Life Time Gold - The [Realistic] Holy Grail

[kookaburra75]

My turn!

On landing back in SYD from a short visit to ZQN with the family last Thursday, I clocked over the SCs required for my 2024-25 WP renewal, and the long awaited QFF Lifetime Gold threshold. I also renewed Accor ALL Platinum the same day, following checkout from the MGallery in Queenstown, so was feeling rather accomplished!

Joined QFF in August 2002
Bronze / Silver + QC for the first 11 years. Lots of different carriers in play.
Focused on QF/OW and made SG in early 2013, and then WP in late 2013 and haven't fallen back from WP since

Mostly international work travel in Y for the first 10 years (aside from a few LONE4s), and then started to move towards more W & J through self-funded upgrades for work travel, and paid J for leisure. Work travel fell off the cliff in 2020 and it's been 100% leisure travel / spend since then. PC+ carryover and the QF Premier Ti card 20% bonus SCs keep it within fairly easy reach.

I'm mid-40s at the moment, so should be able to extract some decent value from QFF LTG, though have grown so accustomed to J travel, now, that I'm not sure it will get used much (single class flights aside). If nothing else, I should at least have access to earlier award seats or upgrades with a pinch of priority over the masses. LTP not at all on the radar, and unlikely to shift OWE camps until our travel patterns change, or work travel returns to the fray.

Thanks to AFF and all on here who have helped me along the way. I truly enjoy the [virtual] company & banter, and love that I've been able to give back with some of my own help and humour over the years, as well

Cheers,
Matt.

Welcome to the Club. While I'm sticking with QF at the moment, it's only until I have burnt up the last of our stash of points. Then the world is our oyster

 

[openseat]

Ticked over to Lifetime Gold last week, 24 years after reluctantly signing up to QFF due Ansett demise plus then-employer travel policy.

Only really put some effort into SC accumulation the last 10 years. WP baggage allowance very useful for taking racing sails and other equipment to numerous Asian regattas!

The "welcome to lifetime gold” email really inspired me… now only 60,630SC to LTP

Next trip in June is QR return to Europe

Congratulations. I too was an Ansett refugee.

Post automatically merged: Jul 29, 2024

My turn!

On landing back in SYD from a short visit to ZQN with the family last Thursday, I clocked over the SCs required for my 2024-25 WP renewal, and the long awaited QFF Lifetime Gold threshold. I also renewed Accor ALL Platinum the same day, following checkout from the MGallery in Queenstown, so was feeling rather accomplished!

Joined QFF in August 2002
Bronze / Silver + QC for the first 11 years. Lots of different carriers in play.
Focused on QF/OW and made SG in early 2013, and then WP in late 2013 and haven't fallen back from WP since

Mostly international work travel in Y for the first 10 years (aside from a few LONE4s), and then started to move towards more W & J through self-funded upgrades for work travel, and paid J for leisure. Work travel fell off the cliff in 2020 and it's been 100% leisure travel / spend since then. PC+ carryover and the QF Premier Ti card 20% bonus SCs keep it within fairly easy reach.

I'm mid-40s at the moment, so should be able to extract some decent value from QFF LTG, though have grown so accustomed to J travel, now, that I'm not sure it will get used much (single class flights aside). If nothing else, I should at least have access to earlier award seats or upgrades with a pinch of priority over the masses. LTP not at all on the radar, and unlikely to shift OWE camps until our travel patterns change, or work travel returns to the fray.

Thanks to AFF and all on here who have helped me along the way. I truly enjoy the [virtual] company & banter, and love that I've been able to give back with some of my own help and humour over the years, as well

Cheers,
Matt.

Congratulations, and welcome to the strange world of LTG.

 

[flyingfan]

My turn!

Congratulations on your achievement - you’re a fantastic contributor to AFF, you’re always so helpful and generous with your advice.

 

[CMA222]

Congratulations. I too was an Ansett refugee.

Congratulations, and welcome to the strange world of LTG.

I was life time Golden Wing member with Ansett so I take "Life" memberships with airlines as an aspirational title - and certainly not my lifetime !

 

[fifo]

I am one or two flights away. September round trip to Brisbane in J for Iron Maiden, double status credits. So it'll be the return trip home I think. Also WP requal for the year. Hopefully there is cake involved. There won't be.

 

[aikman]

For those of you who went out of your way to get to LTG and are no longer WP, do you find that the pursuit has been worth it? If you could go back in time, would you still use up the same resources to get to LTG? I am about 3.5k SCs away and have lost the motivation to continue. After many years as WP, visiting the same old lounges and doing the same Qantas things just doesn't feel all that exciting anymore.

 

[SYD]

For those of you who went out of your way to get to LTG and are no longer WP, do you find that the pursuit has been worth it? If you could go back in time, would you still use up the same resources to get to LTG? I am about 3.5k SCs away and have lost the motivation to continue. After many years as WP, visiting the same old lounges and doing the same Qantas things just doesn't feel all that exciting anymore.

If you’re travelling international (on OW airlines), there’s a big difference in experience - on some airlines/ports.

If you’re naturally getting WP each year based on normal travel, that’s less than 3 yrs SC to lock in LTG.

But I still personally pursue WP (even as LTG) - I find it’s not that hard when leveraging many tips here on AFF.

 

[GDSman]

For those of you who went out of your way to get to LTG and are no longer WP, do you find that the pursuit has been worth it? If you could go back in time, would you still use up the same resources to get to LTG? I am about 3.5k SCs away and have lost the motivation to continue. After many years as WP, visiting the same old lounges and doing the same Qantas things just doesn't feel all that exciting anymore.

I got to LTG some time ago but a career change dropped my travel considerably so wouldn't even maintain SG these days. If travelling international (for domestic it doesn't matter so much to me) in Y I'll pick OW and probably QF for the check-in, lounge access and ability to guest someone. If flying J I'll take whatever seems best for the trip - had a fantastic ANA experience recently and flying to LHR with them at Xmas and looking forward to it. Somehow I find LTG quite liberating as an occasional traveller.

 

[Stevo.1702]

For those of you who went out of your way to get to LTG and are no longer WP, do you find that the pursuit has been worth it? If you could go back in time, would you still use up the same resources to get to LTG? I am about 3.5k SCs away and have lost the motivation to continue. After many years as WP, visiting the same old lounges and doing the same Qantas things just doesn't feel all that exciting anymore.

For me, the pursuit has been worth it. My current work is 4 or 5 international trips per year and a bit more domestic. Always economy but once in a blue moon work will pay for business. Leisure travel is a few times per year interstate to visit family and maybe a holiday overseas once every two years.

If I pay for my flights it'll be with points (hopefully J). If I can't use points I'll be flying economy.

LTG lets me be a rusted-on OW flier rather than just a rusted-on QF flier. I now funnel all my earn towards BA. I doubt I will ever reach Lifetime OWE but I have a better chance with BA than I do with QF.

I wouldn't rush to LTG. If you are earning Gold through normal spending already - change nothing. If you rush and reach Platinum on your way to LTG you will miss a lot of WP when you land on LTG.

 

[JohnK]

For those of you who went out of your way to get to LTG and are no longer WP, do you find that the pursuit has been worth it? If you could go back in time, would you still use up the same resources to get to LTG?

I flew around in circles to get to LTG. I was doing a lot of travel. It was worth it at the time but I didn't think life would change so much.

Last year I had Qantas 10SCs and this year from June there are no plans for any Qantas SCs. LTG is doing nothing.

Virgin airfares are cheaper, SCs go towards VA Gold/Platinum and SQ is our preferred airline to Thailand. Only problem with both wife and I striving for VA Gold is the 4 flights for wife. They cost us around $500/year for lounge access on 2 trips to Thailand which I'm not sure is worth it.

 

[jase05]

Only problem with both wife and I striving for VA Gold is the 4 flights for wife. They cost us around $500/year for lounge access on 2 trips to Thailand which I'm not sure is worth it.

Wouldn’t you be better off family pooling with your wife and then just gifting her a Gold each year?

 

[MooTime]

Wouldn’t you be better off family pooling with your wife and then just gifting her a Gold each year?

Not sure @JohnK accumulates 1300 SCs to be able to gift Gold.
Or the 8 VA sectors.

If they travel together each and every trip, what's the advantage of both having Gold?

 

[Flashback]

Not sure @JohnK accumulates 1300 SCs to be able to gift Gold.
Or the 8 VA sectors.

If they travel together each and every trip, what's the advantage of both having Gold?

To guest in their daughter, I'd say.

 

[JohnK]

Wouldn’t you be better off family pooling with your wife and then just gifting her a Gold each year?

We'd struggle to get more than 800 SCs each year without status runs and I'm not doing that again.

If they travel together each and every trip, what's the advantage of both having Gold?

With my daughter there are 3 of us travelling. VA lounges not an issue, SQ lounge in BKK not an issue, SQ SIN lounges have not rejected us yet but no luck in SQ lounges in Australia.

 

[dairyfloss]

LTG folks… how long did it take for the update to show in your app? I was showing LTS until the day after, then that disappeared, but LTG didn’t replace it. Been about 10 days now. Same on Android & iOS.

Cheers,
Matt.

 

[RichardMEL]

LTG folks… how long did it take for the update to show in your app? I was showing LTS until the day after, then that disappeared, but LTG didn’t replace it. Been about 10 days now. Same on Android & iOS.

Cheers,
Matt.

LT status appears to have been removed from the appp digital card. Noticed this a few weeks back. Maybe that is only if one holds higher status at the time - unsure.

Annoying.

 

[flyingfan]

LT status appears to have been removed from the appp digital card. Noticed this a few weeks back. Maybe that is only if one holds higher status at the time - unsure.

Annoying.

Noticed this a few weeks ago too - was going to also post in the IT bugs thread but haven't

 

[dairyfloss]

LT status appears to have been removed from the appp digital card. Noticed this a few weeks back. Maybe that is only if one holds higher status at the time - unsure.

Annoying.

Probably an error rather than intended? LTS was there for years until I hit LTG

 

[SYD]

Probably an error rather than intended? LTS was there for years until I hit LTG

So was LTG but it dropped off the vCard last week. It’s still shown in your LTG status counter however.

 

[Jacques Vert]

My app still shows both LP and LTG. Maybe it only changes when something updates?