Hi Does anyone know how many Qantas platinum frequent flyers there are?

[LHT]

Hi, Does anyone know how many Qantas Platinum frequent flyers there are?

 

[harvyk]

But if you look at just the number of people in the lounge at any one time compared to the total number of QF/JQ seats on all departing flights within a 3 hour window, for example, there are not many at all. Entire sections of the lounge are often empty, and I have never seen the dining room more than 1/2 full.

Sydney though is different. I often have to sit at the bar to eat because the restaurant is full....

So maybe not as many WP based in MEL? That is a possibility...

It would be impossible to make any sort of real estimate based on some visits to lounges, for the pure reasons that:

1. Not everyone who visits a lounge actually has any status, it's entirely possible that the visit is the result of either class of travel or service recovery
2. Not everyone knows what their actual lounge entitlements are
3. People can travel in groups where-by they remain outside the lounges as they don't have enough guesting rights
4. Some people turn up at the airport with a minimum of time to spare (thus no time to access lounges)
5. Some people just never travel internationally / never Qantas internationally
6. There are numerous lounges around the world that a person with status might be found at, especially for an airline like QF that does not have a hub which all pax are funnelled through. QF is not like SIN with SQ, HKG with CX or DXB with EK. Domestically AU is very much a mesh, and even internationally there are four ports which they operate international flights from.
7. Assuming that all the above variables didn't apply, you'd still need to monitor the entry / exits' of the chosen lounge, over various times of day, and days of week, and then monitor the number of people going to the lounge and onto flights and compare pax numbers from the lounges vs not from the lounges, and no-body's got time for that.............. except QF, who would monitor that diligently, as it's their business to know.

 

[sjk]

I was informed by someone inside the premium call centre this week that there are over 250,000 Platinums ( not incl P1)

Probably out by an order of magnitude.

 

[SeatBackForward]

Probably out by an order of magnitude.

2.5million?? that's unlikely whereas 25,000 seems somewhat low..

 

[sjk]

25,000 seems somewhat low..

It’s going to be way closer to that than 250,000.

 

[whughes3]

If there were 250K Plats, then non-elites would be the rare exception on most flights! This number would probably be a fair estimate for all elites in total.

 

[woodborer]

Heard it from a friend, who heard it from a friend, who heard it from their uncle, that it was about 60,000.

 

[zenyattamondatta]

680 flights a week = 35,360 flights PA - that is average 7 platinums per flight - ignoring size of aircraft from dash 8 to A380 . Then there is those of us who have to fly JQ at times - so its not an unreasonable number at all

Don't know where you get the flight numbers from, but sounds to me like you're assuming each Platinum flies once a year... in which case, unclear as to how they become Platinum, no?

Domestically, somewhere north of 20 million passengers a year. You could generously call that 400 million status credits. Even allowing for overseas flights and domestic J and double SC offers (and I seriously don't believe that there's tens of thousands of people maximizing those), it's pretty hard to come up with a sensible divvying up that results in 0.25 million people earning 1,200 SCs each.

 

[calmelb]

Don't know where you get the flight numbers from, but sounds to me like you're assuming each Platinum flies once a year... in which case, unclear as to how they become Platinum, no?

Domestically, somewhere north of 20 million passengers a year. You could generously call that 400 million status credits. Even allowing for overseas flights and domestic J and double SC offers (and I seriously don't believe that there's tens of thousands of people maximizing those), it's pretty hard to come up with a sensible divvying up that results in 0.25 million people earning 1,200 SCs each.

Given the size of the priority boarding queues its not unreasonable that they're all Platinum (If you include the Bronze flyers who think they deserve Platinum) !

Some people turn up at the airport with a minimum of time to spare (thus no time to access lounges)

This is what my Mum does. She has travelled far too much and the lounges dont bother her anymore. Just somewhere to sit if she is early

 

[CaptJCool]

QFi 8 million PAX

12.9 million QFF Members so 1% is 130,000, 2% 260,000

250,000 Business Rewards
Stack of public servants
Pollies and advisors
Defence force
FIFO in WA, QLD, NT
and AFF members

So some items from the Investor reports


Pile of folk on codeshare flights eg EK
One DSC international trip can bring Platinum

 

[zenyattamondatta]

granted my maths are probably out but then so are yours . Fact remains 250K was reliable and no numbers were quoted as double SC platinums - except ALOT

Yeah, nah. Pretty confident in my maths skills, thanks. 250,000 doesn't come close to passing the sniff test in my opinion.

Roy Morgan puts the number of people travelling domestically for business purposes at least once a month at around 200k (and the distribution within that category is going to thin out very quickly to the right). The figures for sufficiently regular overseas business and domestic/overseas leisure are swamped by comparison. And business travel is not going to equal Business SCs for all that many people. So even assuming a very high market share for QF/JQ domestically and QFSC-earning carriers internationally... it's not even close.

Setting aside all of the above, I also struggle somewhat with the idea that someone would luck into protected proprietary information via a call centre.

 

[zenyattamondatta]

I know what i heard and i dont appreciate being called a liar . Read Capt JCool post above - talks of 8 million pax not 20million which makes alot more sense . plus status points can be earnt on any one world airline + Jetstar

I said 20 million *domestically*, which is what Qantas itself says, more like 22 million I think. Fact remains that a massive percentage of those are going to be flying once or twice a year and no more.

Nobody's calling you a liar, it's the number I don't believe. Feel free to trust it to your heart's content.

 

[TonyD]

I said 20 million *domestically*, which is what Qantas itself says, more like 22 million I think. Fact remains that a massive percentage of those are going to be flying once or twice a year and no more.

Nobody's calling you a liar, it's the number I don't believe. Feel free to trust it to your heart's content.

Cool, add the flights on the other 11 OW carriers and on Jetstar . Half of the flights i took in 12 months to regain Platinum status were on Jetstar

 

[harvyk]

Cool, add the flights on the other 11 OW carriers and on Jetstar . Half of the flights i took in 12 months to regain Platinum status were on Jetstar

I would hazard a guess that many WP's have no idea about earning on other carriers and are even likely to have signed up to the other carriers FF programs rather than credit to QF.

Points / SC earns and other tricks of the trade are not well known outside AFF / flyer circles. I would hazard a guess that many of those with status first found out they they had status because they received a congratulations letter / card in their mailbox.

 

[TonyD]

I would hazard a guess that many WP's have no idea about earning on other carriers and are even likely to have signed up to the other carriers FF programs rather than credit to QF.

Points / SC earns and other tricks of the trade are not well known outside AFF / flyer circles. I would hazard a guess that many of those with status first found out they they had status because they received a congratulations letter / card in their mailbox.

Lot of hazards and guesses there . I am the only person i know who uses this site but have dozens of associates / friends who are SG WP on Virgin and Qantas and know exactly where they are at and all the tricks of the trade

 

[moa999]

a bloke in the premium call centre in Hobart with years of experience says that due to a couple of years of intensive double status - there is approx 250,000 WP - why would he lie ? (he confirmed that did not include P1 or SG )

Why would he know.
Could be his own estimate, could be water cooler talk, none of which is reliable.

A publicly stated P1 number (of under 5000) has been posted up thread, and some basic math (or normal distribution theory)
Would lead me to think this split for 10m members.
P1 - under 5k
Plats - 25-50k
Gold - 200-300k
Silver - 1-2m
Bronze - 7-9m

 

[zenyattamondatta]

16 people in the office this morning with two wagging. 14 of us are WP with one of QF or VA. None of us believes that anywhere close to 1% of the Australian population is WP with QF, or that there'd be enough foolish foreigners to make the difference.

 

[Matt_01]

Does it really matter how many platinums there are

 

[juddles]

Does it really matter how many platinums there are

I know that in just over a month there will be one new freshly minted WP...

 

[Danielb56]

Hi, Does anyone know how many Qantas Platinum frequent flyers there are?

More than many and less than some...