I have finally done it! [BIS VA WP]

[kamchatsky]

I am happy to announce to the world that I have finally done something that I thought I would never have achieved: Bum In Seat (BIS) Platinum!

I have achieved it by getting 986 SCs out of 1000 required SCs from 20 Sept 2016, and VA has reviewed today and has given me a Platinum!

Now I would achieve 1000 SCs by next week anyway on my Elevate flight to CBR but hey VA figured out that I am closed enough!

I have been here since 2006, and whilst I have been Gold or Diamond on a number of airlines in the past, the only reason I was Gold and Diamond/Platinum on a number of airlines in the past was due to status matching, and I could only got the first Gold via VS on a special signup promo where I was instant VS Gold in 2009. Then I have status matched my way all these years (to BD, BA, VA, A3, EY, AF, O6).

Whilst I have the status cards for all those airlines (and I still have those cards in my house), they are never really "real" status. But then again I never really needed them for overseas as I normally redeem in J or F awards. I also never really aim at real status because I never thought I will pay for my own ticket on a regular basis, nor did I try to aim for it.

The closest BIS status was my SQ Silver in 2003, when I did a couple of trips to US on UA Y for work. I never maintained as my work travel dried up, and I really didn't travel for work for many years.

This was until I changed jobs last year to what I am doing now, and I was contemplating aiming for Gold on either QF or VA, which I did ask for some advise:

http://www.australianfrequentflyer....cussion/attaining-qf-va-gold-level-78354.html

All my trips are very short sectors, from SYD to CBR, MEL, ADL, BNE and HBA. So it actually takes a lot of flight to get to Platinum, as I can only pick up 10SCs last year, or 15-25SCs this year depending on the fare code.

I thought I would just get Gold, but I didn't expected Platinum as I don't travel overseas for work on J. So it is quite a hard slog of getting up very early in weird hours in the morning to the airport for work, then fly home late night, and get exhausted.

So after all these trips, and sore bums, I have finally reached the real summit.

So did some statistics, most of my SCs were obtained in the last half of my membership year:

Sep - Nov 2016: 102SCs
Dec - Feb 2017: 128SCs
Mar - May 2017: 323SCs
June - Aug 2017: 433SCs

I have done 44 eligible VA sectors.

So now I can say, I am finally a WP!

So I want to thank the following parties:

VA: For the DSC offer for Corporate Traveller bookings in June, as well as giving me Platinum when I am still 14SCs short!

EY: For letting me use VA Lounge using my EY Gold card (now Silver) whilst I was chasing VA status from Red ...

Now I have figure what to do now ..... Maybe open a bottle of champagne! :mrgreen:

 

[straitman]

Awesome and congratulations.

 

[kermatu]

Great stuff - congrats!

 

[Steady]

Having done this with QF I appreciate the effort it takes, congrats kamchatsky

 

[Denali]

.....I have done 44 eligible VA sectors. ....

This sounds exhausting.

And congratulations! Enjoy.

 

[liamsal]

Congrats! Welcome to the club

FWIW I made Platinum in April and still haven't flown a flight yet

 

[serfty]

Well done!

44 sectors! Eek!

Better get back in to your bookings and get those X seats ...

 

[kamchatsky]

Awesome and congratulations.

Great stuff - congrats!

Congrats! Welcome to the club

FWIW I made Platinum in April and still haven't flown a flight yet

Thank you!

Having done this with QF I appreciate the effort it takes, congrats kamchatsky

This sounds exhausting.

And congratulations! Enjoy.

Well done!

44 sectors! Eek!

Better get back in to your bookings and get those X seats ...

Yes it is exhausting to say the least, given most of my flights are either 6am or 7am from SYD. So I have to wake up at 4 or 5am before catching taxi to airport ...... Then coming back around 7-8pm and catch the taxi home .....

Well I actually have already caught 48 VA flights. 44 eligible ones, my first 2 VA flights (worth 20SCs total) were credited to EY as I just used my EY Gold card at check-in for better seating and then used the boarding pass to get into the lounge, so it was a rookie mistake for me at that time (even with all these posts I have done on AFF). Then I had 2 VA flights to MEL but they do not count for earn as it was my personal trip and I used the Platinum Edge for the free VA flight.

Next week I have another 2 flights which makes it 50 VA sectors! :mrgreen: :shock: Talking about hard slog, I wish my work would just pay me to fly F to somewhere like LHR and back, and I just jumped straight to WP! I don't have any family pooling either!

I have also done some analysis. If instead of flying VA, I fly all on QF with equivalent tickets (i.e. Elevate -> Discount Economy, Freedom -> Full Economy), I would have only have received 640 QF SCs, which is not enough for Gold at all. So I would have "suffered" not be able to go into the QP at all, despite QF fare is 95% of the time higher than VA (I book my own tickets so I know).

But in choosing VA over QF, I managed to get into the lounge every time, by using my EY Gold card, and then VA Explore Gold card. Whilst my work would have paid for my food and drinks at airport, I prefer the lounge as I can save my organisation money (as I eat at lounge instead of ordering food), as well as better place to relax (yes the alcohol helps!). Flybuys shopping only nets me 21SCs so it is not a significant factor here.


Now my boss is a QF WP, and he like me travelled in very short sectors, but on QF only. So imagine how much he travels (He owns the budget and he said he only travels on QF ...)!


I have just told me better half that I have made Platinum. She was shocked! She has already asked me to cut down my travel next year .... Not sure how I can retain WP .....

 

[tmdellit]

Very interested to hear your experience moving into the platinum world. I'm QF Gold and VA Bronze (due to move to silver in the next week). Like you I'll only ever hit Gold with Qantas with my flights (70 last FY), and have often wondered whether a complete swap over to VA for Platinum is worthwhile doing....

 

[JohnK]

Congratulations.

Only 44 sectors? You must have some decent earning sectors included?

 

[Muppet501st]

Congrats mate.
I know all about the hard yards, all my work travel is only within the state of Qld, so lots and lots of regular smaller flights for me. But as long as you dont fly on the Freedom fare, the recent changes are great.

 

[toowongman]

I am happy to announce to the world that I have finally done something that I thought I would never have achieved: Bum In Seat (BIS) Platinum!

I have achieved it by getting 986 SCs out of 1000 required SCs from 20 Sept 2016, and VA has reviewed today and has given me a Platinum!

Congratulations. And double-congrats as you did it for real - without pooling from the family etc. You deserve an "Up in the air" chat with the Chief Pilot or something similar

 

[kamchatsky]

Very interested to hear your experience moving into the platinum world. I'm QF Gold and VA Bronze (due to move to silver in the next week). Like you I'll only ever hit Gold with Qantas with my flights (70 last FY), and have often wondered whether a complete swap over to VA for Platinum is worthwhile doing....

I feel for you that you only get Gold for 70 flights. You should make VA Platinum for that many flights, as long as you are on Elevate fares or above (no good if Gateway fares). It is probably worth calculating it.

I have been to a number of Qantas Club lounges and I found them to be full of people most of the time. I actually found VA Lounge fewer people usually. The food quality between the two lounges are very similar.

However as Platinum I do have 4 complimentary upgrades to business, which at the moment I am still trying to figure out when to use it as my main route has been SYD-CBR, but will try to use it on longer flights.

Another thing, I have been offered Hilton Honors Diamond or IHG Platinum (take HH Diamond as no brainer), which you get when you become Platinum. I intend to activate HH Diamond early next year as my current Gold finishes in March next year.

There is similar offers for Hertz President Circle and Europcar Elite as well, but they are a lot less important.

I will see if my next main flight whether I can book directly to Economy X, as it is complimentary for Platinum members.

I have used Fly Ahead as Gold a number of times, never have a problem as I always book Elevate Fares at minimum. That is actually very handy.

Only issue is if you want OW recognition then it is better to stick with QF. However for me, when I travel international on my own time, I just redeem J/F award tickets anyway so I never really need status.

Congratulations.

Only 44 sectors? You must have some decent earning sectors included?

The only decent earning sectors are 3 return SYD-CBR on DSC promo in June, where I got 30+50=80SCs for each trip. I would normally get 40SCs. Rest are either 10, 15 or 25SCs each way. My longest flight is SYD-ADL.

I did do one status run of some sort, by booking VA SYD-MEL-HBA rather than QF SYD-HBA, and the VA was actually on Freedom fare (still cheaper than the QF fare!) .... So that was 50SCs .....

Congrats mate.
I know all about the hard yards, all my work travel is only within the state of Qld, so lots and lots of regular smaller flights for me. But as long as you dont fly on the Freedom fare, the recent changes are great.

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Wow, that is a lot of flights. I hope they are all Elevate fares at minimum

Congratulations. And double-congrats as you did it for real - without pooling from the family etc. You deserve an "Up in the air" chat with the Chief Pilot or something similar

Thank you. Well I am sure that there are a lot of people who flies a lot more than me ..... But they are probably all at QF instead .....

 

[TomVexille]

Congrats.

I hit a similar milestone as I ticked over the 1400 mark on QF for the first (and quite possibly last) time on Tuesday

 

[Muppet501st]

Wow, that is a lot of flights. I hope they are all Elevate fares at minimum

Yep, told CT, to not book me any Getaway fare ( as i sometimes need to change flights) and most flights back home ( BNE ) are Freedom

 

[CPMaverick]

The old BIS term is a good one, but on VA hard to quantify.

In the US it always meant you flew all your qualifying miles. So if it took 100,000 miles to qualify, you actually flew that. You didn't fly 50,000 miles in J with a bonus, or 75,000 miles on a flexible Y fare. Or, if it took 100 segments, you flew 100 segments.

On VA I guess the worst case now is a the sad traveler on the cheap fares earning 5 SC and having to fly 200 flights to get WP. I wouldn't want to be that guy.

Getting WP on VA domestically in Y is a hard slog, but i actually expected more than 44 segments! At least you had some reasonable fare earnings even though you sat in Y. Hope you enjoy your new status.