Honestly, what is the point of Platinum One?

[mcnul73]

Platinum One takes some serious flying to attain. Three times as much as it takes to simply renew Platinum. I've been Platinum One for 3 months now and am still scratching my head to see the point. I have not been treated any differently than when I was Platinum. I can not identify any single benefit that I value over and above my Platinum Benefits.

The only think I heard from people is that P1 is all about the Special Services Team. Alright then. Last night I had a great opportunity to find out what the SST is all about. It is advertised as 'The Platinum One Special Service Team offers specialist support when you need urgent assistance or help beyond routine requests. They will personally manage any flight changes or re-routes and provide support to help minimise any inconvenience.'

I landed in Hong Kong on Dragonair from Shanghai (OW partner airline) and only just missed my QF connection home. The DragonAir rep insisted that I would have to stay overnight and fly back on the same flight the next day. He didn't seem to want to entertain my request to look at other flights (QF and CX had other flights leaving for Australia that evening). I phoned the Special Service team to see if there was any other way to get back to Australia on one of the other flights that were yet to leave that night. The response was 'Talk to Dragonair. They got you in late, they solve the issue. Its not our problem.'. Literally that was the response - no help whatsoever. They didn't even appear sympathetic to the problem.

Honestly, whats the point?.

 

[Pleb Status]

With my one year anniversary of P1 status this month, I have found the only real positives of P1 are -

1. The white card to show off to your mates.
2. Row 4/23 Y seat selection at booking.
3. Possibly better classic award seat availability.

QF (and the P1 apologies and excuses team) do not want anything to do with non QF metal flights. This includes the QF code share flights on EK that non SYD and MEL SLC are forced to use.

 

[N860CR]

Unfortunately that does seem to be the Qantas way. We recently had an issue on a QF ticketed partner flight (middle eastern carrier) and the carrier themselves were hopeless when it came to fixing it. Reached out to Qantas for assistance and were told "we are very selective in who we take up partnerships with etc etc - call them not us". Reached out to RedRoo here who said that Qantas' response was disappointing and assured me it would be fixed. All we got was another response from Qantas which literally said "how dare you say you weren't happy with my actions - as I said, not our problem".

All well and good, except Qantas seems to fly nowhere now and pushes all passengers onto these other airlines (with a focus on the middle east - where service standards are pretty low). Qantas then throws their hands up in the air and says "hey, nothing to do with us! How dare you waste my time by even contacting us!".

My solution - take your P1 card, cut it up and throw it out. That's what we've down with our Qantas' loyalty. In your case, I can only assume if you'd booked with CX on a KA/CX connection, you'd have been accommodated on the next CX service that evening. Qantas' response in your case simply isn't good enough. If they want to farm out all their passengers onto other carriers then Qantas needs processes in place on how to deal with abnormal situations.

 

[mcnul73]

Unfortunately that does seem to be the Qantas way. We recently had an issue on a QF ticketed partner flight (middle eastern carrier) and the carrier themselves were hopeless when it came to fixing it. Reached out to Qantas for assistance and were told "we are very selective in who we take up partnerships with etc etc - call them not us". Reached out to RedRoo here who said that Qantas' response was disappointing and assured me it would be fixed. All we got was another response from Qantas which literally said "how dare you say you weren't happy with my actions - as I said, not our problem".

All well and good, except Qantas seems to fly nowhere now and pushes all passengers onto these other airlines (with a focus on the middle east - where service standards are pretty low). Qantas then throws their hands up in the air and says "hey, nothing to do with us! How dare you waste my time by even contacting us!".

My solution - take your P1 card, cut it up and throw it out. That's what we've down with our Qantas' loyalty. In your case, I can only assume if you'd booked with CX on a KA/CX connection, you'd have been accommodated on the next CX service that evening. Qantas' response in your case simply isn't good enough. If they want to farm out all their passengers onto other carriers then Qantas needs processes in place on how to deal with abnormal situations.

I agree fully - and would also go as far as to say that the quote I made in my original post (which is taken verbatim from qantas.com) is a very clear case of false advertising. I would have thought my situation matches exactly the type of situation they advertise for the SST, and was one where they could have demonstrated the real value add of this super elite tier of membership. Instead, I felt like I had no status with QF at all. Just a really big fail on all fronts.

 

[pm3207]

I agree too. I've been P1 for two years and frankly it's incredibly underwhelming, given the amount of flying you have to do and the Qantas hype about the offering.

By way of example, I was caught up in a snow storm in the US/Canada last year. The Qantas team could do nothing to assist rearranging flights, as my ticket had been booked through a travel agent! That being the case, Qantas shouldn't advertise P1 as being the ultimate level of care.

Time for new managerial thinking in Qantas across the board.

 

[pplion]

I had a positive P1 SST experience today when they (Belinda) agreed to my request to change my LAX/SYD journey from a LAX/BNE/SYD two flight itinerary to the direct QF108 flight, even though this request had previously been rejected by the usual phone number. This was very much appreciated as I had been completely stuffed around earlier in the day by AA who managed to lose my bags between JFK and DCA and gave me the single most uninspiring customer service experience I've had in 30 years of flying. When P1 gets the simple but significant things like this done for those of us do so much flying, it definitely starts to feel 'worth it'.

 

[Nizar]

Platinum One takes some serious flying to attain. Three times as much as it takes to simply renew Platinum. I've been Platinum One for 3 months now and am still scratching my head to see the point. I have not been treated any differently than when I was Platinum. I can not identify any single benefit that I value over and above my Platinum Benefits.

The only think I heard from people is that P1 is all about the Special Services Team. Alright then. Last night I had a great opportunity to find out what the SST is all about. It is advertised as 'The Platinum One Special Service Team offers specialist support when you need urgent assistance or help beyond routine requests. They will personally manage any flight changes or re-routes and provide support to help minimise any inconvenience.'

I landed in Hong Kong on Dragonair from Shanghai (OW partner airline) and only just missed my QF connection home. The DragonAir rep insisted that I would have to stay overnight and fly back on the same flight the next day. He didn't seem to want to entertain my request to look at other flights (QF and CX had other flights leaving for Australia that evening). I phoned the Special Service team to see if there was any other way to get back to Australia on one of the other flights that were yet to leave that night. The response was 'Talk to Dragonair. They got you in late, they solve the issue. Its not our problem.'. Literally that was the response - no help whatsoever. They didn't even appear sympathetic to the problem.

Honestly, whats the point?.

It's not what's the point of Platinum One but rather what's the point of Qantas Loyalty ?
What happened to you is utterly disgraceful and completely inexusable.

If P1 members (who are of exceptionally high value to QF and should be treated as such), are treated this way, what hope do the rest of us (WP, SG, etc) have ?

I mean 3,600 status credits at least isn't it to reach P1 ?
Perhaps the most disappointing thing is that I wasn't at all shocked or surprised to read your story. Problem with this country is its small population meaning a lack of full service airlines competing for the customer dollar. If QFd had a genuine competitor they'd be finished the way that QFi currently is. Doesn't matter how fancy your lounges are or how quick you are to get the A380 if the customer service is so poor.

 

[mcnul73]

It's not what's the point of Platinum One but rather what's the point of Qantas Loyalty ?
What happened to you is utterly disgraceful and completely inexusable.

If P1 members (who are of exceptionally high value to QF and should be treated as such), are treated this way, what hope do the rest of us (WP, SG, etc) have ?

I mean 3,600 status credits at least isn't it to reach P1 ?
Perhaps the most disappointing thing is that I wasn't at all shocked or surprised to read your story. Problem with this country is its small population meaning a lack of full service airlines competing for the customer dollar. If QFd had a genuine competitor they'd be finished the way that QFi currently is. Doesn't matter how fancy your lounges are or how quick you are to get the A380 if the customer service is so poor.

Yes, Nizar I hit 3,800 SCs which I never ever thought I would do in a single year. That amount of flying takes you away from your family so much! Last night, the SST had the opportunity to get me back to my family so I could spend Sunday with them instead of twiddling my thumbs in a coughpy Kowloon hotel. At least it sounds like I am not alone in my disappointment and disgust!

 

[Grooba]

You're right mcnul73, the whole P1 thing is quite ridiculous imho.

People that fly that much on QF metal (and probably in premium cabins) are crazy not to start crediting to another (say AA) program and reap the (significant) rewards.

 

[ComeFlyWithMe]

All ridiculous and QF *could* have done something, however technically IATA rules state that the delaying carrier is responsible to reaccommodate you in the case of said delay. It is unfortunately up to them if that is paid accommodation overnight and an alternate flight/carrier the next day, but doesn't hurt to ask for your ideal outcome.

Dragonair are really the CX version of Jetstar IMO, who would have treated you much the same way.

Saying that, if it was a QF ticket, the P1 team could have done something, and I'd be mighty pi$$ed off with their response and attitude.

 

[mcnul73]

In all honesty ComeFlyWithMe, I would have been happy if they had done a quick availability/waitlist check and then sent me onto KA to follow up....what shocked me the most was the immediate dismissal of my situation.

Anyway, I am safely in the new HK lounge with boarding pass in hand. I figure I will just drink enough wine to blot out the last 24 hours

 

[Ansett]

In all honesty ComeFlyWithMe, I would have been happy if they had done a quick availability/waitlist check and then sent me onto KA to follow up....what shocked me the most was the immediate dismissal of my situation.

Anyway, I am safely in the new HK lounge with boarding pass in hand. I figure I will just drink enough wine to blot out the last 24 hours

Glad you are in the lounge and hope that the crew look after you Have to say this has been a pretty poor response from the Best of the best. Hope the rest of your journey goes better.

 

[ReLoad]

An interesting issue and I feel for you being stuck in HK, however given they are not the carrier, I'm not sure what they were supposed to do.

CX have stranded me in HKG before on a fully paid J tkt and left me to sleep in the terminal! When things go pear shaped they are next to useless in the service recovery stakes, I'd hardly expect QF to be able to sort it, given alliance apart it really isn't their problem (unless you were on a QF tkt or code shares) if CX/KA can't sort / it don't care, what hope does QF?

P1 by its nature is probably suffering from its grand promises of when it launched some members here have had little to expanded service, others have had some real above and beyond types of experiences, which in itself sums up QF, they are consistently inconsistent.

 

[RooFlyer]

Contrast to Air Canada's "Concierge" service given to their top level 100K 'Super Elite' customers # (about equivalent of QF Plat in general perks) AND International J class pax. Now remember that AC is a 'legacy carrier' and their general customer service has been below QFs for a while. The airline can can be really pathetic in some service delivery, but this is something which has amazingly survived.

# Requires 100,000 'qualifying miles' to be flown on AC, or 95 segments

* Concierges are present in person at 8 major Canadian airports, 3 in the USA and 12 international and of course on the phone otherwise;
* They monitor your travel and pro actively re-route you where necessary, so when you land off that delayed flight, they meet you and advise new arrangements (or text / call you);
* They will book things like hotels, restaurants and limos on request;
* They can do some stuff at the airport for you, such as go to 'lost and found' to see if that phone you left behind has turned up and if it has, post or courier it on to you.

I reached 100K one year, and regularly fly J on AC and I can tell you that the promised help is delivered but of course they can't always get you exactly what you want.

 

[boomy]

Contrast to Air Canada's "Concierge" service given to their top level 100K 'Super Elite' customers # (about equivalent of QF Plat in general perks)
They can do some stuff at the airport for you, such as go to 'lost and found' to see if that phone you left behind has turned up and if it has, post or courier it on to you.

That's a good example of a basic service that should be provided by QF.
When I called the P1 number to say I forgot my Bose headphones in the plane they simply gave me the L&F contact at the airport. When I asked for their help to speed up the matter I was told they can't do anything else. It was a very disappointing moment for me as P1.

 

[OzEire]

This is a dire warning for any WP who is even thinking about striving for P1 (ie. booking QF when logic would tell you otherwise, like when another carrier is cheaper).

After reading this (and experiencing the enhanced QF consistency for some time), I'm glad I hit VA plat and EY gold instead of booking more QF this year just to get P1.



OzEire

 

[Anna]

Edited cos I realised it was a QF flight back to Aust.

Did you try HUACA? Or "can I speak to your supervisor?" (Neither of which a WP1 should have to try, obvs)

 

[cmon0005]

I landed in Hong Kong on Dragonair from Shanghai (OW partner airline) and only just missed my QF connection home. The DragonAir rep insisted that I would have to stay overnight and fly back on the same flight the next day. He didn't seem to want to entertain my request to look at other flights (QF and CX had other flights leaving for Australia that evening). I phoned the Special Service team to see if there was any other way to get back to Australia on one of the other flights that were yet to leave that night. The response was 'Talk to Dragonair. They got you in late, they solve the issue. Its not our problem.'. Literally that was the response - no help whatsoever. They didn't even appear sympathetic to the problem.

Not sure if I missed this part or it wasn't mentioned, but who was the ticket ticketed with, QF issued ticket, KA issued ticket, Travel agent ticket ?

If it was QF ticketed I'm surprised a) Qantas didn't automatically re-route you when the KA flight was known to be delayed or b) Help you out with re-routing on the phone via P1 Team.

 

[mcnul73]

Not sure if I missed this part or it wasn't mentioned, but who was the ticket ticketed with, QF issued ticket, KA issued ticket, Travel agent ticket ?

If it was QF ticketed I'm surprised a) Qantas didn't automatically re-route you when the KA flight was known to be delayed or b) Help you out with re-routing on the phone via P1 Team.

I just checked the itinerary. It was booked through my corporate travel agent but QF was the ticket issuer. The KA leg was the only one of the four on the itinerary which wasn't QF.

 

[dmitri]

Very interesting reading, there are some unfortunate tales regarding P1 status which is suprising to me. I wonder if CL's have any dramas? I had grand plans to one day get to P1 but may reconsider.