Qantas Club Complimentary Invitation - Ebay

[Katiegirl]

Hi there,

I've seen Qantas Club Complimentary Invitations advertised on ebay. Here is the link: http://cgi.ebay.com.au/4-BUSINESS-C...6615446542QQcategoryZ3253QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

I only want two vouchers for a long stop off in May, so it's not worth getting Qantas Club membership. Does anybody know whether these are reliable and whether there are any conditions on their use? Should I buy or steer clear??

Thanks!

 

[straitman]

Hi there,

I've seen Qantas Club Complimentary Invitations advertised on ebay. Here is the link: http://cgi.ebay.com.au/4-BUSINESS-C...6615446542QQcategoryZ3253QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

I only want two vouchers for a long stop off in May, so it's not worth getting Qantas Club membership. Does anybody know whether these are reliable and whether there are any conditions on their use? Should I buy or steer clear??

Thanks!

Hi Katiegirl and welcome to AFF.

This has been covered in detail at http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=526526&page=1&pp=15

The opinions on their validity were fairly divided. I'm not sure if I'd buy them, however if the price was right them maybe.

Good luck,

 

[JohnK]

It doesn't look genuine to me but I am not an expert.

I just received one the other day, re-qualified silver, and it is the same as the one advertised but directly underneath the wording "Complimentary Invitation" are the words "Valid until end May 2007". All three that I have received so far from QF have a validity date on them which the one listed on eBay clearly does not.

Buy at your own risk!

I have two valid complimentary invitations, one valid until end May 2006 and the other valid until end May 2007, which would suit your purpose. I have been reluctant to use them for any stay less than 2-3 hours but the opportunity has not presented itself so far and I will qualify Gold next month.

I have been considering listing them on eBay but have no idea how to do so. I don't know what they are worth but if you are interested you can PM me.

 

[NM]

There are two types that are often for sale through EBay. The old Qantas Club Member's Guest Passes, and the Complementary Invitations.

The Member's Guest Passes are useless, even if they have an expiry date that has not been reached. Qantas changed the entry conditions a while back making these passes redundant and now worthless.

The Complementary Invitations are given to members when they achieve Silver Frequent Flyer status. These invitations are transferable and come up for sale every now and then as the member who received it is not going to use it. They tend to sell for around $40 on eBay, but the price does vary significantly as with most ebay auctions.

Its interesting that some are currently showing over 22 pounds, and yet the same seller has some up for buy-it-now for 7.50 pounds. Some buyers just do not do their research first.

The Complementary Invitations are the only ones I would every consider buying if I needed access. However, the seller of the ones linked above has so many of these for sale that they certainly did not obtain them by achieving Silver FF status. So that does tend to raise some questions about how they came across so many in a legitimate manner. As always, its a matter of buyer beware.

Be aware that you can only use them at real Qantas Club lounges, not partner lounges.

If your planned trip is long enough and you chose the right booking class, flight numbers and routing, you can achieve OneWorld Sapphire status through the AA Platinum Challenge and hence get lounge access any time you fly OneWorld airlines (except for AA domestic flights). For many people this is more economical than purchasing Qantas Club membership. It can also bring benefits in better burn rates for FF awards.

 

[Kalan]

Bit of a story...not entirely relevant. I was given a complementary invitation from a mate of mine, which I subsequently sold after getting sent 4 invitations for $20 from ebay. While my mate's invitation had an expiry date, the 4 I purchased turned up without one.

While waiting for them to arrive I thought buying these things el cheapo and relisting them on ebay at a profit could be a nice little trick. So I bought 4 more (from another seller, at a higher price) not knowing that they'd also turn up with no expiry date.

Later on I got an email from ebay saying purchasing and selling these things on ebay is illegal. I got my account suspended for a day, and a warning. They also 'encouraged' me to make my feedback score private for some reason, but I've said stuff it to that. So here I am stuck with these extra bloody things that I paid good money for that I can't relist at a profit. Capitalism gone sour.

The relavant part of this story is that I emailed the Qantas Club and checked whether I can gain access with these invitations that have no expiry (better to use them then have them go to waste). They didn't seem too phased, and made it sound like it would be no problem, but were interested in trying to work out where they could have came from. I plead ignorance, of course. So you might be in luck - they could get you in.

One mate of mine suggested that sellers like the one you linked to could actually be qantas staff who just pick these things up from work and sell them.

I'll be trying the ones I've been stuck with at the end of next week in a Qantas Club lounge - if I get on the net I'll let you know if they work.

 

[NM]

Later on I got an email from ebay saying purchasing and selling these things on ebay is illegal. I got my account suspended for a day, and a warning. They also 'encouraged' me to make my feedback score private for some reason, but I've said stuff it to that. So here I am stuck with these extra bloody things that I paid good money for that I can't relist at a profit. Capitalism gone sour.

Interesting story. Perhaps this is why the person selling a large quantity of these un-dated passes is doing so from the UK. Perhaps EBay Australia is monitoring Qantas goods, but not so much monitoring of Qantas good sold in the UK?

 

[Mal]

Qantas have stepped up the security of the Qantas Club Complimentary invites now, I assume to try and prevent ebay selling of the passes and to prevent forgery.

The 2 most obvious changes:

1. The addition of a hologram type sticker on the front of the card under the laminating.
2. The addition of a new T&C: "Invitations must not be sold in any way".

These will allow Qantas to get Ebay to stop sales of these new invitations if they wish.

 

[Dave Noble]

Qantas have stepped up the security of the Qantas Club Complimentary invites now, I assume to try and prevent ebay selling of the passes and to prevent forgery.

The 2 most obvious changes:

1. The addition of a hologram type sticker on the front of the card under the laminating.
2. The addition of a new T&C: "Invitations must not be sold in any way".

These will allow Qantas to get Ebay to stop sales of these new invitations if they wish.

That would stop sales of new style passes, however the ones that the person already has will still be valid for sale

Dave

 

[NM]

That would stop sales of new style passes, however the ones that the person already has will still be valid for sale

Dave

That problem will sort itself out in about 11 months. Not sure just when the new ones started to be issued, but I have one here in the new format that has an expiry date of September 2007.

 

[Mal]

That problem will sort itself out in about 11 months. Not sure just when the new ones started to be issued, but I have one here in the new format that has an expiry date of September 2007.

Dave has the right point - while the Ebayer involved still has old passes available (and is still selling them right now!) then they are still technically valid as they have no use by date on them. Of course Qantas could suddenly do a "Guest pass" trick on them and make them invalid though.

Where I was coming from is that any new pass issued is probably of the new style - eventually the old style ones will either drop off validity, or run out. Surely the Ebayer hasn't got an unlimited supply! Any ones of the new style seen on Ebay by Qantas could lead to them being withdrawn from sale as the T&C's are being breeched. Qantas could even go out on a limb and claim to Ebay that all cards have that T&C and get all cards removed.

It appears that Ebay has already been cracking down on sales on the Australian site. Maybe this is the additional ammo that Qantas requires to start going after a certain seller !

 

[Tiki]

I clicked on the link out of curiosity, the auction has been pulled. If they had been sold, I would have seen the winning bid.