Time to end lounge overcrowding!

[garyjohn951]

1. Restrict 1st lounge access to 1st passengers and plats travelling on business. This gets rids of low-value plats travelling economy.

That is fine for all those Plats who belong to large companies with expense acounts.

As a small business owner who finances 70% of my travel out of my own pocket, thus paying to get to Plat, if I want to then fly economy, I should have the same access as any other Plat. I hope none of these "elite" plats, company's don't get hit in the recession coming, they might have to fly down the back of the bus...........

 

[JohnK]

So there I am in Singapore last Thursday evening awaiting my flight to Sydney and I can't find a free seat in either the 1st lounge or the QP.

It must depend on the time of week or even time of year. I was in the QF 1st lounge in SIN at 3:30pm yesterday, Sunday, and there were 3 other people in the lounge. No one using the internet. More people started coming in around 5:00pm. I used the internet until 6:30pm and there was always at least one PC free.

I was in the lounge until 7:30pm and it never got more than around 50-75% full. Plenty of seats available at all times.

1. Restrict 1st lounge access to 1st passengers and plats travelling on business. This gets rids of low-value plats travelling economy.

I would leave Platinum lounge access as it is for now. Star Alliance may appreciate the extra business.

2. Have 3 lounges. A genuine 1st for 1st only passengers. A business lounge for business class and plats and a QP for the rest.

I see nothing wrong with the international 2 lounge setup.

3. Make plat harder to get, say 1800 status credits to get, 1500 to maintain.

You don't work for QF do you?

4. Charge more for QP membership, or end the discount corporate rates.

That sounds like a great idea....

 

[Dave Noble]

I would leave Platinum lounge access as it is for now. Star Alliance may appreciate the extra business.

I see nothing wrong with the international 2 lounge setup.

You don't work for QF do you?

That sounds like a great idea....

So, basically, ensure that you suffer no drawback but that others suffer

Dave

 

[JohnK]

So, basically, ensure that you suffer no drawback but that others suffer

Who have I made suffer? And I could not care less about lounge access anyway.

Come to think of it give the snobs who fly 1st class their own lounge. The rest of us will be better off without them....

 

[Dave Noble]

Who have I made suffer? And I could not care less about lounge access anyway.

Well, your response were for you to still have access as currently and getting status to be just as easy, but think that it is a good idea that those that pay for access pay more.

Dave

 

[simongr]

Who have I made suffer? And I could not care less about lounge access anyway.

Come to think of it give the snobs who fly 1st class their own lounge. The rest of us will be better off without them....

So what have these snobs done to make your lounge experience worse. Flash their boarding cards in your face and call yo a filthy oik? Kicked you in the nads for not being good enough to breathe their air? Demanded food service before you in the lounge?

I would expect that the majority of people in the F lounge are in fact not travelling in F - there arent that many F seats out of Oz...

A OWE is a OWE - simple as that and should get the benefits associated with that no matter how it was obtained (lots of corp funded J travel, 100's of domestic whY flights or multiple cheapo KUPP/YUPP fares).

Increasing the price of QP membership is going to have no effect on the overcrowding in the F lounge. You can not buy access to the F lounge other than with an F ticket.

 

[thadocta]

Increasing the price of QP membership is going to have no effect on the overcrowding in the F lounge. You can not buy access to the F lounge other than with an F ticket.

Well, you can, if you buy and fly enough to get to OWE status.

Dave

 

[simongr]

Yes and if you buy a fully refundable F ticket - but let's not start that again

 

[Petch]

I have been looking at these threads for quite a while (and not commenting), but I thought I should finally throw in my 2cents…

First off, let me say the best person to throw out of the Qantas Club, in terms of over-crowding, would be me.

I only say this, because I am more likely to be in one, than some of the other types mentioned. For example, most Qantas Club members that I know might enjoy a QP half a dozen to a dozen times a year and Qantas Golds maybe 4 times that… But, not greedy pig me; de-crowding would be most noticeable if I were removed*!

Although, thanks 2 Virgin's Lounges, I have a new "self-extraction policy" in place anywayz.

Fortunately Qantas also feels the same way about me... and in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane they are creating new facilities to bribe me out of the domestic QPs and thus reduce my tendency to crowd! (However, same cities, but internationally, changes as of today might see me crowding International Business Lounges.)

*There may be less WP's, but many of us are high frequency users.

 

[NYCguy]

Come to think of it give the snobs who fly 1st class their own lounge. The rest of us will be better off without them....

Have you ever considered that "they" might feel the same way about "you"?

First lounges should be restricted to passengers ticketed in First. End of story. No BP for F, no access to the lounge. Easy.

 

[garyjohn951]

And the Melbourne F lounge would be very very empty, I think only 2 jumbos a day, 28 seats.

 

[serfty]

And the Melbourne F lounge would be very very empty, I think only 2 jumbos a day, 28 seats.

Actually, daily there's QF93, QF29, QF9 with First Class seats so that's 42.

Don't forget the 3 CX 333 flights, there's another 24 Daily F seats.

We now have 66 First class seats.

Also, despite any such QFF WP access limitation being imposed, as part of oneworld, QF would need to permit other non QFF Emeralds Flounge access irrespective of booking class.

 

[Platy]

Eh? Why should anything change other than QF provide the level of service that a reasonable traveller might expect given the promotion and declaration of said services?

What has clearly happened is that a combination of increasing numbers of higher status travellers, increasing numbers of paid memberships, better loadings etc have rendered the lounges, in various locations and/or times of day, no longer adequate for the level of paronage.

It is QF's responsibility to increase the availability of the service it has advertised!!! What is it about QF that makes it feel exempt from basic Consumer and Trade Practices legislation (business class flights sold on Dash 8 services is the most deliciously absurd example that comes to mind!!!).

I can't see why anyone or any given group should be shafted because of the airline's reluctance to remedy a problem of its own creation.

A similar problem seems to have befallen the Hilton Honors scheme - Gold/Diamond now only have lounge access if upgraded (or paid for) the executive floor. On busy nights Gold/Diamond members are now given a breakfast voucher instead of lounge access!!!

Previously promised benefits have been curtailed as the scheme has become increasingly popular and the hotels are failing to supply sufficient service/space etc for the number of members.

I am told that Gold/Diamond members are causing a stink, particular at the Sydney and Melbourne hotels and literally throwing their cards in the face of staff.

I was almost out the door myself at check in a few days ago at the Cairns Hilton when I was basically told my Gold satus meant sweet "cough* all" anymore. A the final moment the check in manager decided that someone who stayed 16 times per year at that property and was meeting someone who spent 40 nights per year there had business worth keeping.

So let's stop this stupidity about who is more or less deserving and keep the focus on the airline, hotel chain, etc which is failing to deliver promised benefits as a declared reward for customer loyalty...

PS My mother is presently sitting in the Brisbane Int J QF Club waiting for the CX flights to HKG and onto LHR - she just rang from a payphone in the main departure lounge (why no phone for local calls in the lounge???) and simply declared that the club was cough and not up to standard.

 

[garyjohn951]

Yes, correct, I forgot the 1 flight. so 66 seats. Half full of upgrades anyway, unless a lot of Victorian pollies flying and there hanger ons

The CX really don't come into it as QF didn't have a F lounge until last year.

If it was borderline expense I don't think they would leave it open for CX f's when they have a QF lounge anyway

 

[serfty]

Actually, MEL International has had an F lounge of some form or another for over 10 years. From the shoebox as part what's now the gate 1 gate lounge, to the wedge downstairs near gate 8, to the facility up top besides the Emirates lounge.

 

[JohnK]

So what have these snobs done to make your lounge experience worse. Flash their boarding cards in your face and call yo a filthy oik? Kicked you in the nads for not being good enough to breathe their air? Demanded food service before you in the lounge?

The lack of emoticons used in a post can initiate many responses. There are some who travel in first class who think they are better than others. They know who they are and no need for me to say anymore.

I would expect that the majority of people in the F lounge are in fact not travelling in F - there arent that many F seats out of Oz...

Yes but there are always enough suggestions, from someone, for them to have their own lounge.

 

[dot]

Don't forget the 3 CX 333 flights, there's another 24 Daily F seats.

For the first CX flight out each day (CX134), the MEL Flounge is not open in time - the CX lounge isn't even open, so CX direct customers (J, F, OWS, OWE) to the QP instead. For their last flight (CX168), which is 1hr 15 after the last QF flight (QF29), they actually kick you out of the FLounge about 20mins before QF29 leaves so that they can close up - then you have no choice but to use the CX lounge (which means you need to get to the clear immigration about three hours before the CX flight leaves to actually get any real time in the QF Flounge - and I am never that early).

As a result, there is only one CX flight per day that would add to FLounge crowding in MEL - and that applies for CX OWE pax as well as CX F pax.

Additionally, CX claim their own FLounge (in reality, it is just some couches in their J lounge with a sign saying 'First Class') so I would expect that CX F (and OWE) pax that don't know any better will just head to the CX lounge.

Back on topic though - the only QP where I have seen really bad overcrowding is at CBR (and the old LAX-TBit lounge), I have seen SIN F busy, but still with seats available and I have always been able to get a seat at HKG Flounge (when not using the CX Flounges). So, IMO, CBR is the worst for overcrowding, and we already know that is being addressed. Yes, MEL and SYD QPs can get busy, but they are huge and I have always been able to get a seat and a drink. The way I see it, QF are working to fix problems at lounges where overcrowding is a genuine problem (as opposed to a spike in demand), so I am a happy camper. Thats not to say QF could not do more, but I can see they are making progress.

 

[meloz]

For the first CX flight out each day (CX134), the MEL Flounge is not open in time - the CX lounge isn't even open, so CX direct customers (J, F, OWS, OWE) to the QP instead.

Not sure what happened to you, but I have flown CX 134 and had my choice of CX or QF Flounge in the past. Normally the only person in the QF lounge at that hour.

Meloz

 

[dot]

Not sure what happened to you, but I have flown CX 134 and had my choice of CX or QF Flounge in the past. Normally the only person in the QF lounge at that hour.

Meloz

Maybe it is a Sunday thing - the only times I have flown CX134 have been on Sunday mornings, and the FLounge hasn't opened until 10am - I assumed it was the same every day - I figured the only place I could get a FLounge breakie was SYD.

 

[Keith009]

First lounges should be restricted to passengers ticketed in First. End of story. No BP for F, no access to the lounge. Easy.

I have to disagree with this one. Just because someone doesn't fly F doesn't mean that customer is of low value to the airline. I view value as more a long term thing and encompasses more than just profit margins, eg things like loyalty and the feeling of goodwill. IMO the latter enhances the former as a whole. Remember that not everyone is an AFFer/FTer and thus most people would probably have spent quite a bit to get their WP/emerald status anyway.

I ceased flying with SQ altogether precisely because they have massively disenfranchised loyal travelers like me. I moved all my flying to QF/oneworld because I realised that loyalty is more "rewarding" with this alliance, given that there's really no one else in *A that operates to where I want to go that I really want to fly with and the attractive benes for elites in oneworld.