Disillusionment sets in … is it worth it?

[drron]

If they didn't send you an email telling you they were about to expire you can get them back. They did the same to me, a phone call and a written complaint that they had breached their own T&C and they re-instated my points. I then linked my Woolworth loyalty to my qantas so activity keeps it safe.

Or use the well Being app. A continual drip feed of points.

 

[RichardMEL]

While the partner rewards have had issues they are in two main camps:

1. Changes made to bookings poorly handled by poorly trained staff
2. changes made by the partners causing problems

One would HOPE that since things are settling more that (2) may become less of an issue - yes schedules change and so on, but I think the cancel rate should go down - remember demand is huge - these airlines want to actually fly these flights! and well (1) can hopefully be avoided by not making changes or trying to add flights - far from ideal I fully understand, and circumstances where you'd want to be able to do this (ie: getting an outbound reward when they open, and needing to add a return sector when those open up). This is the area QF really needs to get their act together with - re-ticketing properly and in a timely manner and educating staff properly and/or giving them appropriate tools to do the job (it always concerns me when I read of people being told by offshore staff that they need to push the booking to a ticketing desk....)

All of these are reasonable cautions to make

but remember also that I reckon the number of problem situations are still a small % of overall bookings made. In no way does this dismiss the problems or try to push them under the carpet, but just some perspective that there's a pretty good chance reward bookings being made with QF and/or partners will go off pretty well.

 

[AustraliaPoochie]

Too easy for QFF not to process the booking with partner airlines in time, and then the booking is lost, ie, cancelled due to not being processed in time.
This is the problem with the outsourced call center, they don't go out of their way to help us, when things/if things go wrong.
If they did, maybe our satisfaction with them would be higher.
Just have to read what is related on here.

 

[Stargazer]

Anna notes that it makes more sense to accumulate status credits to retain platinum rather than focus on accumulating points as preferred flights are hard to come by. So Anna - are you paying full revenue for your flights.

 

[AustraliaPoochie]

You can accumulate QFF SC without flying, if you spend a lot of money on the ground via PC (PointsClub).
$150,000 on ground spending.
$12,500 a month, possible if you have an ABN and run a business.
Thus, you don't have to pay full revenue for flights, to earn QFF SC, on ground you can too.
But I would say, not a lot of the population spends that much.
Not that I have had a deep look into PC, but you have to register with them (that part of QF that deals with it first), no?

 

[Rich]

You can accumulate QFF SC without flying, if you spend a lot of money on the ground via PC (PointsClub).

Not quite. With PC you will get SCs when flying on award tickets, albeit at a lower rate than a revenue flight

 

[Anna]

Anna - are you paying full revenue for your flights

Not sure what you mean by 'full' revenue. Yes I use money not points for int flights, I don't always book QF or even OW, and I look around for a price I'm happy with. Post pandemic this has sometimes meant using a travel agent because the online prices that airlines show have been just stupid eg QF $24K J return to LAX.

 

[AustraliaPoochie]

News article about the Milnes, the actress and her businessman husband, husband and wife losing 1.3m QFF points, via the media they got their points back.
They wrote and contacted QFF many times, according to the article.
Words used: ((QF contacted their call centre and told it to be kinder).
Heh.
Matt Graham wrote a bit about it too.
Newscorp article.
Probably paywall.
***

Not quite. With PC you will get SCs when flying on award tickets, albeit at a lower rate than a revenue flight

Sorry, had the impression it was possible via PC to earn QFF SC on ground activities.
Ta for that one.

 

[Tiki]

While the partner rewards have had issues they are in two main camps:

1. Changes made to bookings poorly handled by poorly trained staff
2. changes made by the partners causing problems

One would HOPE that since things are settling more that (2) may become less of an issue - yes schedules change and so on, but I think the cancel rate should go down - remember demand is huge - these airlines want to actually fly these flights! and well (1) can hopefully be avoided by not making changes or trying to add flights - far from ideal I fully understand, and circumstances where you'd want to be able to do this (ie: getting an outbound reward when they open, and needing to add a return sector when those open up). This is the area QF really needs to get their act together with - re-ticketing properly and in a timely manner and educating staff properly and/or giving them appropriate tools to do the job (it always concerns me when I read of people being told by offshore staff that they need to push the booking to a ticketing desk....)

All of these are reasonable cautions to make

but remember also that I reckon the number of problem situations are still a small % of overall bookings made. In no way does this dismiss the problems or try to push them under the carpet, but just some perspective that there's a pretty good chance reward bookings being made with QF and/or partners will go off pretty well.

QF awards on AA metal are a big offender here. AA seems to change their flight timings down to the minute and also flight numbers at the same time between same city pair. And they have a married segment thing that can't be overcome even when schedule changes happen and it's not your choice to change it. I recently had a comfortable 6 hour layover in DFW between MTY-DFW-MIA-BON all on AA. They had a schedule change and forced me into a tight 1:20 minute connection in DFW and I got a flight change email to accept. I don't like tight connection, leaves no buffer in case something goes wrong. So I called QF to ask for an earlier flight on AA and booked one that would alllow a 7 hour connection in DFW. There was award availability on the earlier flight in QF booking class and no problem to book it. The problem was that the system wouldn't let them cancel the unwanted tight connection that AA reaccommodated me on. It was sold as a MTY-BON ticket and even though this was not my choice, they couldn't cancel only one segment and leave the others intact. Cancelling the whole thing and starting from scratch is not an option, no more availability on MIA-BON.

 

[Pushka]

I've Booked an award flight LHR via AMS to KL. On KLM. The flights have changed multiple times and now the aircraft. But to a much nicer one. I've been very fortunate that every time a new ticket has been issued before I even knew about the change. Also booked flights over as awards on MH. Again, so far, everything looks good.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

QF awards on AA metal are a big offender here. AA seems to change their flight timings down to the minute and also flight numbers at the same time between same city pair. And they have a married segment thing that can't be overcome even when schedule changes happen and it's not your choice to change it. I recently had a comfortable 6 hour layover in DFW between MTY-DFW-MIA-BON all on AA. They had a schedule change and forced me into a tight 1:20 minute connection in DFW and I got a flight change email to accept. I don't like tight connection, leaves no buffer in case something goes wrong. So I called QF to ask for an earlier flight on AA and booked one that would alllow a 7 hour connection in DFW. There was award availability on the earlier flight in QF booking class and no problem to book it. The problem was that the system wouldn't let them cancel the unwanted tight connection that AA reaccommodated me on. It was sold as a MTY-BON ticket and even though this was not my choice, they couldn't cancel only one segment and leave the others intact. Cancelling the whole thing and starting from scratch is not an option, no more availability on MIA-BON.

US airlines are notorious for schedule changes, particularly for the new autumn and spring timetable periods.

I almost always buy my US flights direct from the airline for this reason, either revenue or award. Far more flexibility this way because things like married segments don’t matter as they reaccommodate you.

I’ll still use QFFF to connect a US domestic flight to an international gateway. Usually that’s ok in terms of flexibility if it’s a single segment. Sometimes this works to your advantage too when the only award seat might initially be at an inconvenient time, but once the schedule change kicks in you can move it to the new - better timed - flight

 

[RichardMEL]

To Poochie,

Points Club do not really provide for the earn of SC directly per se. You may be confused by items such as PC+ members getting to roll over 100 SC's per year and the earn of SC's on reward flights - which are absolutely a thing - but those are, of course, not earned on the ground but by flying (and remembering that such SC earn is not at the "usual" level for the flights, but only a certain proportion of the earn amount - eg: SYD-LAX in F normally earns iirc 270 SC, I flew it as a reward and earned 81).

There were some promotions during covid to earn some SC on the ground, and maybe some were tied to PC membership but I don't strictly recall any. Maybe some might pop up from time to time going forward, but it's not a published benefit, apart from the above.

Indeed the whole "catch" of PC/PC+ to keep/lure people into the QF loyalty merry-go-round is for those to get some perks as frequent buyers who perhaps do not fly too often (and with larger points balances who might then spend on rewards to earn some SC - which may or may not generate enough to earn some level of status).

 

[Rich]

ANZ Black card (I think) used to come with 40 SCs as part of a sign up bonus.

 

[RichardMEL]

ANZ Black card (I think) used to come with 40 SCs as part of a sign up bonus.

oh yes. Wasn't it 75 iirc?

but these promos are, in general, few and far between.

I guess the thought is frequent buyers/spenders are probably not that interested in status (if they flew more with that kind of spend they'd have it anyway....)

 

[Mr H]

I guess the thought is frequent buyers/spenders are probably not that interested in status (if they flew more with that kind of spend they'd have it anyway....)

Interesting compare/contrast with the HSBC premium card which specifically offers Star Alliance status as its main reward.

 

[Tiki]

US airlines are notorious for schedule changes, particularly for the new autumn and spring timetable periods.

I almost always buy my US flights direct from the airline for this reason, either revenue or award. Far more flexibility this way because things like married segments don’t matter as they reaccommodate you.

I’ll still use QFFF to connect a US domestic flight to an international gateway. Usually that’s ok in terms of flexibility if it’s a single segment. Sometimes this works to your advantage too when the only award seat might initially be at an inconvenient time, but once the schedule change kicks in you can move it to the new - better timed - flight

I wish I could have but I don't have any AA miles and a cash ticket is over $1000!
QF award was 20,300 + $90 tax. And I have never encountered this problem of married segments on an involuntary sched change before.

 

[RichardMEL]

Interesting compare/contrast with the HSBC premium card which specifically offers Star Alliance status as its main reward.

I suspect the target demographic is different.

the CC is a credit product (and iirc the *G is an initial perk and possibly not ongoing?) and it's more or less like offering 100k points as a sign on bonus etc.

I imagine HSBC is hoping that the status lure might be enough to drag people from QF/VA (I know this product will potentially go global but for now it is launched here) to a Star carrier. It does seem a very focused incentive

(and all the hoops one has to go through with "Star Alliance" points vs direct credit to a specific program which you then have to nominate etc, plus the earning potential dimishing after a certain monthly spend limit - much like many of the QF/VA middle tier card offerings - detract from the appeal of this product to someone such as myself - plus I already have *G as it happens, but that's just a personal situation)

 

[MEL_Traveller]

I wish I could have but I don't have any AA miles and a cash ticket is over $1000!
QF award was 20,300 + $90 tax. And I have never encountered this problem of married segments on an involuntary sched change before.

I suspect this is because it is booked via a third party Appreciate the cost here means an award was the best option, but it can have some unexpected consequences.

Booking through any of the US FF programs… AA or even AS usually means they can break any routing restrictions in the event of IRROPS. QF probably doesn’t have the means to do the same.

 

[Mr H]

I suspect the target demographic is different.

the CC is a credit product (and iirc the *G is an initial perk and possibly not ongoing?) and it's more or less like offering 100k points as a sign on bonus etc.

It is an ongoing perk - just spend $60,000 on the card each year and retain Star Gold - or drop to Star Silver if you only spend $30,000.

 

[RichardMEL]

It is an ongoing perk - just spend $60,000 on the card each year and retain Star Gold - or drop to Star Silver if you only spend $30,000.

and far less than $60k to get Star Gold by flying anyway. so...