Invited to participate in a QF Loyalty Virtual Focus group

[levelnine]

It would take a pretty dedicated churner to get through 6+ cards (to earn the difference between 320k and 1m points) in a year.

Ahh I see what you mean. 1mil including sign-up bonuses.

It would make Qantas status very much dependant on the whims of the banks. Only a few years ago, banks were handing out large sign-up bonuses like candy. They've dramatically reduced them and tightened up bonus eligibility criteria in the last 12 months.

 

[Flyfrequently]

Only a few years ago, banks were handing out large sign-up bonuses like candy. They've dramatically reduced them and tightened up bonus eligibility criteria in the last 12 months.

Also @levelnine first year "fee free" seems to have vanished

 

[Lynda2475]

Also with exclusion periods and limited cards, not easily repeatable year to year for an individual. Would favour businesses who can push high spend or ultra rich who fly paid F anyway.

Personally I think status should come down to flying. It would be in QFs interests to tighten up the criteria re QF segments on QF metal. Leave PS at 4, make SG 6 and WP 8, no change to P1.

 

[RichardMEL]

True - but if Qantas made it $1m though I would suggest that it would still be a pretty small pool even with cc sign up bonuses. Most of the ones I see are around the 100k mark, but maybe I’m out of the loop about the best offers these days.

$1m spend or 1m points earned? huge difference there.....

I think there's a bit of apples and oranges going on here with comparision to AA spend based status (and I'd also note that AA EXP is not equivalent to P1. It's equivalent to QF Platinum plus a little bit - since AA Platinum Pro I think it's called (75k level) also gives OWE, and is what AA seems to equate QF Plat too).

The original notion as posted was an earn of 1m POINTS - a totally different threshold to $1m or even $320k, or whatever in spend.

 

[Gremlin]

If this is on the cards (see what I did there?!), I don't see this as something targeting consumers. Rather it's targeting key decision makers (think founders) in SMEs. They may have authority over a large amount of spend, they can create a lot of value for Qantas in choosing to direct it in a particular way (but not enough to justify CL), yet they may only be SG or PS themselves when they fly. If they're responsible for generating a fair bit of value, then they'll be incentivised by this.

 

[mviy]

If the requirement was simply to maintain a balance of >1 million points then I could easily become P1. If the requirement was to earn it in one year then I wouldn’t get P1 this way for the foreseeable future.

 

[kpro]

Did anyone else get this EOI for in-person focus groups at Mascot?

Rejected. Wonder what specific disruption experiences they were seeking.

Ironically, I had responded to the initial email request while still on a dom QF plane that had just landed 2 hours behind schedule.

We thank you for your recent interest to join a focus group session with us at Qantas Head Office. We had an overwhelming response.

For this research topic we were looking for customers who met specific flight disruption/ cancellation experiences. We have a new regular program up and running with more focus group opportunities coming up on different topics, and will reach out again in the new year.

If there is a particular topic of interest to you, please feel free to let us know here.

 

[DAC1]

Rejected. Wonder what disruption specific disruption experiences they were seeking.

Ironically, I had responded to the initial email request while still on a dom QF plane that had just landed 2 hours behind schedule.

I had a 4 hour rolling delay on QF82 back in August along with several others on this forum. My response was a bit different to yours…

We thank you for your recent interest to join a focus group session in the past couple of weeks with us at Qantas Head Office.

We had an overwhelming interest to participate, therefore have decided to schedule more sessions in the weeks ahead. Once we have the dates organised, we will endeavour to reach out again to fill these new spots.

We will also look to run more in the new year. Thank you for your continued support and value the feedback and interest in providing your valuable feedback to us.

 

[RichardMEL]

I do know of one P1 who had a very personal focus group with some very senior people (including VH). Unfortunately I've not seen any further details on what was discussed or brought up.

It does seem there is an increased effort by QF to, in theory, "listen."

 

[Seat0B]

It does seem there is an increased effort by QF to, in theory, "listen."

Remains to be seen whether QF listens like Optus or whether they actually address any of the issues people raise

 

[Lynda2475]

There has certainly been quite a lot of surveys sent (outside of red planet) of late re Qantas FF, Qantas in flight service, Hotels etc in addition to these focus sessions. They are definitely gathering data.

Also if you look at their job boards they are recruiting quite a few staff for call centre and service disruption projects and also call centre staff in NZ (so maybe the onshoring is actually NZ not Tas).

 

[kpro]

I had a 4 hour rolling delay on QF82 back in August along with several others on this forum. My response was a bit different to yours

Interesting. In the last month, I've had multiple flights delayed including a Trans-Tasman and a rolling domestic.

 

[RichardMEL]

Remains to be seen whether QF listens like Optus or whether they actually address any of the issues people raise

Well this is the point isn't it? Of course, it's all lip service at this point, but there seems an *intent* to listen (and I mean actually physically listen via in person feedback sessions, not just all those online surveys). Is it lip service? Well who would know. They can (and do) say well they want to address OTP and whatever else (and let's face it, things like OTP they have real incentive to fix for their own reasons let alone passengers!) but they can take time. Other things like service level grips, inconsistent customer experiences (or expectations not met) are more nebulous to address and things like customer desires (for example, LTP threshold being too high) well if they do nothing that doesn't mean they don't hear it, but they decide they just won't change it. So imo it's all a bit of a mix, and with some of the things they really *can* take time to address.

There certainly seems a concerted effort to at least appear to be wanting to listen. Of course given the current level of the brand reputation, which is on par with Optus and the average scammer, it's basic marketing 101 to try to be seen to "do better" to rebuild that.

proof of course to be in the puddings served (or not) to customers.

 

[Seat0B]

How hilarious!

The promised 10,000 FF points for participating in the focus group have not arrived. The consultant running the group said that the points would be credited in 2 weeks. They were not, so I wrote to the QF research group enquiring and was told that the points would arrive in 6-8 weeks. I waited 9 weeks (21 Dec) and still no points, so sent off another email asking about them....crickets. I guess they are all on holidays now.

OMG, I restate my view that Qantas honestly could not organise a piss-up in a brewery!

 

[Seat0B]

To close the loop, points were finally posted on 4 January.

 

[DAC1]

I do know of one P1 who had a very personal focus group with some very senior people (including VH). Unfortunately I've not seen any further details on what was discussed or brought up.

It does seem there is an increased effort by QF to, in theory, "listen."

I participated in one of these focus groups at QF HQ this month. VH and Andrew Finch were both present in my session.

And further to the posts above, fortunately my points were also credited on the same day as the session.