated them somehow (on my brand new CC).

Incidentally, how do you email the concierge Matt?

I can't see an email address for them - other than this "noreply" one from (apparently) an emergency management company.

I’ll send you some details later over PM…

The method is an official one, primarily used for where the booking is for more than 2 pax on the booking, but if you have good reason to book direct, I don’t see them refusing you the same. It’s the same outcome for QF/NAB, regardless. If anything they are both better off thanks to the short term funds holding.

I’ll send you the concierge email address(es) I’ve been using, as well.

Cheers,
Matt.

 

[oz_boater]

I’ll send you some details later over PM…

The method is an official one, primarily used for where the booking is for more than 2 pax on the booking, but if you have good reason to book direct, I don’t see them refusing you the same. It’s the same outcome for QF/NAB, regardless. If anything they are both better off thanks to the short term funds holding.

I’ll send you the concierge email address(es) I’ve been using, as well.

Cheers,
Matt.

Thanks Matt

The next challenge is I am penciling in a 1st class points trip to Europe next year (mainly on Emirates)

For insurance the T&Cs say you have to pay all the charges on your CC and/or any points need to come from points you earnt on that card

At 493,000 points round trip that is obviously impossible, but there are also $3,176 in charges so it would seem reasonable to be covered on the basis of the charges alone.

But again it would be terrible to assume I was covered and only in retrospect find that I wasn't.

The T&Cs for insurance are much nastier than for my ANZ Plat QANTAS card where all you need to do is charge $250 of your pre-paid expenses to the card, but I am thinking of getting rid of that one due to the annual fee of $425 or so.

 

[dairyfloss]

Thanks Matt

The next challenge is I am penciling in a 1st class points trip to Europe next year (mainly on Emirates)

For insurance the T&Cs say you have to pay all the charges on your CC and/or any points need to come from points you earnt on that card

At 493,000 points round trip that is obviously impossible, but there are also $3,176 in charges so it would seem reasonable to be covered on the basis of the charges alone.

But again it would be terrible to assume I was covered and only in retrospect find that I wasn't.

The T&Cs for insurance are much nastier than for my ANZ Plat QANTAS card where all you need to do is charge $250 of your pre-paid expenses to the card, but I am thinking of getting rid of that one due to the annual fee of $425 or so.

Yes - a little more complex, that one. I'd reach out to them with the specifics and get it in writing that the trip would be covered based on whatever amount or ratio you end up with for settling the ticket cost. It's not really possible that they would know whether the QFF points burnt were earnt on the card or not, but of course if you hadn't yet earned that amount in total, I guess they could say it's not possible you did. Once you've had the card for a while, this should be easier to deal with, provided you are earning well from it. I've earnt >300K from it in the last 6 months.

Cheers.
Matt.

 

[Mr H]

The T&Cs for insurance are much nastier than for my ANZ Plat QANTAS card where all you need to do is charge $250 of your pre-paid expenses to the card, but I am thinking of getting rid of that one due to the annual fee of $425 or so.

The ANZ insurance is the same for platinum and black cards - so you can downgrade to a platinum card, pay way lower fees and still get great travel insurance. I have an ANZ rewards card as my keeper, mainly for that reason (also because the ANZ rewards sign up bonuses are quite missable).

 

[oz_boater]

The ANZ insurance is the same for platinum and black cards - so you can downgrade to a platinum card, pay way lower fees and still get great travel insurance. I have an ANZ rewards card as my keeper, mainly for that reason (also because the ANZ rewards sign up bonuses are quite missable).

Good to know, thanks

 

[bsb]

They have very high ambitions for this "service"

I wonder if anyone uses this concierge. I’ve just got one of these cards and as a self funded small biz owner the value is there for me. But I just can’t imagine anyone using that service for the products it offers.

On another topic, does anyone have any ideas of whether you can separate your personal from your business expenses easily? I asked if I could get a second card in my name and was told no. I’m not interested in trawling through a monthly statement and doing that myself (or heaven forbid, asking my staff to do it). Any ideas? I’ve yet to get my physical card as I’m away from home so haven’t seen the statement or app yet

 

[oz_boater]

The ANZ insurance is the same for platinum and black cards - so you can downgrade to a platinum card, pay way lower fees and still get great travel insurance. I have an ANZ rewards card as my keeper, mainly for that reason (also because the ANZ rewards sign up bonuses are quite missable).

A little off topic for the Titanium card, but I did ring ANZ about the 3rd year fee for the Black QANTAS card and they waived the fee (but not the FF membership charge), so $375 back I think and I get the better insurance for another year.

Really odd the ANZ card has less hoops to jump through to use the insurance than the 3 times more expensive QANTAS Titanium.

 

[Mr H]

On another topic, does anyone have any ideas of whether you can separate your personal from your business expenses easily?

I'm not an accountant but I had come to understand that it was a very, very bad idea to put business and personal expenses on the same card.

 

[Flying Fox]

I'm not an accountant but I had come to understand that it was a very, very bad idea to put business and personal expenses on the same card.

Its not ideal and does make things complicated when tax times comes around. Like any legal case, you will need good supporting documents for all your business expenses.

 

[Cruiser Elite]

I'm not an accountant but I had come to understand that it was a very, very bad idea to put business and personal expenses on the same card.

Rubbish - the majority of small business across Australia operate this way and the jails aren’t overflowing.

 

[Mr H]

Rubbish - the majority of small business across Australia operate this way and the jails aren’t overflowing.

I understood the issue was if the business went bust, you would find it much harder to separate the assets of the business and your own personal assets.

 

[Daver6]

A little off topic for the Titanium card, but I did ring ANZ about the 3rd year fee for the Black QANTAS card and they waived the fee (but not the FF membership charge), so $375 back I think and I get the better insurance for another year.

Really odd the ANZ card has less hoops to jump through to use the insurance than the 3 times more expensive QANTAS Titanium.

I rang last week for the second year. They wouldnt even entertain a fee reduction. Cancelled on the spot.