Qantas Gold Expiring Soon, Haggle, Swtich?

nomisg on 04/07/2023 - 23:49

So I have been Qantas Gold for about 9 years, my anniversary date is October this year and my work travel just isn't back to pre-covid days and I'm still 300 status credits away, I'm not going to make it. I have about 600k points banked, exclusively use them for business international upgrades or business award flights (often through Emirates to Europe) but have been noticing snagging an upgrade seams like a 25% chance of late these days.

Concurrently I have over 800k AMEX points, but have seen that converting to Kris Flyer etc is going from 2:1 to 3:1 in October. https://www.pointhacks.com.au/news/american-express-membersh…

So questions?

Can I work with Qantas to do anything to retain Gold status? Anyone been in this situation before?

If I can't retain Gold, my ability you use the points for upgrades goes down even further, so thinking I book some business class award flights, clean out my points before my status expires?

With the AMEX points, I have decisions to make before October, especially if I want to switch to star alliance/kris/virgin. Does virgin still do loyalty program swaps? Is retaining gold on virgin easier than qantas? noting that work doesn't pay for business class flights, so only economy.

Happy to make some calls and haggle, but also keen to OZB insight before hand

Travel

Comments

  • sumyungguy on 05/07/2023 - 00:06
    +3

    I'm interested to know why you rate OzB over AFF?

  • trotsky on 05/07/2023 - 00:10
    +1

    What's the value to you of retaining Gold if you're not flying much? Some priority for redemptions yes, but you'd soft land to Silver so you'd be 5th in line not 4th (CL, P1, P, G, S) - I can't see it changing the outcome to the extent that it would be worth chasing 300 SCs which is a lot. It's not that hard to requalify when you are ready to fly again. I don't know your exact situation but if you have the ability to earn 350K points next membership year you'd get Qantas Club membership via Points Club Plus which would probably give you most of what you want out of Gold. But if you have banked those points for the purpose of exchanging for KrisFlyer miles (and if there's a devaluation of that conversion coming up) then obviously that would be the way to go instead.

    Personally I stick with one program and don't mess with multiple, the benefit being it's not hard to keep status when you have all your eggs in one basket - I earn SCs on classic award flights through Points Club so keeping Plat despite a drop off in work travel hasn't been hard. It just depends on your habits.

    Also in terms of appealing to Qantas, a while back they were sending out unsolicited offers for retention of status for points, but I haven't heard of that happening since covid. I suspect QF are happy to see the ranks clear out a bit. I wouldn't expect to see an offer like that re-emerge unless the downturn brings a reduction in pax and therefore status holders - there has to be a need for Qantas to fulfil for there to be any chance that they will allow status retention without earn and currently full lounges don't suggest that is the case.

    • nomisg on 05/07/2023 - 00:58

      What's the value to you of retaining Gold if you're not flying much?

      Its starting to pick up again and can imagine later this year and into 2024 it will be back to pre-covid days (mainly Asia and a couple of trips to SF). The main value for me has been lounge access when flying international, often on Oneworld carriers, not qantas. I'm from Adelaide and pre-covid used to fly Malaysia airlines alot, but that flight is now gone anyway. Concurrently the extra points bonus and pre-covid my % chances of getting business class upgrades seamed better than now (I get it, everyone is banked up with points and status). When I do fly economy, I always get spare seats next to me, seams to be a gold thing. I'm 6'3, so spare seats and sometimes entire rows are a nice bonus. Never got that in silver.

      Thanks for all your comments

      As I'm from Adelaide, Oneworld is not as good as it used to be (Emirates and Malaysia direct flights gone). Sing/Kris and Qatar now become interesting. Perhaps I just bank Amex for them when looking to fly to Europe for personal travel.

      p.s. I recon I'll be about 150 SC's short by my anniversary date.

  • cashless on 05/07/2023 - 02:44

    How far away from lifetime QFF Gold are you?
    If you just need a few more status credits, might be worth hanging in there

    • trotsky on 05/07/2023 - 07:52
      +1

      Not OP but I'd say probably half way - that assumes just making Gold qualification each year. Lifetime Silver is 7000 SCs and Lifetime Gold is 14,000 - OP mentioned Gold for 9 years which would be 700 x 9 = 6300 SCs so assuming more than qualification threshold each of those 9 years and you'd probably have Lifetime Silver at this point.

      It is however 600SCs to requalify once you've got Gold so it's possible at worst case to be only at 5500 SCs at this point. Could even be less than that, since Qantas has given out some status support for the last few years during covid.

      • nomisg on 05/07/2023 - 10:06

        You nailed it, very close to lifetime silver, but miles away from gold.

  • theHMASfriendship on 05/07/2023 - 06:50
    +2

    Qatar is oneworld.

    You can do a status run if you really want to keep gold.

    https://www.pointhacks.com.au/qantas/best-status-runs/

    • nomisg on 05/07/2023 - 10:06

      Ah yeah, forgot about Qatar being OneWorld

  • thatonethere on 05/07/2023 - 08:53
    +1

    Pre-covid you could haggle with them and say you have a lot of travel planned in the out years and they would retain your membership level. Dunno what it is like now.

  • nomisg on 05/07/2023 - 10:07

    Thanks everyone, sticking with qantas/one world. Will try a status run and get as close as I can and see what Qantas can do for me.

  • Cyphar on 05/07/2023 - 10:35

    At 300SC away, Qantas won't provide you with a "shortcut" to give you another year as that is still too much.

    Have you considered getting a Qantas Club membership to get lounge access? I've been using that since I lost my status due to COVID. Hitting close to Gold again though and my Club membership is "frozen" until my status drops again. As I am using it for business trips, I claim a majority of the cost on my tax return.

    • nomisg on 05/07/2023 - 18:37

      I think I'll be around 150SC off by October. Guess I do my best and then call them a few weeks out.

  • nomisg on 14/03/2024 - 00:15

    As an update, got a Virgin Gold Status match until Nov 2024 (timing of promo was VERY lucky). Qantas did nothing to keep me. Then converted Amex points to velocity during a 20% bonus period. Off to Europe in late July, in a Qsuite direct out of Adelaide/Doha.

  • Howdydoo on 15/03/2024 - 16:16

    I was 260 sc away from retaining gold. Around 2 weeks before it was due to lapse they sent me an email and offered me to be able to retain gold by paying 80,000 qantas points. Looks like plenty of people (after i googled and found a few forums) do get offered this and you are likely to this year given some of the discussions on these forums. I paid the 80k points and now have gold another year.

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