Qantas Platinum One experiences?

[Ansett]

I obtained P1 utilising the DSC and have to say due to a recent change in employment little chance now of retaining P1 so will slip back to WP next year. So will enjoy whilst I can

 

[pagingjoan]

I obtained P1 utilising the DSC and have to say due to a recent change in employment little chance now of retaining P1 so will slip back to WP next year. So will enjoy whilst I can

I should have given that half a like: For the obtaining, not for the prospect of losing.

 

[Ansett]

I should have given that half a like: For the obtaining, not for the prospect of losing.

LOL

I must say that it will be disappointing to lose the status however it would have been even more disappointing to have missed it in the first place

 

[pagingjoan]

Indeed!
Enjoy the moment - and the year.

 

[Hvr]

I obtained P1 utilising the DSC and have to say due to a recent change in employment little chance now of retaining P1 so will slip back to WP next year. So will enjoy whilst I can

I did exactly the same. With judicious use of JASAs and DSCs I obtained WP1. Now I'm employed again I will retain WP (totally self funded) and hopefully attain LTG this year.

I am enjoying it and looking forward to my AKL-SYD-LAX-MEL-AKL JASA in MAY/JUN as a WP1.

 

[Pleb Status]

Yay! My first QFi Op Up (Y->J) in almost five years (despite being WP or better all of that time). And this is only my third QFi Op Up ever. So being P1 has now yielded one official QFd Op Up, one unofficial (CSM on board) QFd Op Up and one official QFi Op Up in nine months and ~3200 SC of flying.

Too bad they are axing the route..... Or maybe it is because they are axing it?

 

[wafliron]

Problems are:-
- Past does not equal future. Sending the wrong messages to a customer will only show them QF doesn't care/understand their needs.
- QF has no idea why someone actually flys with them (beside employment mandates)
- QF does not use the data to effectively market towards engaging each customer in a style that they would respond to
- QF has no idea on what parts of the journey/experience with QFF the customer has most value on or an emotional connection towards
- QF has no churn management strategy
- QF has no idea of your share of wallet. Just because you're P1 doesn't mean 100% is going to QFF. I know P1's that also maintain top status on other airlines.

Data rich, information poor.
These are real problems facing QF (and other ffps!)

Surely QF use some of the surveys they send out to fill in some of these blanks? I know I've completed a couple over the years that have covered off most of these points.

Granted, it's not great data (or should I say, information ), but it's better than nothing.

 

[serfty]

...

And no, VA doesn't count! [i have just discovered 200K Velocity points languishing in a rarely used account and have no idea what to do with them. Isn't that pathetic?]

188K of those and about $125 will get you a MEL-LAX return in Business class.

 

[pagingjoan]

188K of those and about $125 will get you a MEL-LAX return in Business class.

Thank you, Serfty.
You've re-motivated me to move this project higher on the To Do list.

 

[ReLoad]

Thank you, Serfty.
You've re-motivated me to move this project higher on the To Do list.

Ah cough, there goes my purple spotted Swiss designed, German inspired, Austrian made toaster

 

[pagingjoan]

Ah cough, there goes my purple spotted Swiss designed, German inspired, Austrian made toaster

Okay.
A promise is a promise.

I will search for Y rather than J.
Should be enough left over for a few purple spots?

 

[ReLoad]

Well here's a bit of a mini TR on today's P1 event on the Queen Mary 2 in Melbourne.

Nadia and Nicole from Qantas Loyalty were on hand today to give us a taste of the Queen Mary 2, was great to chat with them and spoke quite freely about the changes at QF, although from the loyalty arm things are nowhere near in as much turmoil as operations. They touched on Aquire which is coming up (31 march launch) and the main takeaway that I got was they were very focused on their partners side of things with Aquire.

There were 15 P1's and partners due today of which 26 people in total showed up, including one lady who was stoked to be on board while her husband (the P1) was off flying somewhere!
of the P1's the ones we had lunch with were all freshly minted P1's and all rather poignantly wondered if this was their "one thing" that would be special form P1, most had either friends or colleagues or are P1 and have had a one shot deal when it comes to events.
I got a quick sideways glance at the WP1 guest list and over 75% were "Managing Director" or something similar. - something I most certainly am not! - odd one out thats for sure!

What was interesting was the groups that were going on board, there was a group from WPO/YPO, A group form QF Captains choice and the lowly P1's

There was a certain amount of sales spiel in the ships tour - I guess matching demographics, but it was not too over the top, I really did enjoy exploring the ship, we got to see a few different cabins and lots of the ship.

The lunch was fantastic in the Britannia restaurant, the service really is as good as it gets, we were made to feel welcome and the food was delightful.
we both had the Courgette soup for entree - was very flavoursome and delicious.
We also both had the Fillet steak for mains, my wife has hers burnt to a crisp, while i prefer medium rare, both were cooked perfectly and the cut of meat was excellent.
For desert the Chocolate fondait with caramel ice cream was brilliant.

If that's a sample of the meals on board, then holy cow!

Overall it was a great day, well executed by QF. What really made the day for me was that my wife got to thoroughly enjoy the day and she was made to feel special, after all she is the one who has to put up with me being away so often, so to be rewarded by QF was in her eyes something special, it will take a lot of work to now pry her away from QF!

So to QF, and the P1 team, thank you very much, it was really appreciated by the two of us.

A few pics:



The SPA


(A collective noun of P1's) heading to lunch.


Ahhh, rancho relaxo, where i would rather be!


PS Oh and Pushka who is on board, we are very jealous!

 

[danny09]

Great TR & am pleased to hear you had a great time & well done to the SST & QF Loyalty

 

[EmilyHoward]

Excellent report ReLoad. Glad you enjoyed it. I seem to remember doing a tour of the Queen Mary 1 in LA a few years ago. Wasn't quite so good! LOL.

EH

 

[shambles]

No need to aim for WP next year as you will get a soft drop down to WP anyway

Does this mean that even if I bailed on QF completely from when my qualifying clock starts ticking again in Aug 2015, that at worse I'd get a soft drop back to WP for the following year?

I hit WP1 back in Nov 2013 just a third of the way into my QF year, effectively giving me 20 months of WP1 (it runs out Aug 2015). So far, nearly six months into WP1, I have to say there is no real difference in the experience between WP1 & regular WP. Haven't had any surprise upgrades or invitations to lunches or concerts etc. I have "Motorsport" listed in every part of my profile and no offers of GP tickets which you'd think would be easy considering QF are main sponsor and I'm based in MEL?

Like others have said, I'm also not going to bother doing the significant amount of flying with QF that it took me to get to WP1 - the benefits simply don't match the 3x WP loyalty requirement.

J

 

[samh004]

Does this mean that even if I bailed on QF completely from when my qualifying clock starts ticking again in Aug 2015, that at worse I'd get a soft drop back to WP for the following year?

Correct. In the privileges it mentions a soft drop after P1 if you don't manage to attain it again.

Haven't had any surprise upgrades or invitations to lunches or concerts etc. I have "Motorsport" listed in every part of my profile and no offers of GP tickets which you'd think would be easy considering QF are main sponsor and I'm based in MEL?

I'd have suggested sending the SST an email letting them know of your love/passion and that may have helped. Is there still time?

 

[Ansett]

Correct. In the privileges it mentions a soft drop after P1 if you don't manage to attain it again.



I'd have suggested sending the SST an email letting them know of your love/passion and that may have helped. Is there still time?

According to the SST Member I spoke to en emailed about this There Was NO GP Tickets made available to ANYONE this year....... Must be part the cost cutting......

 

[TonyHancock]

I know I'll be against the tide, but I'd be happy if QF did not bother with the "special events" and focused entirely on the service aspect when traveling. I'm rarely able to attend events because I'm usually traveling anyway, and special events are far less likely to influence my decision to fly QF than genuinely excellent service would.

 

[boomy]

I know I'll be against the tide, but I'd be happy if QF did not bother with the "special events" and focused entirely on the service aspect when traveling. I'm rarely able to attend events because I'm usually traveling anyway, and special events are far less likely to influence my decision to fly QF than genuinely excellent service would.

I'm happy to trade any special events invitations for more upgrades

 

[ReLoad]

What I did learn at the P1 lunch that was interesting was the memo about no more discretion on changing red-e deals, I mostly fly domestically outbound on red-e deals and come back flexi, but that sucks being not able to change a red-e deal at the airport.