Status match, other goodies for Virgin members

[oz_mark]

I remember the "quality" of the wines available in the QP's in the years after the Golden Wing demise. I'd sip one red, sip the other, try 50/50 and when none of that (often) didn't do it for me I'd go have a HP.

Some of the offering were pretty dire in the time period between Ansett going bust and Virgin going upmarket.

 

[burmans]

I find it so weird that technically there is a price to joining the Qantas program, particularly since it gets waived so frequently/free promo codes are everywhere.

Regard it as an intelligence test!

 

[Reggie]

Back when Ansett went under, Qantas certainly did not overtly status match.

I know a of a few who had been Ansett elites, simply began booking their business class fares on the International operated domestic Tag legs such as QF21, QF124 etc. to get lounge access.

Back then domestic Business class did not provide for lounge access whereas international (even on domestic segments) did.

Brings back bad memories, I was a Diamond member and lost around 500K points, and had two return holiday flights for the wife an I PER-AKL in J cancelled. I was lucky enough to be flying J class for work at the time, but that gave no access to domestic lounge, and I wasn't in a situation to utilise international operated domestic tag legs.

On top of this, Qantas (understandably) didn't offer anything to those of us moving across from Ansett, it was a real shell shock from the heady heights of diamond to QFNB. That said, I still feel for all the former Ansett staff.

 

[straitman]

IF VA really shut up shop then QF will offer nothing to the VA faithful for several reasons.

First is that there is no incentive for then to do so which is what they did, or didn't do, when Ansett was trashed by Air NZ. The other significant reason is because QF could well be struggling for it's own survival at that stage.

Personally I think VA will come out of this lean and mean, having shed their baggage and will make life very difficult for QF. I think they will be a LCC ++ or full a service minus carrier. Probably with an all 737 fleet flying domestic and maybe some short haul International. (NZ, Fiji etc) They'll keep their domestic lounges as going to far down the order (ie leisure only) limits their market too much.

 

[albatross710]

VA FF with status and no airline wants an Airline without flights to compete for the non-business.

I don't mean to be rude, but I have no idea what the above sentence means.

Thanks for requesting clarification.

A Virgin Airways frequent flyer tiered frequent flyer has status with "no airline" ie an airline in administration. The VA FF is not in much of a negotiating position. For the "non-business" head over to Qantas marketing and what flights are they selling and to whom?

I cannot see a business case that can be made for "spending" to attract the VA FF into a program that itself is not flying.

 

[Happy Dude]

I'm sorry, but I don't understand.

Unless you're trying to poach, why would QF, or anyone else for that matter, 'status match'. Basically rewarding someone for not being a customer.....

Paging @JohnK

This is the exact thing I say to my bank when they refuse to lower my mortgage rate to something resembling the market. I swear I can hear the laughter in the background sometimes.

 

[Notyourbag]

QF have offered status challenges for some time to those with status in other programs. When I approached them about this a few years ago, I was QF Bronze, but VA Platinum and SQ Gold. I had held VA/SQ status for a few years, and was able to show a sustained track record of a lot of spend with those airlines. QF still only offered me a status challenge, when at that time they could have reasonably assumed that they would have had a bit of work to do to lure me away from VA/SQ.

Incidentally, when discussing this with QF, they also commented that they view VA Platinum as equivalent to QF Gold, but they were willing to offer me a Platinum challenge on account of my SQ status.

The way I see it, QF now will have much less of an incentive to offer anything to VA frequent flyers. They may or may not have a viable competitor in Australia after this plays out, but even if they do, it's quite possible that even the new competitor won't recognise VA status.

Similar for me. I had to chase Qantas to get a status challenge and my VA Platinum status only got matched to QF Gold. Having been in QF J, Qantas Club and VA lounges I'd say VA lounges are in the middle of QF. They are definately better (and less crowded) than Qantas Club which feels more like a cafeteria but not as nice food and beverage choice wise as QF J lounges.

 

[straitman]

Similar for me. I had to chase Qantas to get a status challenge and my VA Platinum status only got matched to QF Gold. Having been in QF J, Qantas Club and VA lounges I'd say VA lounges are in the middle of WF. They are definately better (and less crowded) than Qantas Club which feels more like a cafeteria but not as nice food and beverage choice wise as QF J lounges.

Congratulations on getting anything from Qantas.

 

[smlynarz]

Good point, depends how different the EBA are... Qantas have damn good conditions compared to a lot of other airlines.

 

[dajop]

Not going to quote individual posts, but from comments about bursting lounges, to joining alliances, to status matches etc, I think everyone is assuming things will revert to normal sooner than later.

Assuming international travel is severely impeded due to ongoing government restrictions, and domestic travel, will splutter along in fits and bursts with the new norm being periods of open travel, followed by periods of restriction, and even if opening up completely - the economic recession will severely curtail travel with corporate bankruptcies and belt tightening in general. Lounges won't be bursting. QF might actually operate a single lounge in each port for some time, so no benefit to WP/J over QP/SG. With highly restricted international travel, alliances could well be meaningless for some time to come. This might be a little pessimistic, but I'm struggling to see that things will return to "normal" within the next two years.

Airlines will have to re-invent themselves and successful ones might have to move on from the old way of doing things.

 

[TiredOldFlyer]

210 status credit "gift" arrived today.
Now if they only opened their lounges.......
Unlikely with 3 flights a week OOL to SYD

 

[p--and--t]

210 status credit "gift" arrived today.
Now if they only opened their lounges.......
Unlikely with 3 flights a week OOL to SYD

They will be open July

Qantas reopens domestic airport lounges

Selected Qantas business and regional lounges will fling open their doors from July 1.

www.executivetraveller.com

 

[oz_mark]

They will be open July

Qantas reopens domestic airport lounges

Selected Qantas business and regional lounges will fling open their doors from July 1.

www.executivetraveller.com

From what I have heard, the lounge in OOL is unlikely to be reopening this year