Switching carriers instead of going Platinum with Qantas?

[chorse]

Hi all,

I fly very regular economy long haul flights from Sydney to LAX/SFO and around Asia. This year I re-hit gold within 6 months and am easily going to hit platinum in the next month or so with 4 months to go till expiry. As you can imagine this is fairly punishing in economy. I don't have the opportunity to do J class as my company will not pay for anything but economy.

My work colleagues are all US based and fly United exclusively. They are treated to multiple systemwide upgrades as part of their frequent flyer program.
Its difficult to justify the effort on Qantas to reach and sustain platinum as the only benefit is now the international first class lounge. I've received 1 'official' upgrade in the 2 years I've been flying this volume and I was initially treated to free premium economy seating maybe 25% of the time however this has become 0% of the time in the last year.

I do find it tough to swallow that Qantas is happy to fly empty business class seats rather than offer them to their valued customers. Someone who flies economy and can reach platinum is clearly doing an awful lot of hours in the air.

Anyone have any thoughts on switching? Is it worth it? Are my US colleagues exaggerating their benefits? Considering I would have been entitled to 6 free upgrades so far this year its difficult to argue that the first class lounge is that much of a comparable benefit. Probably the lack of lounges might be an issue, but the Qantas international lounges have lately been very much like a feeding trough. The free pour spirits is really the only thing that salvages them

As it stands I'm thinking of calling United and status matching straight up to 1k if possible then booking the rest of my "to platinum" flights on United.

 

[dajop]

Have you considered Delta? Pretty sure that you get systemwide upgrades with status as well. I guess it depends on whether you find AVOD useful or not during your trips, as the main screen entertainment seems to be the main downside to flying UA in economy, whereas DL (like QF & VA) have AVOD.

 

[chorse]

Have you considered Delta? Pretty sure that you get systemwide upgrades with status as well. I guess it depends on whether you find AVOD useful or not during your trips, as the main screen entertainment seems to be the main downside to flying UA in economy, whereas DL (like QF & VA) have AVOD.

AVOD is a nice to have but not a showstopper, I can compensate with a book/computer/sleeping pills. Do Delta/United have AVOD in business even if its non AVOD in economy? I did a forced United Economy when the Qantas A380s were out of action and it was pretty bad without any AVOD entertainment at all.

 

[Oneworldplus2]

Very good question and l'll be at these cross-roads in a few months time.
As you mentioned, there isn't a major difference in Platinum over Gold.

Platinum benefits over Gold (in my eyes);

• Double points - on short hops, a Bronze and Platinum earn the same in Y, so no major difference there

• Very good seat selection

• Much higher luggage limit for Int flights

• J and F Lounge entry when on Y ticket. But, l'm not really seeing such a distinction between the 2 anymore. If anything, l sometimes use the regular QC because it has a better atmosphere (- ie, less snobs).

• QF help line has helped me out even after a boo-boo which was my fault (and really saved me $$$$. Wait times for QF Platinum desk has NEVER been more than 5 minutes, more like 1 or 2).

I do find it tough to swallow that Qantas is happy to fly empty business class seats rather than offer them to their valued customers. Someone who flies economy and can reach platinum is clearly doing an awful lot of hours in the air.

This has been well documented and QF are happy to fly a empty/almost empty J Class even if people have put upgrades in. It's just the way QF are. However, l think that if you fly Y 100%, you'll get more in Y on QF than on Y on US carriers.

==========
OT;
Reports in the Financial review yesterday and today (13/5-front page story and 15/5-Weekend edition), QF seem to be in looking at major changes for their business model.
This includes setting up a subsidiary possibly in SIN/BKK or KL - called something like QF Asia and according to Merrill Lynch estimates, Qantas's cash costs, excluding fuel, are 49 per cent higher than Singapore Airline's and 228 per cent higher than Emirates.

Platinum A332
FlyerTalk
Qantas Forum
Possibility of a Qantas Asia/Singapore?
To summarise the AFR articles for everyone (feel free to disagree).

It seems that the new airline will become more like a Jetconnect subsidiary set up in Singapore - operating routes that expand the Qantas brand. First routes proposed in Australia seem to be Perth and Adelaide (my guess a possible 3rd daily frequency to Perth, and an increase to daily flights to Adelaide). The airline will initially employ narrow-body aircraft, with the scope to expand to wide-body aircraft operating flights to Europe. Additionally, the airline will not be subject to the limitations of the Qantas Sale Act should it use the Qantas name, and will be able to enjoy Singapore-negotiated bilateral rights to expand its network (my guess long-term is finally a daily flight Singapore-Paris).
I guess in the future, most Singapore flights with the exception of Airbus A380 services will be operated by the Singapore subsidiary (being Brisbane, Adelaide, Perth and additional services to Melbourne and Sydney).
For oneworld, this could be a huge win too, with the alliance operating hubs in Asia's three preeminent financial hubs (Hong Kong, Tokyo and Singapore). The only one missing is Shanghai.

 

[Pleb Status]

I would give QF the flick and go with UA/CO.

Once you are an elite with UA and flying in Y, you will get free access to UA E+ seating which will be more comfortable that standard QF Y. Even as a QF Plat, you are never guaranteed to get anything better than a standard 31 inch seat pitch Y seat.

Upgrades are easier to get on UA/CO and you will get better treatment on board UA/CO flights within the US than you will as a QF Plat on AA.

 

[JohnK]

If First Class Lounge access is the only benefit to you from Platinum status then I would not bother either. I know some people on AFF get totally carried away by the First Class Lounge access but personally I do not care if it is there or not.

I am not sure about United but if I got the chance to fly American Airlines a lot more than I would certainly look at achieving AA Executive Platinum satus for the 8 system wide upgrades they receive every year.

System wide upgrades are one of the biggest drawbacks of the QFF program.

And yes I know a lot of people do not agree but I agree with you in that I do not understand why Qantas wants to fly with empty business class. Trying to protect their product? What product? More like trying to protect their monopoly....

 

[MH_fan]

Here's what I know of the UA system.
Yes, you get various free upgrades the higher your elite status. There's Premier (1P/silver), Premier Executive (2P/gold), 1K (platinum) and GS (Global Services). Domestic first class on UA is nothing to write home about and it pales in comparison to QF's domestic business class. Domestic F on UA is usually full as a result of the free upgrades, so it loses it's feel of excusivity. You're only almost-guaranteed of the free upgrade if you're at GS or 1K level. I'm a lowly 2P so my chances of scoring a free upgrade (even though I'm entitled to one) are pretty low (even non-existent on peak/popular business flights).
The other thing is whether you can take advantage of these upgrades depending on where you fly to. If you get the SWUs (system-wide upgrades) from being a 1K (when you've flown 100000 miles in a calendar year), you'll be able to apply them to your US flights between SYD and LAX/SFO as well as their intra-Asian flights. These SWUs cannot be used on Star Alliance carriers. The UDUs (unlimted domestic upgrades) are, obviously, only usable within the US.
As for the lounges, the UA ones are just abysmal! They are the worst airline lounges I've ever experienced and the ones located in the US are a whole lot worse than the international lounges. There's no food (just dodgy snacks) and free alcohol is limited to 1 type of cheap red, 1 type of cheap white and 1 type of very very bad beer (according to what I've read). If you want anything better, you'll have to pay for it and this includes food! I've never understood the concept of paying for decent alcohol or food in an airline lounge, as I've never experienced it anywhere else in the world apart from the US! Mind you, if you get elite status (gold and above), you'll have access to Star Alliance lounges around the world.

Personally, I'd be happy with gold status on QF, so once you've reached that, spread your wings and start earning points on UA. You'll have far more choice in future and you'll end up with gold status on One World (through QF) and gold status on Star Alliance (through UA). Oh, one last thing, UA long-haul economy is brutal. Seat pitch is tight, food is exceptionally bad, service is usually not very friendly and there is no AVOD IFE. Once you're at Premier level (after earning 25000 miles), you'll have free access to Economy Plus, which is basically normal economy with 34" legroom instead of 31". But, before that, you can actually pay a small fee to get to Economy Plus before you've reached elite status. Their Economy Plus is very very different from QF's Premium Economy. I consider the Economy Plus to be of the same standard of Y on Asian airlines but with worse food and service.

I hope that helps.

 

[mannej]

Has anyone mentioned the fillet mignon or salmon benefit on UA?


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[MH_fan]

Has anyone mentioned the fillet mignon or salmon benefit on UA?

Well, you only get that if you're in First or Business. Forget about anything like that in Economy! You'll get served something rather non-descript, which looks and tastes like plastic.:shock: