Losing Gold, Retaining PC+

[stopthecap]

It has been a great few years coupling up gold with PC+ however struggling to see the need of aiming for gold again (admittedly my first year without status rollover assistance). To preface my flying is purely Classic Reward and only in J and generally only SYD-BKK-HEL.

A few questions i wonder the forum can help me with.

Lounge Access: I assume losing gold means i lose access to one world lounges, specifically in and around BKK Airport JAL, Cathay, Emirates UNLESS I'm flying J Rewards then i am able to access all except Emirates? I hold gold for 11 more months so i need to figure out my plan of action quickly. Based on the assumption i will only ever fly J Rewards does gold matter? (excluding the apparent visibility of reward seats on silver vs gold.

Gold vs Silver: If i am gold until June 2025 I assume i will be bumped down to silver for another 12 months after, so is there any point in even getting silver status this year? I can just ride out gold until June 2025 and then rollover my 100 credits and chase silver in 2026? Am i missing something there? I am asking this now as I am flying back from BKK-SYD on Cathay J rewards and am able to flip to QF out of SG for 40sc + Jetstar max bundle for an extra load of SC but it may not be required this year.

PC+ : I can no longer churn as im not working so i will be attaining my PC+ through wine. Looking at 50 points per dollar and an extra 10k points per $1000 spent via wine agent. Is this as good a deal as i can get? (Unless i wait until qantas do 3 points per dollar spent on top? I also just noticed MAX 125,000 Points contribute to PC+ so i would need PC+ : I can no longer churn as im not working so i will be attaining my PC+ through wine. Looking at 50 points per dollar and an extra 10k points per $1000 spent via wine agent. Is this as good a deal as i can get? (Unless i wait until qantas do 3 points per dollar spent on top? I also just noticed MAX 125,000 Points contribute to PC+ so i would need to split any large order into 3?

Heres a pic of my collection for everyone (We wont discuss the wine fridge overflowing and my issues with Qantas wine and non bordeaux bottles)



Cheers.

 

[levelnine]

Why would you go to all that effort to attain PC+ when you're flying J?

Just keep flying J and use the lounges that your cabin provides you. Also, status does not affect award availability on partner airlines.

 

[adenda]

Fairly sure the "enhanced" visibility of rewards seats for Gold only relates to Qantas flights

 

[stopthecap]

Why would you go to all that effort to attain PC+ when you're flying J?

Just keep flying J and use the lounges that your cabin provides you. Also, status does not affect award availability on partner airlines.

Apologies my flying is only J and only classic rewards, hence i need the points to fly.

 

[dairyfloss]

Will just add:

• If flying on J rewards, then you should always have access to a lounge, provided one is available; this includes EK. You can still access other OW lounges under OW class of service rules, at any port of departure with a J award which is operated by a OW carrier, and can still access the EK lounges with either an EK or QF J award booking (excl. EK lounges within/to/from the Americas).
• QFF soft-lands its members from each level, so if you are Gold in this member year, then regardless of how many SCs earned or flights taken, you will be no worse off than Silver in the following member year.
• The 125K contribution limit on PC+ is per transaction, so you can do as many of these from wine purchases as you like, but each one would be capped at that value.

Cheers,
Matt.

 

[RichardMEL]

Flying J on points will give you most of the perks of Gold. The biggest difference I can think of wrt Lounges is domestic travel within the USA on AA or AS where flying domestuc "First" alone won't give lounge access (well AS have a distance based caveat), but QF Gold would (specially to AA Flagship lounges). Not an issue flying SYD-BKK-HEL of course.

 

[RichardMEL]

Btw, losing Gold will mean you will have reduced (and advance) access to QF rewards inventory (for CR at least( whuch may or may not be a factor going forward. This won't affect access to partner rewards sych as on CX.

 

[opusman]

Btw, losing Gold will mean you will have reduced (and advance) access to QF rewards inventory (for CR at least( whuch may or may not be a factor going forward. This won't affect access to partner rewards sych as on CX.

Awards inventory as a Gold is terrible anyway, I hate to think what a PS/NB would get

 

[stopthecap]

Btw, losing Gold will mean you will have reduced (and advance) access to QF rewards inventory (for CR at least( whuch may or may not be a factor going forward. This won't affect access to partner rewards sych as on CX.

No real loss there. CX are a great option (albeit 30% more points) from BKK-SYD and also BA out of SG. QF marked rewards flights are far and few between and ive noticed they have bumped up the Jetstar availability.

 

[RichardMEL]

There may become the point where another scheme may suit you better eg Star Alliance.

 

[RealtimeY]

If it matters to you, you would also lose lounge guest entitlements when flying on partner airlines or visiting partner lounges

 

[stopthecap]

If it matters to you, you would also lose lounge guest entitlements when flying on partner airlines or visiting partner lounges

Unless im flying J right?

 

[blackcat20]

Awards inventory as a Gold is terrible anyway, I hate to think what a PS/NB would get

Is it? We've had no trouble getting 4 F or J seats to and from the US the last few years

 

[RealtimeY]

Unless im flying J right?

Most airlines don't allow you to bring in a lounge guest as a J passenger with no status. QF is actually generous in that respect. So this would only affect you if you were to travel with someone not flying in J, and you are trying to access a non-QF oneworld lounge.