Mostly semantics at this stage, but since you've raised the argument about the value of anytime access, I'll bite -
Patronage of QC lounges is obviously increasing, but only Qantas knows for sure whether the larger proportion of that growth is from paid or statused pax. I have experienced fairly severe over-crowding at peak times (Canberra is the worst) so I'm not sure which lounges you frequent. In any event the lounges are being paid for by one method or another. Except when ....
If this is a real issue, why not make anytime access subject to capacity control? Again, the few times I've used it, the lounges have been completely empty. If WPs really were trying to game the system, then surely QF should be able to turn them away at peak times to cater for flying pax - for example, no anytime access during barista coffee or dinner hours
.
Which way do you want to play it? If the benefit is "important to a lot of people" then that would mean that there was a lot of lounge use by WPs and guests when they were not flying. That would tend to justify the removal of this illogical perk, wouldn't it?
With respect, a benefit being 'important' does not directly give rise to 'a lot of lounge use' when not flying. A WP could use this once a year and still find value in it.
If guests are causing overcrowding, reduce the guest allowance rather than penalising the people that spend the money on QF to attain status. Or remove the guest allowance from anytime access (which is itself a pretty significant reduction, but still retains a marginal tier benefit making it attractive for members to attain/retain WP).
As for logic, I can only speak for myself, but anytime access is certainly a reason I chose to start crediting to QFF over AAdvantage. Without it I may shift back to AAdvantage and, if I can get to EXP this year, won't suffer for the change. On the other hand, QFF would lose whatever revenue it gets out of my crediting flights to them.
As Red Roo stated, the main reason for this change was to stop the practice of WP's grabbing a cheap fare from a competitor and then raiding the Qantas lounges for free food, drinks and internet. Or even worse solely coming to the airport to guest friends and family in to the Qantas trough.
I don't think
Red Roo had anything to say about guest access, but presumably if the guests were flying QF, they'd be paying for part of their slop.
As for the former, I'll venture the following:
- WPs more than anyone else are acutely aware of how 'cheap' airfares actually are. Given the loyalty benefits (points, SCs) they accrue on QF, and the availability of Red e-Deals and ASAs, a fare would have to be pretty damn cheap to lure a WP away from QF.
- In order to get to attain their status, WPs have done a significant amount of flying on QF/OW, and to retain it they have to do even more - about twice that required to get to SG. Further, the annual spend required to get to WP is also pretty significant (again, probably double that of SG), so I imagine the commercial benefit of anytime access was to encourage this additional spend on QF/OW in return for 'a few muffins and coffees' (or whatever medhead said). Without this incentive, there's one less reason not to take advantage of a competitor's program, especially after attaining SG.
- As I mentioned before, taking advantage of anytime access in an abusive manner (at least at the bigger airports) requires one to: (a) if flying a competitor, go to a different terminal, navigate multiple security checks, and find a way to monitor flight information at the competitor's terminal; (b) if not flying, get to an airport with a QP; neither of which is a trivial or convenient matter.
- For anyone that's been to the 'Qantas trough' a couple of times, it's not nearly the panacea that it's made out to be (excluding the F lounge of course, which wasn't the subject of this change). Horses for courses, but going to all of the trouble noted above simply to get your hands on a couple of drinks and some pretty ordinary nibbles / party pies or dim sims (between 5-7pm) / biscuits is something you'd struggle to find many WPs (or anyone else for that matter) going far out of their way to take advantage of unnecessarily. On the other hand, if they're at the QF terminal for a legitimate reason, it's a nice touch.
Qantas are far better placed than you or me to know who is in the lounge, and this thread completely validates their conclusions.
I'm sure they are - they may have made the call that they think it will benefit them more than it will hurt them, but time will tell whether or not that call was right.
I find it strange that they would start to ease back on their changes if this thread validated their conclusions.
It isn't "healthy" to have overcrowded lounges, hence Qantas has recently spent a lot of dosh upgrading most of them. This investment is paid for by airfares and lounge memberships.
Good - if that's the case, they should get rid of all complimentary memberships for QFFs. Force elites to pay for access, <something>, profit.
But I imagine they do have to thank high-spending/flying customers/clients for that as well - some of whose spend on airfares they may lose due to this, particularly the ~100% extra spend between SG and WP.
I would say that WPs who book a cheap fare on Tiger and then pig out at the Qantas lounge are being greedy and biting the hand that feeds them, but maybe that is because I'm not a WP.
You might be inclined to do so if you were a WP, but I dare you to find some actual WPs who would be crazy (or dedicated) enough to do that, especially given the physical separation of Tiger terminals at major airports.
[Edit] Okay, I'll eat a bit of crow on that one having now seen
Danger's post - but I'd make the distinction that he's protesting this very change by taking advantage of the access while it lasts, and he's not flying Tiger.
