Lifetime Gold

[dsomrox]

I have just achieved Lifetime Gold and was wondering if there is anything beyond this level as far as benefits are concerned.?
As an aside, I do not think Qantas value their top tier customers as well as other airlines. In the last 4 years as a Platinum, I have travelled Qantas once every 2 weeks internataionally in business class and have never been upgraded to First.
Cathay have upgraded me twice in the 5 trips I have taken with them.
I have colleagues who use AA from the US and they get upgraded on almost every flight where seats are available.

Dave

 

[Dave Noble]

I have just achieved Lifetime Gold and was wondering if there is anything beyond this level as far as benefits are concerned.?
As an aside, I do not think Qantas value their top tier customers as well as other airlines. In the last 4 years as a Platinum, I have travelled Qantas once every 2 weeks internataionally in business class and have never been upgraded to First.
Cathay have upgraded me twice in the 5 trips I have taken with them.
I have colleagues who use AA from the US and they get upgraded on almost every flight where seats are available.

Dave

Other than ongoing annual Platinum status there is nothing beyond Lifetime Gold

If you are travelling on a business class ticket , why should Qantas upgrade you to 1st unless there is an operational reason to do so?

As far as AA goes, AA offers upgrades domestically as part of its frequent flyer programme which is why they wil be getting upgrades. If you have LTG and travel a lot in J, I would suggest joining the AA scheme and collecting candy and cheap award flights

Dave

 

[dsomrox]

Other than ongoing annual Platinum status there is nothing beyond Lifetime Gold

If you are travelling on a business class ticket , why should Qantas upgrade you to 1st unless there is an operational reason to do so?

As far as AA goes, AA offers upgrades domestically as part of its frequent flyer programme which is why they wil be getting upgrades. If you have LTG and travel a lot in J, I would suggest joining the AA scheme and collecting candy and cheap award flights

Dave

You ask why would Q upgrade me to first? I would have thought that regular international business class travellers are the lifeblood of Qantas and that anything they can do to retain loyalty is worth it. The incermental cost is minimal and the benefits can be long term loyalty.
As an example since the lack of recognition from Qantas, I have now started travelling on Singapore Airlines and discovered they have a better/more reliable entertainment system, as well as on board internet (at least till the end of the year). I am now a qualified PPS with them, this is all revenue that Qantas could have got had they shown some special interest in me as valued customer.
Equally I am now choosing to use Cathay to HK because my hit rate on First upgrades is pretty good, again revenue that Qantas is missing out on.
So while Qantas enjoys little competition on routes to the US which are incredibly profitable and drives their financial success (and potentially their lack of interest in their customers) I guess we "high value" customers will be ignored.

Dave

 

[Dave Noble]

You ask why would Q upgrade me to first? I would have thought that regular international business class travellers are the lifeblood of Qantas and that anything they can do to retain loyalty is worth it. The incermental cost is minimal and the benefits can be long term loyalty.

They offer the benefits of Platinum status to you. You are, as you say, a regular BUSINESS class traveller; if you want to travel in 1st class, they offer 1st class fares. The incremental cost could be high of doing it; if they started just upgrading people for the sake of it, then it would act as a disincentive to purchase the higher cabin and it starts becoming an upgrade class ( c.f. with the USA carriers and their excessive upgrade policies )

As an example since the lack of recognition from Qantas, I have now started travelling on Singapore Airlines and discovered they have a better/more reliable entertainment system, as well as on board internet (at least till the end of the year). I am now a qualified PPS with them, this is all revenue that Qantas could have got had they shown some special interest in me as valued customer.

They give you the special interest in FF miles, status and a companion gold card and , if there is a need to involuntaily upgrade someone, as a Platinum member, you are have a better chance of receiving the upgrade.

On a business side, it is good to see that QF is not giving out upgrades like candy imo

Dave

 

[steven s]

I totally agree with dsomrox, the policy of QF of no upgrades is tough on loyal high yielding pax. Saying that I have been upgraded domestically twice recently when I had paid Y Full Fare.

I think QF are reluctant to do much for Platinum members as the expectations of some for future times are there!!!!

 

[Kiwi Flyer]

I much prefer flying SQ in business than QF. But don't expect op-ups on SQ either. They have even less than QF - not only sharing the philosophy of not upgrading unless there is good reason to, but also seeming to have better management of loads.

I flew something like 100 SQ flights and attained PPS Solitaire before I got my first op-up on SQ.

 

[simongr]

The upgrade/noupgrade has been debated a fair bit here and I dont think common ground can be reached in the debate. I think (like DN) that the no-upgrade policy unless for operational reasons is good business sense. The thing is though you are swtiching to SQ not because of the upgrade policy but because the product is better. If you had had a few op-ups on QF would you ignore the poor unreliable product on QF?

I am swtiching my LHR-SYD and SYD-LHR to Cathay not because of the upgrade availability but because of the product and service being better. I will stick with QF for SYD-LAX/LAX-SYD as I can potentially use points to upgrade.

I am not sure at what point you could determine that QF should give upgrades. What proportion of the WP or SG fliers should they choose? How regularly - 1 in 4? 1 in 10? Also as you are a regular flier I am betting that you cant actually use all those points you are accruing so why not burn them on some upgrades yourself?

 

[gaia]

Re: Lifetime Gold & Other

I too have recently qualified for LTG.

The two times that I have been op-upped to F from J in the past year were both times when I'd purchased a discount Y & upgraded to J with points ...great & pleasant surprises which I didn't expect.

I take CX when I can't get Qantas. My track record with CX is 30% op-up.

Much of my travel is within Asia and sometimes I can't get OneWorld flights eg into Shanghai. I fly Dragonair when I have to, but they're converting their Elite FF programme to Marco Polo on 1 January.

 

[clifford]

Why isn't this on the Qantas thread?

Moderators?

 

[Dave Noble]

Why isn't this on the Qantas thread?

Moderators?

If there is a view that a thread is misplaced or that there is something that needs deleting please use the "report this post" facility available on all posts . That way the moderators will get an email detailing the report and may act accordingly. Just putting comments about it into the thread, then there is a good chance that it will get missed

Given that this is specificially about the QF FF programme, I agree that this would be better placed in the QF Forum

Dave