How far would you go to earn top-tier status with your preferred airline?
It’s not uncommon for AFF members to undertake what’s known as a “status run“. This is where a series of flights are taken in order to earn enough status credits to attain or retain elite airline status. Booking a status run can make sense if you’re just a few status credits short of the next tier.
But one member recently took the concept of a status run to a whole new level. Over just two weeks, our very own George Clooney (aka Platinum One) flew between Australia and New Zealand 15 times! That’s an average of more than one trans-Tasman flight per day. Each flight was in First class with Emirates.
By booking the flights during Qantas’ recent “double status credits” promotion, this epic status run earned our member 3,600 status credits – enough to retain top-tier Platinum One status with Qantas for another year! The cost of all these flights was just shy of $15,000.
This member justifies the expense, saying that they expect to receive more than the amount spent on the flights in value from their Platinum One status over the next 23 months. Among many benefits, this member will be able to gift “Partner Platinum” status and have access to the Platinum One service team. This member also says that they worked on most of the flights, so the hours spent over the Tasman Sea were at least used productively.
Not all members are convinced that such a pursuit is worthwhile. As this member mostly flies Business and First class anyway, many of the benefits of status will already be afforded to them.
Nonetheless, we offer our congratulations to Platinum One on their impressive achievement!
Follow the discussion HERE.
(P.S. If you’re thinking about undertaking a status run yourself, you may be interested in reading our Best Qantas Status Runs thread.)
