Qantas Platinum One experiences?

[Daver6]

Flew J back DEL-MEL. At check-in at DEL, we were escorted from the counters to (but not through) immigration. Don't know if this is given to other J pax. Onboard service absolutely identical to the rest of the J cabin. Despite being a classic upgrade, was able to choose row 1 at T-27. Arriving at MEL, had to wait at the carousel for half an hour for the last of our bags. I saw other priority bags also in this last bunch.

No escort for pleb J (WP) pax at DEL. Having said that, the walk from the check-in counter to the J immigration counter is less than 50m from memory. Not sure what value that adds?

 

[flyingfan]

No escort for pleb J (WP) pax at DEL. Having said that, the walk from the check-in counter to the J immigration counter is less than 50m from memory. Not sure what value that adds?

Ah interesting. It wasn't far at all and the wait at immigration was minimal even if they could cut queues for us which they couldn't.

While the DYKWIA factor is high this would be valuable only if they have the power to bring us to the front of immigration and security queues at the worst airports, and maybe also enforce priority baggage and collect them for us (I know I'm dreaming).

Otherwise this wouldn't have been at the top of my P1 benefits wishlist, unlike say being able to guest more people into the F lounges, CL passes, better VIP Service Team help and more free upgrades.

I was also going to add a buggy/cart to/from gates, but before or after a flight I'm more than happy to walk and stretch my legs.

 

[shuuy]

I remember as a P1 on JFK-AKL-SYD getting an escort in case the transfer security line was significant - it wasn't (as we landed earlier than a number of China-AKL flights all arriving around the same time)

 

[Brettmcg]

Flew Y (exit row) MEL-DEL recently. Really good service - we were Consistently™ served first, ahead of other Y passengers. Handwritten card, pyjamas, bottle of wine and other gifts offered and mostly gratefully accepted.

Flew J back DEL-MEL. At check-in at DEL, we were escorted from the counters to (but not through) immigration. Don't know if this is given to other J pax. Onboard service absolutely identical to the rest of the J cabin. Despite being a classic upgrade, was able to choose row 1 at T-27. Arriving at MEL, had to wait at the carousel for half an hour for the last of our bags. I saw other priority bags also in this last bunch.

On a slightly different note, I wonder if P1 seating can sometimes 'overpower' and possibly disrupt others sitting together. On a couple of solo domestic flights, I seemed to split some pairs of people travelling together - eg. I'm in 1A and they'd end up in 1C and 1D or 1F, on either side of the aisle. I usually book and select my seats many weeks or months in advance (apart from upgrades of course). Maybe those pairs booked late and had to get what's left.

I was on the QF69 last Saturday and surprised to be greeted by a P1 escort on arrival to DEL. Lovely lady, but pretty useless to be honest. I am a fast walker and always on a mission to get out of the airport. I was first off the aircraft and she seemed a bit annoyed that I wasn't keen to hang around for the other P1 she was meant to be looking after. Then, instead of allowing us to use the biometric collection kiosks, which would have saved a heap of time, she took us both to the wrong immigration counter (STAMP VISA), where we waited for about 20 minutes before being sent to another desk where we then had to wait an extra 30 minutes because we were now at the back of the queue. Overall would not recommend - this works much better in other ports.

 

[flyingfan]

I was on the QF69 last Saturday and surprised to be greeted by a P1 escort on arrival to DEL.

Definitely an anti-service and severe waste of time if the escort wastes your time, I'd be so frustrated (I'm not that big a DYKWIA).

We actually did get an escort arriving into DEL but it blurred because the first thing they said was my suitcase hadn't made it onboard, so my first thought wasn't about how nice to get an escort. The debacle nearly ruined our trip - I didn't get my bag until a week later and am currently claiming reimbursement.
I suppose if I hadn't been P1 I would have just been paged at the baggage hall.

 

[DejaBrew]

Out of interest, for those P1 AFFers who are encountering “problematic” / low-value escorts, are these experiences and the perceived issues/challenges something you feed back to Qantas?

 

[Daver6]

I was on the QF69 last Saturday and surprised to be greeted by a P1 escort on arrival to DEL. Lovely lady, but pretty useless to be honest. I am a fast walker and always on a mission to get out of the airport. I was first off the aircraft and she seemed a bit annoyed that I wasn't keen to hang around for the other P1 she was meant to be looking after. Then, instead of allowing us to use the biometric collection kiosks, which would have saved a heap of time, she took us both to the wrong immigration counter (STAMP VISA), where we waited for about 20 minutes before being sent to another desk where we then had to wait an extra 30 minutes because we were now at the back of the queue. Overall would not recommend - this works much better in other ports.

You'd think she would have taken you straight to the J immigration counters at least

Are the biometric kiosks something new? I've not encountered them on arrival in DEL before (or perhaps only for Indian nationals?)

 

[Fergo747]

Does anyone know how they allocate seating on QFLink? I checked-in for a flight and was down in 11A (that's the highest seat number I've had in a while!!). I was able to change to 1B but there were limited choices ahead of R11. On boarding I was one of only few status passengers (no other CLs/P1s from what I could tell) so curious to understand the logic here. My seatmate in 1A didn't have status and I was sequence 5 at checking in.

 

[Princess Fiona]

Does anyone know how they allocate seating on QFLink? I checked-in for a flight and was down in 11A (that's the highest seat number I've had in a while!!). I was able to change to 1B but there were limited choices ahead of R11. On boarding I was one of only few status passengers (no other CLs/P1s from what I could tell) so curious to understand the logic here. My seatmate in 1A didn't have status and I was sequence 5 at checking in.

Been a while since I flew on the Dashies as we now have E190 but when I do I am usually in 2A or 2D. Never further back.
Row 1 not often allocated post Covid.

So I would say that is an error on airport control. Dashies nearly always status heavy at the front but anyone could land up in row1 if they end up allocating it to pax.

 

[lurker]

Question for those that have received CL invites as P1: How do those manifest?

Is it a spur of the moment thing that happens with the lounge staff or is it something that is offered and planned in advance? Wondering if it's more of an informal thing (they know you from travel so much, they just usher you in) or whether it's something centrally managed (e.g. service message printed on boarding pass).

Thanks!

 

[Brettmcg]

Question for those that have received CL invites as P1: How do those manifest?

Is it a spur of the moment thing that happens with the lounge staff or is it something that is offered and planned in advance? Wondering if it's more of an informal thing (they know you from travel so much, they just usher you in) or whether it's something centrally managed (e.g. service message printed on boarding pass).

Thanks!

You generally receive an email from VIP Service Team a few days beforehand inviting you in.

Before the pandemic, sometimes when lounges were extremely busy, lounge staff would invite P1 into the CL as an overflow measure.

 

[ChrisGibbs]

Question for those that have received CL invites as P1: How do those manifest?

Is it a spur of the moment thing that happens with the lounge staff or is it something that is offered and planned in advance? Wondering if it's more of an informal thing (they know you from travel so much, they just usher you in) or whether it's something centrally managed (e.g. service message printed on boarding pass).

Thanks!

Up to a week out from a flight you will receive a "Experience our Chairmans Lounge" email from the Qantas VIP Service Team. In my case/s it stated "...as a valued Platinum One member who holds lifetime recognition......"

The latest one I received was for a flight from Canberra to Sydney inviting me to attend the Canberra Chairmans Lounge. It stipulated it is "for you only" and you need to reply at least a day before the flight.

I typically travel with members of my team and have, in the past, requested the invite be extended to a +1. I have been knocked back most times with this request. I'm guessing QF send these out when the loads in the Chairmans Lounge are not that high....

 

[lurker]

You generally receive an email from VIP Service Team a few days beforehand inviting you in.

Up to a week out from a flight you will receive a "Experience our Chairmans Lounge" email from the Qantas VIP Service Team. In my case/s it stated "...as a valued Platinum One member who holds lifetime recognition......"

Thanks both - I'm coming up on 7,000 SCs for the year (all Qantas ticket stock, but with a mix of OW airlines on the itineraries), so will be interesting to see if that unlocks anything for next year (or whether SC earn is even a good metric - I assume the alleged PCV is more focused on spend vs travel).

Appreciate the data points!

 

[Kangol]

Thanks both - I'm coming up on 7,000 SCs for the year (all Qantas ticket stock, but with a mix of OW airlines on the itineraries), so will be interesting to see if that unlocks anything for next year (or whether SC earn is even a good metric - I assume the alleged PCV is more focused on spend vs travel).

Appreciate the data points!

I don't know if SC earn is a good metric - I got a CL invite right before I dropped down to WP a few months ago. It was at the time when several other P1s were reporting they were getting invites.
Due to lockdowns and all that, I never earned enough to retain WP since 2020. I got P1 comped for a few years due to the extensions, like many others.

 

[Fergo747]

I don't know if SC earn is a good metric - I got a CL invite right before I dropped down to WP a few months ago. It was at the time when several other P1s were reporting they were getting invites.
Due to lockdowns and all that, I never earned enough to retain WP since 2020. I got P1 comped for a few years due to the extensions, like many others.

I understood that for a few of the months this year QF were running 'surprise and delight' type campaigns for P1s. There was a couple of months (April / May) where there were a lot of comp upgrades handed out (I think for my limited dom travel I was 3 from 4 flights) and then June / July was the CL invites which I was lucky enough to receive one for a Thursday evening flight out of Syd.

My experience was the same as ChrisGibbs described - email about a week before noting that it was only for me. When I got to the front desk they had my details so was aware that I was invited.

Not sure that PCV played into these elements as I haven't been travelling nearly as much as I used to and still was lucky enough to receive the upgrades and CL invite. I haven't heard of a CL invite in recent months so suspect they have stopped that for the time being

 

[Kangol]

I understood that for a few of the months this year QF were running 'surprise and delight' type campaigns for P1s. There was a couple of months (April / May) where there were a lot of comp upgrades handed out (I think for my limited dom travel I was 3 from 4 flights) and then June / July was the CL invites which I was lucky enough to receive one for a Thursday evening flight out of Syd.

My experience was the same as ChrisGibbs described - email about a week before noting that it was only for me. When I got to the front desk they had my details so was aware that I was invited.

Not sure that PCV played into these elements as I haven't been travelling nearly as much as I used to and still was lucky enough to receive the upgrades and CL invite. I haven't heard of a CL invite in recent months so suspect they have stopped that for the time being

The "surprise and delight" is probably what happened to me, plus CL patronage on the day may also have helped. My flight was one of the last few to depart that night and once the dinnertime flights had departed, I was the only one for the last hour or two.

Then again during that time, there were plenty of vanilla WPs reporting comp upgrades on domestic flights over social media. I did not get a single upgrade, where some flights had empty J seats. In row 4 on the 737, I could see empty seats upon disembarkation.

So maybe I have a low PCV (not just relative to those flights, but in general) and just got lucky!

 

[AFrequentFlyer]

I understood that for a few of the months this year QF were running 'surprise and delight' type campaigns for P1s. There was a couple of months (April / May) where there were a lot of comp upgrades handed out (I think for my limited dom travel I was 3 from 4 flights) and then June / July was the CL invites which I was lucky enough to receive one for a Thursday evening flight out of Syd.

My experience was the same as ChrisGibbs described - email about a week before noting that it was only for me. When I got to the front desk they had my details so was aware that I was invited.

Not sure that PCV played into these elements as I haven't been travelling nearly as much as I used to and still was lucky enough to receive the upgrades and CL invite. I haven't heard of a CL invite in recent months so suspect they have stopped that for the time being

My colleague had one yesterday.

I haven't received one yet, so I'm curious how they allocate. Just out of interest, what level of lifetime SC are the P1 members that received invites?

My colleague is a little over 50k lifetime and I'm wondering if that plays into their selection criteria - beyond CL lounge capacity.

 

[AFrequentFlyer]

I had a really odd experience that I can't really replicate (or understand how it happened to begin with).

I booked an international flight from Sydney to London for my mum through the VIP team. When the booking came through, my FF was attached to her booking.

So it had her name on the ticket, but my FF number and my status.

Then for her entire trip she received the P1 treatment with an upgrade to First both ways and access to the first lounge, even though she's a Bronze member.

Every time I've tried to attach my FF to another person's name it's always rejected.

Anybody have any ideas on how this would have happened?

 

[Fergo747]

My colleague had one yesterday.

I haven't received one yet, so I'm curious how they allocate. Just out of interest, what level of lifetime SC are the P1 members that received invites?

My colleague is a little over 50k lifetime and I'm wondering if that plays into their selection criteria - beyond CL lounge capacity.

Doubt LTSC plays into it. I’ve got just shy of 20k SC so relatively ‘junior’ in the ranks.

 

[flyingfan]

I had a really odd experience that I can't really replicate (or understand how it happened to begin with).

I booked an international flight from Sydney to London for my mum through the VIP team. When the booking came through, my FF was attached to her booking.

So it had her name on the ticket, but my FF number and my status.

Then for her entire trip she received the P1 treatment with an upgrade to First both ways and access to the first lounge, even though she's a Bronze member.

Every time I've tried to attach my FF to another person's name it's always rejected.

Anybody have any ideas on how this would have happened?

That’s a new one, I thought QF had systems to ensure only the person flying could have their FF details on, sounds like an error (possibly in your favour, unless your mum is chasing points/SCs).

Maybe it had to do with your booking via the VIP team rather than yourself online? Maybe they somehow mistakenly entered your FF details on her booking and the system let them?
Was it an ‘Enjoy your flight’ upgrade on the boarding passes?
Does your mum happen to have the same first initial/similar name to you (eg. Peter/Peta)?