Changing oneworld crediting FF program mid ticket no longer allowed?

[Batesy]

So.... On the lounge access part. Can I still have my QFF Silver (oneworld ruby) number on my boarding pass but use my Marco Polo Gold (oneworld sapphire) card to access the domestic QC or QF international business lounge??

 

[Aussie_flyer]

So.... On the lounge access part. Can I still have my QFF Silver (oneworld ruby) number on my boarding pass but use my Marco Polo Gold (oneworld sapphire) card to access the domestic QC or QF international business lounge??

yes .....

 

[k3nnis]

Can someone try the above and let us know

 

[davelee]

Heres my experience from the weekend - the first leg of an economy flight from Syd-HKG. I had my QFF frequent flyer (silver) number on the ticket, approached J lounge with my Marco Polo Gold (sapphire) expecting to breeze through but the receptionist asked me if i had an 'invite letter' to enter the lounge (What the?) - She (a nice lady nonetheless) then got on the phone to CX and she said CX wouldnt allow me to enter unless I changed my FF program on the ticket to Marco Polo/Asia Miles. I was really hungry/bored so I agreed to the change but in exchange I lost the QFF status points points earn.

I had previously booked an MH economy ticket from SYD-KUL and used my Gold Marco Polo card to enter the lounge with no issues, so this was quiet an unwelcome surprise!!

Can someone confirm whether I can still use my cathay gold to access the regular qantas club lounges when flying domestically but crediting my points to QFF?

 

[Aussie_flyer]

Heres my experience from the weekend - the first leg of an economy flight from Syd-HKG. I had my QFF frequent flyer (silver) number on the ticket, approached J lounge with my Marco Polo Gold (sapphire) expecting to breeze through but the receptionist asked me if i had an 'invite letter' to enter the lounge (What the?) - She (a nice lady nonetheless) then got on the phone to CX and she said CX wouldnt allow me to enter unless I changed my FF program on the ticket to Marco Polo/Asia Miles. I was really hungry/bored so I agreed to the change but in exchange I lost the QFF status points points earn.

I had previously booked an MH economy ticket from SYD-KUL and used my Gold Marco Polo card to enter the lounge with no issues, so this was quiet an unwelcome surprise!!

Can someone confirm whether I can still use my cathay gold to access the regular qantas club lounges when flying domestically but crediting my points to QFF?

This is against oneworld policy. please send a pm to red roo

 

[k3nnis]

I think as of today as per Red Roo's post they have solved the problem. So hopefully all lounge staff knows the rules! Hopefully someone can report back of their experience if they are in a similar situation..

This is against oneworld policy. please send a pm to red roo

 

[Aussie_flyer]

I think as of today as per Red Roo's post they have solved the problem. So hopefully all lounge staff knows the rules! Hopefully someone can report back of their experience if they are in a similar situation..

yes let' hope so.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

I think as of today as per Red Roo's post they have solved the problem. So hopefully all lounge staff knows the rules! Hopefully someone can report back of their experience if they are in a similar situation..

no no no and no!!!! lets please NOT blame the lounge staff for this. that is totally unfair.

the lounge staff didn't just make this up out of thin air... it had to come from someone....

so please don't just accept is was 'miscommunication' by lounge staff. this just smacks of a government minister blaming a 'junior public servant' over some muck-up they should be taking responsibility for.

 

[Aussie_flyer]

no no no and no!!!! lets please NOT blame the lounge staff for this. that is totally unfair.

the lounge staff didn't just make this up out of thin air... it had to come from someone....

so please don't just accept is was 'miscommunication' by lounge staff. this just smacks of a government minister blaming a 'junior public servant' over some muck-up they should be taking responsibility for.

we must be reading different posts, he didn't blame the lounge staff.... to me the post meant that hopefully the staff have been now told to forget whatever **** they were told before and follow the correct rules.

 

[k3nnis]

Yep Aussie flyer is spot on I'm not blaming the staff....

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Qantas are very much committed to the oneworld Alliance, and sincerely apologise for any miscommunication from the lounge staff over the weekend.

The issues have since been identified and I’m happy to confirm that lounge access and accrual eligibility remains as noted in our Terms and Conditions on qantas.com.

You may continue to use various memberships to earn points in the one booking as long as they are not for the same flight. Our Reservations team can assist you with this on a Qantas booking.

I hope this helps, and the confusion hasn’t caused too much inconvenience.

I think as of today as per Red Roo's post they have solved the problem. So hopefully all lounge staff knows the rules! Hopefully someone can report back of their experience if they are in a similar situation..

we must be reading different posts, he didn't blame the lounge staff.... to me the post meant that hopefully the staff have been now told to forget whatever **** they were told before and follow the correct rules.

qantas has apologized for 'any miscommunication from the lounge staff'... which is fairly broad and certainly leaves open the implication that all of them somehow misinterpreted policy. there was no wording to the effect of 'lounge staff through no fault of their own may have miscommunicated policy'

lounge staff already know the rules pretty well i think!

it might have been more accurate to have said 'let's hope qantas has now issued a correction' rather than potentially feeding one interpretation that it was somehow a lounge staff error.

(edited to add I note k3nnis' reply just before i posted mine )

 

[Danger]

came from the same person who said asa's are going

I think that's unfair, not only because I don't think there's a need to have a go at several members who offered up information in good faith but also because I'm one of the two or three people who struck issues with this apparent momentary and ill-thought policy change, but did not suggest ASAs were ending.

qantas has apologized for 'any miscommunication from the lounge staff'... which is fairly broad and certainly leaves open the implication that all of them somehow misinterpreted policy. there was no wording to the effect of 'lounge staff through no fault of their own may have miscommunicated policy'

lounge staff already know the rules pretty well i think!

it might have been more accurate to have said 'let's hope qantas has now issued a correction' rather than potentially feeding one interpretation that it was somehow a lounge staff error.

(edited to add I note k3nnis' reply just before i posted mine )

Well put. While I don't necessarily think the blame was being placed at the feet of lounge staff, it certainly could have been interpreted that way. And as I posted over the weekend, a senior lounge host told me that lounge staff had gone 'nah, sorry, that's not gonna work' and that as a result it was going to the "boss's boss's boss" for review.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Well put. While I don't necessarily think the blame was being placed at the feet of lounge staff, it certainly could have been interpreted that way. And as I posted over the weekend, a senior lounge host told me that lounge staff had gone 'nah, sorry, that's not gonna work' and that as a result it was going to the "boss's boss's boss" for review.

to be honest... I am being a little generous in giving qantas the benefit of the doubt.

adding 'lounge staff' is unnecessary unless you are trying to deflect the issue.

the lounge staff didn't 'miscommunicate' anything... they communicated exactly what they were told by the sounds of it (the only other alternative would be that multiple staff across multiple lounges ALL read it wrong).

the error seems to have come from somewhere else, and the apology should probably have left out any reference to lounge staff. it could have apologized simply for 'information members heard in the lounge', or 'over the weekend'. (indeed if it was going to be classy, it could have apologized to both members and lounge staff for any inconvenience)

let's hope from the two issues this week (lounge announcements and ff benefits) there is now a more rigorous process being put in place to try and prevent similar things happening again (and as an aside... to perhaps improve the quality of some twitter responses if we are to believe the report from ABT)

 

[k3nnis]

Did this issue arise due to the emirates partnership???

 

[Danger]

Did this issue arise due to the emirates partnership???

That's my understanding but I don't think we'll hear any more on that.

 

[Pozza]

So.... On the lounge access part. Can I still have my QFF Silver (oneworld ruby) number on my boarding pass but use my Marco Polo Gold (oneworld sapphire) card to access the domestic QC or QF international business lounge??

2 Weeks ago I had experience in both cases.

I have never been denied domestic QC access with just flashing my Marco Polo card, irrespective of what program is on my boarding pass. However at Perth international business lounge the lounge attendant would not permit me to enter unless I changed from my QF Silver to Marco Polo on the booking. I chose not to do this because of needing the Status Credits to obtain QF Gold, so ended up sitting by the gate instead.

 

[dajop]

2 Weeks ago I had experience in both cases.

I have never been denied domestic QC access with just flashing my Marco Polo card, irrespective of what program is on my boarding pass. However at Perth international business lounge the lounge attendant would not permit me to enter unless I changed from my QF Silver to Marco Polo on the booking. I chose not to do this because of needing the Status Credits to obtain QF Gold, so ended up sitting by the gate instead.

I've had this experience ( on star alliance) a few years ago travelling on CO in the US. I changed at the lounge to my gold number to enter the lounge, and then went to the service desk later (outside the lounge) and changed back to the FF program I wanted to credit miles to. I wonder if that would work in this scenario, although does seem a colossal waste of QF staff time.

NB: this CO experience was only a month or two after they joined star alliance. Not with a founding member of the alliance!

 

[moa999]

I think the CX issues are more CX's doing....
CX in Australia are very good about handing out the 'lounge invite' which is always retained when you enter the QF lounge, and I suspect (pure hypothesis) that they will refuse to pay QF for lounge access unless the lounge invite is retained...

I would think the way to do it with CX is keep your QF number in the booking, but at checkin show CX Gold card and ask for lounge invite, but say you want to continue to use the QF earn.

 

[k3nnis]

Hi moa999,

Do you mean for CX gold or diamond status holders they must request for an invite pass at check-in to be able to enter QF domestic and international lounges??

Thanks,
K.

I think the CX issues are more CX's doing....
CX in Australia are very good about handing out the 'lounge invite' which is always retained when you enter the QF lounge, and I suspect (pure hypothesis) that they will refuse to pay QF for lounge access unless the lounge invite is retained...

I would think the way to do it with CX is keep your QF number in the booking, but at checkin show CX Gold card and ask for lounge invite, but say you want to continue to use the QF earn.

 

[k3nnis]

Hi Pozza,

I assume when you were denied access at PER is when this issue started?

2 Weeks ago I had experience in both cases.

I have never been denied domestic QC access with just flashing my Marco Polo card, irrespective of what program is on my boarding pass. However at Perth international business lounge the lounge attendant would not permit me to enter unless I changed from my QF Silver to Marco Polo on the booking. I chose not to do this because of needing the Status Credits to obtain QF Gold, so ended up sitting by the gate instead.