Status Evaluation based on no Trips/Miles

[ludoh]

Just an open discussion - has there ever been a discussion at Qantas to award sts not only on dollars paid (i.e. status credits) but also on number of segments flown or mileage flown (like other programs do - KLM for example)?
Seems a bit harsh to me that you could fly 10 return SYD-LHR in discount economy and not qualify for the highest tier where IMO it shows quite a loyalty to the airline.
As you probably can tell I fly mostly discount Y and "struggle" to qualify for WP - 70 return SYD-MEL a year are driving me mad.

 

[serfty]

70 return flights MEL/SYD per annum is almost 3 flights per week. :shock:

There are other ways, here's four (although at additional cost over the $127 O class red e-deal):

1. book one of the cheaper flexi fares for 20 SC's (~$160 more).
2. Book the Discounted D class business fares for 40 SC's(~$320 more)
3. Look for
   
   Class fares for 40 SC's, currently running at ~$115 more ($241)
4. Fly via CBR for 20 Sc's for the 2 segments (~$120 more)

Some take more time; some are infrequent. When you consider 70 red e-deal returns per year that comes at a cost of at leask $14K pa.

 

[oz_mark]

I think they used to be more directly related to sectors, but even then discount economy may have only been half a sector.

From the airlines perspective loyalty is only part of the equation. Your value to them (i.e. revenue), is what they really are concerned about.

 

[bokflyer]

I think it is probably all about the revenue, and it seems to work out. Last year I did 4 paid for international J trips, to NRT, HKG, SIN and JNB, and a couple of discount Y domestic trips. This was enough to requalify me for WP and the total amount paid to QF was about A$25,000. In contrast, my brother, whose company only flies him discount Y, did about 12 international trips and only just made it to WP. The value of his 12 trips was also about A$25,000. So both of us got to WP for about the same amount of money spent with QF. From QF's point of view, this probably makes sense. From my point of view, it's great because my company pays for J, for my brother, well, he got to WP the hard way and now his Y flights may be a little better given allocated seating, Flounge access etc.

 

[NM]

Many years ago Qantas did provide status based on number of segments flown. They had a pro-rata rate for domestic and international. That all stopped when the Tier Credits and finally Status Credits came into the program.

I think Qantas tried to structure the earning of status credits to purposely benefit those who flying in the premium cabins, especially internationally. This is obvious by the way a business class ticket earns 4 times the status recognition than discount economy fares. So that shows they type of customers that Qantas sees as loyal.

I have not heard any rumours about changes to the status credit system in the new enhancements. But anything is possible.

 

[simongr]

It is interesting to compare say the AA model to the QF model in this regard. I am a fairly infrequent flier in that I do about 5-6 trips a year - each one though has a minimum flown miles of 11,500KM with the bias towards 30,000KM. I tend to fly all of that in J/F and on QF I would have been WP about 4 times over. AA's model seems biased towards the more frequent flier as I would only have qualified twice over on AA last year (non-calendar year comparison).

Given that QF is pushing low cost fliers to JQ and trying to focus on premium routes I do not envisage a move to segment based qualification. If anything there is a suspicion (based purely on general skepticism of QF rather than any concrete facts) that qualification for WP is going to get tougher...

 

[ludoh]

I guess with no J/F class flying I will push more for more-expensive Y tickets with the company travel agency. Could work on Domestic sectors but a full Y on international is still too expensive for company policy. Cheap non-QF OW partners J flights might also be an option.
J* starclass is also a real option for personal travel to get some addl SCs (wondering how long the *class will keep earning full J points for QFF).

 

[JohnK]

As you probably can tell I fly mostly discount Y and "struggle" to qualify for WP - 70 return SYD-MEL a year are driving me mad.

If you fly 70 returns SYD-MEL a year then this should earn you 1400SCs which is enough to qualify QF Platinum and then more than enough to re-qualify QF Platinum in subsequent years.

Who pays for the flights? I think the suggestions of some indirect routings, like SYD-CBR-MEL, occassionally could well be the answer.

This was enough to requalify me for WP and the total amount paid to QF was about A$25,000. In contrast, my brother, whose company only flies him discount Y, did about 12 international trips and only just made it to WP. The value of his 12 trips was also about A$25,000.

I manage to maintain QF Platinum with a spend of <$8,000 per year. It is all self funded and mostly in WHY but for the right airfare and $/SC ratio I will also do some premium travel to ensure I re-qualify Platinum.

 

[ludoh]

I would interested to see how you get to WP for 8k !? I spend probably around 4k a year on self funded travel (overseas family visits in Europe and Canada). Btw - I do have some SYD-BRI, SYD-AKL and SYD-ADL trips so not totally 70 SYD-MEL
The SYD-ADL at least gives me 15 SC in disc Y!

 

[Shano]

I guess with no J/F class flying I will push more for more-expensive Y tickets with the company travel agency. Could work on Domestic sectors but a full Y on international is still too expensive for company policy.

Ths depends on where you fly and what your company's policy is, but there are full Y fares available to Asia in particular that price out at around $2200 return. This is not a lot more expensive than the flexible discount Y fares in B, H and K classes.

 

[serfty]

Last year I flew to the US and re qualified WP by flying a series of 11 US domestic flights on American Airline in Discount First Class. Cost of ticket on Qantas to US in discount Y - $1750. The 4 flights earned 140SC's. Cost of American Airline flights in Discount First ~$2600; these earned 1170 SC's. Combined, I had a total well over the 1200 requalification mark.

 

[JohnK]

I would interested to see how you get to WP for 8k !?

I have documented on AFF a number of times how I maintain Platinum for <$8000. Next membership year it will get slightly tougher with QF introducing Premium Economy exhorbitant airfares but still possible.

I go to SE Asia 3 times a year. Purchase airfares from BKK-SIN-SYD return. The BKK-SIN returns are in CX I class and the SIN-SYD returns are in BA WT+. For ~$1700 I earn 240 SCs so for 3 visits it is 720 SCs. While I was on the Oneworld RTW award I did a YUP status run in the USA and I earned 360 SCs for ~$A900. My latest Queensland Mining Towns Tour earned 195 SCs for ~$1300. Whilst planning this tour I picked up a few tricks on how to get a better than ~$5/SC return but I was more interesting visiting new airports rather than SC earning.

As serfty mentioned go to the US and do some cheap status runs there.

Or if that is not your go and you want to have a holiday then go JQ *Class (*cough*) to BKK for a week should cost around $2200 for 240 SCs and depending on where you connect you may get another 80 SCs for SYD-MEL. While you are in BKK go and spend a night each in SIN and KUL. There are always CX I class specials BKK-SIN which cost $450 and earn 120 SCs and JL D class specials SIN-KUL which cost $400 and earn 80 SCs. So one trip to BKK there is potential 520 SCs for ~$3000. Do this twice a year and you are almost QF Platinum for <$8000.

There is also LA business class SYD-AKL-SYD. I think it costs ~$1000 for 160 SCs. Probably even cheaper if you purchase a oneway SYD-AKL and another oneway AKL-SYD as the airfare is much cheaper from New Zealand.

Just remember that if you can somehow maintain a $6.50/SC ratio on airfares then 1200 SCs are only going to cost $8000. Throw in some of the other tricks and you can get there cheaper.

I have QF Platinum status until May 2009 so for my next trick I may just go to the USA in June 2009 using QFF points and then do some cheap status runs, ~$3000, to maintain QF Platinum until May 2011.

Btw - I do have some SYD-BRI, SYD-AKL and SYD-ADL trips so not totally 70 SYD-MEL
The SYD-ADL at least gives me 15 SC in disc Y!

If you fly exclusively QF and do trips other than SYD-MEL I don't quite understand why you aren't able to maintain QF Platinum.

 

[Evan]

2 x DAS13 would do it (WP) if you have need/want to travel in Asia, less than AUD 10k but not a status run more usful if you actually need to travel like i have.
Usually i have made Gold doing lots of discount whY around the world, only in the last year have i had more self funded J trips.

E

 

[NM]

2 x DAS13 would do it (WP) if you have need/want to travel in Asia, less than AUD 10k but not a status run more usful if you actually need to travel like i have.
Usually i have made Gold doing lots of discount whY around the world, only in the last year have i had more self funded J trips.

E

But you need 6 x DAS13 to make AA Executive Platinum, so just goes to show the variation between programs. My last DAS13 cost $5181.33 plus a $99 booking service fee. So I expect you could do each one for under $5000 if booking through AA. But obviously no AA component in a DAS13.

 

[Evan]

Yes, mine have been booked through QF but ex SIN.
As you say you can see the difference, in AA i would probably have no status given i only would make QF gold most years but this year platinum.

QF is biased towards people who travel either simply a lot ! or in premium cabins, but who can disagree to there logic, the may break even with why fares but they make the money on this J and F fares.

I am happy with the way it is now since its good for me, if it changes it changes, not much we can do about it. What i dislike is SQ PPS club, you really need to spend lots of $$ as far as i can tell to get a high status and i would never ever manage that. Seems a lot of people were not happy with the SQ changes a year or so ago.

E