As promised, I will give a run down on what the P1 “Gala Event” in Brisbane last week was like for me.
As I stated before, this was the first P1 invite I was in the country for, so I wanted to attend. Curiosity if nothing else. I do not live in Brisbane, but am up at Noosa when in Aussie, so heading for a thing in Brissy was a bit of a stretch, but after finding overnight childcare for the daughter ( a midweek “sleepover” as I called it ), wife and I agreed it would be fun to drive down and stay the night in Brisbane.
As the other P1 AFF members are so slack on following this thread, I thought there were no other AFF members there – which was a shame – would have loved the chance to catch up. So effectively it was an evening event that we attended with total strangers.
There was very little info in the confirmation emails – it just mentioned the venue (in the Howard Smith Wharf precinct under the Story Bridge), that it involved drinks and food, and suggested “business” attire. Very little info really.
We arrived on the dot at the nominated 6:30pm start time. This precinct has quite a few bars, restaurants, etc, and they had a lady in QF uniform near the entrance to provide guidance to the specific venue. Well done.
The venue was great – right on the river, with a bar and hall and a deck area on the water’s edge. Very pretty. Great location. I am not a Brisbanite but this is clearly a popular modern part of the town’s night life.
As per the scant info in the emails, we arrived not knowing if it was a formal sit-down dinner or whatever. In fact they had a scattering of tall small tables with bar stools, and the event was effectively some drinkies and finger food and mingling.
The food was OK, but not spectacular. (ended up getting a kebab in the street after). The drinks consisted of beer / wine / champagne. The bubbly on offer was Veuve Clicquot, which both my wife and I quite enjoy. I eventually swapped to a nice cab sav but cannot recall the one…. The waiting staff were really good – drinks and nibblies offered continuously and very professional and nice. Well done staff.
Even though the staff did frequent rounds, you could also approach the bar, which at times had a small queue. Funny actually, as it appears P1’s are a mix of people getting what they want, first, but also being very polite in general
After a while there was a small official “speech”. Olivia Wirth (CEO Qantas Loyalty) started it, then Alan Joyce (CEO Qantas) finished it. These talks were obviously slightly commercial, but I think they were very well done. There was a touch of Queenslanderism to cater for the crowd (reminding us all that Qld was where Qantas was born, etc), but overall it was light and personal. It was clear to me that Alan is a real believer in the whole Project Sunrise thing – which I am also. He also said they were very close to announcing direct flights from Brisbane to either Chicago or Seattle – again – I like that.
They dished out three “awards” – bloke with the greatest km flown in last year on QF – about 370,000 if I recall correctly? Bloke with greatest number of QF flights (160? – the joke was that this was approx double what Alan had done), and finally, the bloke with greatest amount of SC. This last one was controversial, as even Olivia said, it is a hard thing to measure at any given point in time. So I understood it to be the member with the greatest SC on the day. I think it was about 4800? (I laughed inside at this, as I am currently sitting on exactly ZERO SC. Due to time home and only having flown on points tickets so far this year
)
After the speeches/awards, they got their entertainment in – which consisted of good old Daryl Braithwaite doing some songs. This went down really well.
The rest of the evening consisted of more mingling. They had a wall with QF livery where a few times Alan was there so people could get a photo with him. Not my cup of tea, but I did get to meet him during the evening and chat for a short while – actually really liked him.
I also met Olivia. She appears to be a very competent corporate person.
The evening finished at the designated time, all appeared to go well. A nice evening. Not earth-shattering, but solid and well run.
after doing the most flying I’ve done in one year with Qantas and Oneworld, ever. 
