Quick & Easy P1 Requalification

[RichardMEL]

I've asked that question as well some posts ago. Still waiting to be enlightened about the financial sense.

I know someone who spend a lot of money to keep his HON Circle tier (P1 equivalent). When asked why the answer was "because LH treats me like a god!".
Wish I could say the same thing about QF as P1...

I think you've answered the question right there.

I mean EVERYONE has a different value judgement on what something like this is worth (and I know how hard it is to get HON too)... and what might seem crazy to most of us can indeed make some sort of sense to someone else.

Is P1 worth it? Do they treat "us" like "Gods"? in most people's experiences probably not, but it does have some value in terms of upgrade priority and all of that stuff. If one flies paid J to say DXB monthly or maybe more often (as an example) the ability to (most likely) get into F on a regular basis is probably considered value.

And much of it is an intangible, much like many companies value things like "customer goodwill" and "brand value" on their balance sheets with some sort of value (how one comes up wit this stuff though is another matter. I seem to recall Eddy Groves fudged "Goodwill" or somesuch as a billion or more for ABC Learning at one point....)

And of course "value" is relative. What if the OP's travel budget is, let's say $100k then spending 15% JUST on status may make some sense (of course this ignores the status gained from the other $85k spent, but they could be on other airlines).

At the end of the day what is "value" and makes "economic sense" will be different for each and every one of us IMO

 

[Jack_OC]

At the end of the day what is "value" and makes "economic sense" will be different for each and every one of us IMO

Fair enough. But when someone tries to put a dollar value on it, by claiming that the incremental benefits of P1 vs Platinum are worth significantly more than $15k per year, it is still very reasonable for people to ask "in what way?". And IMHO, it's odd that no answer has been provided to that question.

I think we also need to remember that the OP claims to have earned >3,600 SCs within the first 17 days of his/her membership year. I assume they will still do at least some QF/OW flying over the course of the next 11 months, in which case they are going to exceed the P1 requalification threshold - and my guess is they will exceed the threshold by a long way.

For that reason alone, I think it's indisputable that at least some of these flights were a waste of time and money, if viewed purely from the perspective of retaining status. All things considered, it looks like someone set out to retain P1 status in the shortest possible time, just for the hell of it. As I said previously, that's fine if that's what they're into, I just don't get the attempt to justify it on financial grounds. Perhaps they just don't want to admit to themselves that there was no logical reason to take all of these flights!

 

[Pushka]

The issue is whether one is entitled to be free from criticism. I'm most happy to confine it to 'social pursuits', though that is not what you initially said.

If that's the confines of the debate, I repeat what I initially said: the OP is absolutely entitled to spend $15K retaining WP1, but he is not entitled to be free from criticism for that spending.

The reason is straightforward. If you have a moral right to be free from criticism, your moral right restricts the freedom of others. It is fundamentally illiberal.

Eg if my social pursuit is posting on a frequent flyer forum, I have absolutely no moral right to be free from criticism for what I post. To demand that you refrain from criticising me would restrict your freedom.

Alright, I presumed that we were discussing legal pursuits. I wouldnt even have thought to consider illegal activities as I'm sure most others wouldn't either.

Value - I've maintained the sweet spot is LTG; WP is a very nice icing with F Lounge access but WP1 is way out of my league so how can I judge unless I've experienced it. I'll leave that to the experts here.

 

[juddles]

The issue is whether one is entitled to be free from criticism. I'm most happy to confine it to 'social pursuits', though that is not what you initially said.

If that's the confines of the debate, I repeat what I initially said: the OP is absolutely entitled to spend $15K retaining WP1, but he is not entitled to be free from criticism for that spending.

The reason is straightforward. If you have a moral right to be free from criticism, your moral right restricts the freedom of others. It is fundamentally illiberal.

Eg if my social pursuit is posting on a frequent flyer forum, I have absolutely no moral right to be free from criticism for what I post. To demand that you refrain from criticising me would restrict your freedom.

I think I agree. And for that reason I would like to criticize you for criticizing the OP.

Girls buy new dresses, blokes a tinny to fish from, and when pushed to explain the economic rationale behind these purchases, will feel obliged to say ANYTHING, even if whatever they say can later be dissected and used in some attempt to show it was "wrong".

If for no other reason, I thank the OP for describing a truly over-the-top way of being devoted to status. To all those who claim that such is a waste of money, "ridiculous", etc, I say I smell sour grapes and envy.

Of course you can logically argue against such things - but I once did Australia - South America in no fewer than 12 sectors, all in the interests of points and status. And for that jaunt I "criticized" myself amply during those sordid hours.....

 

[RichardMEL]

Fair enough. But when someone tries to put a dollar value on it, by claiming that the incremental benefits of P1 vs Platinum are worth significantly more than $15k per year, it is still very reasonable for people to ask "in what way?". And IMHO, it's odd that no answer has been provided to that question.

I think we also need to remember that the OP claims to have earned >3,600 SCs within the first 17 days of his/her membership year. I assume they will still do at least some QF/OW flying over the course of the next 11 months, in which case they are going to exceed the P1 requalification threshold - and my guess is they will exceed the threshold by a long way.

For that reason alone, I think it's indisputable that at least some of these flights were a waste of time and money, if viewed purely from the perspective of retaining status. All things considered, it looks like someone set out to retain P1 status in the shortest possible time, just for the hell of it. As I said previously, that's fine if that's what they're into, I just don't get the attempt to justify it on financial grounds. Perhaps they just don't want to admit to themselves that there was no logical reason to take all of these flights!

Ah yes.. I agree.

But say you earn P1 within the first 3 weeks of your membership year (DSC much?! ) then you have 23 months of "value" - what if the OP plans to not spend much on QF/OW for the next year or so? (yes seems to defeat the purpose of having status if you won't use it, but that's applying rational logic to something that perhaps shouldn't be looked at in this light if the goal is to get the "shiny" more than using it).

Look I agree that it doesn't make a lot of sense to do all that flying to earn the status to not do more flying (unlessit's all redemption or crediting to another airline, like going for BA GGL?) on QF/partners to redeem that value (as it were) but again this is a personal choice of the OP.

Sure question away, but noting they have been very quiet on the matters, I doubt you'll get much satisfaction.

I'm not defending the OP per se, more the notion that they can do what they like with their own resources and for their own reasons.

 

[juddles]

...... say you earn P1 within the first 3 weeks of your membership year (DSC much?! ) then you have 23 months of "value" - what if the OP plans to not spend much on QF/OW for the next year or so? (yes seems to defeat the purpose of having status if you won't use it......

Not that this applies in a guaranteed fashion to QF as their "benefits" are not exactly a sure thing at the P1 level, but I give you this real-life situation with another program that could technically mirror the OP's situation:

I fly a lot between Colombia and Australia. I am not rich, am essentially self-funded, but I fly enough that it is a challenge, not a fun thing. I do about ten trips a year.

At the start of my membership year I do a stack of j class (there is no higher) return tickets with LATAM. As soon as I get enough status I switch to economy tickets, as I can swingle those on flights where I know I will get upgrades to J.

So for a short and sharp expense at the start (same as batting for P1 in a month), I can then buy cheapest tickets for next 23 months and fly J at minimal cost.

This is a real scenario. Where I pay lots in the first months to get to highest possible status, even though I will still be flying the rest of the year. These things sometimes make sense.

 

[boomy]

I think you've answered the question right there.

No I did not answer my own question. When the OP says "I am confident that I will extract significantly >$15k of benefit" I want to know what they are talking about, which benefit(s) did I miss during all those years as P1 that could possibly be worth >$15k per year?!

I mean EVERYONE has a different value judgement on what something like this is worth (and I know how hard it is to get HON too)... and what might seem crazy to most of us can indeed make some sort of sense to someone else.

Although everyone have different views about everything in life there is a general consensus among most P1s here and other social media platforms that it's nice tier to have but not worth X3 more than WP.

Is P1 worth it? Do they treat "us" like "Gods"? in most people's experiences probably not, but it does have some value in terms of upgrade priority and all of that stuff. If one flies paid J to say DXB monthly or maybe more often (as an example) the ability to (most likely) get into F on a regular basis is probably considered value.

Correct me if I'm wrong but most views of P1 range from disappointing to slightly better than WP. To address your DXB example, you don't need to be P1 to access their F lounge, OWE is more than enough.

When the main perks are 1 upgrade every 10 flights and better service when **** hits the fan once every blue moon it's hard to get excited but when someone gets access to the F lounge on domestic flights and driven by Porsche to their short FRA-MUC flight I can understand why they feel as being treated like gods...

 

[casanovawa]

On frequent flyer forums and FB pages i sometime think there is a level of irrationality over the shiny card/self identification/self worth thing and having to tell everyone else about, but as has been stated its his (their) money to do with as they want..

The whole status running to me, especially when it means flying somewhere for a lot of money to sit in an airport for a few hours and fly back is somewhat odd and so that questioning extends beyond just the OP, but i get that some people think the benefits through the rest of the year pay off (and i guess they like their shiny, blingy card as well etc) even if it means getting free access to some toasted sanwiches in the Qantas Club by spending $2-3k on status runs... Never had the money for it, or i probably do but prefer to spend do other things than sitting in in some regional airport for a few hours... When booking an award flight that will add no other costs than some airport fees i do often extend it out to try new carriers and planes so i can get the enjoyment of flying, but not necessarily domestic 737 hops in J...

What sort of takes this thread to the next level is spending what was it 8-9 days flying to the same airport just to hop back on the plane back?? Yes i get there were some nice lounge meals, bit of champagne etc, but (again only me) seems like such a waste when you could have spread them out on flights that may not get as good a SC/$ ratio but to me must bring more enjoyment/new experiences...

And even the rationale of $15k for two years of P1, I'm assuming he was already a P1 so could enjoy his current status and its benefits throughout the year as he spread those flights out over the year to several interesting places as his business/personal life allowed... Again may have cost $20k instead of $15k not being able to optimise the flights on the TT F trick but i, myself anyway, would consider that $5k well spend seeing more places than the inside of Auckland airport 9 times for 3 hours... If money is not much of an issue as described in the OP... This is noting that they did mention that their future QF flights may have been down in terms of requalifying as P1, I'd still take 3-4 TT flights and some of those other trips to add up to P1 and then take a few last minutes trips if necessary to get over the line...

So yeah, I guess good effort OP surviving that crazyish sort of exercise... I can't see anyway myself it was worth doing in the way it was done, but each to their own and its good to hear a range of experiences as food for thought for others...

 

[Mike65]

I responded way back on Day 1 to the OP asking "Are you slightly bonkers?". Still waiting for the answer......
I'd also like to know if the OP considered offsetting the plentiful emissions. (I know the aircraft would have flown anyway, but that's not really the point).

 

[RichardMEL]

Not that this applies in a guaranteed fashion to QF as their "benefits" are not exactly a sure thing at the P1 level, but I give you this real-life situation with another program that could technically mirror the OP's situation:

I fly a lot between Colombia and Australia. I am not rich, am essentially self-funded, but I fly enough that it is a challenge, not a fun thing. I do about ten trips a year.

At the start of my membership year I do a stack of j class (there is no higher) return tickets with LATAM. As soon as I get enough status I switch to economy tickets, as I can swingle those on flights where I know I will get upgrades to J.

So for a short and sharp expense at the start (same as batting for P1 in a month), I can then buy cheapest tickets for next 23 months and fly J at minimal cost.

This is a real scenario. Where I pay lots in the first months to get to highest possible status, even though I will still be flying the rest of the year. These things sometimes make sense.

Makes perfect sense except that you're doing this as part of your regularly scheduled travel between two places where the purpose of that travel(it seems) is not JUST to fly those J sectors to get the status, as opposed to 15 or whatever sectors between AKL and MEL (and v.v.) with the sole aim of the status with no desire or interest to be in AKL

But still yes, our OP could be doing all this, then spending say the next 18 months (or whatever) on cheapo fares and going for upgrades..

 

[RichardMEL]

No I did not answer my own question. When the OP says "I am confident that I will extract significantly >$15k of benefit" I want to know what they are talking about, which benefit(s) did I miss during all those years as P1 that could possibly be worth >$15k per year?!

Perhaps I was meaning less literally and more in the sense that much like the answer to "Why would you climb Mount Everest?" Hillary is rreported to have said "Because it is there" is perhaps just as good a reason to one person going for a white card they may not even need, or they feel that P1 treats them well.

Although everyone have different views about everything in life there is a general consensus among most P1s here and other social media platforms that it's nice tier to have but not worth X3 more than WP.

Well what if, after spending $15k to get P1 they then feel they can spend much less on Disc Y and use the P1 upgrade priority etc to get into upgraded cabins on a regular basis? Maybe that is part of the perceived value?

(to be clear I have NO IDEA where they get that valuation from or feel there is that value, but it's their call not mine)

Correct me if I'm wrong but most views of P1 range from disappointing to slightly better than WP. To address your DXB example, you don't need to be P1 to access their F lounge, OWE is more than enough.

Except my DXB example was referring to upgrading to F Class on the sectors not the lounge With P1 priority over WP the changes are much higher such upgrades would clear on a regular basis

When the main perks are 1 upgrade every 10 flights and better service when **** hits the fan once every blue moon it's hard to get excited but when someone gets access to the F lounge on domestic flights and driven by Porsche to their short FRA-MUC flight I can understand why they feel as being treated like gods...

You're judging the "value" of P1 from your own perspective (not that I disagree mind you) - it seems the OP has their own criteria. *shrug* at this point I really don't care Heck, maybe this guy's patronage is why QF's share price is currently at a 9 year high!!

 

[MaxwellSmart]

Congratulations Platinum One. Smart thinking.

I'd do same if I had the same circumstances.

Thumbs up.

 

[RichardMEL]

I responded way back on Day 1 to the OP asking "Are you slightly bonkers?". Still waiting for the answer......
I'd also like to know if the OP considered offsetting the plentiful emissions. (I know the aircraft would have flown anyway, but that's not really the point).

Or the OP has trolled us all beautifully and didn't spend a cent on anything. who really knows? Only that person

 

[clazman]

Surely this volume of flying between countries raises a customs flag?

 

[RichardMEL]

Surely this volume of flying between countries raises a customs flag?

It is an interesting question.

If one does a day return in theory you do not need to clear NZ immigration, ie officially enter NZ (I've done this)
but then you'd have multiple exits and entries to AU. Of course it's likely that it's not unknown for business types to fly over the ditch for a meeting r two and fly straight back, and given AU-NZ is more or less domestic, it may not raise too much of a flag. I suppose if it did that's going to be the pax's issue isn't it?

 

[Borisdog]

Wow.

Some serious "nose out of joint" reactions here.

The OP clearly has the money to do the deed, sees the value in it and is happy with their decision.

Why on earth do any of the rest of us care? Or believe we have the right to criticise?

The OP threw it out there on how they got to P1 quickly - it might be of interest to other like-minded souls. I thought that was the whole point of this community.

 

[serfty]

The OP is guaranteed lounge access and travel as an Emerald for the next 23 months, even if they fly nothing but award flights on oneworld carriers.

 

[serfty]

Offsetting?


15 segments at 240 SC's and 5000 points each is 3600 SC and 75000 points.

Add in 32,000 points loyalty bonus and 50,000 @ 2,400 SC's.

157K points is worth what? @ 0.8¢ $1250 on QF flight bookings ... or some value them at ~$0.0165, so ~$2600.

 

[Chicken]

It's about getting status, just like people who do Opal card run in Sydney. They save like $40 a week (used to) now $20. They then blow it on Friday work drinks.

It's about beating the system

 

[Princess Fiona]

It's about getting status, just like people who do Opal card run in Sydney. They save like $40 a week (used to) now $20. They then blow it on Friday work drinks.

It's about beating the system

Except it's not. The OP already had the status and another year to requalify with presumably some foreseeable future travel that wasn't manufactured......