Double SC for all! (Book until midnight 6th Mar, Travel Mar 2017 - Feb 19, 2018)

[mviy]

Ah, I guess I could be wrong. Maybe there is a hard cut off at midnight. I agree if you booked at the last minute you should ring up and confirm the situation with QANTAS ASAP.

I do seem to remember comments last year about people booking flights just after the offer starting having to manually ring up to get it to credit. Not sure if we heard back anything about bookings made at the other end.

 

[RichardMEL]

Im sure there were issues last year (or at least previously) for people who booked when the promotion first commenced due to time zone issues.

That seems a slightly different issue to the promotion closing time, and I honestly don't recall any from at least last year's promotion - but more than happy to be corrected.

It may also be a factor of, for example, an non-QF TA issued PNR in a different timezone (eg: in the USA) creating a PNR with a date prior to the time in Sydney. I do see the point. QF generated PNR's would all be consistent(or should be, anyway )

In that case GMT (or really Zulu time) would make more sense because all QF would need to do would be convert the Zulu time of PNR and compare with the corresponding ones in Sydney for the purposes of the promotion.

I would think though that QF promotions have usually been very specific with timings, eg: 00:01am 2 Mar-11:59pm 6 Mar AEDT.

Anyway if I'm incorrect on there being issues I'd be (un)happy to be corrected.

let's hope there are none this year.

 

[amaroo]

Ended up going for an anniversary trip to a place near Lake Onoke, and a long weekend in BKK to dine at Gaggan .... we couldn't fit this one in when we were in BKK earlier this year.

All up 1,120SC which matches nicely to the other 160SC already booked for our trip around Mexico and Central America later this year. All other flying this year has been sorted via QFF award - thanks Qantas

 

[RichardMEL]

It occurs to me that it could have something to do with the registration for the promo and bookings. I had presumed the registration for the promo was on a date basis.. eg: I register at 1am 2 Mar or 23:00 2 Mar it's 2nd March I register, and I then make bookings if they're 2 Mar or later it would be OK. QF may treat that differently.. that could be a factor there.

Specially hard to prove for those that did not get confirmation emails.

 

[opusman]

So much kerfuffle for a straight-forward promo. Why leave it until the absolute last second or even later and then stress and carry on and have to call Qantas etc. Just make the bookings in the stated period, fly in the stated period, and lead an easy life.

 

[mviy]

I think they'd be more worried about when the booking was made than when the registration was done (at least I hope). I think the registration would have opened and closed at the right times.

It's whether the booking date was picked up correctly that could be an issue.

 

[DC3]

... Re those with a ticketing date of 7 March - this is a curly one - it all depends on the PNR creation date. If it was set up on 06MAR but ticketing took some time that's where this was coming from.

Rather than waiting and hoping I'd *call* QF and verify what THEY think the booking date is for the purposes of the promo and, if need be, plead a delay in ticketing of a last minute booking and see if they might document the PNR or otherwise confirm that it would earn.

If one waits till June or something post flights it may be harder ...

Thanks, RichardMEL. I followed your suggestion and have phoned QF. My 3 x booking dates have all been confirmed as 6th March. The last one must have just got in on time.

 

[TheRealTMA]

I wonder whether QF will be happy with the dollar numbers they've got...they scored another 2 x $50 vouchers from me (just to see if they do work). They got an extra $750 in revenue from me.

Well now we can all turn our attention to actually flying the routes we have been discussing.

Who has the booking that will be flown the latest in the promotion?

They got several thousands from us but not any more than they would have got anyway. We'd planned a trip and essentially were just waiting for the March bonus SC offer. What it did do however was force us to use QF Metal for some flights rather than EK so it forced us off EK F to use QF F 2/9 on the LHR-DXB legs.

 

[markbat]

Personally I have a bunch of challenges around how this promo is run. I booked a multi-sector US flight in J about 2 weeks ago and am bummed because it would really have racked up the SC's with this promo...I know there's always that great fare or promo like this you just miss out on but geez it would have been handy to know this was coming...

The only notification was on the website, which - y'know, having a job and a family and so on - I don't go onto each day just in case there's a good promo on. No email, even to those of us at the Platinum (I am P1, but only just fall over the line qualifying for it for the last two years) end of the spectrum that are their most frequent flyers and quite likely to want to take advantage of it. But I suspect like many of you my travel, especially long haul stuff I do between 6 and 8 times a year, is company-funded and takes a fair bit of organisation to make happen, teeing up calendars with colleagues or aligning around events you are going to travel to. I don't have the luxury of booking a J flight on a whim just because I have 4 or 5 days, including a weekend, to think up somewhere cool I'd like to go. I get that at any point in time there are people waiting to push the button on a planned flight and so a promo like this might get them to commit earlier than later. But presumably the object of such a promo is to try and generate business they might not otherwise have gotten?

Another challenge I have is with the timing...I'm in Perth, and so we had even less time (3 hours isn't a lot but it is if you're trying to get in contact with overseas or interstate colleagues to said aligning of plans) to get organised, and on top of that it was a public holiday long weekend here, which generated further complexity and effectively took a full day or trying to organise something away from me. All very much first world problems I know , but still it feels a lot like a promo you kind of have when you're not really expecting it cost you (Qantas in this case) too much?

Interested to get others' feedback on how they far more effectively than me plan around this promo...Is it the same time every year? Are there other tell tale signs I should look out for that hint its coming up and I should hold off on that booking you know you are going to make sometime soon?

Cheers,
M

 

[mviy]

Last year the promo was in April and before that there wasn't one for quite a while I think.

Most likely there won't be another one till at least roughly December/January (when most of the flights from this offer have been flown), but if QANTAS is getting very desperate for bookings you never know they could do another one sooner (though that's unlikely).

It could be that there won't be another one for a few years or more. We can only guess.

QANTAS doesn't give any advance warning. You'll need to monitor qantas.com, sites like this one etc.

For global offers like this QANTAS will email some FF, but not all. So you can't rely on getting an email from QF. I didn't get an email about this year's offer from QANTAS.

 

[RichardMEL]

As a P1 I did not get the email either. I wonder if perhaps QF thinks these P1's are locked in. There's no higher status to achieve and possibly it was deliberate (but maybe other P1's got it).

After all the DSC promo main "selling point" is to get to a higher status quicker Where is there for a P1 to go? OK yes 5k or 7k SC's but honestly if you're flying THAT much I reckon you just don't care (plus the offer of 75k points at 5k SC's is pretty piss poor IMHO and it's not something I'd care to make an effort to attain - unlike the 2400 Platinum Bonus Reward level).

Just my 2 cents on the email situation.

 

[QF WP]

markbat, great first post and welcome to the AGG Community. Nice to see you taking it on the chin (as most of us have also done in the past).

Companies are creatures of habit as well (particularly on the Marketing side) and it has been well known (time of year) as to when airlines will announce DSC or similar promotions. Stick around and be advised by some similar flying experts. They are looking to galvanise people into making travel decisions now, thus the short time frame for the promotion (lest it devalue the whole earning of SC's). For some it's useful (the frequent QF traveller some of whom have plans that dovetail nicely into the window of opportunity, or those that are opportunistic); or others that don't have any planned flying or don't fly often (and to whom the additional SC's are meaningless).

You'll also be interested in this thread : http://www.australianfrequentflyer....r-program/platinum-one-experiences-35716.html

 

[aVex]

So I've made the bookings and made my first travel from Melbourne to Canberra today.
My account got credited with only 20SC when it should have doubled, does Qantas take time to credit the bonus?

 

[QF WP]

As a P1 I did not get the email either. I wonder if perhaps QF thinks these P1's are locked in. There's no higher status to achieve and possibly it was deliberate (but maybe other P1's got it).

After all the DSC promo main "selling point" is to get to a higher status quicker Where is there for a P1 to go? OK yes 5k or 7k SC's but honestly if you're flying THAT much I reckon you just don't care (plus the offer of 75k points at 5k SC's is pretty piss poor IMHO and it's not something I'd care to make an effort to attain - unlike the 2400 Platinum Bonus Reward level).

Just my 2 cents on the email situation.

I'm sure that their algorithm for the pax emailed is particular to those that are within (say IMO) 20% of the target SC's for the next level (a point at which QF think will turn the decision making on) or those that have just rolled-over an anniversary. Of course, we are not likely to ever know it, but we can speculate

Of course, reading their offer email also shows this nugget:

You have received this email because you are subscribed to Qantas Frequent Flyer 'Flight specials, news and updates' emails.

 

[QF WP]

So I've made the bookings and made my first travel from Melbourne to Canberra today.
My account got credited with only 20SC when it should have doubled, does Qantas take time to credit the bonus?

According to the T&C's:

Bonus Status Credits may take up to 6 weeks after completion of your travel to be credited to your Qantas Frequent Flyer account.

However, anecdotal evidence from past experiences is that it takes 3-4 days (and likely to be linked to a batch posting every weekend or a particular time period). If it hasn't shown up at the end of 6 weeks, I'm sure the friendly Customer Care people will investigate and manually credit.

 

[mviy]

Last year's offer in practice it was usually 2-3 business days or less than a week. We'll see how long it takes this time.

Will be interested to hear how long it takes for you.

It could take up to 6 weeks but it should be a lot quicker than that.

 

[aVex]

Well I am now awfully closer to my account reset date, 31 May so I may need to push for them to credit the account for flights in May if it takes that long.

 

[Pushka]

So I've made the bookings and made my first travel from Melbourne to Canberra today.
My account got credited with only 20SC when it should have doubled, does Qantas take time to credit the bonus?

They post separately

 

[RichardMEL]

I'm sure that their algorithm for the pax emailed is particular to those that are within (say IMO) 20% of the target SC's for the next level (a point at which QF think will turn the decision making on) or those that have just rolled-over an anniversary. Of course, we are not likely to ever know it, but we can speculate

Of course, reading their offer email also shows this nugget:

Yes, which I am.

I also note those who have posted their emails (and when I've had one in the distant past) it was personalised to say a Silver member and showing a Gold card and saying something like "Get to Gold faster to enjoy the benefits" etc so the emails have, in the past anyway, been somewhat tailor made to the specific individual's status and situation (as you suggest).

 

[blackcat20]

Yes, which I am.

I also note those who have posted their emails (and when I've had one in the distant past) it was personalised to say a Silver member and showing a Gold card and saying something like "Get to Gold faster to enjoy the benefits" etc so the emails have, in the past anyway, been somewhat tailor made to the specific individual's status and situation (as you suggest).

My email suggested I should go for WP. Currently SG but with 450sc in the bank, so technically havent requalified yet. But I have enough flights already booked to get me to WP so the email/promotion is a bit pointless.