QFF Value of Silver Status?

[Yoz]

After reading the AFF Forum it has become apparent that a lot of people are doing status runs to attain/retain a particular level of member status for a particular airline. And while a lot of these threads look at the price per status credit there seems to be very little actually evaluating the value of a status credit or even the value of a particular status tier.

After comparing the benefits of Bronze and Silver I've managed to determine the following potential value based on 4x Melbourne to Asia trips within a calendar year:

4x Complimentary Seat Selection = $100.00
Extra Baggage Allowance = $1008.00
Qantas Club Single Invitation = $125.00 (based on PriorityPass cost)
Additional Frequent Flyer Points = $176.73 (23564 pts at 0.75c/pt)
Total Value = $1409.73
​

Calculated based on 4x Melbourne to Asia trips in Discount Economy as after 4x Melbourne to Asia trips I suspect you would reach ~300 SCs based on this and would therefore have the benefits on any subsequent travel.

Does it sound correct that if you knew you had 4+ Melb to Asia flights planned for your next calendar year of status - that it could/would be beneficial to try and status run to get these benefits as long as it costs you less than $1409.73?

It's obviously dependent on a variety of factors (such as destination, class of travel, and using all of your baggage allowance) but am I missing anything here?

And is there anywhere that easily calculates (or estimates) the value you would derive from a particular tier of membership?

 

[Mwenenzi]

Very few people pay for extra luggage. Pack to to the allowance or HLO (hand luggage only)
So baggage value to me $0.00

QF club access is not worth $125. $12.50 maybe.
Better to divide paid a Q club membership by say 20
Look at the Q club benefits

 

[ckck]

You don't mention what part of Asia you would be travelling to so for an example I have used Mel-Singapore. One way will give you 30 SC's in discount economy therefore you will have 60 SC's for a return flight. Flying four times a year = 240SC's this not not enough to qualify - actually it is not enough SC's to requalify for Silver (300 and 250 SC's respectively). So doing a status run just to get one lounge visit and some bag tags will probably not be worth it (unless you have millions of points to burn and then you may as well use them for a JASA to Asia and enjoy the trip and Business lounge before hand).

Unless of course you are doing some domestic travel e.g. Mel-Syd one way in discount economy = 10 SC's. So your four trips to Asia and one return trip to Syd will give you enough status credits to requalify Silver.

Extra frequent flyer points...
Again Mel-Singapore as a NB will give you 3749 FF points. As a Silver you get 5624 FF points (approx 1800 more points).

As I have just used Singapore as an example you may find that YMMV depending on destination.

Goto the qantas.com.au website click on the "frequent flyer" tab and you will find a status credit calculator for the locations you will be flying to-from.

You may find that if you have to pay for a status run it might just be better for you to save up for a JASA to your destination in Asia which will give you Business class points and Status credits.

If you really want lounge access consider QC but before you shell out your hard earned $ find out if there is a lounge at your destination. (Mel has a QC lounge so no worries there.)

I will finish off in saying that I am a self funded traveller who is a SG. I personally wouldn't go spending a huge amount of $ just to venture into an airport lounge a few times a year. I am sure you can find better quality coffee and a half decent meal in the terminal for less $. I think you should have a good read on the qantas website of what you will be getting with your Silver membership and then see if it is really worth the $. I mean no offense and I say this with all due respect but four return flights a year isn't that much of a frequent flyer. If it was me I would just "suck eggs" and hang out at the terminal or hope that maybe a SG or WP would guest me into the lounge.

AFF is a wonderful forum and there is much to learn about maximizing you frequent flyer experience, you never know in a years time you might be pushing for P1

 

[samh004]

Qantas was selling 4 Qantas Club passes for $179 - there's the true value if there ever was one.

http://www.ausbt.com.au/qantas-club-passes-now-on-sale-through-the-end-of-2012

 

[kelvedon]

Qantas was selling 4 Qantas Club passes for $179 - there's the true value if there ever was one.

Qantas Club passes now on sale through the end of 2012 - Flights | hotels | frequent flyer | business class - Australian Business Traveller

And that's for Domestic clubs only, not valid for the international.

 

[samh004]

And that's for Domestic clubs only, not valid for the international.

So add a little more, but not double and then some

 

[stewiejp]

You can buy one off passes to International Qantas Clubs off Ebay for around $45-65 depending on their expiration date. The same one some credit cards issue to customers. Not too bad, especially if you are hungry or thirsty. Would be easy to spend this amount of money or more paying airport prices at restaurants and bars etc. for a feed and a few drinks.

 

[Yoz]

You don't mention what part of Asia you would be travelling to so for an example I have used Mel-Singapore.

Well, I'm a self-funded traveller too but I will probably require a work trip or two to China every year and I used the data from a recent MEL-SYD-PVG to calculate the SCs and QFF points

I'm definitely not at the point at which I would start doing status runs as I doubt I need to travel internationally more than twice a year at this stage; and for local travel I would just choose the carrier with the cheapest price as I do not receive any perks for travelling on a particular airline.

However, after reading all the status run threads it got me wondering what the actual value of having silver status would be?

Just based on the Qantas Club revision it could potentially be argued:

4x Complimentary Seat Selection = $100.00
Extra Baggage Allowance = $1008.00
Qantas Club Single Invitation = $50.00 (estimate)
Additional Frequent Flyer Points = $176.73 (23564 pts at 0.75c/pt)
Total Value = $1334.73
​

It's definitely still very rough because it would require you to use 100% of the benefits above in the first four flights of your status year, and as Mwenenzi pointed out the value placed on luggage is almost never going to be used perfectly as above.

Personally, it COULD be useful when visiting overseas factories as I could possibly use a fraction of the extra baggage allowance to carry gifts to suppliers as well as spare parts or smaller samples on the way back.

All things considered I would not have guessed that having Silver Status even had the potential to be worth $1K+

In fact. If you were to make a lot of shorter trips to Singapore the value would INCREASE as the perks (aside from QFF Pts) are all based on a per-flight basis.

 

[ckck]

Well, I'm a self-funded traveller too but I will probably require a work trip or two to China every year and I used the data from a recent MEL-SYD-PVG to calculate the SCs and QFF points

I'm definitely not at the point at which I would start doing status runs as I doubt I need to travel internationally more than twice a year at this stage; and for local travel I would just choose the carrier with the cheapest price as I do not receive any perks for travelling on a particular airline.

What I do is focus on one FF program. With my travel patterns I would end up Silver on both Virgin and Qantas or I can be Gold on just one program. I weighed up the pros and cons of both programs looking at my travel pattern, lounge access, baggage allowance allowed for the different levels of status (although 99.9% of the time I travel HLO) etc. I ended up going with Gold on one program b/c the benefits for my travel patterns gold on QF offers far more benefits than Silver on two different programs.

So if there is a *huge* price difference between QF and DJ or if QF don't fly to where I am going obviously I choose another carrier but otherwise QF have given me a set of golden "handcuffs" but I too get benefits from the program that I am happy with. As I usually travel at peak periods and there is only a few dollars difference between red-e-deal and flexi saver, you may get double status credits for just a few extra dollars. Just something to keep in mind.

My recommendation is that you also look at your yearly status credit total if you do all your traveling with one carrier (airline alliance) if it gets you to SG then once again do the math to see if it is worthwhile directing your travel through one carrier/alliance.

Naturally YMMV given your travel patterns will probably differ to mine but it is worth looking at.

Hths.

 

[Must...Fly!]

As a relatively recent graduate to silver, I like the benefits. But would I go on a status run to get them? The best benefits are, to me, the 50% points bonus and priority phone, they seem to have had a positive impact on my QF experiences. The increased seat selection is nothing to write home about at all prior to T-80. However as an NB I found T-80 was a non-event for me almost every time, whereas as a PS member T-80 is like being a kid in a candy store on most filghts.

But would I go on a status run to get these benefits? Without doing the calculations, for me I really doubt it. Even gold I doubt I would run extensively for year after year, maybe once to see if it's worth it, I personally don't place a really high value on lounge visits.

As you've done, weight up the pros and cons, see what the answer is - everyone has a different answer to that question of 'is it worth it?'.

Qantas was selling 4 Qantas Club passes for $179 - there's the true value if there ever was one.

Qantas Club passes now on sale through the end of 2012 - Flights | hotels | frequent flyer | business class - Australian Business Traveller

Yes...I posted in a thread here asking why anyone would bother buying them.

A month ago as I was readying my things to head to the airport, Dad pulled out a QF envelope with 4 QP invites...I just sighed.

 

[samh004]

I'm WP now, but I remember a time, not long ago, when I was NB and despite not actually needing to fly anyway, other than for Do's, decided to route flights strange ways just to make it to Silver. At the time, most were perplexed and told me not to bother. But what it did was make me yearn for more, and meet new people. I don't think I specifically status runned at the time though, or maybe I didn't associate what I was doing with that

Mind you, back then I think the Silver bonus was 25%, not 50%

Even less value perhaps.

 

[cmon0005]

There is also Priority checkin at Qantas Club/PE/Silver counters at most Intl airports, or the business queue where there are no QC/PE counters.
It might not sound like much but it made a world of difference to me when I was a QC Silver, being able to checkin without a long line and be in the lounge very soon after.

Also as others have mentioned the 50% bonus points are handy.

I don't think you can put a dollar value on Status, a lot of the benefits have no monetary value, such as the priority checkin, the business tagged bags when flying Intl, feeling valued by the crew a bit more, getting the odd free upgrade and other un-documented benefits that just make your travel experiences better.

If you have to put Silver status down to an absolute dollar figure then maybe its not worth chasing for you, but if like me you enjoy and appreciate the other little things above then it is worth it.

 

[Borisdog]

Just out of curiousity, what is the difference in row/seat selection availability for economy between QC silver and QC Bronze on domestic?

 

[mannej]

Just out of curiousity, what is the difference in row/seat selection availability for economy between QC silver and QC Bronze on domestic?

A few rows if any

 

[samh004]

A few rows if any

On a 738 you're still behind the exit row iirc.

 

[Deleted member]

What I do is focus on one FF program. With my travel patterns I would end up Silver on both Virgin and Qantas or I can be Gold on just one program. I weighed up the pros and cons of both programs looking at my travel pattern, lounge access, baggage allowance allowed for the different levels of status (although 99.9% of the time I travel HLO) etc. I ended up going with Gold on one program b/c the benefits for my travel patterns gold on QF offers far more benefits than Silver on two different programs.

So if there is a *huge* price difference between QF and DJ or if QF don't fly to where I am going obviously I choose another carrier but otherwise QF have given me a set of golden "handcuffs" but I too get benefits from the program that I am happy with. As I usually travel at peak periods and there is only a few dollars difference between red-e-deal and flexi saver, you may get double status credits for just a few extra dollars. Just something to keep in mind.

My recommendation is that you also look at your yearly status credit total if you do all your traveling with one carrier (airline alliance) if it gets you to SG then once again do the math to see if it is worthwhile directing your travel through one carrier/alliance.

Naturally YMMV given your travel patterns will probably differ to mine but it is worth looking at.

Hths.

This is what I have done. ( gone with a single FF partner)
Due to a range of reasons I chose to go with QFas my sole (meaningful) FF programme.
The up side is that I am now Platinum, and whileI have chosen to do more of my flights in J mostly via JASA, I still do the oddflight domestically in Y and have yet to resort to the "traditional"status run .
the down side is that I am limited to the OWgroup for any partner flying of consequence, but again my flying is mostly for pleasureand all self-funded, so I plan around such things as appropriate

 

[madrooster]

Just out of curiousity, what is the difference in row/seat selection availability for economy between QC silver and QC Bronze on domestic?

QP membership makes no difference to seating availability. Silver can see rows 17 and further back on a 734 or 738. Bronze/no status can see rows 19 and further back. I'm not too sure on a 763.

 

[Yoz]

There is also Priority checkin at Qantas Club/PE/Silver counters at most Intl airports, or the business queue where there are no QC/PE counters.
It might not sound like much but it made a world of difference to me when I was a QC Silver, being able to checkin without a long line and be in the lounge very soon after.

Also as others have mentioned the 50% bonus points are handy.

I don't think you can put a dollar value on Status, a lot of the benefits have no monetary value, such as the priority checkin, the business tagged bags when flying Intl, feeling valued by the crew a bit more, getting the odd free upgrade and other un-documented benefits that just make your travel experiences better.

If you have to put Silver status down to an absolute dollar figure then maybe its not worth chasing for you, but if like me you enjoy and appreciate the other little things above then it is worth it.

Yeah - I would ideally love to put a dollar figure on every benefit (and the spreadsheet I put together does allow for this) but it's pretty hard to evaluate the value of elements such as:

• Priority Telephone Service
  
• Preferred Seating
• Preferential Access to selected Classic Award seats
• International Priority Check-in
• Qantas Card Check-in
• Qantas Q-Bag Tag
• Priority Waitlist/Airport Standby
• Priority Baggage (Gold)
• Access Premium Security Lanes (Gold)
• On Departure Upgrade requests for domestic flights in Australia (Gold)
• Priority boarding (Gold)
  

...made twice as hard given because I barely fly and hence have never really used the above.

Actually, I started reading the AFF Forum due to the Citibank discussions (and the value of a QFF Point) when deciding which credit card to choose... but I found it odd that there seems to be a lot of documentation re: the value of a QFF Point but very very little when it comes to evaluating the value of a status tier

 

[Joshua]

...made twice as hard given because I barely fly and hence have never really used the above.

Then you've just answered your own question. The value is effectively nothing to you (or close to it). The biggest benefit is to those flying in lower classes and frequently. There is no tangible monetary value you can place on them. No different to valuing lifestyle over income, not everything translates into numbers on a spreadsheet.

I think your answer is simply there's no documented value because status benefits are entirely subjective and circumstantial.

 

[ckck]

• Qantas Card Check-in
• Qantas Q-Bag Tag

...made twice as hard given because I barely fly and hence have never really used the above.

The new Frequent Flyer card (coming soon) IIRC will allow Bronze FFers to check in with their card too. Also you can buy the bag tags if you really want them but bag tags are only of use when flying QFd. If you are flying mostly QFi then you won't be using bag tags - regardless of FF status.