Close call @ Changi

[stopthecap]

I’m not.

The difference between QF gold and platinum is chalk and cheese. First class lounges, release of award availability, being actually able to get through to someone who can help you! The latter alone is probably worth $1000.

Im just trying to keep gold. Gold to silver is like chalk and cheese too.
Business check in desk, Lounge access, priority boarding.

 

[RichardMEL]

tbh this experience is a great example of why separate tickets with a fairly short (relatively) time to "connect" (technically it's not a connection really, but I digress) between the two can be potentially problematic. It worked out this time just, and I'm glad for that of course but it's just not something I'd do. If I do this I schedule 4+ hours and still it's a gamble because anything can happen and if you're stranded someplace due to this you can be SOL. Of course, when it's fine and one's sitting in a lounge with an hour to spare being bored it seems like a no brainer, and that's what can happen 90% of the time.. but when it doesn't, it can get ugly (I've had it happen to me even with a 5 hour "connection"). Ideally, an overnight works the best for these kinds of things imo - just to be sure, and to stress less (not always doable or ideal of course).

 

[dajop]

General rule - short haul economy transiting to a separate long haul business class ticket, leave plenty of time. Consequences of late flight can be high. In the other direction (long haul J to short haul Y) never that worried about 2-3 hr transits, usually the consequences aren’t quite so significant.

 

[Must...Fly!]

I’m not.

The difference between QF gold and platinum is chalk and cheese. First class lounges, release of award availability, being actually able to get through to someone who can help you! The latter alone is probably worth $1000.

Without wanting to derail the thread, the fact the latter is worth it highlights how pathetic Qantas has become. Remember you are the paying customer...

 

[kangarooflyer88]

You might have actually been lucky!

Friend of mine transferring AY—>QF at SIN. the AY flight arrived 55 mins before the QF flight, so QF offloaded them and put them on to JQ! They said they hadn’t met MCT.

If that had happened here, having separate tickets could have actually meant you got on in this case, with the others being not making it at all!

Agent is wrong when they say they haven't met the MCT. MCT isn't determined on date of travel, it is determined when the flight is ticketed with the airline having to ensure that you have at least the MCT fulfilled to have a legal ticket. Interestingly enough I've got a one hour layover coming in on AY before connecting to my AY service down to SYD in October. Will be interesting to see if I make it, and if not, the EU261 compensation received for such a misconnect.

-RooFlyer88

 

[SYD]

Interestingly enough I've got a one hour layover coming in on AY before connecting to my AY service down to SYD in October. Will be interesting to see if I make it, and if not, the EU261 compensation received for such a misconnect.

Depends on what QF flight you’re connecting - probably QF82 (for the tight connection)? They’ll probably shift you to QF2 if you’re delayed. Plus there’s a BA flight - fortunately no JQ option SIN-SYD.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Agent is wrong when they say they haven't met the MCT. MCT isn't determined on date of travel, it is determined when the flight is ticketed with the airline having to ensure that you have at least the MCT fulfilled to have a legal ticket. Interestingly enough I've got a one hour layover coming in on AY before connecting to my AY service down to SYD in October. Will be interesting to see if I make it, and if not, the EU261 compensation received for such a misconnect.

-RooFlyer88

Whatever it was, as soon as the inbound fell under one hour they moved pax off the QF flight and out them on JQ. My friend arrived in plenty of time to make the QF flight.

No compensation due because arrival was only an hour or two later. I think they got back $400 for the ‘downgrade’ from QF J to JQ J. It was a points upgrade for the QF leg.

 

[serfty]

Rang QF premium desk from Ool...even though I had already done OLCI and the QF flight from Syd to Ool was departing in less than an hour, she cancelled the flight and gave me a full travel credit for what I paid for the flight...happy with that!

I suspect QF were happy to free up the seat giving the flight cancellation. One less PAX to re/accommodate.

 

[stopthecap]

Another thing i learnt about flying.. Ontime performance shows the real truth.

Jetstar Asia 3K 516 On-Time Performance Rating

Check the historical on-time performance rating for flight Jetstar Asia 3K 516 to help avoid frequently delayed or cancelled flights

www.flightstats.com

 

[AIRwin]

Depends on what QF flight you’re connecting - probably QF82 (for the tight connection)? They’ll probably shift you to QF2 if you’re delayed.

QF82 departs after QF2

 

[kangarooflyer88]

I'm actually surprised at the lengths some people are willing to go just to retain a certain tier?!

You aren't seeing the value because I reckon you haven't been on the other side earning and using status regularly. Believe it or not, I currently hold status on all three major alliances: Star Alliance (United), SkyTeam (Delta) and OneWorld (Qantas). I travel fairly regularly (at least once a month I'm on some sort of trip, often times more). And I can point to specific benefits I have had from holding status. From my trip to Saint John from Sydney where Air Canada cancelled the final sector, but within a couple of minutes rebooked me on the next flight in business class, providing hotels and meal vouchers once I deplaned. Or what about the time I wanted to stay an extra day at a conference and simply called up United to get them to push back the flight 20 hours? Maybe it was that time where I booked a $900 USD ticket from Heathrow to Sydney return on United and managed to clear the upgrade list to Polaris Business class costing me just $600 USD and 35,000 points for 35 hours of Polaris luxury. Or maybe it was that time I was moving (yet again) from Canada to Australia and packed everything in 3 checked bags (weighing 32 kg each) and didn't have to pay a dime for the luggage flying coach.

If you ask members on this forum why they bother going to these lengths to earn Platinum or even lowly Gold status I can guarantee you they will have specific reasons they can point to where the cost of booking that extra trip or as you correctly pointed out or adding in a connecting flight just to re-qualify for status makes a lot of sense. I would be surprised if no one on this forum has ever successfully used the Platinum perk where you can call Qantas and have them release a business classic award seat for you.

Again it's a completely different world. If you travel once or a couple of times a year, you're right it doesn't make sense and isn't worth it. But if you're rocking up to the airport regularly saving that time at security or spending time at the Flounge versus strolling through the international terminal can make a big difference.

-RooFlyer88

 

[stopthecap]

You aren't seeing the value because I reckon you haven't been on the other side earning and using status regularly. Believe it or not, I currently hold status on all three major alliances: Star Alliance (United), SkyTeam (Delta) and OneWorld (Qantas). I travel fairly regularly (at least once a month I'm on some sort of trip, often times more). And I can point to specific benefits I have had from holding status. From my trip to Saint John from Sydney where Air Canada cancelled the final sector, but within a couple of minutes rebooked me on the next flight in business class, providing hotels and meal vouchers once I deplaned. Or what about the time I wanted to stay an extra day at a conference and simply called up United to get them to push back the flight 20 hours? Maybe it was that time where I booked a $900 USD ticket from Heathrow to Sydney return on United and managed to clear the upgrade list to Polaris Business class costing me just $600 USD and 35,000 points for 35 hours of Polaris luxury. Or maybe it was that time I was moving (yet again) from Canada to Australia and packed everything in 3 checked bags (weighing 32 kg each) and didn't have to pay a dime for the luggage flying coach.

If you ask members on this forum why they bother going to these lengths to earn Platinum or even lowly Gold status I can guarantee you they will have specific reasons they can point to where the cost of booking that extra trip or as you correctly pointed out or adding in a connecting flight just to re-qualify for status makes a lot of sense. I would be surprised if no one on this forum has ever successfully used the Platinum perk where you can call Qantas and have them release a business classic award seat for you.

Again it's a completely different world. If you travel once or a couple of times a year, you're right it doesn't make sense and isn't worth it. But if you're rocking up to the airport regularly saving that time at security or spending time at the Flounge versus strolling through the international terminal can make a big difference.

-RooFlyer88

lowly gold he says lol just one step above scummy silver?

 

[JohnK]

If you ask members on this forum why they bother going to these lengths to earn Platinum or even lowly Gold status I can guarantee you they will have specific reasons they can point to where the cost of booking that extra trip or as you correctly pointed out or adding in a connecting flight just to re-qualify for status makes a lot of sense.

Everyone's needs are different and everyone's experiences are different.

Pre-Covid I was travelling as much as most. I was doing 100-125 flights/year most years. To be honest Qantas Platinum benefits were getting very stale.

10-15 years ago I was getting regular op-ups to business from discount economy. The past 10 years with introduction of Platinum One those op-ups became non-existent.

We mainly travel to Thailand. Award seats are limited a long way out. I've tried a few times to get award seats released and the answer has been no.

Lost the ability to pre-select exit row on international flights and also lost the ability to pre-select row 4-5 on domestic flights until T-80 which is useless to me.

I've not seen anything related to delays/cancellations in the past 10 years that's been positive.

The First lounges are nice but that alone shouldn't be incentive to maintain Platinum.

I'll be Lifetime Gold from June 2024 and I think First lounge is the only thing that I will miss.

 

[stm1sydney]

I'm actually surprised at the lengths some people are willing to go just to retain a certain tier?!

I'm surprised at the lengths people go to fly Jetstar for no point whatsoever, other than the aggravation. And then after multiple bad experiences, they give Jetstar another go.

 

[stopthecap]

I'm surprised at the lengths people go to fly Jetstar for no point whatsoever, other than the aggravation. And then after multiple bad experiences, they give Jetstar another go.

BKK - SIN on 3K is 15SC $200
SIN - MEL in J on QF36 is 48SC as PC+ Classic Rewards
MEL - SYD in J on QF414 is 18SC as PC+ Classic Rewards

Total haul is significant as I rolled over 212SC + 100 PC + 50 GT. To keep gold status YOY is a breeze but requires some finesse such as the above.

 

[SYD]

I'm surprised at the lengths people go to fly Jetstar for no point whatsoever, other than the aggravation. And then after multiple bad experiences, they give Jetstar another go.

I recently flew JQ DPS-PER on a QF CR. To my surprise, it wasn’t awful.

The Max bundles on whY fares work for many. But for us SYD based folk, JQ Dom operating out of T2 is a bit of a downer… Wouldn’t be so bad if there was an airside loop from QF Link gates and the JQ T2 pier.

 

[stm1sydney]

BKK - SIN on 3K is 15SC $200
SIN - MEL in J on QF36 is 48SC as PC+ Classic Rewards
MEL - SYD in J on QF414 is 18SC as PC+ Classic Rewards

Total haul is significant as I rolled over 212SC + 100 PC + 50 GT. To keep gold status YOY is a breeze but requires some finesse such as the above.

Fair enough but only a miserable 15SC in 3K and on a separate ticket. Scoot, for example, is as low as $70 and with five flights a day there is plenty of scope for service recovery if there is a problem.

[edit] And Scoot operates from SIN T1.

 

[Flyfrequently]

I recently flew JQ DPS-PER on a QF CR. To my surprise, it wasn’t awful.

A320 or 787 @SYD ?
My daughter did MEL-DPS recently (she did appreciate the up front/ extra legroom on the way home though)

To quote her on the A320 - "Mum, you'd never cope with this!"

 

[Happy Dude]

I'm surprised at the lengths people go to fly Jetstar for no point whatsoever, other than the aggravation. And then after multiple bad experiences, they give Jetstar another go.

The rage is never maintained. QR is as popular as ever despite many swearing they'd never fly them after their treatment of women passengers not that long ago. I'd wager that many are even QR supporters now too, sympathetic and critical of our government's recent decision vis-a-vie increased capacity.

 

[dajop]

Fair enough but only a miserable 15SC in 3K and on a separate ticket. Scoot, for example, is as low as $70 and with five flights a day there is plenty of scope for service recovery if there is a problem.

I don’t think the problem here was 3K per se but the short time between separate bookings. 2 hrs is pushing it whatever carrier you are flying, it takes one storm at either end (and storms aren’t exactly uncommon in the tropics during late afternoon) and you get a late aircraft, whoever you’re flying.

But in this instance at SIN, Scoot would be better as 2 hr transit from Scoot is equivalent to almost a 2.5hr transit from 3K - as Scoot operates to/from the same terminal as QF vs the bus transfer from T4 to T1.