djfuzz
Established Member
- Joined
- Dec 20, 2007
- Posts
- 1,412
One of Alanslegal’s posts in the other monster thread got me thinking –
In light of the imminent end of anytime access and the various responses to how bad / great it is that it’s going, I figured it would be interesting to see how (and how many) WPs actually used this benefit.
Some people here clearly won’t miss it as they never used it; some found many different sorts of uses for it at various times; other still never used it, but liked the fact that it was there if they ever needed it.
Of course, QF has ostensibly claimed that the reason for its departure is due to its use by WPs flying their competitors, but that was by no means the only possible use of the benefit.
Certainly wasn’t the case for me, as the lure of anytime access kept me from flying the competition anyway (and pretty much tipped the balance for me to credit to QFF instead of AA). My situation is somewhat similar to Alanslegal – Mrs Djf made WP before I did on the back of mostly-international flying as opposed to my domestic. She’d use it to drop in and wait with a lemonade while picking me up on my inevitably-delayed QF Friday night arrivals back to MEL every other week (and maybe a quick bite to eat if she was lucky enough to make it before dinner was removed). At that time of night, all but a couple of MEL departures would have left, so barely anyone would be in the QP and, with the view of the planes landing, it was a calm and relaxing place to while away those hours and forget about the always-ticking airport parking meter.
Once I made WP, I used it a few times to pick up a coffee or a juice on arrival if the taxi queue at SYD was particularly long and I had time to spare (thankfully this won't change!). I used it once when picking someone up at MEL; again, not wanting to be sloshed when they arrived, I had a juice and might have used the internet for a bit, but also to watch their plane land.
There was one morning when I had to be at SYD to pick something up where I used the lounge to grab a bite and a coffee, but it so happened I was flying out that night so I would have been entitled to do so anyway.
Never had a chance to use it at any international QPs as we were almost always flying QF/OW anyway, and one the one or two occasions we weren't, there was no QP at the terminal of the other carrier (and of course, it was on a non-OW route).
How about you?
[Mods please merge / move if you think this overlaps with anything else, but I thought it might be nice to see how exactly the benefit was used by WPs, rather than debate the merits of its removal.]
Sadly but true but it is because of this benefit that I managed to persuade the GF to go for WP status. I told he we'd go to the QP once every few weeks and bring 4 friends who living quite close to SYD and just enjoy a beer, some nibblies whilst watching planes outside.
We are 100% leisure travellers so seeing, hearing planes is a positive enrichment to our lives. Afterall we do not do serious flying as many hardcore flyers in this forum, so being at the airport and as close to travelling as possible, it is a benefit to us.
I could have persuaded her other WP benefit but she's not interested in points, status credits, preferential upgrades etc but none of that stacked up when I told her we can access the lounges anytime. That was the selling factor. Sad but true.
In light of the imminent end of anytime access and the various responses to how bad / great it is that it’s going, I figured it would be interesting to see how (and how many) WPs actually used this benefit.
Some people here clearly won’t miss it as they never used it; some found many different sorts of uses for it at various times; other still never used it, but liked the fact that it was there if they ever needed it.
Of course, QF has ostensibly claimed that the reason for its departure is due to its use by WPs flying their competitors, but that was by no means the only possible use of the benefit.
Certainly wasn’t the case for me, as the lure of anytime access kept me from flying the competition anyway (and pretty much tipped the balance for me to credit to QFF instead of AA). My situation is somewhat similar to Alanslegal – Mrs Djf made WP before I did on the back of mostly-international flying as opposed to my domestic. She’d use it to drop in and wait with a lemonade while picking me up on my inevitably-delayed QF Friday night arrivals back to MEL every other week (and maybe a quick bite to eat if she was lucky enough to make it before dinner was removed). At that time of night, all but a couple of MEL departures would have left, so barely anyone would be in the QP and, with the view of the planes landing, it was a calm and relaxing place to while away those hours and forget about the always-ticking airport parking meter.
Once I made WP, I used it a few times to pick up a coffee or a juice on arrival if the taxi queue at SYD was particularly long and I had time to spare (thankfully this won't change!). I used it once when picking someone up at MEL; again, not wanting to be sloshed when they arrived, I had a juice and might have used the internet for a bit, but also to watch their plane land.
There was one morning when I had to be at SYD to pick something up where I used the lounge to grab a bite and a coffee, but it so happened I was flying out that night so I would have been entitled to do so anyway.
Never had a chance to use it at any international QPs as we were almost always flying QF/OW anyway, and one the one or two occasions we weren't, there was no QP at the terminal of the other carrier (and of course, it was on a non-OW route).
How about you?
[Mods please merge / move if you think this overlaps with anything else, but I thought it might be nice to see how exactly the benefit was used by WPs, rather than debate the merits of its removal.]