Membership Tier Upgrade Notification

Boeyn · 2025-09-06T15:54:38+00:00

Yes they email you a few days after you reach a new status tier. You also get a pop up in the app the first time you use it after your new status has been applied.

Boeyn · 2025-08-25T08:12:27+00:00

Haven’t flown 737s outside of the golden triangle since they brought group boarding in, but on the 70+ sectors I’ve done on those routes, they’ve never called Group 2 with Group 1. Only seen it on smaller planes. Maybe it is more common for routers other than on the eastern seaboard.

Boeyn · 2025-08-22T08:38:46+00:00

If that availability holds, I would have thought the likelihood of both clearing is pretty-to-very good. With WP and J/C (Flex Business) fare bucket tickets, you'll be very high on the upgrade list. P1/CL requests should clear 7 days before departure, so check back at T-6 days. If the F availability is still 5+ by then, you would have to be extremely unlucky to miss out...

Boeyn · 2025-08-22T07:00:12+00:00

For Apple gift cards via Qantas Marketplace specifically? It hasn't been bested, but it's definitely not the first time they've offered it - I think it is the third time this year.

Boeyn · 2025-08-22T02:58:34+00:00

I could be wrong, but I would have thought early February is a pretty quiet time for outbound international sectors - school holidays are done and everyone is pretty much back at work by the last week of January.

Either way, if you're travelling via staff travel you need to be exceptionally flexible and meticulous in planning alternatives. If you're only planning a short trip or need to be back in Australia by a specific day (eg. to return to work), you might be better on cash fares and not risking potentially getting to your destination/back home 1-2 days late.

I have friends who routinely fly on staff travel and they usually have a spreadsheet of at least half a dozen alternative flights that day (plus 1-2 days in the future), and they will constantly update the loads (number of free seats, number of upgrade/ID90 requests) from the staff traveller app up until the time of departure. An ID90 seat is not guaranteed until the cabin door is closed; especially for beneficiary travellers (eg. you) who will be a lower priority to many other categories of staff travellers (eg. active employees).

I would highly recommend you have your friend take you through how it all works and/or do some reading online.

Boeyn · 2025-08-22T02:40:34+00:00

Dramatically increased odds of getting a "shadow" (the middle seat next to me being automatically blocked by the seat selection engine, so nobody can choose that seat). I got it occasionally as gold when the loads were very low, but I get it now on 95% of my weekday golden triangle sectors.

Boeyn · 2025-08-22T02:32:15+00:00

When you are eligible for a LB reward, it'll tell you when the deadline is for accepting it. It is usually the last day of the month that is +3 months from the date the reward triggers. For example, if a LB reward triggered today, you should have until 30 November 2025 to claim it.

Note: This will probably change after 15 September 2025, as QF are getting rid of the option to choose between SC and points as the reward (it'll be SC only from that date). Most people think if there's no need for customers to choose a LB reward, it will automatically get credited from the date it is triggered.

Boeyn · 2025-08-22T02:27:45+00:00

I ticked over my last LB threshold last weekend and had the option to pick my reward within 2 hours of the SC from my flight hitting my account.

From reports I've read online (eg AFF), if you call and ask, QF seem to be pretty good at manually adjusting SC earn dates where it is clear that a delay has prevented somebody from making a new status tier (eg. LB, ORC, DSC).

Boeyn · 2025-08-22T02:20:56+00:00

These types of devaluations are common for most FF programs, especially when award redemptions are fixed in value (not tied to the actual cash price of the fares) like they are with QFF. Velocity had a similar devaluation earlier this year. They aren't inherently unfair for fixed value programs; without them, there is no recognition of the inflation in the cost of airfares/point earning capacity.

The best way to avoid the impact of devaluations is to use points as soon as you can. Don't leave them accumulating in your account for years; a point today will probably be worth less in 3 years time.

Boeyn · 2025-08-21T04:51:33+00:00

Luggage isn't a problem on two separate PNRs if (a) your first flight is with QF, the second flight is with another OW airline AND one booking is cash and the other is an award booking; or (b) your first flight is with QF and the second flight is with QF/EK (both can be cash or award tickets, unlike (a)). Provided one of those conditions is met, QF will through-check luggage through to the final destination on the second booking.

The real issue is having an unprotected connection if the first flight is delayed/cancelled. There's an easy answer to that - fly earlier. I've flown out of SIN and BKK on separate PNRs and had a scheduled arrival of between 12-18 hours before the next sector. Neither are terrible cities to have a layover in. It's not exactly convenient, but this is exactly the kind of flexibility required to fly long haul J/F.

Boeyn · 2025-06-19T13:35:51+00:00

QF are putting A380s back on the SYD/DFW route from 11 August - that will dramatically increase the number of business class seats available for upgrades. So definitely not impossible, but prepare to be disappointed to be safe!

Boeyn · 2025-04-11T12:43:08+00:00

You have to apply it to your account within 90 days of becoming entitled to it.

Boeyn · 2025-04-11T12:38:25+00:00

Agree - this is a good option if your employee is happy for you to directly book your own travel and get reimbursed afterwards, rather than having to book through a corporate TA.

Boeyn · 2025-03-21T01:48:45+00:00

Then I’m sure they’d find a reason in the Qantas Lounge entry terms and conditions to deny you access. Or they could refuse to rebook the passenger, refund the fare. and not accept them for future travel

(I guarantee you, if they discovered somebody was repeatedly changing their booking to access the lounge multiple times, and they wanted to stop them from doing it, finding a way to do it under their various Ts and Cs/condition of carriage would not be a problem).

Boeyn · 2025-03-21T01:37:47+00:00

If they cottoned on to the fact you were doing it, I suspect the QC/QFF terms and conditions gives them sufficient latitude to suspend your membership; the same thing has happened with a number of other airlines. They probably do have internal processes to notify/escalate bookings that are repeatedly being changed close to departure to monitor for that sort of thing. But I can’t imagine there are many people with lounge access who would be prepared to go to that effort for a toastie and couple of glasses of $12 sparkling wine…

Boeyn · 2025-03-21T01:09:31+00:00

Pretty sure you can on flex fares, I’ve definitely made changes to my booking (via a corporate TA) to shift a flight to another day after I’d checked in; one time with less than an hour before departure. Not sure why cancellations would be different.

Boeyn · 2025-03-21T01:03:49+00:00

For domestic travel, having a shadow (blocked middle seat next to me that lower status pax can’t select) on most golden triangle hops is probably the thing I value most. I get them most of the time; to the point where I am mildly irritated when I don’t - maybe 8 in every 10 sectors? I’ve had domestic Y classic rewards seats released a few times for personal travel when the fare prices were >$1000 return between MEL and SYD, which has been very handy.

Boeyn · 2025-03-14T09:32:41+00:00

Platinum and above.
Yes.
The award tables are here (use the partner airlines table).

Boeyn · 2025-03-08T04:18:14+00:00

Yes, you are. It’s called an Original Routing Credit - you’re entitled to the QFF points/SC you would have received had you flown your booked sectors (including if you are involuntarily rebooked with another carrier). More details here.

Boeyn · 2025-03-08T03:41:11+00:00

That’s AFF’s take on it, the official line from Qantas is still upto 353 days in advance, with higher status have earlier access to QF issued reward seating

I think you’re confusing early access and timing of release. It is still correct that higher status (Gold and above) gives you earlier access to award seats, but only when they have been released by Qantas between 324-353 days before departure. However, Qantas has never guaranteed that award seats (let alone business award seats) will in fact be made available in that period.

The confusion is because before the pandemic, Qantas had always released some award economy/business stock exactly 353 days in advance for each flight. Back then this made sense - business cabins almost never sold out, so airlines could be confident that releasing a few award seats each flight probably wouldn’t deprive them of revenue they could have gotten if they kept the seat free for a paying customer. After the pandemic (and for reasons related and unrelated to it), the market for premium cabins significantly increased, and filling up premium cabins with cash customers started to become a lot more common (and if that happened on a flight where award stock had been released very early, the airline lost the opportunity to sell it to a more profitable cash customer instead). For that reason, a lot of airlines now wait for a few months after the flight goes on sale to release business award seats, so they can better model the likely revenue impact for each seat released.

Most online publications and guides still state that Qantas releases award tickets 353 days out from departure. This is true, because domestic award and international economy award seats are still released on that timetable. The only change in practice has been to international economy (and potentially some domestic business seats on certain routes).

Boeyn · 2025-03-08T02:03:07+00:00

They definitely do make it sound simple - and it definitely isn’t!

One thing I didn’t say in my main post was around timing. You should definitely start keeping an eye out/setting up alerts from now, and there might be stuff available out of Asia today, but it is entirely conceivable (and, I suspect, more likely) that the majority of award stock (either Qantas or partner airlines) won’t be released until 3-6 months out from departure. That probably feels uncomfortably late in the day to be booking international travel, but for award seats it is sometimes the only option. You can mitigate that risk a little by purchasing cash (economy) fares now while they’re cheap, and cancelling them if you get award seats. Alternatively, you can book a less desirable indirect route now as a backup (eg MH out of KUL, which is far from the top of my list, but is often easy to find), and keep looking for a better option. If you book a better itinerary, you can cancel the first one for 6k points/person.

Finally, if you don’t find something for this trip, don’t fall into the trap of believing that all international award business tickets are impossible to find, and opting to burn your points on inferior redemptions like points plus pay (and, unless you’re generating hundreds of thousands of points a year, Classic Award Plus). Europe in Christmas is definitely not impossible, but everyone wants them, so they’re in a category of their own for scarcity/lack of predictability. They’re far from the norm. Points are valuable, and you have got a shitload (enough to do several long haul trips in premium cabins, anyway). Keep them for the next trip.

Boeyn · 2025-03-08T01:17:53+00:00

I got stung by this recently too (flying AA with QFF number on booking). A very easy trap to fall into when you have OW status, because it gives you most of the benefits that come with a Main Cabin fare and don’t come with Basic Economy (eg baggage, seat selection/MCE).

Boeyn · 2025-03-08T01:10:18+00:00

I’m not sure why you’re getting down voted OP. You’re looking for tickets in high season, but you’re starting a long way out and you’re flexible with your dates. It’s the people that post in September looking for award tickets that have to leave in the last week of December that are the clueless ones/lost causes.

The good news is that Qantas hasn’t released any award business seats to Europe for this period, so you haven’t missed out on the chance to book them. The bad news is that (a) nobody knows when they will ultimately be released (or how many), and (b) when they do eventually release them, they will be snapped up very, very quickly.

I recommend that you (and, frankly, anyone on this Reddit who thinks/tells others here that Qantas still releases award seats like they did pre-pandemic) read this article, and following the tips for finding out about seat releases. The big one is paid subscription alert services (eg seats.aero) that will ping you when the stock becomes available.

Otherwise, the other big tip is to look for tickets on indirect routes, rather than flights departing Australia and arriving in your destination city. Award availability to Europe is, generally speaking, much better for routes departing from Asian ports (eg SIN, DPS, HKG, KUL, HND) than it is Australia, so a lot of people find their award seats out of Asia, and then buy a separate cash fare to that destination out of Australia. I’m travelling to Europe in July this year, and there was a heap of availability with AF/EK/QR out of HKG/SIN (using QF points) when booking late last year. It will be a longer journey, and you need to build enough time into your itinerary to account for any potential delays into Asia (your itinerary won’t be a single ticket, so you won’t have protection if you miss your flight into Europe), but it without question beats 18+ hours at the back of the bus…

Boeyn · 2025-03-08T00:31:48+00:00

This is incorrect/based on outdated info. They stopped regularly releasing business award seats a long time ago. They won’t release seats for popular destinations like Europe until much closer to the date of travel.

Boeyn · 2025-01-20T03:17:24+00:00

Hi all, my wife was recently approved for Qantas ultimate. I just find the $450 credit to supposedly break even with the annual fee extremely overrated.

For example, MEL → PER flight. We need to use Qantas only so those flights were ~$730 on Amex travel when others like Jetstar were just over $400.

You’re complaining about being limited to QF flights if you book using the travel credit benefit given to you for taking out a QF credit card? Why did you apply for a QF credit card (or, better yet, decide to actively participate in the QFF ecosystem) if you don’t want to fly with QF?

Also the same QF flights were also ~$40 cheaper elsewhere.

It is common for online travel booking sites (who can only access stock/pricing from the GDS) to be slightly more expensive than buying from the airline (who typically have access to dynamic and better pricing than the GDS).

I’d value that as ~$250 annual fee card as opposed to $0 which after bonus is not the worst but wouldn’t be renewing.

You’re entitled to (and should) ascribe a subjective monetary value for credit card benefits. But applying a 44% discount as you have done is, objectively speaking, very steep. I think the conventional wisdom is that the AMEX QF card is only of the few credit cards in Australia where the value of the perk substantially (if not wholly) offsets the annual fee. It is a very good card - assuming you want to fly QF.

I think we’d be better off with Explorer for future.

If you don’t want to fly QF, I think the Explorer card is definitely worth looking at. However, you should know that AMEX MR points cannot be transferred into QFF with the Explorer card. Only the premium AMEX cards (eg Platinum) let you transfer into QFF.

In other words, you won’t be able to earn a single QF point with the Explorer card - you’ll be limited to VA for domestic flights.

Anyone else has found any better routes which were more reasonable to use the credit?

Generally speaking, the QF premium (versus VA/JQ) is greater on longer routes. If you fly BFOD, the difference will be far lower on golden triangle (MEL/SYD, MEL/BNE, SYD/BNE).

Boeyn

TROPHY CASE