What is bronze membership worth?

[Glenbrae]

I have a few Qantas International flight sectors booked with friends and it would be great to select seats online so we can be sure of travelling together. It seems that Bronze FF are grouped in with non FF members and can't select their seats like Silver membership and above. I'm fairly loyal to Qantas (although I'm not so sure why) and have over 600k points in the bank but it seems that selecting my seats isn't an option. Air France and others have always been obliging and in fact when one of the AF flights had Qantas as a codeshare a free call to Paris had the seat selected. It seems that Bronze membership isn;t worth much :shock:

 

[UP4014]

It's not the points that count, it's the status credits which actually prove you are a QF customer.

While 600K points is a fair number, it doesn't mean you earned them on Qantas.

 

[Cyclogenesis]

It is worth the ability to save and use your points! That massive value when compared to the ZERO value non-membership has...

In a loyalty scheme there must be tiers. The very fact you are desiring silver membership for the increased benefits shows that the scheme is working! If you get to a level and think "Hmm I am happy here, I dont think it is worth my while changing my habits to gain benefits with Qantas" then the incremental benefits (or more the incremental benefits with respect to effort in gaining the next level) needs to be re-evaluated..

 

[Travel Guru]

It's not the points that count, it's the status credits which actually prove you are a QF customer.

While 600K points is a fair number, it doesn't mean you earned them on Qantas.

Or earned them flying at all!


The question isn't why isn't Bronze worth much, the question you should be asking is why should bronze be worth much?

Qantas isn't alone with their seating policy, its becoming fairly common to limit seat selection early on to status FF's.

Given you need do nothing but sign up to earn bronze status, if you start giving privileges to them, it simply serves to erode the benefit of those who do earn status with the airline and who deserve some perks like first choice of seats.

TG

 

[whereishome]

Points do not equal status.

In order to gain silver you need to earn status credits, not miles.

Frequent Flyer - About the Program - Status Credits

Whilst miles don't expire (providing you have some account activity at least once in three years), status credits do. So basically, you need to fly a lot in a year to get from bronze to silver, and then from silver to gold.

Then continue to fly a lot so you can retain your status.

 

[Glenbrae]

Yep. I'm with you all on the need for Qantas to provide better options for their better customers, but the few flights I do each year will never amount to more than 100 or so status points that expire fairly regularly. My point was that as a member, regardless of status, shouldn't there be the option to select a seat when booking as I do on other international carriers? Rather than to be grouped with non members that may make online bookings. It shouldn't be all that hard to select seats even if the selections are limited by the class of travel booked.

 

[UP4014]

Yep. I'm with you all on the need for Qantas to provide better options for their better customers, but the few flights I do each year will never amount to more than 100 or so status points that expire fairly regularly. My point was that as a member, regardless of status, shouldn't there be the option to select a seat when booking as I do on other international carriers? Rather than to be grouped with non members that may make online bookings. It shouldn't be all that hard to select seats even if the selections are limited by the class of travel booked.

Why? You could of course use more of those points to upgrade.

Just because Air France does it doesn't mean QF or anyone else should do it unless it adds value to their largest spending customers. A few flights each year I'm afraid doesn't put you in the postion to select seats as you aren't an upper level spending passenger.

Fly your few trips a year at the front of the plane and hey presto, you can select your seats as you'll be silver.

Hope I didn't sound to mean.

 

[NM]

Yep. I'm with you all on the need for Qantas to provide better options for their better customers, but the few flights I do each year will never amount to more than 100 or so status points that expire fairly regularly. My point was that as a member, regardless of status, shouldn't there be the option to select a seat when booking as I do on other international carriers? Rather than to be grouped with non members that may make online bookings. It shouldn't be all that hard to select seats even if the selections are limited by the class of travel booked.

Glenbrae, welcome to AFF.

Anyone can join Qantas Frequent Flyer as a Bronze member for no cost. So of such benefits were available to Bronze members, it would effectively be available to all passengers. Qantas is trying to protect the benefits they offer to their status frequent flyers so make it attractive for members to fly enough with Qantas to earn the benefits associated with status levels such as Silver, Gold and Platinum.

If you want to sit together with travelling companions, you can call Qantas reservations and ask them to "TCP" your bookings. You will need to know the booking reference or at least the passenger names and flight details. This effectively "links" the bookints and tells the Qantas computer system that you are travelling together as a group or party and the system will pre-allocate you seats together on the day of the flight.

This ability for Qantas to seat groups together is one of the benefits their pre-allocations restriction policy has over airlines that allow all passengers to select seats when booking. If anyone can select seats, people booking later in the process may not be able to sit together and airlines with this policy often result in family groups being split up and even high-status FF members only being able to get middle seats. Qantas' policy ensure a reasonable number of seats, especially in blocks throughout he cabin, are available for the system to groups travelling together to be seated together. Overall, this system seems fair to me. It allows high value customers to select their own seats, even if booking at the last minute (and often paying high fares for last minute bookings) and allows families and groups to be seated together.

 

[Cyclogenesis]

Here is an idea... a quick way to get better benefits (but not seat selection) is to use some of your points to buy QC membership... giving you lounge access and better seat allocation

 

[samh004]

Here is an idea... a quick way to get better benefits (but not seat selection) is to use some of your points to buy QC membership... giving you lounge access and better seat allocation

QC (P) doesn’t give online pre-seat allocation the way PS, SG or WP does. As far as I know.

 

[Zorro]

QC (P) doesn’t give online pre-seat allocation the way PS, SG or WP does. As far as I know.

You are correct - I am QC (P)Life & QFF (NB) - seat selection via website for Int QF can only be selected 7 days before departure. However I have contacted QF by phone in the past and selected seats (those not blocked out by higher status fyers etc) without hassle.

 

[mannej]

QC (P) doesn’t give online pre-seat allocation the way PS, SG or WP does. As far as I know.

It does not, but it allows for a greater seat selection than NB.

AFAIK you can still call up prior to a flight and request a seat. By offering too many perks for a NB, it devalues the higher echelons of the Frequent Flyer program.

Compared to other airlines, attaining status seems to be fairly ok provided you travel on QF or other Oneworld airlines.

 

[Cyclogenesis]

QC (P) doesn’t give online pre-seat allocation the way PS, SG or WP does. As far as I know.

yes, I said that

But it is a way to convert points to a variety of status... (Extra baggage + some lounge access)

 

[medhead]

In your situation, (well I'm in your situation, NB with lumpy travel patterns that don't equal PS, but I'm also a QP member), I would recommend getting a relationship with a Qantas holidays travel agent. My mum has done this, always using the same person for her INT bookings, and she has been rather successful at getting her preferred seating. In this case, by the agent doing the requesting. This doesn't mean you always get the seats, she has been bump around, but it is a reasonably good alternative, and the agent has also gone back in and bumped the bumper (if that makes sense) to give mum back the preferred seat. Of course, she didn't end up in that seat because she got bumped again.

But the point is relationships can also get some benefits.

Of course, with the new IT systems at qantas this opportunity might no longer exist.

 

[UP4014]

Bronze is really the mechanism for accruing points to redeem flights.

Nothing more nothing less, if you want more then actually fly with Qantas more than just as a leasure traveller on the cheapest fares.

 

[Cyclogenesis]

Plus "A few international sectors" should be all it takes... I made PS with a Discount economy (K) MEL-LAX-DFW-SDF-ORD-YUL-ORD-LAX-MEL (my goodness that was a long trip) Plus a handfull of MEL-SYD-MEL and MEL-BBN-MEL

oh and note that SDF-ORD-YUL did not earn me any SC as they were booked in (O) on AA... so no earn

So a few international sectors plus a few domestic sectors usually earns PS (=seat selection, J check in, baggage allowance, +25% points, -slightly- improved seat allocations)

IMHO QF has it pretty much right in terms of the tiers...

 

[Alanslegal]

Qantas Bronze Membership is worth exactly $0.00 (or in some cases it could cost you $$$). For example, if you tried to sell one on eBay, it would cost you a listing fee and you will get 0 bids :mrgreen:

 

[straitman]

A good example of of how different status levels affect seating options is the flight I took today from MEL-SYD.
When I first did my OLCI I was a QF FF Gold and was allocated seat 12D with nothing else available any further forward.
Subsequent to this I managed to sort out my status by getting missing SC's allocated. When I logged in again as a Platinum I was able to select seat 4F with most seats forward of my original allocation available.

 

[Travel Guru]

My point was that as a member, regardless of status, shouldn't there be the option to select a seat when booking as I do on other international carriers?

If you look at other carriers, the majority of the top ones (SQ etc) are clawing back or have clawed back the ability for the GP to preallocate seating, so its certainly not something exclusive to Qantas.

As was said, TCP your bookings and you shouldnt have a problem sitting together.


TG

 

[Maca44]

Qantas Bronze Membership is worth exactly $0.00 (or in some cases it could cost you $$$).

I hope your wrong, because my future travel plans suggest I will be back to NB next year.