Reaching and maintaining High Status - What do you do?

[MelbFlyer]

I used the search function and wasn't able to find any related threads - but I'm curious on high tiered members ie. Gold / Platinum / P1 members - if you don't travel for work, what do you do and why do you travel so often to get such high status / retain it?

I'm a boring 9-5 office worker with no air travel required and don't travel anywhere near enough to even get to QFF silver!

Curious - whether it be travelling for fun / leisure, maintaining a long distance relationship etc etc.

 

[Denali]

I used the search function and wasn't able to find any related threads - but I'm curious on high tiered members ie. Gold / Platinum / P1 members - if you don't travel for work, what do you do and why do you travel so often to get such high status / retain it?

I'm a boring 9-5 office worker with no air travel required and don't travel anywhere near enough to even get to QFF silver!

Curious - whether it be, travelling for fun, maintaining a long distance relationship etc etc.

We picked VA because of family pooling - makes one of us retaining status easier although Mr Denali dropped to Gold this year and hes sad but like I said to him. its not like we're going to start travelling in Y again so even being gold, it doesnt matter.

 

[Flashback]

I used the search function and wasn't able to find any related threads - but I'm curious on high tiered members ie. Gold / Platinum / P1 members - if you don't travel for work, what do you do and why do you travel so often to get such high status / retain it?

I'm a boring 9-5 office worker with no air travel required and don't travel anywhere near enough to even get to QFF silver!

Curious - whether it be, travelling for fun, maintaining a long distance relationship etc etc.

For myself and Mrs FB? Leisure. Funny actually, had a similar conversation with the FA on my LCA-LHR flight yesterday.

 

[Flyfrequently]

Curious - whether it be, travelling for fun, maintaining a long distance relationship etc etc.

Good question @MelbFlyer, travel for me has always been for leisure/ visiting family interstate, no work travel apart from the (very) odd conference in 25 years.
Mr Flyfrequently travelled for work and never enjoyed it. Even now, in retirement it has taken a fair bit of convincing for him to "embrace the journey ".
Now, he is even looking forward to our QF day trip to Adelaide for Christmas day - (Flyfrequently offspring think we have lost the plot!)
Happy travels to you

 

[Flyfrequently]

I'm a boring 9-5 office worker with no air travel required and don't travel anywhere near enough to even get to QFF silver!

Patience grasshopper- your time will come!

 

[MelbFlyer]

For myself and Mrs FB? Leisure. Funny actually, had a similar conversation with the FA on my LCA-LHR flight yesterday.

travel for me has always been for leisure/ visiting family interstate, no work travel apart from the (very) odd conference in 25 years.

Thankyou for the insight

To get to / retain Gold etc when travelling only for leisure / family catch-ups, a lot of money must be spent to do this.

Times are tough these days but it seems as though a lot of AFF members have the means to keep travelling (even some go to the lengths of doing status runs just to maintain / gain status!)

I would have thought that the majority of high tiered members travel for work (in saying that however, their employer would probably book / pay for flights etc, rather than the employee / member themselves? If the employer pays for travel but the employee gains SCs and points etc, that's a bonus.

Patience grasshopper- your time will come!

It's okay, I'd prefer to not have to travel for work! A 1hr one way commute drive is enough, let alone having to get to / from airports.

My main agenda is CC churning, then using those bonus sign-up points to redeem business reward seats. I don't travel anywhere near enough to reap the benefits of Gold etc.

 

[Flashback]

Thankyou for the insight

To get to / retain Gold etc when travelling only for leisure / family catch-ups, a lot of money must be spent to do this.

Times are tough these days but it seems as though a lot of AFF members have the means to keep travelling (even some go to the lengths of doing status runs just to maintain / gain status!)

I would have thought that the majority of high tiered members travel for work (in saying that however, their employer would probably book / pay for flights etc, rather than the employee / member themselves?)



It's okay, I'd prefer to not have to travel for work! A 1hr one way commute drive is enough, let alone having to get to / from airports.

My main agenda is CC churning, then using those bonus sign-up points to redeem business reward seats. I don't travel anywhere near enough to reap the benefits of Gold etc.

That's some great perspective to have. Some people chase status, but then only use it when on those status runs .......... not really worth it.

 

[Quickstatus]

I'm a boring 9-5 office worker with no air travel required and don't travel anywhere near enough to even get to QFF silver!

Then get off the Status hamster wheel. Free yourself and fly BFOD (best fare of day). Be beholden to no one.

what do you do and why do you travel so often to get such high status / retain it?

I have a friend who gets circa 5000-6000Sc per year. Funds Manager. He was not even QF number one Status credit accumulator - he was invited to a QF shindig where they acknowledged the top few FF. Needless to say he did not podium.

 

[JessicaTam]

I am a SFSC (Self funder status chaser). All for pleasure.

 

[OATEK]

This is not a straight-forward question, because of the difference in flying for work (which for me was all domestic for some 50yrs) and flying for leisure (which has always been a mix of domestic and international).

Now that I am semi-retired, all my travel is leisure, as work is conducted mostly over MS Teams rather than in-person. And as for achieving high status (in my case WP) it came about through two once in a long time events. Firstly the end of Covid which saw us travelling to the UK twice a year to make up for two lost years of travel to see family, and secondly a well timed QF Double Status Credits offer.

Now that we are back to travelling internationally only once a year, and rarely flying QF apart from on classic rewards, we will drift back down towards Lifetime Silver. But given that most of our long-haul is in J (self-funded) the only impact will to be relegated from Fist to Business Lounges which I think we can cope with.

 

[tdimdad]

...using those bonus sign-up points to redeem business reward seats. I don't travel anywhere near enough to reap the benefits of Gold etc.

If you travel in J (or F), you get all the same key benefits through the ticket. In this case, chasing status would be of no real use to you.

For me, most of status credits have always come form personal travel (parents in Europe, etc). I did my first status run in 2019 to gain SG before a multi-stop trip with +1. This was to make the transits a little bit more comfy: bag drops at a business counter instead of economy queue, lounges, priority boarding. Since then I've maintained it (and last year upped to WP).

I dislike the airport experience in general and anything that I can do to make it more pleasant and smooth is welcomed. At the same time, my budget does not allow J tickets. Having a higher priority for cabin upgrades is also really nice (and I have benefited from this handsomely in the last 2 years).

Combining DSC offers to my trips, when possible, is a great way to try to optimise the cost vs benefits. My first status run was an extra stop on the way SYD-BNE (6 h in CHC overnight) but since then they've become little trips in themselves - last time I spend 3 days in Aoraki / Mt Cook (NZ).

 

[MelbFlyer]

If you travel in J (or F), you get all the same key benefits through the ticket. In this case, chasing status would be of no real use to you.

Yes, this is my main agenda and therefore chasing SCs isn't worth it for me.

For me, most of status credits have always come form personal travel (parents in Europe, etc). I did my first status run in 2019 to gain SG before a multi-stop trip with +1. This was to make the transits a little bit more comfy: bag drops at a business counter instead of economy queue, lounges, priority boarding. Since then I've maintained it (and last year upped to WP).

I dislike the airport experience in general and anything that I can do to make it more pleasant and smooth is welcomed. At the same time, my budget does not allow J tickets. Having a higher priority for cabin upgrades is also really nice (and I have benefited from this handsomely in the last 2 years).

Thankyou for sharing, this is a great insight and definitely understandable.

 

[UP4014]

Yes, it's hard if you are someone who is always looking for the best fare deal even within a single airline.

If you're in Melbourne, you could theoretically get to Platinum for bit over $6K using double status credit time, like booking and paying right now.

If spending 6K is too much 4K will get you to gold (during double SC promotions) While maybe too late this year, I'd look at what trips you want plan to do in a year and when double SC come up book that extra flight to get you over the line.

 

[marcojim]

Hi @MelbFlyer

Great question. Not sure if there’s many others on the forum that relate but I fly frequently since I’m in a long distance relationship. I’m based in MEL while my partner is in CBR so we each shuttle back and forth every few weekends.

We’ve been doing it for a year and I reached VA WP with strategic bookings and a status run while my partner reached VA SG from flying Y and taking advantage of recent DSC promotions.

We find it not too bad since the MEL - CBR flights are pretty short and the CBR lounge is (in our opinion) one of the best in the network in terms of service. We also find value in status since we fly long haul economy so it’s nice to access lounges when flying with the likes of SQ and QR.

 

[jase05]

I’m a self funded status person.
Although I do travel a bit for work I don’t get points for those.
We try to get O/S at least twice yearly with Europe every second year at worst.
We attend dozens of sporting events each year interstate as well as having all my family interstate so so a lot of domestic J flights.
As we only fly J everywhere these days there is no real need to chase status and whilst it’s a nice perk sometimes I’m not going to do it at the risk of trying different airlines and routes

 

[Bindibuys]

Another variation on a theme, I chased WP by doing 3 x Syd/Akl trips on DSC.
I wanted Plat because both my off-spring were getting married and wanted honeymoons in the USA, I wanted the ease of getting J & F seats for them.
I just requalified last week, as I was one of the last reciprocates for status support, PC+ roll-over and green tier, so basically gifted over half required SC, I only had to make 1 trip (status run) to requalify.
Now I can look at flights for MY trip next year.
Will I chase again - no.
I had a purpose, I obtained that purpose, and will gladly slide back down the ladder.

 

[bashworth]

I am retired and we look to do at least one long haul holiday every year.

Europe and back in business you can get pretty close to retaining Qantas Gold, or half way to retaining Gold in Premium Economy.

Other than that I am an overseas aid charity volunteer ( Disaster Aid Australia ) one economy return to, say Thailand, earns around 200 points.

I find the status really useful for the charity travel as it allows me to take twice as much aid materials as my checked baggage allowance saving the charity hundreds of dollars on freight.

 

[ols]

Flybuys/Coles- get 10 SC per month for $1,000 of food and grog shopping
Amex Velocity card-spend $50K per year-get 100SC
Family pooling-one Perth to Sydney return with wife choice economy 120 SC's
Get to VA Gold and with a few flights and with above credit card and Coles spend and only 400SC's a year to maintain.
Have lounge access domestically and internationally with partner airlines.
You don't have to fly every month to get status.
I manged to maintain platinum while being retired last 20 months with not many domestic only flights (helps living in Perth)

 

[Chalkie]

I used the search function and wasn't able to find any related threads - but I'm curious on high tiered members ie. Gold / Platinum / P1 members - if you don't travel for work, what do you do and why do you travel so often to get such high status / retain it?

I'm a boring 9-5 office worker with no air travel required and don't travel anywhere near enough to even get to QFF silver!

Curious - whether it be travelling for fun / leisure, maintaining a long distance relationship etc etc.

I flew a lot during my working life - enough to sustain 20+ years at WP and several at P1, and get LT Gold. Where possible I did structure my travel to maximise SC accumulation. Having access to the P1 team was very handy.

I like a nice experience when I travel, so access to F or equivalent lounges is part of my desire for status. But +1 and I have decided we'll only fly J or F for the rest of our travelling lives, and that obviates the need to chase status. Any future status will be by accident rather than design.

That said, we've still got a lot of QF miles to burn, so we're going for WP through a AONEx later this year. With any luck that may give us some better redemption opportunities next year.

 

[moa999]

have a friend who gets circa 5000-6000Sc per year. Funds Manager

Know someone who was told they were top 10 in 2023.. spent 200+ nights away from home that year including regular Aus-US trips. Not sure of the earn, but similar industry.

I made LTG at reasonably young age.. helped by a few years of good work travel, mostly flexible domestic, and three well optimised paid DONEx's that I used for holidays. Plus quite a few JASAs back in the day (2010/2011 if I recall).

With limited chance of making LTP given the higher threshold, and less travel, I'm far more BFOD for personal travel these days.