Qantas Platinum One experiences?

[Canny man]

I'm going to be touch and go whether I retain P1 after 4 years at the level. Under the new rules and a cut back in business class flying I just can't reach my usual 6k plus SC's. I'm still flying as much, but my earn has dropped from 80 to 20 for each trans-continental leg. I haven't seen a double SC promotion in years, but sure would value it now.

 

[JohnK]

akin to Gold/Plat merging?

*duck & cover*

Golnum?

 

[Flying Fox]

Golnum?

Wasn't he in Lord of the Rings?

 

[JohnK]

Wasn't he in Lord of the Rings?

LOL. That was Gollum!

 

[RichardMEL]

Precious... must have my precious White card.... !!!

 

[too_much_travel]

I've been platinum for 12 months, have easily got the SCs for year 2 and was on a mission to get to platinum 1 but alas, got shipped over to the U.S. So am enduring AA and their terrible planes. I have never missed or appreciated qantas more than the last 6 months flying AA.
I was really disappointed Missing P1 but after reading through the posts, I feel a bit better. The extra SC to get to P1 don't really seem to be worth it. I have loved reading all your posts though, am jealous of the F1 tickets (even though I'm a girl!) and might get there one day, but it won't be the next 12 months.
I wish it held more weight with one world partners- that would have made the effort to get there worthwhile!

 

[ReLoad]

I've been platinum for 12 months, have easily got the SCs for year 2 and was on a mission to get to platinum 1 but alas, got shipped over to the U.S. So am enduring AA and their terrible planes. I have never missed or appreciated qantas more than the last 6 months flying AA.
I was really disappointed Missing P1 but after reading through the posts, I feel a bit better. The extra SC to get to P1 don't really seem to be worth it. I have loved reading all your posts though, am jealous of the F1 tickets (even though I'm a girl!) and might get there one day, but it won't be the next 12 months.
I wish it held more weight with one world partners- that would have made the effort to get there worthwhile!

Welcome aboard to the forums, and our deepest condolences about all the AA flying. Yes its a big bugbear about P1 not getting anything else extra on partners, especially EK! - Given the volume of QF codeshares

 

[Canny man]

Excellent P1 experience this morning. Got the shadow, discreet welcome, offer of anything I needed to make the flight more comfortable. When I didn't take the breakfast (I was in Y) I was told that if I wanted something from the forward cabin I only had to ask. I didn't take this up as I'd eaten in the lounge, but the offer was appreciated.

 

[Tiliqua]

Flew LAX-SYD earlier in the week. New boarding pass issued at LAX after arriving from SAN; nice note from the PI team on the boarding pass, along with op-up to F. Much appreciated - thanks very much to QF and the P1 team. Much appreciated.

 

[kermatu]

An indifferent start to my second stint as P1.

Just undertaken a series of domestic and trans-tasman flights, all paid fares in Y. Requested shadows from the P1 team. Good communications and I could see via EF they were indeed blocked as requests around 72 hours before each flight. That was appreciated. Only one actually held - on a very empty flight where at lest the next 8 rows all had empty middle seats on both sides of the aisle on the 737. Of the others that didn't hold, a couple were clearly full and had resulted from delays/cancellations, so no problem there. One however had several empty seats further back including some complete empty rows. Frustrating, but thanks to the kindness of the CSM and a gentleman in the Sydney F lounge I was given a better seat anyway... P1 status may have helped, though I think it was more that Alison (the CSM) recognised me.

Got an offer of better headphones but nothing else on any of the flights. A generic, welcome back / thanks for flying with us on QF flights. Nothing at all on Qantaslink flights. No messages on boarding passes.

What was disappointing was got caught up in fog chaos out of Canberra, with an international connection to Auckland. Several CBR flights delayed/cancelled as aircraft could or couldn't land. At one point got an upgrade to business as my economy seat was needed. Still on my designated flight, albeit delayed 3 hours. Finally get to board only to show up at the gate to be told to wait, there is no seat for me! The plane has no business class on this 717. That's fine, can't be helped, at least the plane landed. But then I am standing at the gate for 20 or 30 minutes along with a couple of other pax, everyone else has boarded. No idea if we'll get on. I have to advise of my international connection. I am last to board. I finally get on, shunted toward the back. As I board I see several empty seats up front.

In the J lounge for over 3 hours and this couldn't be communicated to me by the lounge staff or the P1 team or handled better? Not at all fussed re the J seat, but somewhat disappointed about the lack of communication or any attempt to smooth the onward journey. So much for looking after your P1s.

All staff at all points were as usual really terrific. In Canberra in particular all were calm and friendly, in what must have been a tough situation with so many cancelled flights. I don't think anything was anyone's fault. So there's nothing negative - just again the empty feeling that P1, for me, isn't all it's cracked up to be.

 

[RichardMEL]

Sad to report a mixed bag for me also recently.

I called the P1 SST for the first time in probably a year. I had 2 simple requests:

1. I had a booking made with a voucher that had been stuck in "processing" mode for over a week. I wanted it pushed through because I wanted the residual (over $1k worth) issued to use. I had called res the day before and been (politely) given the runaround basically being told the manual processing team said to "wait a few weeks" - now at that time I did not push my P1 status or make a fuss but I was pretty irritated at that. Since I was on the blower to the SST for (2) below I asked them about this.

2. My sister flew QF93 MEL-LAX yesterday. I called the SST to request a simple message on her BP nothing else. I thought it might be a nice surprise for her. I'd also put in for an upgrade for her to J as she'd never flown anything but Y and I wanted her to enjoy such a long flight and hoped my P1 status would be enough to snag a seat when her NB processing window hit 24 hours out.

I spoke to a lovely team member and she was more than happy to do my 2nd request even verified the spelling I wanted and she said that was no problem and was fine with it. With the voucher issue she seemed genuinely concerned at what I had previously been told and said she'd follow up internally. The conversation was polite and friendly(as always) and no issues.

results:

1. Voucher was processed about 7 hours later, but I never got an email about the residual value and initially nothing showed up in "my bookings" but I let it go and about 40 hours later (give or take) the voucher finally appeared with a PNR - but I still have yet to get an email about it. I don't blame the P1 team for that, but QF's internal processing issues. Annoying, but all sorted. I call that a mostly positive outcome

2. My sister got her upgrade - came through around 28 hours prior which was great. I don't think any P1 SSt intervention occured there though just the usual status processing of requests (I did not ask for any special treatment there btw).

Unfortunately no message on her BP. Now this is incredibly minor I know and the upgrade was the main thing for sure, but it is disappointing since I don't think it was a huge request and it was indicated to me that it was easy to do and no issue. My sister (on my prompting) asked the J lounge angels to look and they said there was nothing in the PNR at all.

I guess the thing is they say the SST is there for "special requests" and while this wasn't for me per se, it is a little disappointing that this didn't happen. Perhaps the upgrade processing nuked anything SST had done - that is possible I guess - I don't know. Still, I was a little crestfallen since I had really wanted to put an extra smile on my sister's face. Still, I think being in J for the first time more than made up for it and that's the main thing, so if SST had *anything* to do with that then that's great.

As I say I've hardly ever had issue or reason to call SST so maybe I am disappointed that since I'm not a "regular user" that I wouldn't be seen as someone expecting the world or wanting all kinds of stuff from P1, because I don't.

Anyway hopefully next time, if there is one (I have just requal for another year) things will go better

 

[Pleb Status]

High Noon again when flying QF (aka no shadows). Emailed the P1 SST to get 4E blocked (which was supposed to have occurred). Just before take off, the seat block was removed (as it was shown as blocked on expert flyer 30 minutes before) and 4E occupied by a NB. For interest, I noticed that from row 5 to row 12 of the 73H, only one other middle seat was filled (8E fom memory).

Experience has shown that about 75% to 80% of my requested seat blocks on partially full flights will get broken just before take off. QF must think I get lonely on my flights and need someone to accompany me.......

 

[danny09]

High Noon again when flying QF (aka no shadows). Emailed the P1 SST to get 4E blocked (which was supposed to have occurred). Just before take off, the seat block was removed (as it was shown as blocked on expert flyer 30 minutes before) and 4E occupied by a NB. For interest, I noticed that from row 5 to row 12 of the 73H, only one other middle seat was filled (8E fom memory).

Experience has shown that about 75% to 80% of my requested seat blocks on partially full flights will get broken just before take off. QF must think I get lonely on my flights and need someone to accompany me.......

Im surprised you even have to request a shadow. The system does it for me automatically (as for CL's aswell i believe) & 90% of my shadows actually stick.

We know that at check in anything is possible but for me I'm quiet happy with with the shadow's i get.

 

[JohnPhelan]

High Noon again when flying QF (aka no shadows). Emailed the P1 SST to get 4E blocked (which was supposed to have occurred). Just before take off, the seat block was removed (as it was shown as blocked on expert flyer 30 minutes before) and 4E occupied by a NB. For interest, I noticed that from row 5 to row 12 of the 73H, only one other middle seat was filled (8E fom memory).

Experience has shown that about 75% to 80% of my requested seat blocks on partially full flights will get broken just before take off. QF must think I get lonely on my flights and need someone to accompany me.......

So the block was put in place by the SST, but then removed at the last minute by the airport staff. Not much you can do about that - once the flight is under airport control, the agents can do pretty much anything.

 

[Pleb Status]

Im surprised you even have to request a shadow. The system does it for me automatically (as for CL's aswell i believe) & 90% of my shadows actually stick.

We know that at check in anything is possible but for me I'm quiet happy with with the shadow's i get.

I will not get a shadow unless I specifically request one. When a block is in place, you can see it on expert flyer and on the QF MMB.

Reading all of the posts here, I am convinced there is actually two levels of P1 and I am on the level which is P1 by name only and service is provided 'by request' only.

 

[Ansett]

I will not get a shadow unless I specifically request one. When a block is in place, you can see it on expert flyer and on the QF MMB.

Reading all of the posts here, I am convinced there is actually two levels of P1 and I am on the level which is P1 by name only and service is provided 'by request' only.

I couldn't agree more with the above it certainly is how I felt as a P1 too.

 

[kevrosmith]

I will not get a shadow unless I specifically request one. When a block is in place, you can see it on expert flyer and on the QF MMB.

Reading all of the posts here, I am convinced there is actually two levels of P1 and I am on the level which is P1 by name only and service is provided 'by request' only.

Which routes do you fly most? When I was P1 (a couple years back now), I found that the auto-block was visible on routes such as CNS-SYD and CNS-BNE for me, but for high-density routes such as SYD-BNE, I wouldn't see the auto-block as often.

 

[boomy]

I will not get a shadow unless I specifically request one. When a block is in place, you can see it on expert flyer and on the QF MMB.

Reading all of the posts here, I am convinced there is actually two levels of P1 and I am on the level which is P1 by name only and service is provided 'by request' only.

The only time I would bother requesting a shadow is when I book row 4 window+aisle for myself and the missus. So far I have 100% success but P1+WP should get shadow anyway unless the flight is full.

When traveling solo I don't request but still get row 4 shadow on about 80% of the flights and I'm what you may call "vanilla" P1 (re-qualified this year on exactly 3,600SCs).

Actually, from reading all the posts on this thread I can see most P1s reporting equally average treatments.

 

[Pleb Status]

The only time I would bother requesting a shadow is when I book row 4 window+aisle for myself and the missus. So far I have 100% success but P1+WP should get shadow anyway unless the flight is full.

When traveling solo I don't request but still get row 4 shadow on about 80% of the flights and I'm what you may call "vanilla" P1 (re-qualified this year on exactly 3,600SCs).

Actually, from reading all the posts on this thread I can see most P1s reporting equally average treatments.

If I do not request a row 4 seat block, I am guaranteed not to get a shadow. There was one instance I can recall where my seat block was broken even when a few aisle seats were empty further down the aircraft. My shadow percentage was actually far better when I was WP.

 

[RichardMEL]

Reading all of the posts here, I am convinced there is actually two levels of P1 and I am on the level which is P1 by name only and service is provided 'by request' only.

I must be sitting next to you on that level - we both had our shadow removed!! Sorry!