Life Time Gold - The [Realistic] Holy Grail

[elanshin]

Revenue based earning tends to only apply on own-metal flying though, right? Partner airlines would have to still use distance based earning charts.

Isn't DL's new scheme basically revenue earn only for status. Miles are just the currency now.

In any case, I think revenue based earn may cause significant issues for the Qantas lounge network because of how overpriced QF domestic fares can be. Let's hypothesise a fixed $10/SC earn on QF flights: the domestic lounges would be packed with road warriors who previously earned 20 SC on their $600 SYD-MEL returns, now earning 60 SC.

The % of QFF members who are analysing $/SC earn and flying odd international routings during DSC to squeeze value must be a tiny fraction of those road warriors.

Maybe it'll be some convoluted mix of revenue and ticket class. Like J $ is worth 100% or red e-deal is worth 20% and flex is 75% etc.

 

[sudoer]

Isn't DL's new scheme basically revenue earn only for status. Miles are just the currency now.

Even for flights on partners credited to DL?

Maybe it'll be some convoluted mix of revenue and ticket class. Like J $ is worth 100% or red e-deal is worth 20% and flex is 75% etc.

Simpler & fairer v2.0...

 

[Jean Prouvaire]

Simpler & fairer v2.0...

 

[elanshin]

Even for flights on partners credited to DL?

I believe so. It's all MQD now.

 

[kangarooflyer88]

I joined QFF in 1999 but the first time I reached SG was in 2005 via work. Travel has ebbed and flowed since then, mainly due to work and family commitments. I'm now 32 SCs off LTG as a WP (and will gain LTG by the end of November).

Congrats!

I have about a year to run with QFF as WP and have no idea what will happen after that. My long-haul international flights in J are usually work funded or occasionally points upgrades by me.

There are ways to earn WP relatively inexpensively (DSCs when NZ J is on sale or the odd US status credit run). What matters I suppose is whether you find enough value in WP over SG? Certainly access to the Flounge and requesting the release of award seats are nice perks to have. Another possibility is to pursue status elsewhere on a different alliance, perhaps aiming for lifetime status there. In that way you’ll be able to shop around for the cheapest fare knowing full well that you’ll have all the benefits of status flying on even the cheapest fare.

While I have VA lounge access, once I am LTG I will simply default to best fare of the day for domestic travel.

One thing to think about is the AmEx Platinum card which provides lounge access via priority pass, their own AmEx operated Centurion lounges, Plaza Premium and access to Virgin Australia, Lufthansa and Delta Airways lounges. The card also has travel and dining credits and an Amazon Prime credit which you might find useful too. Additionally you can add up to 4 cardholders free meaning they too would have lounge access when travelling. This is what I have as my backup when I am not flying OneWorld or there are no OneWorld lounge options available (MSP I’m looking at you)

Post automatically merged: Nov 9, 2023

I believe so. It's all MQD now.

It will be all MQD next year. For partners MQD is calculated as a percentage of miles flown, a very low percentage of miles flown. For instance with Air France J I think it’s only 20%

 

[sudoer]

For partners MQD is calculated as a percentage of miles flown, a very low percentage of miles flown.

This is still distance-based earn.

Delta can call it whatever term they want, but the earn rate has no connection to the price of the ticket.

 

[RichardMEL]

Of course the real reason for the "partner earn" being distance based within revenue programs is due to the lack of transparency of spend + that the spend is not going to the home carrier. UA does this too via a weird system of "preferred" partners (inc NZ, SQ, VA, LH I think) and others with one getting the mileage earn(inc cabin bonus)/5 and the non preferred being same divided by 6. While I've not looked specifically at DL's changes, I wouldn't be surprised if there was a bias to JV and other partners vs the rest.

Anyway if I buy a ticket with say SQ, then UA have no way to know the fare paid, and it's not going to them anyway, so they provide a calculation for the qualifying dollar amount (but UA also cap them which sucks if you do full fare F on say SQ or LH on some flights!).

In a hypothetical QF revenue based program, I can see exactly the same type of thing - they could, in theory, get dollar amounts from JQ, and QF direct spend of course (081 tickets), and then have some sort of system for the partners - and this is where a partner like AA would probably have preference over say MH or CX. (reflecting what we currently see of course).

It's certainly far from perfect the way these things are happening with partners, but there's just no way to share that data - specially in places like the US - without hitting things like antitrust laws, and commercial confidential fare data. CX or MH may be partners with QF but they also compete......

imo

 

[Flashback]

Of course the real reason for the "partner earn" being distance based within revenue programs is due to the lack of transparency of spend + that the spend is not going to the home carrier. UA does this too via a weird system of "preferred" partners (inc NZ, SQ, VA, LH I think) and others with one getting the mileage earn(inc cabin bonus)/5 and the non preferred being same divided by 6. While I've not looked specifically at DL's changes, I wouldn't be surprised if there was a bias to JV and other partners vs the rest.

Anyway if I buy a ticket with say SQ, then UA have no way to know the fare paid, and it's not going to them anyway, so they provide a calculation for the qualifying dollar amount (but UA also cap them which sucks if you do full fare F on say SQ or LH on some flights!).

In a hypothetical QF revenue based program, I can see exactly the same type of thing - they could, in theory, get dollar amounts from JQ, and QF direct spend of course (081 tickets), and then have some sort of system for the partners - and this is where a partner like AA would probably have preference over say MH or CX. (reflecting what we currently see of course).

It's certainly far from perfect the way these things are happening with partners, but there's just no way to share that data - specially in places like the US - without hitting things like antitrust laws, and commercial confidential fare data. CX or MH may be partners with QF but they also compete......

imo

Well, there's a reason why IAG has swallowed a lot of airlines, as well as rolled out Avios to others..... allows revenue based mileage earning across a heck of a lot more carriers within the alliance.

 

[openseat]

I finally ticked over to LTG today. I came to QFF as an AN refugee and quickly purchased LTQC (which was very handy, especially when I was living in the US), which I think I got more than my moneys worth. It’s been uphill and down dale with different career moves over the years.

Now I enter the desert, the wasteland, the kenosis after LTG….

 

[JessicaTam]

I finally ticked over to LTG today. I came to QFF as an AN refugee and quickly purchased LTQC (which was very handy, especially when I was living in the US), which I think I got more than my moneys worth. It’s been uphill and down dale with different career moves over the years.

Now I enter the desert, the wasteland, the kenosis after LTG….

Welcome. The golden handcuffs have just been unlocked! BFOD for you!

Unless you head for BA GFL, in which case they just changed the locks.

 

[Flashback]

Welcome. The golden handcuffs have just been unlocked! BFOD for you!

Unless you head for BA GFL, in which case they just changed the locks.

#obscure ?

 

[straitman]

I finally ticked over to LTG today. I came to QFF as an AN refugee and quickly purchased LTQC (which was very handy, especially when I was living in the US), which I think I got more than my moneys worth. It’s been uphill and down dale with different career moves over the years.

Now I enter the desert, the wasteland, the kenosis after LTG….

Congratulations and welcome to the club. Most of the members are pretty good these days.

 

[Jacques Vert]

This morning I finally hit LTG .

Joined QFF in Dec 1999 but didn't do much for the first few years. Then quickly raced to LTS after taking a new job with lots of business travel (mostly on Dash 8s at 10 SCs per flight but still managed WP three years in a row).

Then came an Early Voluntary Retirement offer that was too good to pass up but I continued to inch my way to LTG until Covid brought things to a sudden stop.

The introduction of Points Club with SCs on Award Flights has been very kind to me and a status run on Classic Reward flights has seen me pass that magical number this morning. Details of my status run: Discussion/Q&A on Best QF Status Run Options

A huge thanks to all contributors on AFF; I couldn't have done it without you.

 

[kangarooflyer88]

Joined QFF in Dec 1999 but didn't do much for the first few years. Then quickly raced to LTS after taking a new job with lots of business travel (mostly on Dash 8s at 10 SCs per flight but still managed WP three years in a row).

I'm of the opinion that offering anyone who earned 1000 SCs or more flying exclusively on Dash-8s deserves Platinum One status at a minimum. Offering Platinum or worse still Gold for such efforts, amounts to both cruel and unusual punishment!

 

[VPS]

This morning I finally hit LTG .

Joined QFF in Dec 1999 but didn't do much for the first few years. Then quickly raced to LTS after taking a new job with lots of business travel (mostly on Dash 8s at 10 SCs per flight but still managed WP three years in a row).

Then came an Early Voluntary Retirement offer that was too good to pass up but I continued to inch my way to LTG until Covid brought things to a sudden stop.

The introduction of Points Club with SCs on Award Flights has been very kind to me and a status run on Classic Reward flights has seen me pass that magical number this morning. Details of my status run: Discussion/Q&A on Best QF Status Run Options

A huge thanks to all contributors on AFF; I couldn't have done it without you.

will it change your flying habits? For me it didn't matter too much because I won't fly international economy again anyway

 

[Jacques Vert]

I'm of the opinion that offering anyone who earned 1000 SCs or more flying exclusively on Dash-8s deserves Platinum One status at a minimum. Offering Platinum or worse still Gold for such efforts, amounts to both cruel and unusual punishment!

Actually I came to like the Dash8 and back in the day the service was far better than mainline, especially on the 200 series where the single cabin crew member had noone to talk to other than the passengers.

 

[Larko1]

This morning I finally hit LTG .

Joined QFF in Dec 1999 but didn't do much for the first few years. Then quickly raced to LTS after taking a new job with lots of business travel (mostly on Dash 8s at 10 SCs per flight but still managed WP three years in a row).

Then came an Early Voluntary Retirement offer that was too good to pass up but I continued to inch my way to LTG until Covid brought things to a sudden stop.

The introduction of Points Club with SCs on Award Flights has been very kind to me and a status run on Classic Reward flights has seen me pass that magical number this morning. Details of my status run: Discussion/Q&A on Best QF Status Run Options

A huge thanks to all contributors on AFF; I couldn't have done it without you.

Congratulations! Enjoy

 

[straitman]

This morning I finally hit LTG .

Joined QFF in Dec 1999 but didn't do much for the first few years. Then quickly raced to LTS after taking a new job with lots of business travel (mostly on Dash 8s at 10 SCs per flight but still managed WP three years in a row).

Then came an Early Voluntary Retirement offer that was too good to pass up but I continued to inch my way to LTG until Covid brought things to a sudden stop.

The introduction of Points Club with SCs on Award Flights has been very kind to me and a status run on Classic Reward flights has seen me pass that magical number this morning. Details of my status run: Discussion/Q&A on Best QF Status Run Options

A huge thanks to all contributors on AFF; I couldn't have done it without you.

Welcome to the club. It’s traditional that new members always buy the first round of drinks.

 

[Jacques Vert]

will it change your flying habits? For me it didn't matter too much because I won't fly international economy again anyway

This is a question I've been asking myself.

Domestically, VA currently don't fly to my hometown so I have a choice of QL's Q400 or the Saab with REX. Perhaps surprisingly, REX fares to CFS are often the same or more expensive than QL! I think I'll stick with QL.

Internationally, I had changed to SQ a couple of years before Covid. However, the recent change in transfer rates from St Geo and Amex to SQ have made SQ far less attractive IMHO.

Especially Amex where the transfer rate has been enhanced from 1:1 before Covid, to 2:1, and now 3:1. Add to this the 3 year hard expiry and it's hard to see KrisFlyer working for me.

I normally travel with +1 and the cost of 2 return saver awards to Europe is 522,000 miles. As I'm now retired I'm not earning miles fast enough to make that work.

Of course the answer to the 3 year expiry is to keep your points in a credit card account such as Amex and only transfer them to KrisFlyer when you are ready to book your flights. However when the CC gets devalued such as the recent Amex changes then what? I transfered a swag of points to KrisFlyer at the time of the previous devaluation and the 3 year countdown started. And having to keep your points in an Amex or bank CC account reduces your opportunities to churn.

I have also taken an Avios subscription so that will improve access to QR. I guess I'll be staying with Oneworld for now but also considering Aeroplan.

I'll have to give this question some serious thought.

Post automatically merged: Dec 4, 2023

Welcome to the club. It’s traditional that new members always buy the first round of drinks.

I'll meet you in the Qantas lounge; happy to organise the drinks.

 

[straitman]

This is a question I've been asking myself.

Domestically, VA currently don't fly to my hometown so I have a choice of QL's Q400 or the Saab with REX. Perhaps surprisingly, REX fares to CFS are often the same or more expensive than QL! I think I'll stick with QL.

Internationally, I had changed to SQ a couple of years before Covid. However, the recent change in transfer rates from St Geo and Amex to SQ have made SQ far less attractive IMHO.

Especially Amex where the transfer rate has been enhanced from 1:1 before Covid, to 2:1, and now 3:1. Add to this the 3 year hard expiry and it's hard to see KrisFlyer working for me.

I normally travel with +1 and the cost of 2 return saver awards to Europe is 522,000 miles. As I'm now retired I'm not earning miles fast enough to make that work.

I have also taken an Avios subscription so that will improve access to QR. I guess I'll be staying with Oneworld for now but also considering Aeroplan.

Post automatically merged: Dec 4, 2023

I'll meet you in the Qantas lounge; happy to organise the drinks.

I’ll be in the FJ lounge in NAN on 18th Dec. Does that work for you?