Bronze to Platinum - My year to date experiences in 2022

[PuravidaTC]

I know there are plenty of horror stories going around at present (and I've also posted inconveniences) and I don't take away any of the genuine pain, angst or anguish on treatment had.. this however is simply my reality.

I started the year as entry level Bronze being my pre-2020 years were all Cathay and AA (as was not Australian based) and now with the YTD flights taken have reached Platinum.

This year so far I have done over 50 flights through Asia, USA, Canada, Central America, NZ and within Australia with plenty of global connections on Qantas and One World carriers.. I've had a few minor flight delays (an hour here or an hour there, with the longest being a 4 hour on/off plane experience LAX to SYD) but zero cancelations.

I have had zero lost or delayed baggage experiences (and always have checked bags - sometimes multiples).

All meals and onboard amenities as advertised have been supplied and everything working as it should (such as seats, inflight entertainment etc.) Aircraft where always clean both at start and during (+12 hour) flights.

All miles and status points have been credited immediately for Qantas metal (generally can see it on the app at take off), and within 36 hours for One World partner airlines (even WestJet who's not an official One World partner).

I did have a somewhat hard time contacting support back in March trying to re-schedule an international return flight (about 4 hour hold time) and that was with only Silver status.. have not needed or tried contacting support on the VIP lines as yet.

Probably the only key change I have made as to how I travel in 2022 is now making sure I'm always at the airport 3 hours prior to boarding opening - and yes that can seem excessive especially with Status but the reality is even the expedited lanes are taking longer based on either travel doc knowledge (lack of) or staffing issues with security etc. It's just not worth the angst of rocking up 60 mins pre-flight anymore!

Thanks for reading!

 

[HSB44]

Good to hear your story.

What class were you in for most of the flights?

What do you do for a living?

 

[PuravidaTC]

Good to hear your story.

What class were you in for most of the flights?

What do you do for a living?

I'm an exec in the Social Gaming space with teams across the globe, been back in Australia the last few years of Covid - prior to that split my time between Central America and USA.

All classes for flights this year, locally it's all Y outside of upgrades and the internationals are PE when available (such as LAX with upgrade requests) or Y when not (such as MNL with upgrade requests).

Since hitting Gold, upgrade success has been considerable (I posted recent activity on another thread) - I do choose to fly mid week along with starting at PE so chances are improved.

And one other thing not mentioned is I do always ensure a few hours between connections these days, I never take that first flight offerings with minimal connection times.. always push them out to +3hours.. just like arriving +3 pre-flight, ensuring plenty of connection time is critical to sanity these days.

Even though I travel a lot, I'm never racing.. now more then ever its about time management.. a +3 hour connection time actually ends up saving many hours (and mental anguish) if I miss one that was +1 hour.