Interview with Stephanie Tully, Head of Airline Loyalty at Qantas-Platinum One

[LiamR]

For those who might be interested:
Qantas Platinum One: more upgrades and a dash of Chairman

Looks like Qantas are working to improve upgrades, hinting that P1 members might be given upgrades for no shows, if a free seat is available.

 

[MatF]

“One of the things Platinums Ones want is as-early-as-possible confirmation of upgrades” explains Stephanie Tully, Head of Airline Loyalty at Qantas, who is leading the team developing Platinum One.

They're not alone! As a FP (Forgotten Platinum), I'm also somewhat wanting of this please comrade Stephanie.

“You can now go online to check your upgrade request about seven hours before the flight, but we're looking at giving days of notice of upgrade confirmation” Tully says

Oh, only days .... not at time of booking.
Never mind.

 

[samiam]

I get the distinct feeling from the article that they still haven't got a clue what they are going to do..

I've got a dedicated team working on Platinum One and we’ve got more meetings in the next few weeks to flesh it all out.

Translation => We're waiting for Virgin to announce their changes, so we do just a little bit better than them.

As for 'a dash of Chairman's Lounge' - meh... misleading much.

 

[djfuzz]

I find this thing with upgrades interesting.

If you're hitting 3600 SCs a year, I would have thought it would be a little unlikely that you would spend much time travelling in the lowest class of service. That would be 180 return discount Y or 90 return full Y MEL-SYDs (one every 2-4 days), or the appropriate multiple for international flights. That takes 'living' in the air even further than George Clooney.

Feels like they're wedging WP again - SG continues to improve, PO gets the benefits WPs wanted, leaving WPs the unwanted middle child / third wheel / bad smell / other inappropriate cliche. Diminishing incentive to go for anything between 701-3599 SCs.

 

[Oneworldplus2]

I like this bit of BS in the article....

“People who are flying this much are almost living on aircraft, so what can we do to make sure that those people feel totally appreciated every step of the way? A lot of it is about high-touch recognition and service.”

Surely some WP's who do the hard yards in Y on Red eDeals would spend more time up in the air than someone doing a handful of SYD-SIN-LHR F return trips? The SC earn rate in F is 6 times higher than discount Y.

 

[Fantic125]

I like this bit of BS in the article....



Surely some WP's who do the hard yards in Y on Red eDeals would spend more time up in the air than someone doing a handful of SYD-SIN-LHR F return trips? The SC earn rate in F is 6 times higher than discount Y.

From my experience this QFF year (which ends July 31) I'll have earnt 1750 SC's from mainly international flight in -Y. That was from 62 QF flights over 194,453 miles.

If they had all be J class travel, then my SC earn for the year would have been 7,000 SC's. P1 easy.....

 

[MatF]

Surely some WP's who do the hard yards in Y on Red eDeals would spend more time up in the air than someone doing a handful of SYD-SIN-LHR F return trips? The SC earn rate in F is 6 times higher than discount Y.

Absolutely. This is the problem with the entire premise of WP1 being the most frequent flyers, and "living in the air".

Status Credits don't necessarily reflect "frequent flying". They would come closer if there was no SC difference for different classes. As someone who spends 99% of my flying time planted very uncomfortably in Y, that's something I might suggest

 

[Mal]

Underwhelming article. Not the fault of the writers, but rather the subject content.

So QF *STILL* hasn't worked out the qualification for WP1? And I see no mention of QF flight number SC requirements in that article, but I suspect it's part of the qualification requirement.

 

[kpc]

But she is quick to pour cold water on the return of ‘anytime access’ – the privilege to use a Qantas lounge even when flying with a competing airline – even for these super frequent flyers.

:evil::evil::evil::evil:
This is where DJ have responded brilliantly by offering "Anytime Access" for their Velocity Gold members.

 

[TheInsider]

:evil::evil::evil::evil:
This is where DJ have responded brilliantly by offering "Anytime Access" for their Velocity Gold members.

Which is still not in 'writing' from Virgin.

 

[markis10]

Which is still not in 'writing' from Virgin.

It is on this forum, with it being made clear that its up to the manager on the day, just like it was with the QP despite it being "in writing", no difference in reality!

 

[anat0l]

:evil::evil::evil::evil:
This is where DJ have responded brilliantly by offering "Anytime Access" for their Velocity Gold members.

Whilst I don't want to start another debate about the merits of Anytime Access (because I have my own opinions on this, which not too surprisingly differ rather antagonistically to several members here), I have doubts that DJ have the equivalent access privilege as a 'response' more than simply it was their mandate and choice to have such a benefit. Any claim is probably post hoc conclusion, especially after the recent Velocity relaunch.


I was actually sent an email by AusBT to invite comment or questioning that they would be pressing to QF on this very topic. I didn't bite, and it seems that the produced article has failed.


It should be obvious to everyone by now (if not much earlier than this interview) that QF do not want to tell anyone what Platinum One will entail, yet. Either they don't know or they are just not telling. You can't accuse them of either because you don't know which one; those saying that QF have no clue have automatically assumed the AusBT journalist is correct. You can have something worked out - in full or substantially - and still not decide to tell anyone: don't tell me that that doesn't make sense, because you've all probably done it before in your life.

And it befuddles me how people can have infinite patience for whatever Virgin have to say in drip feed but be vitriolically impatient at QF for the same. Speculation never did any good for any one, and I don't believe this article has really achieved any of its goals.

QF only answered because the alternative is saying 'no' and thus being both discredited and misrepresented in the resulting silence, if not it is already happening on this very forum.

Most of the 'touted' benefits are either already predicted, obvious or already been alluded to.


And let's be really honest - if the article really had some of the benefits of Platinum One - would anyone have anything good to say? Probably not, because it still wouldn't outline the full value proposition (and as people have alluded to, it needs to be fairly good for an investment of at least 3600 SCs). For example, had the article somehow said that one of the benefits was "upgrades confirmed at booking possible", people might like that but you'd still get a whole heap saying that having that is not worth 3600 SCs (i.e. in short, announcing that benefit did little good). And if today was Platinum One announcement day, obviously then the AusBT interview is pretty much redundant.

 

[markis10]

And it befuddles me how people can have infinite patience for whatever Virgin have to say in drip feed but be vitriolically impatient at QF for the same. Speculation never did any good for any one, and I don't believe this article has really achieved any of its goals.

From where I sit both camps are equally pressuring the airlines for more info, I think we here more pressure on QF simply because they have more members and their reps on AFF do not post as much, which of course is their entitlement!

 

[samiam]

On the whole, I agree with your assessment, however:

...those saying that QF have no clue have automatically assumed the AusBT journalist is correct...

I get the distinct feeling from the article that they still haven't got a clue what they are going to do..

My assessment was an opinion based upon the quoted material supplied within the article, not on the editorial content.

 

[simongr]

Personally in terms of benefits of P1 (has the poll closed on that yet?) I think a few days notice of upgrade is pretty much as much use as a few hour's notice. The fact that this is going to be P1 only is very disappointing as Red Roo said that "new upgrade processes will be available to WP soon" (paraphrasing).

 

[Danger]

I agree the article doesn't offer much and I find this online publication generally littered with inaccuracies and poor editing.

 

[Fantic125]

I agree the article doesn't offer much and I find this online publication generally littered with inaccuracies and poor editing.

10/10 for your concise response. (No, I'm not hanging cough).

 

[connieguy]

Absolutely. This is the problem with the entire premise of WP1 being the most frequent flyers, and "living in the air".

Status Credits don't necessarily reflect "frequent flying". They would come closer if there was no SC difference for different classes. As someone who spends 99% of my flying time planted very uncomfortably in Y, that's something I might suggest

~1,300 SCs of -Y exit rows for me. Then add ~1,000 SC in JQ *Class :-| which is not a lot better and ~900 SCs in lie flat CX J "Coffin" seats for 3,200 SC last year.

As for the "Touch" bit, and as a WP1 just give me on arrivals FLounge massage to chase away the -Y exit row / JQ *Class muscle cramps, back strains and you have won me.

 

[connieguy]

Personally in terms of benefits of P1 (has the poll closed on that yet?)

Yup WP1 just nosed out P1 in a tight photo finish.

 

[samh004]

While I want to believe QF wants to do the best for their FF's, I'm sorely left feeling they're just waiting for VA's next mode as mentioned earlier and the benefits offered will pale in comparison to what we expect, as just normal frequent flyers.

I'm happy to be proved wrong with some amazing benefits, however I don't believe they'll offer them at this stage, which will just go to show what they really think of their elites. Either way we'll see soon, it'll either be amazing or underwhelming.

As for CL-like benefits, would they really give them access to CL lounges? There's an interesting discussion point. I'm sure they know the exact number of members they'd get, but what sort of baseless speculation can we provide on numbers? Are there that few to make it worthwhile, or that many that it'd overcrowd the CL lounges?

I may never get there, but I think Qantas will disappoint.

As for the "Touch" bit, and as a WP1 just give me on arrivals FLounge massage to chase away the -Y exit row / JQ *Class muscle cramps, back strains and you have won me.

Not that I'd expect an arrivals lounge to be used solely by WP1 members, but do SYD or MEL have arrivals lounges, like many overseas long haul ports?