The Long road to Gold

Status
Not open for further replies.

sully

Member
Joined
Jul 31, 2003
Posts
238
Well, I finally made it. Argentum to Aurum, qualifying with 715 SCs. It was a tough haul as it took me 33 flights on OW to get there.:roll: In all I had 17 flights that gave me the mimimum 10 SCs and 9 with 20 SCs, meaning that only a handful were big contributors as those 26 flights contributed exactly half the number required for gold.

None of my flights were business class BTW, the best I could do was WT+ on SYD-SIN, SIN-LHR and LHR-SYD. If I had flown business on the long haul international flights I would have been at 1230 SCs and on track easily for the nirvana of Platinum as my year ends on 31 July.

Any others out there who had to do a hard slog to reach gold?
 
Yeah... I understand your struggle.

I qualified WP year before last with only domestic sectors. Most of them were 10 SC flights, but there were a couple of strategically earnt K-class fares CBR/SYD/CNS/SYD/CBR and CBR/MEL/PER/MEL/CBR and a last ditch upgrade to J on the last day I could qualify to make it over the 1400 SC mark.
 
Wow that is the hard way to reach status. I used to do all discount domestic flights and it certainly does take a lot of flying to reach the top status tiers. Now I do very little domestic flights, but several long-haul international flights. I am currently part way through a 3-week RTW trip that will earn me over 1200 SC's in 16 sectors. Now that is the easy way to get there, but the cost is closewr to $10K.
 
Platinum

I made it to Platinum on the last day of my 'year'.

Two trips to USA in Business class, one trip in economy.
One trip to Japan in Business class.
One trip to Manila in economy
One trip to Auckland in economy.
Vast amounts of domestic travel in economy.

The personal cost of all this travel is enormous (to my marriage, my children, my health).

Not certain its all worth it.

One thing I have noticed - my seating preference is forward aisle seat and since making platinum I am always in an aisle seat in the first row behind business class. Makes for a fast exit.

And what will I do with all these points? More flying!
 
The Frequent Flyer Concierge team takes the hard work out of finding reward seat availability. Using their expert knowledge and specialised tools, they'll help you book a great trip that maximises the value for your points.

AFF Supporters can remove this and all advertisements

Re: Platinum

luckydog said:
The personal cost of all this travel is enormous (to my marriage, my children, my health).

Not certain its all worth it.

One thing I have noticed - my seating preference is forward aisle seat and since making platinum I am always in an aisle seat in the first row behind business class. Makes for a fast exit.
I've just re-qualified for Gold. My roll-over date is not until November but I don't think I'll make Platimum because I'm not planning on making any more international flights this year. My regular flights are domestic SYD-MEL which don't accrue many points.

I agree with you question on whether it is all worth it. I've found that my Gold status does not seem to help at all on domestic economy flights - I am always at the back of the plane, which makes for very slow exits on a full 767. Are there that many other Gold or Platimum FFs on board that are keeping me at the back?

And aside from breakfast, the food in the QP the rest of the time is a bit lame - crackers, cheese, corn chips and a weird looking salad. I was in the QF/BA lounge at Changi last weekend and it was basically the same. By comparison the BA lounge at LHR provides a big range of freshly cut sandwiches, and the SQ lounges are simply light years ahead. As a Gold FF I don't feel that I get anything better than someone who is not on the program at all.

And as for service, the poor old QF staff are generally a grumpy lot (probably with very good reason) and compared with others such as CX and SQ, way below par.

But there is no choice locally, so what to do?
 
What benefit platinum?

I agree with your comments Yada Yada, the main benefit with being platinum (that I can see), is that if you do some long haul in business class, your status bonus can generate a lot of extra FF points.
(LA to Melb in Business as platinum gets 7,923 status bonus points).
My last two flights did NOT get my good seating, so even that supposed benefit is of limited value... maybe the Chairmans Lounge people are getting all the good seats?

Frankly making it to Gold is more important, to get free QC membership. And while I agree that the QC food can be a let down in between meal times (like turning up at 8pm to find an empty soup tureen and being told, 'sorry, soup time is over'), its a hell of a lot more confortable than sitting in the departure lounge - and there is far more food and drink than the American Airlines lounges!

Also agree about the miserable Qantas staff, curious to know if Qantas actually reognize this as a problem (or care about it if they do).
 
Re: What benefit platinum?

luckydog said:
Frankly making it to Gold is more important, to get free QC membership.
I guess you're right, although as I had already purchased QC membership I did not notice any difference.

luckydog said:
And while I agree that the QC food can be a let down in between meal times (like turning up at 8pm to find an empty soup tureen and being told, 'sorry, soup time is over'), its a hell of a lot more confortable than sitting in the departure lounge - and there is far more food and drink than the American Airlines lounges!
Both true. The gate lounges get crowded and if there is a delay it can be the pits. I experienced the AA lounge at LAX late last year. I think they had coffee, water, nuts and what a colleague likes to call "trail mix".
 
What happens if you have got a 3 year membership and get Gold? Is your membership extended by another year or does Qantas says too bad?

Regards
Daniel
 
danielh said:
What happens if you have got a 3 year membership and get Gold? Is your membership extended by another year or does Qantas says too bad?

Apparently the QC membership goes into hiatus whilever you are at the Gold level and simply restarts if you drop down to silver or bronze, so nothing is lost.
 
.......and for those who may be concerned about the cost to your company if you are fortunate enough to have it paid for by them, the adjustment is automatically made to the corporate invoice to exclude the relevant part of your cost. No effect on your own pocket of course but you shouldn't want to see your employer paying for something it shoudn't.

From an FBT perspective you don't have to complete the 'otherwise deductible' declaration either.
 
Re: What benefit platinum?

Yada Yada said:
Both true. The gate lounges get crowded and if there is a delay it can be the pits. I experienced the AA lounge at LAX late last year. I think they had coffee, water, nuts and what a colleague likes to call "trail mix".
Nuts and trail mix are gone (cost saving) and replaces with Pretzles, just like the in-flight "food" offered on non-meal services.
 
QC Membership is the main benefit

I have paid for QC membership for many years (fortunately at a Corporate discount rate), so making gold 3 months before my membership expired was not only very neat. but if I don't maintain gold those 3 months get tacked on the end.

My wife used to question why I was a member of QC club until we got stuck in Sydney with the kids for 5 hours between flights... after that... no questions at all.... keep paying!
 
Well done Sully,

After 6 flts SYD -LAX - IAD - LAX -SYD in the last 12 months, I'm still only Silver and I've given up on the QFF program. I'm now going to AAdv grabing some quick status and then going to UA. If I'd flown J or F class I too would easily have reached Gold or PLT but I simply can't come at cost.

On the 10 flts I've had in the back (the very back) of the bus between SYD- LA, I've had the entire row 9 out of 10 times which might be good luck but now means I can now only sit sideways on a seat these days.I've twice tried for an upgrade an been unsuccessful both times despite waitlisting 70 and 90 days out.I've booked 2 SYD-IAD 1st class award flts and Qantas has given me a discount on both of them (only 200K miles charged instead of the 275K they should have been, thanks Qantas but they are still overpriced in comparision to AA or UA and about to become even dearer when Qantas lifts the redemption charge to a staggering 384K!!).

Mr Dixon's arrogance (in treating his FF members so poorly) should be rewarded with a mass walkout of his FF program but as the general public have (I think) little to no idea about alternatives (I didn't 12 mths ago) he will probably just lose a few more frequent flyers that have been lucky enough to find Forums similar to this one.

Anybody who can reach GLD/PLT in this program flying deep discount econ deserves better.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Enhance your AFF viewing experience!!

From just $6 we'll remove all advertisements so that you can enjoy a cleaner and uninterupted viewing experience.

And you'll be supporting us so that we can continue to provide this valuable resource :)


Sample AFF with no advertisements? More..

Recent Posts

Currently Active Users

Back
Top