How much Does it Cost to Earn P1?

[RichardMEL]

That's the other thing, unpublished benefits - like what does that even mean? It means the airline is unwilling to commit to treating its top tier elites a whole lot better than their dime a dozen Golds! Let's take United's top tier 1K status as an example. Are there benefits of it over the lower tier Platinum or Gold status? Absolutely! For one thing you have a ton more global upgrade credits which can be used to upgrade from economy into business on United, ANA and Lufthansa group flights. This instrument alone is extremely valuable for the frequent flyer since it works out to 3 deep discount long haul flights upgraded from economy to J, 7 regular economy long haul flights upgraded to J, or 9 Premium Plus (Premium Economy) flights upgraded to J. And remember these upgrade credits can be used not just on United but also ANA and Lufthansa! And if all of that wasn't enough, with United you don't have to play the gate lottery to see if you get upgraded with instant upgrades to J being possible at time of booking!

Wrong. RPUs and GPUs were replaced post 2019 with PlusPoints. And while yes these can be used for upgrades on flights - where SOME can be confirmed in advance (but not all by any means) they are far more capacity controlled. Back when they were called SWU's they were like gold specially on the international flights and your statement holds.. these days I've had a mixed bag of success for myself and others with PlusPoints. Heck, I have a 1K mate on a WL for a domestic transcon flight tomorrow on a 787-10 which has 21 free in J and he's still #3 on the WL for a plus points upgrade.

The system has changed since the days of GPU's and RPU's - ie "Enhanced"

P1 unpublished benefits have been and can be very generous and beneficial but are not ones to be expected or relied upon. This is where other programs at these higher levels (such as BA GGL) with confirmed upgrade certificates for example, are far stronger in this regard.

Perhaps if VA provided serious competition at this level (see above) then QF might bother to make the system more beneficial with confirmed published perks like confirmed upgrades and the like.

And this is also yet another reason why comparisions with other programs like UA and even BA are not terribly helpful as they exist in very different environments and markets.

 

[RichardMEL]

I think there was one created in the past or I read comments along these lines

IIRC there was that person who flew a whole bunch of QF codeshares on EK F transcon flights at one point to do it with DSC.

doing it that way would have have been 480 SC for r/t from SYD/MEL/BNE (let's ignore any connecting flights) - which would have meant about 8 of these roundtrips give or take to get 3600. Back in the day IIRC those F fares were going around $1000-14000 AUD o.w. (ex NZ they could be had a bit cheaper at times, 900ish on sale). So as an average cheapest about $2k for a roundtrip so still looking at $16k ish spend.

It may be somewhere in the P1 experience thread. I did a quick search but couldn't easily find it - but I admit I didn't try too hard

 

[Matt_01]

@RichardMEL I remember that post and cannot recall if it was posted in the P1 thread or the DSC thread. If my memory serves me correctly in the first year that QF offered the DSC promotion code shares with EK and AA were included and you did not even need to be on QF metal. The need to be on QF metal changed the following year.

I also recall the poster mentioned what it cost to undertake his folly and it was quite a saving to retain P1 and the whole thing was done in F. The other thing I remember about the post was he/she took golf clubs on 1 or 2 trips to get in some range practice and indicated there were able to write all the trips off as business travel. At the time I remember why did I not think of this.