I left this for a little while but decided to come back and see what the thread had got up to. I suspected that I was going to raise the ire of a number of people here by proposing what I proposed, and you haven't failed to disappoint.
As I said originally, my interest is in understanding these programs to the nth degree, and looking for loopholes is partially part of understanding the program. That's the appeal - there's an intellectual challenge to discovering is something is possible a certain way. It doesn't mean that it should be done that way, or that it will be done that way, but it's about identifying if it CAN be done that way.
The reason I knew I was going to raise the ire of people here by proposing the "F Lounge for free" plan was that I've noticed that in other threads, many people seem to feel very precious about their QANTAS perks, and they seem to defend them against other people. This is really evident in the
QANTAS Domestic Business Lounges Thread and other threads on overcrowding in the QANTAS Club, where many people who have status and get free access to QANTAS Club seem very worried that other people can get access to the QANTAS Club for around $200/year. Similarly, others that pay for their membership see the people that get it for free as "freeloaders" - we've had these discussions on this site before. Consequently, posters here seem to want to blame other QANTAS customers for overcrowding in the lounges, etc. when the reality is that if QANTAS has more members, then QANTAS should be making bigger lounges, improving the food, making the experience better for everyone.
The trick to all of this is that QANTAS have led people to believe that you are special because you get these perks, but that in being able to change these programs at will, people are fearful that their free perks will be over in the blink of an eye, so people tend to draw a line in the sand about the perks and want to protect them - there's a sense of entitlement - that people "earned" the free perks.
This goes for the SYD T1 F Lounge as well - there's no doubt that people like the F Lounge "experience", as there's been much discussion about it on this board and others over time. So people that feel that they are entitled to access the F Lounge and that this makes them feel exclusive tend to feel threatened by talk that someone might get access without flying constantly or on the most expensive seats on the aircraft - some people like might interpret that as "cheapening" the exclusive club that they feel they belong to. It happens with credit cards as well - when Amex released the Platinum Credit Card and made it publicly available, some people on here lamented that Amex Platinum was now not as exclusive.
Or, to put it another way:
Anyway .... I've worked out why Beardoc really annoyed the forum members. The thought of someone achieving for free their life-long aim of FL or CL hobnobbing just got too much for some!
I want to see the F Lounge and have the experience of visiting it with my friend. To me, that's more valuable than just buying Eggs Benedict at a cafe (maybe that was a failed attempt at humour on my part earlier in the thread), and I might consider that it would be worth doing something more to achieve it. Other people have done the same - Bundy Bear getting a group of people together to fly just to see the F lounges in SYD and MEL was a good example.
Anyway, this is all moot, regardless. My friend (the WP previously mentioned in the thread) will be flying SYD-BNE on QF19 (he's doing a mileage run, MEL-SYD-BNE-ADL-MEL), and I amazingly happen to be needing to go to Brisbane on that date. This incredible stroke of luck means that I have booked a seat on QF19 on the current sale at $89, and we'll be spending three hours in the F lounge prior to the trip.
I'm going to be going to the F lounge for the experience (just the once to see what it's like, I don't feel the need to do it multiple times), and everyone's QANTAS WP benefits will remain intact. It will all be just fine. There will be no moral depravity demonstrated.
Thank you, guys - I enjoy this site very much - the discussion is fascinating - and I think this is the second longest thread I've started!
