Qantas Platinum One experiences?

[kermatu]

Question for fellow P1's How have you been treated on EK flights? any different to QF? How has your op up success rate been on EK metal? (with or without QF flight nos/ticketed)?

I have had one flight with EK last weekend. Booked in J via Qantas, Singapore to Melbourne. Reserved preferred seat by the Plat 1 team as I couldn't get it on the QF site. When I checked in I had been moved to a far worse seat (still in J). Check-in and Qantas lounge (Singapore) couldn't do anything, nor could Plat 1 team. But in the EK lounge I asked if I could be returned to original seat. Asked to leave it with them. About an hour later I was handed a new boarding pass with an upgrade to first. To be honest I don't know if it was because of status or because I had explained that I wanted to move (and I didn't ask). My suspicion is the latter, because on board while I got excellent treatment, it was 1st class and there was no reference to status, being with Qantas or trying to recruit me to EK.

 

[kermatu]

And I should say it is the one and only time I have ever received an upgrade - dozens of QF flights, including about 15 since becoming P1. My overall experience of 6 months as P1 is very underwhelming:

-- Zero upgrades on QF on the 15 (of about 25) flights when I wasn't in top class.
-- Greetings on maybe 7 of these 25.
-- Zero invitations to events (Canberra-based).
-- Zero gifts.
-- Aside from Epiqure, just one discount offer in store.
-- No acknowledgment of status in lounge (had expected something in Singapore - attendant was only concerned with getting my details so EK could be billed).
-- Plat1 team very friendly and polite but have not successfully held seats for me or resolved my two encountered problems.

On the plus side:
-- Greetings / chats have been genuine and appreciated.
-- On two long-ish domestic Y flights (Syd-Cns-Mel) was treated very nicely with free wine (although I specified wine when asked "can we do anything for you?").
-- All published benefits have been realised.

So perhaps I am just 'unlucky'. Or they recognise I am unlikely to retain P1 in the medium term. At least I won't miss it.

 

[zachary.august]

I think this is a bit of nonsense, firstly, DSC, if a person managed to get P1 thanks to DSC are they really flying all that much to "absorb" your benefits?

This isn't the Melbourne club or MENSA, it's a extra level of service, which the SST certainly is. Is it worthwhile spending extra to go for? Nope, but for those of us who happened to get it anyway then great.

At the family Christmas BBQ I was speaking to my brother in law who is a Dom CSM, he said there is about 3500 p1s give or take. So is a few hundred (at most) that have got P1 due to DSC going to make any difference?

Has P1 been a success? It all comes down to expectations, was the QF marketing setting expectations of a "club" of the best FF'ers or did they set the expectation of "here is some better service"?

DSC reduces the required SCs to 1800, as you can deduce, which if you ask me is not worthy of a separate level of service billed and marketed as a service for the road warriors. It shouldn't be for people, in my opinion, who in essence take the system and milk it through DSC. Also when you say a few hundred people being in a tier of 3500 you are talking around 5.7-8.5% which is a fairly sizeable chunk, enough to make certain services or potential services to costly to run. So for those who 'happened' upon P1 at 1800SC vs those who attained it at the published level of 3600 I think that it isn't sustainable or positive. I mean when you've got just under 10% of your program hitting your status at only 400SCs over vanilla P1, what 'exclusive' benefits are worth offering? A simulator ride, a bottle of red and meeting a pop star?

 

[Hvr]

Well I went to the Test today and enjoyed it. Whilst not the best day of cricket I did enjoy the atmosphere and being at a landmark Melbourne event.

On either side of my friend and I, we each had a double shadow.

I stayed until the end to savour it all. I think the people behind me were guests of a company as well noting their tickets had the same payment code as mine. (They were in their pockets with the pricing bit pointing upwards and outwards).

The seats were quite good being in the Olympic stand just to the right of the Members.

 

[erkpod]

Well I went to the Test today and enjoyed it. Whilst not the best day of cricket I did enjoy the atmosphere and being at a landmark Melbourne event.

On either side of my friend and I, we each had a double shadow.

I stayed until the end to savour it all. I think the people behind me were guests of a company as well noting their tickets had the same payment code as mine. (They were in their pockets with the pricing bit pointing upwards and outwards).

The seats were quite good being in the Olympic stand just to the right of the Members.

Were you in J?

 

[Hvr]

Were you in J?

Funnily enough I was in Row J and my favorite seat, 12.

 

[erkpod]

Funnily enough I was in Row J and my favorite seat, 12.

That's too cool! Funny how it works sometimes!

 

[trippin_the_rift]

So for those who 'happened' upon P1 at 1800SC vs those who attained it at the published level of 3600 I think that it isn't sustainable or positive. I mean when you've got just under 10% of your program hitting your status at only 400SCs over vanilla P1, what 'exclusive' benefits are worth offering? A simulator ride, a bottle of red and meeting a pop star?

There are a few members here who cashed in massively on DSC. I think this is a negative for both member and QFF, let me explain:-
Member gets an easy ride into P1 and gets a taste of the benefits... maybe a flight sim visit, $50 of free wine, maybe an op-up (that they may have got as vanilla WP anyway), and a bit of love onboard.
Member obviously doesn't re-qualify the following year.
What does this member think of P1 after being Plat again? Perhaps others who have done this can comment?

And I should say it is the one and only time I have ever received an upgrade - dozens of QF flights, including about 15 since becoming P1. My overall experience of 6 months as P1 is very underwhelming:

That's a real shame you feel this way (for you and for QFF). The P1 welcome pack does paint a picture of P1 being the bees knees... and Alan Joyce has referred to P1's as the "cream of the cream". I've only been in business for 15 years and I could be wrong here, but unless you want to fire a customer - you generally treat your top customers the better than the rest. I feel your pain with upgrades. I've not had any free upgrades as a P1, and I've been P1 since it started 25 months ago with probably around 150+ flights.

 

[trippin_the_rift]

Has P1 been a success? It all comes down to expectations, was the QF marketing setting expectations of a "club" of the best FF'ers or did they set the expectation of "here is some better service"?

You're right on the money here. It comes down to understanding what is actually most important to each customer. I read a study recently that suggests up to 97.4% of customers don't know what they really want from a business they deal with on a monthly basis. QF Loyalty has a great deal invested into BI systems like Teradata,Cognos, standard research agency tools and other big data solutions. These are great for analytical problems but fail massively in identifying and acting on what customers really want. They can't (and won't ever be able to) understand how a customers brain is wired to drive decisions. Understanding what motivates each individual customer should have been the #1 priority for QF Loyalty as once you know this very delicate data, you're able to create a perfect-world scenario for that customer consistently every time and grow with that customer as their real needs transpire over time. Without the right information to begin with you're essentially shooting blind with 'spray and pray' type loyalty marketing, and that's why we see some P1's that are happy and others that are not.

In general, data on each frequent flyers experience is disparate and disorganized. QF Loyalty business intelligence analysts try to make sense of this using numbers, which ultimately will succeed on only a portion of flyers. It won't make sense of or see the customers it's doing a mediocre job of servicing, which will then be re-categorised, and a new strategy will be applied to that customer. A new "loyalty marketing strategy" that is then fundamentally flawed because they missed the initial flags of what the customer really wants.

I hope QF Loyalty ramps up their innovation and customer engagement quickly because it's clear from threads like this that with the right formula, loyalty could be significantly more profitable than it currently is.

 

[marki]

P1 "Meh" is the best way to describe the p1 experience!
They really do need to improve

 

[Kangol]

On the plus side:

-- All published benefits have been realised.

For the first time recently I read here that there was a benefit of unlimited checked luggage on dom flights. Is that true? Are there any other benefits that aren't publicised?

 

[kermatu]

For the first time recently I read here that there was a benefit of unlimited checked luggage on dom flights. Is that true? Are there any other benefits that aren't publicised?

Never been something I have tested.

 

[Kangol]

Never been something I have tested.

Oh, so was there any mention of it in the P1 welcome/information pack?

 

[samh004]

For the first time recently I read here that there was a benefit of unlimited checked luggage on dom flights. Is that true? Are there any other benefits that aren't publicised?

I'd imagine this is perhaps true for CL, but not P1. Where did you read this?

 

[zachary.august]

I'd imagine this is perhaps true for CL, but not P1. Where did you read this?

Yep, correct. Unlimited baggage allowance for CL and anyone on the same booking.

 

[markis10]

I'd imagine this is perhaps true for CL, but not P1. Where did you read this?

From now on CL has been replaced by KS, as in packed everything including the kitchen sink.

 

[samh004]

I certainly hope that P1 is capped, for fear that it will go the way of CL in some respects. The CL service for a 'vanilla CL' is at Platinum level now save for access to the lounge. As a P1CL I have been told on many occasions that they now value P1 over vanilla level 1 CLs (that's low level company offered status, public servants, MPs without portfolio etc) since it has become so diluted. I would invalidate DSCs for Platinum One gain, they have a chance to create a really fantastic club at that level.

If that's the case, I'll stick my hand up to be a 'vanilla' CL and all its lack of benefits

It can be capped quite easily.

Stop the silly double SCs offers. If you cant earn Platinum One in your own right then you are not worthy of that status. And what happens is the Platinum One numbers saturate and the service personnel are not increased to cope with the extra demand so you have declining levels of service.

And no I am not having a go at the people taking advantage of these offers. Just at the people offering them.

While this wont do much for P1, I think they should have added a requirement beyond 4 flights for QF loyalty earn. An actual minimum SC-earn on Qantas would have been appropriate for all levels. Like they did with loyalty bonuses. Lounges are so busy with people flying on other airlines to achieve status.

I don't think the level of service was every up there though, doesn't matter how many more members have got there now, I don't think the expertise of staff and investment was ever made. There could be one member as a P1 and I bet they'd still have seating issues and an inconsistent greeting when they boarded the plane. This isn't because of numbers. Numbers don't help, but it's not the root cause.

Do not worry. The P1 service level is at a WP level now, so it cannot reduce any further (except QF appear to want to reduce the gap between WP and SG with the increased status bonus to 75%, combined J and F lounges like SIN etc). I would call the whole P1 experiment a dismal failure and I would recommend it be abolished. Get rid off all DSC promotions, introduce a minimum 50% QF SC earn requirement for WP and then increase the general service level to all WP would be a far better solution for all.

The 75-100% gap was changed so long ago now!

While I haven't tried the new combined lounge, in a port without many QF flights these days, a combined lounge does make much more sense. What they should do is expand on the extras to also include Platinum/Emeralds, not just P1 members. That'd be nice.

 

[moa999]

I think part of QFs training is 'Surprise and Delight'. Thus to kevrosmith's questions - on a weekend flight you should expect to pay for drinks, not get a pillow etc, but you will occasionally get something special... Some well see this as inconsistency, others will see it as a nice surprise on that flight.

As for inviting you to use the J toilets, I disagree with that as it encourages others to do the same

 

[vitagen]

I don't think anyone would go 0-1800 (3600 with dsc ) in the 3 months to fully take advantage of gaining p1 cheaply.

If on the rare occasion they do , they absolutely deserve p1.... and remember They need to continue to fly to enjoy the benefits.

 

[samh004]

.... and remember They need to continue to fly to enjoy the benefits.

People often forget that, they see someone earning it cheaply and then that's it... well heck, you have to continue flying to then be treated differently. I'd imagine if anyone used DSC to shoot from 0-1800 in 3 months they might not want to fly again for 6-12 months! That'd be tough! And if they did it in premium classes, then they are perhaps quite deserving.