Qantas Platinum Soft Landing

[AIRwin]

Good news is I made PC+ so I have started with 100 SC and with plenty of flights booked in 2025 I'll make the 500 to keep SG.

Enough for Platinum?

 

[smckay]

Enough for Platinum?

I doubt it. We've got 4 rewards flights plus 4 AA and 2 BA paid flights booked in 2025 so will hit Gold OK.
Reality is, I'm a solid Gold FF normally. 1st year of WP was due to sick parents, 2nd year was status support so the ride was good while it lasted.
But, I didn't get much additional love in the air and only hit Hobart call centre 60% of the time. So apart from the Emerald lounge access my flying life won't change much. Although I do have WP bag tags to flaunt and try the DYKWIA thing

 

[oz_mark]

View attachment 413730
I knew it had to end but still is hard to read.
Good news is I made PC+ so I have started with 100 SC and with plenty of flights booked in 2025 I'll make the 500 to keep SG.

View attachment 413731
So good news with the bad news.

They were definitely quick off the mark with the downgrades this time around. None of the higher status lingering for a few days....

 

[smckay]

Yep. First log in this morning about 8.30am went from black to gold with status and flights still showing from last year.
Logged in again about 10am. Status and flights nada.
But, when I achieved WP it was just as instant going from gold to black.

 

[transpactraveller]

View attachment 413730
I knew it had to end but still is hard to read.

No offer to retain Platinum by paying for it with points? (does QF still do this?)

 

[smckay]

I only had 365 SC at the end of the year. Popular consensus is closer to 1,200 SC the more chance of a points offer.

 

[exceladdict]

I only had 365 SC at the end of the year. Popular consensus is closer to 1,200 SC the more chance of a points offer.

How about the year before? You mentioned status support helped.

 

[JIMMYTHEJET]

We will let u into the first class lounge on ur next flight just stand out of the front

 

[Happy Dude]

a huge achievement - no matter the topic/area of study.

Yeah, nah..... This diminishes the achievement somewhat

More seriously @kangarooflyer88, I'd suggest an offer of 120k to retain WP is well worth it if you covet QF J/F awards. If you drop to SG, you'll have the 120k points but it's much harder to use them on anything nice. Can't request release of reward seats and further back in the queue to access CRs and upgrades!

 

[smckay]

How about the year before? You mentioned status support helped.

Year 1 I did some status runs when visiting my mother who wasn't well. Year 2 I took some of my inheritance and tripped the USA in AA First to achieve again.

In hindsight, I should have done some status runs to NZ in DSC to retain but it duzznt matta - all flying next year is J so we get a shower and a meal at ports so that is enough for me.

 

[smckay]

We will let u into the first class lounge on ur next flight just stand out of the front

LOL.
We got one more chance with a QF F CR in August. Be nice not to beg for a spa appointment. Like the WP I once was.

 

[kangarooflyer88]

More seriously @kangarooflyer88, I'd suggest an offer of 120k to retain WP is well worth it if you covet QF J/F awards. If you drop to SG, you'll have the 120k points but it's much harder to use them on anything nice. Can't request release of reward seats and further back in the queue to access CRs and upgrades!

Having been Platinum for a year right now, I cannot justify keeping the status. Whenever I needed to travel internationally and called up Qantas to release award seats in J (or F) it has been a flat no from them. Didn't matter the routing, didn't matter the dates. Now yes, it was nice having QF release Y seats domestically in Australia during peak travel times (i.e. MEL > PER in early January) but for me that's not a huge deal. Certainly not worth staying loyal to Qantas and OneWorld for that matter. The only tangible benefit I got as being Platinum was on flights with LATAM with free upgrades to business class on MEL > SCL and GRU > JFK, as I status matched over to LATAM Black. Similarly with United and Air Canada I got free baggage and lounge access with my Qantas Platinum thanks to it status matching over to Turkish Elite Plus. But as I'm sure you are aware status matches are generally a one time only type of deal.

As mentioned earlier, I don't plan on staying in Australia for too much longer so any Qantas specific benefits will be limited and I think 120,000 points would do me much better travelling to Europe or the Americas in style, particularly on partners like AA or British Airways. With that said I do intend on keeping my Gold status, as the number of status credits needed is reasonable and it would be nice to have Lifetime Gold status. The only challenge there would be getting those 4 flights on QF Group flights although I suspect I'll have a flight to Asia in 2026 when that requirement becomes an issue.

-RooFlyer88

 

[aikman]

Whenever I needed to travel internationally and called up Qantas to release award seats in J (or F) it has been a flat no from them.

So true. This simple fact is not spoken enough here at AFF.

 

[DejaBrew]

So true. This simple fact is not spoken enough here at AFF.

Come on.... there are plenty of examples of AFF members posting about how their seat release requests were approved. Some folks seem to be of the opinion that WP/P1 are entitled to request and have J/F CR seats approved for release whenever they want (which is simply untrue), but that Qantas constantly rejects such requests. The only entitlement is the opportunity to request the release of CR seats and to have the request considered by Qantas. To suggest or imply that the entitlement extends beyond this is just plain wrong. Naturally, most folks will want to score J/F seating for international flights and Qantas would understandably want to get as many of those seats filled out as revenue fares, so is it any surprise that they're harder to get released?

 

[Lynda2475]

So true. This simple fact is not spoken enough here at AFF.

There is actually an entire thread dedicated to this topic, indicating success and failures for such requests.

 

[aikman]

That thread is biased towards the few members who do get a seat released. Most people get rejected but they don't bother publicising that rejection by posting it in that thread.

 

[SYD]

That thread is biased towards the few members who do get a seat released. Most people get rejected but they don't bother publicising that rejection by posting it in that thread.

There's a quite of lot of rejections there also.

 

[DejaBrew]

There's a quite of lot of rejections there also.

Not to mention that quite a few of the “approved” releases were subsequent to a whole bunch of initial rejections.

 

[kangarooflyer88]

Some folks seem to be of the opinion that WP/P1 are entitled to request and have J/F CR seats approved for release whenever they want

That privilege is reserved for the Prime Minister and Minister of Transport.

-RooFlyer88

 

[tdimdad]

The only challenge there would be getting those 4 flights on QF Group flights although I suspect I'll have a flight to Asia in 2026 when that requirement becomes an issue.

You need QF marketed flights. This gives you also codeshares on other carriers. Though, purchasing tickets originating elsewhere would be a challenge.