Keep in mind that the perk of requesting a release of a classic seat isn't a guarantee. Often times even Platinum 1s will have these requests rejected.
Timing those can be difficult, all we know is it happens sometime in March. And booking business travel it can be difficult to convince the business to wait a few days especially when they are concerned fares may go up. This year, I couldn't find anything obvious to take advantage of the DSC offer. Flights to NZ in J (my usual go to as it's an easy 480 SCs earned) were in the $2000 range. Meanwhile during the DSC promotion in 2022 I managed to snag an J flight to NZ for $1100 return. But I thought, surely there'll be other opportunities to travel for business where I get to earn status credits and sure enough they have just come along.
I think the key point here for business travel is you need to be strategic in how you book your flights. I don't know how the flight booking works for your organization, but where I work (a Uni) everything has to go through the travel department. I can't self-book anything, especially given the complexity of most of my travel. So how I "game" the system is ask the travel department to quote me flights I know will earn a high amount of status credits but are relatively affordable. For instance, on my trip to the US in October, the cheapest option was Star Alliance flying United Airlines to Pittsburgh. Well, a similar fare with American was about $300 more and after some playing around with Google flights, I was able to engineer an itinerary that was nearly all OneWorld, complied with the travel departments policies and was less than what they initially quoted me. From that trip alone I will earn 145 status credits, all in discount economy on American codeshares. A similar thing happened for my trip to Frankfurt next month. I was initially quoted a flight with a Chinese airline but came back with a FinnAir quote after explaining that my Canadian citizenship precluded me from transiting in China (a long story). Sometimes it pays to put off booking business travel till the end. That way all that will be left in the booking systems are the more expensive Flex fares (which attract twice as much status credits). This happened to me last year at a conference where I learned I got accepted to present just a few weeks prior. Sometimes you can make the business case for delaying flight booking on the basis that you need to confirm a few things before you lock yourself into an inflexible ticket. Alternatively you can make the argument that a flex ticket is required just in case plans have to change (thereby ensuring you earn at a Flex rate).
For personal travel, well there are opportunities. If you are a Points Club member, you'll earn status credits on those classic award flights and sometimes the accrual is nothing to sneeze at. For instance, Sydney to Dallas earns you 80
status credits in business. Other times it might make sense to bite the bullet and just buy the ticket. Double status credit promotions are one great example, but another one is if you are lucky enough to be in the US. The reason I say that is status credit runs in the US are far easier than Australia. You've got two OneWorld carriers that will provide you with excellent status run opportunities. The US is also a large country with many major cities, and many many flights travelling between those cities. It is not uncommon for someone like me to fly around the country for a day to rack up several hundred status credits. Indeed when I am in the US in October I'll be flying Alaska from LA to Portland and then returning Portland to LA (via Seattle) all in business for $550 AUD which will net me 160 status credits. Not bad for a day of travel. In Australia you would be hard pressed to find such opportunities.
Timing is everything when it comes to status. You need to be a bit paranoid during the year ensuring that you are "on track" to earn you desired status. What I will tell you is that I didn't intend on going for Platinum this year. When I booked that DSC flight in March 2022 for travel in Jan 2023 my thinking was, this would easily get me to retaining Gold. I wouldn't need to worry about taking all these flights to secure the status. Well as it turned out QF rolled over 250 of my status credits, I was strategic in how I redeemed my loyalty bonus and green tier bonus in 2022 so they would apply in 2023. This meant I would start the year with 350 status credits out of the gate. Combine that with the aforementioned trip to NZ earning 480 status credits, a business trip to NZ on Flex which earned another 80 SCs and the occasional red e-deal regional flight and before you know it I was at 1000 SCs half way through the year. At that point it became obvious that I needed to try for Platinum.
The argument for trying for Platinum is actually a good one if you are in striking distance by the way. Think of it this way, if you earn Platinum this year you'll have Platinum status till what October 31, 2024? Then even if you don't fly much Qantas will soft land you down to Gold till October 31, 2025. If you still don't fly much they'll soft land you down to Silver till October 31, 2026. So effectively you are earning 3 years of status just by going for Platinum.
If you can engineer a way to earn those points, I would suggest doing it but I must warn you it will likely take some time and flexibility on your part to find flights that will not only earn the status credits and be in budget but also trips that are acceptable for you to take (I don't know your circumstances). For me flying out to Auckland for a couple of nights is no big deal, especially if there is a hotel near the airport (which shall remain nameless) that offers breakfast and costs only $19/night. Not everyone has that luxury of time and resources I understand. Still Gold is not a bad status to maintain. You could do FAR worse than Gold. It would just be nice to have that Platinum status and extra year of Gold status the following year without having to lift a finger.
-RooFlyer88
www.australianfrequentflyer.com.au
