Masquerade
Newbie
- Joined
- Mar 1, 2007
- Posts
- 6
Hello one and all!
As with most people I suppose, I spent some time reading posts on this website before I took the plunge and joined up. I must say I enjoy reading about other people's experiences, so thought I would share my recent upgrade story.
I joined the QFF programme in April 06 when I realised I would be doing quite a bit of travel with work. At that time, I was already planning an overseas holiday with my wife, so figured the fee was worth it for the points we would accrue from that trip alone. I then managed to get QANTAS Club Membership paid for me by my employer in May 06, which of course made those long airport waits a little more enjoyable.
Anyway, we were heading off to Europe in August 06, just when Heathrow went on high alert and hand luggage was a big no no! As a result, we packed our duty free items in our checked luggage, which meant we had to have customs view these before we checked in. As we were departing from Melbourne, which is not where we are from, we played round and round the airport until we finally found the office, which we were amazed to find was still open late at night.
When we finally got to check in a very nice man (whose name was not Mel, despite that appearing on his ID tag) advised us that our flight had been delayed by about 2 hours and also that about 30 people were going to miss out on the flight because the plane had been changed last minute. Now being an optimist, I figured that this meant the new plane's configuration had more business class seats and fewer economy class seats, and so we offered to sit a little further forward in the plane to help out. Mel (and yes I did call him that till I figured out that everyone in Melbourne had an ID tag that said Mel) said he could not help us out, but if it did happen then it was all his doing. Did I mention he was a very nice man.
So after wandering about the airport for an hour or so, we headed through customs and in to the QANTAS Club. Upon arriving there, the lady behind the counter happily advised us that we both looked like we had had a hard day, and asked to see our boarding passes. We were initially a little worried when she then ripped them up, only to pass us new ones saying that these might make our day. You guessed it, we had been upgraded from economy class (paid for as discount economy) to business class all the way from Melbourne to Heathrow!
As it turns out, everyone in the area we were seated, the two rows of 2-3-2 near the stairs at the front, had been upgraded. You can image the scene with all 14 of us playing with the seat controls and feeling very happy about the whole experience. It made for a very enjoyable flight to Heathrow, but of course made the long flight home in cattle class was even less enjoyable, but not as bad as our flight with Iberia from Madrid to Barcelona, but that is another story.
Anyway, just thought I would share my experience. I have also recently attained gold QFF membership, and may even make it to the elusive platinum level before the end of April due to my impending travel plans. I'm not sure if the time spent away from home to get there is worth it, but who knows, maybe our next trip away will benefit from it!
As with most people I suppose, I spent some time reading posts on this website before I took the plunge and joined up. I must say I enjoy reading about other people's experiences, so thought I would share my recent upgrade story.
I joined the QFF programme in April 06 when I realised I would be doing quite a bit of travel with work. At that time, I was already planning an overseas holiday with my wife, so figured the fee was worth it for the points we would accrue from that trip alone. I then managed to get QANTAS Club Membership paid for me by my employer in May 06, which of course made those long airport waits a little more enjoyable.
Anyway, we were heading off to Europe in August 06, just when Heathrow went on high alert and hand luggage was a big no no! As a result, we packed our duty free items in our checked luggage, which meant we had to have customs view these before we checked in. As we were departing from Melbourne, which is not where we are from, we played round and round the airport until we finally found the office, which we were amazed to find was still open late at night.
When we finally got to check in a very nice man (whose name was not Mel, despite that appearing on his ID tag) advised us that our flight had been delayed by about 2 hours and also that about 30 people were going to miss out on the flight because the plane had been changed last minute. Now being an optimist, I figured that this meant the new plane's configuration had more business class seats and fewer economy class seats, and so we offered to sit a little further forward in the plane to help out. Mel (and yes I did call him that till I figured out that everyone in Melbourne had an ID tag that said Mel) said he could not help us out, but if it did happen then it was all his doing. Did I mention he was a very nice man.
So after wandering about the airport for an hour or so, we headed through customs and in to the QANTAS Club. Upon arriving there, the lady behind the counter happily advised us that we both looked like we had had a hard day, and asked to see our boarding passes. We were initially a little worried when she then ripped them up, only to pass us new ones saying that these might make our day. You guessed it, we had been upgraded from economy class (paid for as discount economy) to business class all the way from Melbourne to Heathrow!
As it turns out, everyone in the area we were seated, the two rows of 2-3-2 near the stairs at the front, had been upgraded. You can image the scene with all 14 of us playing with the seat controls and feeling very happy about the whole experience. It made for a very enjoyable flight to Heathrow, but of course made the long flight home in cattle class was even less enjoyable, but not as bad as our flight with Iberia from Madrid to Barcelona, but that is another story.
Anyway, just thought I would share my experience. I have also recently attained gold QFF membership, and may even make it to the elusive platinum level before the end of April due to my impending travel plans. I'm not sure if the time spent away from home to get there is worth it, but who knows, maybe our next trip away will benefit from it!