Getting what you paid for is fair enough but that's not an incentive to hold high status. Anyone can purchase a ticket and get what they paid for. The biggest problem with P1 is the benefits are inconsistent, some published while other unpublished. Upgrades are few and far between, even basic welcome greetings are inconsistent these days. I forgot the last time offered a ticket to one of the "special" events. Sure, there some nice perks like the flight simulator and also SST is great but as you said, how many times one really need to use it...
Not going to argue with your points at all here, but more my own point of view on this.
When I say I get what I paid for - I basically mean the published, and thus expected, benefits of the status I've attained - in this case P1.
When you say "upgrades are few and far between" - do you mean courtesy op ups or upgrades using points - as in feeling that despite apparent priority over the vast majority of QFF's space is not made available? I'm trying to not assume, though I *think * you mean courtesy op ups.
For me, the "unpublished" benefits are inconsistent because they are opaque to us and most likely on a first come, first served basis, or even the times QF decide to offer things could be affected by all kinds of factors - from simply not putting enough in one's QFF profile in terms of interests etc, to however QF decide to 'reward" people with offers to events or a bottle of wine(I've never had one) or whatever.
For me, I don't count any of these unpublished benefits, like courtesy upgrades, special messages from the SST on BP's or invites as something to have an *expectation* for because it more or less is, as I see it, random in nature (yes I am sure on the farm all animals are equal but some are more equal than others, but that too is opaque to me as a customer so I try to not worry myself too much about what the next P1 is getting vs me).
As it is I mostly am fortunate to purchase in premium cabins for various reasons, so it's rare QF would get an opoortunity to give me a courtesy op up because I'm already in J. That's my choice. With int flying, when I've purchased in J, on routes with F I've had 100% success rate with upgrades to P coming through, usually within the 7 day window. I don't *expect* to get 100%, but I do expect to have a pretty good shot at it, unless I see the flight is showing F1 or less. So from that point of view my expectations re the published benefit of upgrade priority are met.
As for greetings from CSM's or whoever.. really I couldn't be fussed one way or another so don't notice too much. Actually when i think of it I find it a little embarrassing if a fuss is made (but that's just me) so it's not really something I value in terms of my QF experience. Oh it's nice if someone recognises I fly a lot, or like the odd Res agent who has remarked to me that as a P1 I'm very important and help pay their wages and stuff. That's nice, but it's not what I buy my ticket for.
So what is MY incentive for the status? Hard to qualify tbh. I think for things like the upgrade priority (over WP) it's great and if I'm going to be flying enough to make it then I might as well credit to QF rather than maybe making say Gold or something on VA. If I don't make it next year I won't cry. I've made LTG (as discussed elsewhere) so there is far less incentive than there was.
However I may wind up having to get more Y or Y+ tix, and things like the odd op up would be really good but as I wrote above to me all that stuff are like the unexpected cherries on top. Lovely surprises, but not things to be expected.
I should state this though - I have found res VERY accomidating (and lounge staff) when dealing with changes *I* request, or dragging U availability when technically perhaps there shouldn't be any. Sure, part of that is published like same day no fee standby/flight changes and the like, but there's definitely - in my experiences anyway - a deference to the status in terms of meeting my requests (one recent experience comes to mind the night before a flight I noticed the 332 J config had been swapped and I wanted to move to an earlier flight for the J suite, and they did do it and maintain my U seat. at no charge - stuff like that is VERY nice).
Re SST I'd love to get a general idea from others here how often they contact them and perhaps more importantly what for.
maybe next year you'll rejoin the ranks.
) ... I haven't felt a need to contact them!!
