Fare/Upgrade/Status Visibility

MediumToast

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Nov 15, 2022
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I'm curious to know how much visibility staff have of passenger status. Even better, I'd love to get some insight from an insider.

A passenger walks into the J lounge bar...insert joke here.

No. A passenger walks into the J lounge and scans their boarding pass. What does the concierge see?

A passenger presses the attendant button whilst seated in their J seat. The attendant asks why the long face? No....

Where was I?

What can staff see? For example, can they see passenger X is Bronze, bought a red-e deal fare and upgraded to J using points? Asking for a friend.

AFAIK at minimum they can see status. Or at least they used to. Perhaps now they can only see status if you're wearing the new bag tags.
 
Solution
I guess the one thing I'm specifically interested to know is, can a CSM distinguish between a J passenger that paid for a J ticket, and a J passenger that upgraded with points from a red-e deal ticket? (If it made any difference let's assume both passengers are bronze)
Yes.

Twice I’ve had a CSM comment on my itinerary when I’ve been on an OW Award.

Usually on the initial domestic sector where they can see I’m going to Europe or North America and they’ve said things like “that’s a great use of points”, or “you’ve done well to get three award seats for this trip”.

In both cases their comments made clear they knew it was a redemption.
What shows up when you go in the lounge?
Presumably more than just ‘good to go’?
They can see everything with a little digging.

I was asking about a comp upgrade and at first they thought it was a points upgrade at the lounge (probably same booking class) but when he looked at it carefully he basically said "oh congrats on the complimentary upgrade".

They'd need to too since they can do all sorts at the lounge desk like rebook you into different flights.
 
What shows up when you go in the lounge?
Presumably more than just ‘good to go’?
Domestic lounges - nothing. It's simply 'tracking' your entry through the check-in system which can possibly advise the gate where you may be. The tracking in Altea goes nowhere and produces no reports. Unless they bring up your name in the check-in system, which would provide more details.
The domestic lounges are actually visually seeing if you can enter from the information/boarding pass you provide them.

International is different and uses a different system, this is used for billing purposes, especially for other airlines and OW status.
 
Thanks. I figured they must at least see your boarding pass and status

I say this because I went to the J lounge on arrival and they initially were “oh, wait”, like they were going to stop me coming in - then presumably saw the status and changed to “oh yes, you can come in”
 
For the domestic lounges, when the computer is in the mode for admitting passengers, a scan of an eligible boarding pass adds your name flight and seat number to the top of the scanned list. Not sure if status appears alongside that, but the scan is more about a 'yes/no' for lounge access, and it only adds you to the list if you are eligible. Obviously they can open up your booking etc beyond that, but that's the basic admission screen. It's one of the reasons lounge staff can get confused when you access lounges on arrival as Platinum, because it wasn't coming up on the list (so they've asked to see the boarding pass visually). Not sure if they've done an update there because I haven't been asked to also show the boarding pass on arrival the last couple of times I've scanned into a lounge after my flight.

If you're ever passing through Qantas Premium Lounge Entry in Brisbane, you can sneakily turn around after passing by the podium and see the admission screen format. It's pretty basic in terms of what shows automatically.
 
It's one of the reasons lounge staff can get confused when you access lounges on arrival as Platinum, because it wasn't coming up on the list (so they've asked to see the boarding pass visually). Not sure if they've done an update there because I haven't been asked to also show the boarding pass on arrival the last couple of times I've scanned into a lounge after my flight.
I think it definitely comes up with something meaningful on the screen when you scan for arrivals access as a Plat as both myself and travel companion (both WP) accessed the SYD DOM J lounge on arrivals yesterday.

When I scanned my BP the staff member looked at the screen and goes "Wait that's your Bendigo to Sydney boarding pass, oh you're arriving, welcome!". My companion who went to the staff member next to me scanned the boarding pass and the staff just said "Thank you, welcome!".

They didn't ask to see the actual boarding passes.
 
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I still got the lovely physical WP card that expired in March 2024 but the Mastercard is still active to June 2024 so I keep carrying it around

The digital SG card is obviously denoted on the boarding pass but I had wondered if I flashed the card on arrival whether I could “gain access”
 
I am a doctor, and recently assisted with a medical emergency onboard QF 87 to Seoul and to assist in explaining the situation to me, the CSM showed me their staff iPad. It had passengers listed along with their status, linked bookings (ie. who their travelling companions were on the same booking), their nationality, and whether the booking was one way or return. I am sure there was probably more information on there too if you were to click on the individual passenger names. They also have passenger honorifics on there because he clicked on my seat number to verify my name and "Dr" title after I volunteered to assist.

As an aside, I also got to see what first aid equipment they have on board (very little, surprisingly) and to use the phone that communicates directly with the doctor on the ground at the Qantas headquarters. Was a very interesting experience.
Very interesting that they showed you the iPad with passenger data on it. Can you explain why you were given this? This surely is a breach of privacy as you are unable to use the iPad effectively- you are unfamiliar with it. Surely they can access and provide information quicker?
 
Calling Doctor @RooFlyer! I do hope the passenger notes include what sort of doctor the Dr is. 😄
I have assisted with inflight emergencies a few times, most recently a couple of days ago and the CSM confirmed that they knew that I was a medical Dr.
 
I think that the probability of having a PhD onboard would be far greater than having an MBBS onboard. I'm sure the staff would be alert to that and check the basis of the honorific - as @60165636 alluded to.
Interestingly, on a QF flight earlier this week, the CSM called for medical doctors or licensed paramedics on the PA. I was mentally preparing for a diversion to Jakarta but we continued to the destination.
 
My understanding is the operating airline pays for lounge access, and there aren’t any non-QF OneWorld airlines operating domestic sectors.
Onewold default is the Marketing carrier pays for lounge access.

However, two or more oneworld airlines may have their own separate agreement with may override the default.
 
I have assisted with inflight emergencies a few times, most recently a couple of days ago and the CSM confirmed that they knew that I was a medical Dr.
Thank you for helping out. I hope in each case the pax in need were OK in the end.

Knowing your secuality you'd be best placed to help imo so they were in extra good hands.
 
Very interesting that they showed you the iPad with passenger data on it. Can you explain why you were given this? This surely is a breach of privacy as you are unable to use the iPad effectively- you are unfamiliar with it. Surely they can access and provide information quicker?
I wasn't given free reign of the iPad or left with it unsupervised. The passenger requiring medical assistance didn't speak a word of English so the crew were accessing their information to look up if they had any travel companions on board or to see if there were any medical alerts attached to the patient's name (there were not, but I assume sometimes things like allergies etc could be tagged to a passenger's name to ensure they weren't served a meal they were allergic to or something - disclaimer this is speculation on my part)

But yeah, the CSM went through the passenger's details but showed me on the iPad as he was doing so, so I saw what sort of information was listed for that passenger. I don't think this was a breach of privacy as I was acting in the capacity of a medical professional on board, and only looked up information relevant to my patient, not anyone else on board.
 

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