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Qantas is one of several Oneworld airlines to offer lifetime status. Recognising continuing customer loyalty over many years, Qantas offers lifetime Silver and Gold status to frequent flyers that earn 7,000 or 14,000 lifetime status credits, respectively. But Qantas has never offered a Lifetime Platinum tier. This week our members discuss the possibility of a Qantas Lifetime Platinum status level. Clearly enjoying the perks of Platinum status for life is in the interests of frequent flyers. But would it be in Qantas’ interests?
Interestingly, two Oneworld airlines already offer the equivalent of lifetime Platinum status. British Airways and Finnair both award lifetime Oneworld Emerald status to their most loyal flyers. To reach this goal, British Airways requires members to earn 35,000 lifetime Executive Club tier points. It would take 23 years to reach that goal, if qualifying for BA’s top status each year. Meanwhie, Finnair’s frequent flyers can earn lifetime Platinum status after earning 5 million tier points – or 33x the annual qualification level for Platinum status.
Once Qantas’ frequent flyers reach lifetime Gold status, some start crediting their flights elsewhere as they feel there’s nothing left to aim for.
There are members here who having reached LTG have ditched crediting to QF and started crediting to BA and flying BA (where possible) instead. A LTP would help dissuade some from such behaviour.
But the Qantas Freuqent Flyer program is currently designed to ensure there is still some incentive to fly Qantas after earning lifetime status. On the whole, it’s fairly effective in doing so. Many continue flying Qantas so they can enjoy their hard-earned benefits. And many still go out of their way to qualify for Platinum status each year – despite holding lifetime Gold membership.
While many AFF members would like to see the introduction of Qantas lifetime Platinum status, they concede it is unlikely in the short term. A few years ago, the head of Qantas Loyalty told AFF members that lifetime Platinum was not on the agenda. This is unlikely to have changed since then.
A number of members here would recall the lunch where Lesley Grant and Stephanie Tully explicitly stated that LTP was not on the cards. Unlike politicians, they have held true to their word.
Even if Qantas doesn’t introduce lifetime Platinum status, there is a possible compromise. Some of our members have suggested lowering the Platinum status target for lifetime Gold members. For example, lifetime Gold members could be given the opportunity to earn Platinum status for a reduced target of 600-800 status credits per year.
A thread I participated in a few years ago discussed an idea for QF to consider whereby LTG’s would only require 600SC’s per year to re-qualify for WP (or 800SC’s to achieve WP status). For those LTG’s who wish to remain/obtain WP status, then this scheme would ensure at least some maintenance of loyalty to QF – this would probably be more palatable to QF than implementing a LTP status. LTG status does not carry any benefits for those who maintain WP through 1200 (1100 these days) SC earn – good for retirement though.
Velocity Frequent Flyer, Qantas’ main competitor, does not currently offer lifetime status.
Join the lively discussion on the Australian Frequent Flyer forum: Is QF considering Lifetime Platinum?
