First time flying QF in several months after consciously moving away from them, but they had classic reward availability on SYD-BNE tonight and cash fares were bonkers.
Depending on routing, yes QF fares can be quite pricey. Every QF trip I pay out of pocket, I will almost always book either as a classic award or during a promotion. For instance, I booked SYD > MEL > AKL > SYD > MEL for ~$1100 earlier this year during the double status credit promotion and will earn 480 status credits on the flight. Given it is not unusual to find trans-tassie fares to be roughly half the cost at the back of the bus, that was one heck of a deal! Contrast this to me flying SYD > CHC earlier this month which was around the same price at the back of the bus booked through my employer (who no doubt has a negotiated rate with QF).
The space feels virtually identical to the Qantas Club. If this is a food upgrade from QC, I don’t want to know what’s over there today. They seem to be rationing out a half dozen minimally filled prawn rolls every half hour or so and there are literally several older pax standing up to “check” every 5 minutes.
I'd argue that the Qantas Club is the luxury lounge compared to the Qantas Business lounge for the simple fact that you get way better views of take offs and landing. Also, there tends to be fewer business folk yelling on their phones about some business deal we could care less about. "Do you know who I am?," evidently not since you aren't in the Chairman's Lounge
The flight is also now delayed. “Your ticket doesn’t allow you to catch an earlier flight,” was the friendly reply when I asked about availability on an earlier option that wasn’t as delayed “might be possible.”
Uhh that's not how that works. When an airline delays your flight or makes a significant schedule change that ticket becomes fully flexible. If this weren't the case, there would be a lot of stranded passengers with no ticket at SYD airport since their flight got cancelled. If there are two things I adore the most when flying it is the announcement that my flight is delayed or better yet cancelled. It gives me that rare opportunity to tell the airline exactly the flight I always wanted and not pay a dime extra for it. Case in point, when I travelled to CBR earlier this month my return non-stop flight was cancelled. Instead of choose from the many other nonstop options back, I opted for a connecting flight in Melbourne, which combined with the fact the ticket was booked during the double status credit promotion, meant that the $149 red e-deal fare earned 40 status credits instead of 20!
I was also barked at — “you’re in the wrong place it seems” — upon entry when the lounge dragon saw my boarding pass and measly Gold status. “I know where I am,” I said, “I linked my ‘apology’ lounge invite to this reservation.” She demanded to see the email and finally waved me in without a word.
Wow - it looks like we have another form of discrimination at airports: boarding pass discrimination! Just by looking at the colour of your boarding pass they could instantly tell that you were a clear and present danger to those ASX 200 executives yelling at their phone in the Qantas Business lounge. Generally speaking I don't tell the lounge agent anything and just dump the boarding pass onto the barcode scanner. That's my process for every lounge that does the boarding pass scan. Better to do that then to show the boarding pass and be barked at by someone who only sees the colour of your boarding pass.
I’ll continue to stick with VA where I can.
You do you mate! There are certainly benefits to both programs. I will, however, say that Qantas does generally tend to have better award availability based on the simple fact that they have many more award partners than Virgin. Virgin tends to have better lounge food, but Qantas tends to have better amenities in terms of things like showers. Another big benefit of Qantas is of course access to the Emirates lounges in SYD and MEL when flying QF internationally.
No difference according to the FAQs on the SYD airport website:
Find information on getting between flights at Sydney Airport.
www.sydneyairport.com.au
View attachment 311366
Website is missing the Plaza Premium Arrivals lounge at T1 International!
The emirates lounges are certainly nice, but I wouldn’t fly a particular airline just to get a certain pre-flight lounge!
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