QFF Platinum requesting release of extra Classic Reward seats?

[Cessna 180]

The rise of the social media/you tubers/influencers/points hacker websites or whatever they are called has completely ruined the job.

As I partially mentioned on another thread recently, back in around 2019 I booked a OWA j award six months out from departure. All on line. A month or two later I booked a second ticket on the same itinerary for GF. No problems, just a couple of phone calls to add some flights.

I have not had a need to ring and make any request of late, but I have been watching this plus availability on other One World carriers with a view to making a booking for early 28 and am not overly optimistic. Plus the increase in taxes across ~80% of carriers makes it all less fun.

 

[muppet]

Yes, yes, yes. My view is we should treat this like fight club. Stop talking about it. Tbh same goes for this thread.

It will be taken away if not.

Unfortunately the ship has sailed…. There was an article last week in either The Australian or the AFR that specifically mentioned it (along with a bunch of other completely incorrect things as usual).

EDIT: AFR

Why airline status matters (especially if you want an airport massage)

Australians love to whinge about their frequent flyer points being “useless”. But if you’re complaining, you are doing it wrong.

www.afr.com

Qantas platinum and platinum one frequent flyers can call the call centre to ask for reward seats to be unlocked on any flight. Seats are not always available, but if timing is flexible, most times a seat can be found on Qantas or Oneworld airlines.

 

[transpactraveller]

Question for longer-term Plat/P1s

Do you think the increased promotion of this ‘unpublished’ perk has made it harder to get reward seats released?

Five years ago, I had no idea it existed. Since then, I’ve seen plenty of articles and social media posts about it which would obviously have increased the awareness.

I wonder whether the extra demand has affected approval rates, and how much staff time now goes into handling these requests. Could this eventually put the perk at risk?

I may have tried harder to retain Platinum if I knew about this perk a few years ago when I decided not to chase status anymore and drop back to Gold.

This is probably one key perk that would have made me push to retain if it actually had a decent success rate.

Going by this thread though, not many get their release requests approved anymore. So I'm not sure I'm missing out on much now.

 

[Happy Dude]

I may have tried harder to retain Platinum if I knew about this perk a few years ago when I decided not to chase status anymore and drop back to Gold.

This is probably one key perk that would have made me push to retain if it actually had a decent success rate.

Going by this thread though, not many get their release requests approved anymore. So I'm not sure I'm missing out on much now.

This thread is a major reason I'm considering a run at QFF WP (in DSC times of course), in addition to the changes to Velocity, ahead of planned international travel.

When WP+ are being declined domestic Y rewards, then I too am concerned. It's alarming that they can't get a CR in the first place, without having to use this perk. It'd be different if they're requesting a flight into MEL a week from the AFL granny, but they're not. Or maybe it's a sign of the (now normal) times?

 

[freqflyer77]

When WP+ are being declined domestic Y rewards, then I too am concerned.

Reading those denials is what prompted me to ask.

I'd be pretty annoyed if I was a P1 and couldn't get a back of the bus domestic reward seat through any available means.

 

[Jousams]

In all fairness, we’ve had recent domestic capacity reductions and that’s probably impacting the models/equations more than a deliberate decision to reduce the amount offered.

 

[fletty]

This perk was the reason I went for WP to release F on QF1. I managed to do that and it made it all worth it for me.
Haven't had much luck with releases since though.

 

[Dvg]

Question for longer-term Plat/P1s

Do you think the increased promotion of this ‘unpublished’ perk has made it harder to get reward seats released?

Five years ago, I had no idea it existed. Since then, I’ve seen plenty of articles and social media posts about it which would obviously have increased the awareness.

I wonder whether the extra demand has affected approval rates, and factoring in potentially how much staff time now goes into handling these requests....could this eventually put the perk at risk?

 

[Dvg]

I’ve never had any luck in getting flts I would prefer released but I’ve only been plat for 2 years, mind you it’s only been 4/5 times I’ve requested

 

[Airbumps]

Yes, yes, yes. My view is we should treat this like fight club. Stop talking about it. Tbh same goes for this thread.

It will be taken away if not.

This is a good point. The more people post their success in here, the more widespread the knowledge of the perk and thus the less likely it is to be succesful. To be honest, I' not really sure what value there is in posting your success..... if a person wants a seat, just call up and ask. its not like referencing this thread is going to help

 

[Jousams]

All in favour of deleting this thread. AYE.

 

[aikman]

Instead of members putting pressure on Qantas to release more reward seats, members are instead turning on each other. Sad.

 

[elanshin]

For reference, domestic Y is very hard to qualify for and I've had a lot more success releasing domestic J. From my experience , its actually pretty rare I get a domestic flight knocked back on a major route.